I was telling my wife the other day, “If I had kept all the books I have read, I’d have my own little private library.” I’d have about 1000 non-fiction books, most on theology. So? What’s the point? Let’s see, in Judaism, the religious leaders created what was called the “Oral Torah.” These were spoken commentaries on the first five books of the bible, “The Torah.” These five books were committed to memory and transmitted from generation to generation, complete I might add. The Oral Law was also transmitted orally from generation to generation. However, due to various diasporas, religious leaders began to write the Oral Law down along with other commentaries which would later form what is called the Talmud. In Judaism, the Talmud is considered as being divinely inspired and thus carries a lot of weight, even greater than what is written in the Torah. “WHAT? OMG some might say! How can they do such the thing? Gosh, no wonder they are not saved.” Slam be breaks on partner.
Christians are no better. We have thousands of commentaries, and the difference is, the Talmud was one work, first translated orally and intact from generation to generation. Just one. The thousands of Christian commentaries differ from one another, mainly because they are denominational. They may align in many areas, but they also differ. An example can be seen between the differences on how the Baptist may write a commentary on Acts vs. how a Pentecostal would write a commentary on Acts. I can list many other examples but no need to. For both Judaism and Christianity there is a mountain off books telling people who to have faith, how to worship the Lord, how to be a better Christian and so on. I attended a dinner with people from my church. As we spoke, titles of books were being listed. “Oh, this book was so good.” Or “I read [fill in the blank] and it was the best. On and on. I stopped the conversation and I said, “Isn’t that part of the problem? I can put a bible on the ground, back a dump truck of Christian books and dump a mountain of books telling us how to be a better Christian when in truth, we only need one book, the bible.” Everyone was stunned, some agreed, most stayed silent.
Does this mean we shouldn’t read books about being a Christian? No, that’s not what I am saying. I am saying the bible should be our number one reference book and if we are reading another book, if we cannot find what the author is saying totally matches to what the bible is saying, toss the book away and keep the bible. We can take one single phrase from one verse, from one chapter from one letter in the bible and totally misuse it. Consider Luke 10:19 that says I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, they will not hurt you, and Mark 16:17-18, they will take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. In Luke 10, Jesus was talking to his disciples whom he had sent out and he had imbued them with power to do the things Jesus had done. Mark 16 is problematic for this reason. Early manuscripts stop at verse 8. The next 12 verses may have been added. They may be true or not. Nonetheless, we see the same line repeated from Luke 10. This time it is added to everyone who believes. These passages were to create the snake handling cult started in 1910 and still in existence today. The concept of taking a verse or phrase out of context is called proof reading. You want it to confirm what you personally believe to be true regardless of if it is a correct reading of the verse or phrase or not.
My history professor started his class off with two statements. 1) History matters, it informs us of who we are. 2) Never believe your professor, always check to see if what he/she is saying is correct, especially if it stands out our rubs against your beliefs. I say the same thing to you now. Don’t believe what I have to say, examine it, check it out, make sure what I am saying is correct or not. I’d say history matters and as Christians, our history didn’t start 2000 years ago, it started with Adam and Eve and runs up to Jesus. It does not begin with Jesus. We do ourselves such an injustice not knowing Israel’s history, understanding their culture, and why they do the things they do. Jesus was Jewish, he lived as one. If we genuinely want to know who and what we are, we need a complete understanding for our history. Once again, we, as always, are left with one word. FAITH. Clear your head of all the books you’ve read, of all the sermons you’ve heard, of all the bible studies and Sunday school classes you have attended and read the bible. Read the whole chapter, not just bits and pieces, read it in context. Let the bible speak to you and inform you.
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