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The Bible confronts, rebukes, challenges, consoles, inspires, transforms, and moves those who listen and hear it. Memory is tenacious in the east; it is an obligation of the children of Abraham. Remembering is not just intellectual; it strengthens the solidarity of the members.
The Bible confronts, rebukes, challenges, consoles, inspires, transforms, and moves those who listen and hear it. Memory is tenacious in the east; it is an obligation of the children of Abraham. Remembering is not just intellectual; it strengthens the solidarity of the members.
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The Bible confronts, rebukes, challenges, consoles, inspires, transforms, and moves those who listen and hear it. Memory is tenacious in the east; it is an obligation of the children of Abraham. Remembering is not just intellectual; it strengthens the solidarity of the members.
Droits d'auteur :
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Formats disponibles
Téléchargez comme DOC, PDF, TXT ou lisez en ligne sur Scribd
- We can never underestimate the power of the word of God
for it shall endure forever. That was the faith of Israel. The Book of Isaiah says: A voice says, “Cry out!” (Is 40:6-7). In the same book the prophet attests, “so shall my word be that goes out from mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is 55:11).
- The Bible confronts, rebukes, challenges, consoles, inspires,
transforms, and moves those who listen and hear it. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart…(Hebrew 4:12-13).
The Nature of the Bible
1. The Bible is a book of shared memories
- If there is one factor that unites the Jews and the
Christians, or one element that gives them their uniqueness and identity as communities, it would be their story.
- Memory is tenacious in the East. In Ancient Israel, the
people would gather together in the evenings around a bonfire and they would narrate the story of their forefathers, their ups and downs as a people, how Yahweh manifested himself as their liberator and defender.
- Telling the story was at the heart of their community’s
life of faith and worship.
- Remembering to tell their story of God and his saving
goodness is an obligation of the children of Abraham: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you…” (Deut. 8:2)
- It was the memory of the Exodus that convinced Israel
of God’s power and mercy.
- Remembering is for learning. But memory is not just
intellectual; it strengthens the solidarity of the members. Remembering to tell the story encourages hope.
- The book of Deuteronomy reminds us: “If you do forget
the Lord your God…I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.” (8:19)
- As a book of shared memories, it is a record of a
people’s past experiences woven into a life-story. It is a story of God’s dealings with his people.
- It is a record of past events that have given both Jews
and Christians a sense of identity and destinty.
- Israel is human community bound together primarily
by shared experiences. Its most distinctive feature is a strong sense of tradition.
2. The Bible is the word of God
- it is a divine revelation in human expression, i.e. God’s
word expressed in human words.
- It is a work of God and the work of human hands
written in faith and can be understood only in faith. - The Vatican II document, Dei Verbum (21) affirms that it is through the Bible that God speaks – that “the Father who is in heaven comes loving to meet his children and converses with them.”
- Through the Bible God discloses himself inviting us to
interiority through mutual self-disclosure. This shared life is primordially realized in dialogue, in speaking and listening.
- When a believer reads and contemplates on the word
of God, the proper attitude is: “Speak, O Lord, your servant is listening.”
3. The Bible as a means of divine revelation
- the Bible is a symbol or sacrament that points to divine
revelation. It is in fact the privileged place for divine revelation.
- The biblical text deeply participates in divine
revelation. It reveals and conceals God’s self-gift. It invites us to an ever deeper encounter with the divine self-gift.
- Jesus Christ made flesh (John 1:1-18), which implies
that the Word of God may not be reduced simply to written texts. To do so would be fundamentalism which defined as idealization of words which leads us to rigid, close-minded, dead-end approach to the Bible.
4. The Bible as a library of books
- The Bible text were not written at a single sitting by
one human author and their contents have never been easy to master. - In fact, they contain books of different literary genres, written at different times and different places and for varied situations.
- Hence, they need to be studied across a thousand or
more years of history.
- This book has become a rule of faith, moral integrity