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Introduction to the Bible

Trinity Cathedral
The Rev. Dr. Grant S. Carey
Canon Residentiary

When I was a seminarian I did field work at a parish where I was involved in an Episcopal Youth Group.  One meeting was jointly held with Methodists and Congregationalist young people - - and the topic for discussion was “How do we know God?”  We all sat in a circle where we were invited to express our personal view of God - - who God IS and what God DOES.  Most of the young people were silent.  One girl (not one of ours) said that to her God was a mist in the sky - - a floating cloud, a hovering presence.  When it came our turn, one of our young people stood up and - - in a firm, strong voice, began: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty” - - and then went onto recite - - flawlessly - -the Apostles’ Creed.

 That was the end of the discussion.  We moved on to refreshments.

It has been said that the United States is one of the most God believing nations on earth.  When polled some 90% of those answering said that they believed in God - - or a Supreme Being.  But the poll did not ask them how God (or god) was perceived.

As Episcopalians, we have developed our own understanding of God.  For  most of us, God is discerned in the words of The Book of Common Prayer - - in the prayers we say time and again - - and in the biblical the readings we hear Sunday by Sunday.  We may have difficulty quoting chapter and verse, but we know Scripture when we hear it, and God is defined (not necessarily fully understood) in the Creeds: “One ... Father ... Almighty ... Maker of heaven and Earth” - - and revealed most fully for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus who, with the Holy Spirit, shares the Godhead in a Trinity of Persons.

The Holy Bible is a history of God - - and the history of humankind in relationship with God. To even begin to understand what the Bible represents, we are called to go back in time - - not to the Palestine of Jesus - - or the Haran of Abraham - - but to the dimness of that time when humankind first became aware of the unseen, unfathomable source of all things, and the controller of the natural world.  For us to accomplish this task successfully, we must try to lay aside - - for the time being - - our pre-conceived notions and seek to comprehend the story of God as it has evolved in the through the lives and experiences of human beings who lived thousands and thousands of years ago.

James Michener, in his classic The Source describes a woman who perceived the power of a storm as a “force” to be placated, and how a great stone was erected by her tribe which became a place of worship - - and sacrifice.  Were the forces of nature the first to be recognized as deity?

While Psalm 18 was written thousands of years after humankind’s first quest for understanding and meaning, it conveys - -at least to me - - the wonder and awe that our primitive forebears must have experienced.[1]

Our study, however, leads us beyond conjecture to historic fact - - to the beginning of  recorded history and literature ... and closer to an understanding of deity is in the lives of men and women. It has been said that the cradle of civilization is to be found in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates called “The Fertile Crescent.” - - in present day Iraq.  In his book The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill seeks to reconstruct life in Sumer  - - where writing is believed to have first evolved - - thus leading to the sharing of story and event - - and the development of the first known civilization. In the Sumerian culture, gods and goddesses ruled the world and the sky, and elaborate ways were devised to worship - - and particularly - - to placate these deities.

It was there, according to tradition, Terah came to live - - the father of “Avram” (Abraham), and from whence Abraham left with his family to follow the call of a God unknown.  Cahill points out that the words in the Book of Genesis “wayyelekh Avram” (Avram went) are two of the boldest words in literature.  “They signal a complete departure from everything that has gone before in the long evolution of cultures and sensibility.  Out of Sumer, civilized repository of the predictable, comes a man who does not know where he is going but goes forth into the unknown wilderness under the prompting of his god. Out of Mesopotamia , home of canny self-serving merchants who use their gods to ensure prosperity and favor, comes a wealthy caravan with no material goal.  Out of ancient humanity, which from the dim beginnings of its consciousness has read its eternal verities in the stars, comes a party traveling to no known compass.  Out of the human race which knows in its bones that all its striving must end in death, comes a leader who says he has been given an impossible promise.  Out of mortal imagination comes a dream of something new, something better, something yet to happen, something - - in the future.”  2

The children of Abraham grew into a remarkable community capable of subduing the people who for centuries had inhabited what we call “The Holy Land.” Unified under David and (I believe) civilized under Solomon, the great Davidic kingdom was divided, after the death of Solomon, into north and south, each with its own distinctive culture, religious views, and political structure.

What is remarkable is that, through discord and enmity, the concept of One God - - YHWH - -  was developed most fully by the prophets, particularly Isaiah (actually three persons writing during three different periods ) Hosea, Jeremiah, and Amos who, along with the writer of Deuteronomy, developed Judaism and laid the foundation for the Israel that was to follow the period of exile. 

Michener, in The Source, proposes that, in order to understand the present Israel, one must pay careful attention to Deuteronomy.  This writing “discovered” in the temple during the reign of King Josiah (638-608 BCE)  became the center-piece of the new Kingdom of Israel following the period of exile. While other gods had been acknowledged and even worshipped before, - -  now religion was to be centered in One God - -  Yahweh - - and even marriages to foreign women were forced to end.

Following the exile, the Deuteronomic code became central in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the establishment of the new order.  The temple became the center of worship and the symbol of unity. And from that time and through later history, not even the worst persecution from outside powers  was able to  destroy the faith of the Hebrew people in the one God, Yahweh.

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1. Rephrasing the old question:  “Which came first, the chicken or the egg” - -  Did humankind create God - - or did God create humankind?”  Can we defend our view without relying on a knowledge of the Holy Bible?

2. Saint Augustine is reported to have a said there is a God shaped blank in every soul.  Do you believe this is so - - and if you do agree - - why?

3. What was so remarkable about Abraham that he has been called the “father” of the three great monotheistic religions today:  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?

4. In what way has the Church, while proclaiming God, also hampered a perception of God?

5. If the Bible reflects many periods of history, many ideas about God and Humankind (some contradictory) - - how can the Bible be truly “The Word of God?”

6. Ogden Nash wrote “How odd of God to choose the Jews.”  Was it really that odd?  What did these stubborn and often contradictory people have that was so special?   How might they still be God’s “chosen people?”