Without Error

 A good friend, a valued mentor, and I recently had a discussion about the infallibility and inerrancy of the Goat Herder’s Guide to the Galaxy. In having this discussion, I began to wonder if I had led some of you astray in regards to the Goat Herder’s Guide in terms of its authenticity and authority. I want to be clear, though the text of scripture come from “ordinary people,” it provides insight into God and our path necessary to be faithful. Today, I offer this post for you.

          I am not walking back my comments of my earlier post. There is the miraculous in ordinary people, several millennia ago writing about their experience with God, being read by an ordinary person seeking to follow God. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the language of the marketplace. So even within its original language, it was written for the common person. The texts were thought valuable enough that there are about 5,800 manuscripts of the bible in the original Greek. There are another 10,000 in Latin and 9,300 in other languages. The language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, was the language of the Israelite peoples, and was translated into Greek as well. There are those who believed that it was important enough for you to have a bible in your hand, that they were willing to die and did. I love that it is through this medium that God so often reveals himself to us.

          This brings us to the conversation of how reliable is the book you have in your hand that is called the Bible, or the Goat Herder’s Guide? Although the original manuscripts of the Gospels and Letters have been lost, presumably by deterioration, the fact that there are thousands of copies, even more partial copies, and references made in other writings, attests to the reliability of what you read is what was intended. This should not be construed with the concepts of literality, infallibility, and inerrancy.

          These concpets of scripture range from the strict application to the very loose. The concept of literality is that what is written in the bible happened the exactly way it is described. Thus, in Genesis human life began with only two people. Those who are very literal contend that Adam and Eve were real people, and that they were it; there were no others. Inerrancy roughly plays out the same way. Infallibility addresses the core message, that the message is consistent through scripture. These definitions are arbitrarily mine, though there are those who agree with me.

          I am not on the strict end of literality or inerrancy. Thus, while I believe that the Creation story is just that, a story, I do believe that God created us in his likeness. Within that story, Adam and Eve are symbolic of humanity, and thus presents the backdrop to what went wrong. It should also be noted, that literality and inerrancy vary through the texts of scripture. I believe that Jesus was crucified, the variation in the reports within the Gospels lend credence to the event actually happening. This would not be the case if there were no discrepancies. I believe that the tomb was empty. If the authors wanted the report of the resurrection to be more believable they would not have that it was women that discover the empty tomb. (Women were not considered credible witnesses, thus they could not provide testimony in court cases.) 

          However, I weigh in quite strongly in the infallibility of the message. The concept of infallibility is related but distinct from literality and inerrancy. Thus, I might not believe the conquest of Canaan was a genocide as described. (In fact, there is scriptural support to believing it didn't.) I still believe that the nation of Israel conquered Canaan. I might not believe that Jonah hung out in a big fish for three days, but I do believe he preached that it was time to repent to those in Nineveh. Where I am stricter in my infallibility are aspects that are central to our faith. I believe that God not only created us, but that he loves us. I believe that it was this love of us, that brought Jesus to walk amongst us. I believe that he was crucified, dying as a result. I believe he rose from the dead: physically. In terms of infallibility, these concepts are consistent within scripture, and form the core message within scripture.

          What I recognize is that there are doctrines for which there is pressure for us believe. Often literality and inerrancy are used to support such doctrines as being infallible. One glaring example goes back to Genesis and is the concept of “Young Earth” that take the story of Genesis as being an accurate rendering of events. The world was created in seven days, and thus is only several thousand years old. There are those that hold that if one does not believe in the “Young Earth” one is really not a Christian for they do not take scripture literally or inerrantly. My post of the Goat Herder’s Guide was to encourage you to consider how you read scripture. There are numerous areas that we need to take seriously, not literally.

          One of the aspects of scripture that I whole hearted believe is that in using humans to record scripture God did not override the personality or characteristics of the author. This would include the choice of particular words. Yet, this is how he has chosen to communicate with us. There is much more that could be written about but I will stop there. Sorry if this has come across as to academic. Thank you for your indulgence.