Knowing Your Bible
“Oh, the B I B L E, that’s the book for me.” Why? In The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. What Every American Needs to Know, E. D. Hirsch (EDH) says, “No person in the modern world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible.” The dictionary seeks to identify shared meanings that are essential for communication inside our nation, especially for reading. After a brief description of the Bible’s character and content EDH continues, “the Bible is embedded in our thought and language, . . . a central book in our culture.
The Bible is the first of the 23 chapters in this dictionary. Rather than a lexicon, this chapter discusses events, sayings, and persons that communicate widely accepted meanings in our culture. To Illustrate: 1) Brother’s Keeper, Am I my? Cain’s words have come to symbolize people’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for the welfare of their fellows (brothers). But the tradition of Judaism and Christianity is that people DO have this responsibility, for example the “brother’s keepers” in recent hurricanes, 2) Last week Gary discussed chapters and verses as a means of locating passages in the Bible. In our culture “chapter and verse” means giving precise evidence for a proposition. EDH cites many persons in the Bible including Jezebel referenced in my sermon. A “Jezebel” is a scheming and shamelessly evil woman. Gender equity sees a man “Judas” as a betrayer of friends with a “Judas kiss.”
While a high compliment to the Bible, EDH writes as an educator – “We must teach about the Bible . . . it is essential to our literacy.” We, however, come to the Bible as believers and teach the Bible to elicit faith. Paul commends to Timothy. “The sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:15-16). And to the Romans Paul said “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16-17). EDH writes an excellent note about Pentecost, but to us the gospel declared by Spirit-empowered Peter on Pentecost means that we must repent and be baptized for forgiveness of sins with promise of receiving the Holy Spirit.
—Tom Yoakum