Bible Interpretation, Student Workbook, SW05

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B I B L E I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

Tradition and/or Scripture

For the vast majority of Christians alive today, the role of church authority takes precedence over personal interpretation of the Bible. The authority of the pope for Catholics provides the outline and impulse whereby Catholic Christians come to interpret the Bible; although the Bible has personal application, they would hold, it should not be interpreted exclusively as a personal book . To be a Christian, they argue, is to be a part of the “communion of saints,” the faithful of Christ who throughout the ages have clung to the hope of eternal life with all those who hold the truth in Christ as dear. For many Protestants, on the other hand, they understand the Bible as the “inerrant” and “infallible” authority in the lives of all Christians. The only problem with this view of the Bible is that it has spawned thousands of independent movements and sects, all of which claim connection to the “authority of the Bible.” What do you make of these arguments about tradition and Scripture, and how ought we to view the role of tradition in the interpretation of the Bible? In a rather heated conversation among seminarians on the authority of the Bible, one student demanded answers on the usefulness of discussions about inspiration and authority issues. She argued that “Since we cannot know any of these theories as the true theory, it seems that we are wasting a lot of time talking about ideas that cannot be proven. What difference does it make if we can’t even prove that any of these theories is actually the right one. Why not simply take the Bible at its word and confess that the Bible is the Word of God, that God inspired it, and that it is reliable for our faith and our ministry?” Others argued that this was a naive position. As seminarians and Christian leaders, they were obligated to ask the “tough questions” and go as far they could to make sense of these and related questions on the Bible. Who do you think is correct in their view about these arguments? No Way to Know for Sure

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Only Christians Really Care

A pastor was asked by the elders of the church why he had been in the church for five years but had never done a series on the reliability of the Bible, and its inspiration. He replied, “It is not that I do not believe that the Bible is reliable. I do. The problem is that the only ones who are interested in hearing messages about the Bible’s inspiration are those who already believe it. I have found in my years in the