[Music]
as I read Hitchens and some of the other
atheist to a major concern is with
biblical interpretation very often they
will go after religion on the basis of
what I would characterize as a very
literalist
or fundamentalist reading of the Bible
something's in the Bible and you read it
straightforwardly
and it seems pretty stupid or pretty
violent well that means the Bible is a
bad book you know from the beginning
from the earliest days Christians have
known you have to read the Bible
carefully in a nuanced manner and with a
very clear interpretive apparatus in
place we say the Bible like it's one
book but the Bible is a compilation of
many books according to very differing
literary genres there is straightforward
history in the Bible in the book of
Joshua the book of 1st Samuel for his
kings and so on you can find
straightforward history there's also
high poetry in the Bible look at the
Psalms at the Book of Proverbs you'll
find prophecy in the Bible which is own
genre you'll find legal codes in the
Bible so a lot of the interpretive
apparatus means knowing what kind of
text I'm dealing with so someone hands
me the front page the Chicago Tribune
this morning well yeah that's a genre
journalistic writing it's about what
happened yesterday it's trying to be
straightforward literalistic direct
someone hands me a fairy tale well I'm
not going to read it like the front page
of The Tribune someone hands me a legal
code a weed that with a different
interpretive lens someone hands me a
book of prophecy well see the Bible's
filled with all different types of
stories all different types of literary
forms and we can't just approach it with
one clunky set of lenses on we have to
keep changing our lenses as we read the
Bible that's often what I find what the
critics don't do they'll choose one kind
of lens and read the whole Bible that
way origin of Alexandria was writing at
the beginning of the third century is a
very early figure Origen knew that
Scripture has has a variety of senses
one of which is the literal the Bible
sometimes talks in a straightforward
historical
but Origen saw other types of
interpretation let me give you an
example from him one of the texts that
Hitchens and many others will bring
forward the text about the Israelite
conquest of the Holy Land when they come
in like a blitzkrieg army they put to
death thousands of people even women and
children they put the ban on cities the
Bible says and God commanded that how
didn't Origen read those passages he
said as a Christian I must read them in
light of Christ that means in light of
the crucified and risen Savior so I
can't read them as a justification for
blitzkrieg in genocide I can't read them
as yes God wants to put to death
innocent people
so Origen read them in a more moralizing
way he said the people that are
conquered stand for sin in us they stand
for injustice in us they stand for
violence in us what God is saying is the
Israelites standing for justice if you
want standing for goodness for God's
order we must put to death in us in our
society all the vestige of sin all of
them not just some not just most but we
must put to death put the ban on
injustice hatred violence because if we
don't all these things have a way of
roaring back suppose your doctor said to
you this is really good news we got 98%
of the cancer well you wouldn't be
relieved would you well heck that means
it's going to come roaring back no
doctor I want you to put the ban on that
cancer I want you to eliminate that
cancer completely from my system Origen
read these accounts as moral spiritual
accounts of destroying in US and in the
society what God wants destroyed the
power of sin it's just an example of a
subtler means of reading these texts
about that seem quite violent to us the
Bible is a very honest book if you were
to film the Bible it would be at least
in our rating you know in terms of the
violence and sexuality and but it's just
it's a blunt account of human life it
doesn't look piously the other way
hey the Bible is a very straightforward
book about the human condition is it
full of violence yeah is it full of
immorality of course and much of that is
on display in the Bible now how do we
read it do we say well this is God
approving of violence no we read it
finally in light of Christ we read it in
light of the cross of Christ don't read
it
as straightforward history don't read it
as naive cosmology read it with
spiritual eyes well the church fathers
from the earliest days knew that we
should read the Bible in this subtle way
when I read the Atheist including
Hitchens I say well yeah if you're going
after fundamentalists you're making it a
point but not those who read the Bible
with some sophistication
[Music]