This will be my last post in the Next Chapter thread. It’s time to go on to some other stuff. But I think it’s important to close this topic by saying that in this Next Chapter of my life I’m going to try my best to let the Bible BE the Bible.

People sometimes ask me, “Do you believe the Bible?”

My immediate response is usually, “About what?”

When that seems to not satisfy the one asking the question, I like to follow up with, “Which Bible?”

You see, the Bible you own – whether you actually use it or let it collect dust on the coffee table in your living room – is not the only Bible ever there was. Chances are it is not the same Bible your grandparents used. And the one your grandparents used was not the same one used by their grandparents. And if you are English-speaking it is not the same Bible as any of the other 100+ English Bibles now available at your overpriced local Christian bookstore let alone the Bibles translated into 518 different languages as of 2012.

This corresponds to the tongue-in-cheek claim that there are more Baptists in the world than there are people! Likewise, there are more Bibles in the world than there are Baptists!

So which one is THE Bible?

None. There is no such thing as THE Bible.

There are only BibleS.

And the problem goes beyond just varying translations. As you go back in history you find yourself witnessing periods when Christians argued strenuously about what books should actually be IN the Bible.

The venerable Martin Luther, for instance, insisted that the Old Testament book of Esther and the New Testament books of James (he called it “an epistle of straw”), Hebrews, Jude and Revelation did not deserve equal standing with the other books.

But even before that, a whole section of books – 7 in number – were debated as to whether they even belonged in the Bible. The emerging “Protestant” faction of the 16th century discarded these 7 books while the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches kept them. They are called “the apocrypha.”

There has always been debate about what THE Bible should consist of. Even in the late first and early second centuries the Church fathers fought about what writings were to be regarded as having sacred authority and which ones were not. In 144 AD a fellow by the name of Marcion – the son of an early church bishop – contended that only 11 New Testament books were legitimate. He rejected the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John as not belonging in the canon, along with the entire Old Testament. Marcion, of course, was declared a heretic for his ideas.

And speaking of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible’s 24 books became the Christian Old Testament’s 39. The Bible of Jesus, you see, was much different than your Bible.

So which Bible do YOU believe in?

Here’s my answer, as unacceptable as it may be to some readers.

I believe in the Bible that people fight about.

One of the most important activities of both Jewish and Christian faith communities through the centuries has been active discourse and debate about the meaning of life and faith. How do you find your way through the realities of the world as a person of faith? How do you make decisions? How do you discern God’s will when all around you there is nothing but confusion?

Well, you talk about it – debate about it – fight about it. You wrestle with God (which, by the way, is what the name “Israel” means), and with each other.

And trust that the Holy Spirit will help you discern the way to go.

The Bible, in fact, is a collection of writings that reflect this ongoing community-wide conversation. Far from being a static rulebook telling people how to live faithfully, the Bible is more like a living record of how a community works through life’s most important matters. And it’s amazing to watch as old ideas are countered by new truths and new wine explodes old wineskins. Yes, there ARE contradictions in the Bible – lots of them – because people see things differently. This is related to a wonderful Jewish concept called “d’var torah” (word of torah) based upon the notion that when Moses came down from Sinai with the tablets of the law (torah), each person in the plain below saw the law from a different angle. So d’var torah is the practice in the synagogue of each person offering their own insight and thoughts about any particular portion of scripture. Then after the d’var torah has been offered, the debate begins!

The Bible is in many ways a record of the d’var torah practiced over many centuries. And as the Biblical record presents us with the story of people wrestling with all the varied nuances of life and faith, God somehow whispers through it to our hearts and we come to somehow KNOW what is right and true.

When this happens, the Bible truly becomes the Word of God.

So open your Bible and read. What strikes you as true? What seems to be false? What brings you joy? What pisses you off?

Get together with some other folks and give them permission to “d’var torah.” Have yourselves a grand old debate!

Let the Bible BE the Bible!

And let the fighting begin!