If there are mistakes in the Bible, how can it be the Word of God?

November 12, 2023

I normally focus on the Gospel reading in my reflections, but for this Sunday I thought of focusing on the second reading. In this reading, Paul describes to us what will happen when Jesus comes again. Based on his understanding, Jesus will descend in triumph and then the believers who are alive will join the others who have already died, and they will all live forever. The glitch is that Paul, like many other early Christians, believed that this would happen within their own life time which is why he refers to those living as “we, who are alive”. And most early Christians also believed that this coming of Jesus would mark the end of time. So, in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is asked what are the signs by which they will know of the end of days,  Jesus gives them many signs that would seem to herald the end of times, but that they were not to be worried, because eventually they would see  “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27). Mathew’s Gospel, like Paul’s letters, also shares this belief that this end of time was coming soon, for Jesus is quoted as saying: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”  (16:28).

Of course, Jesus did not appear on a cloud, and the world did not end. What makes these prophecies even more problematic is that if Jesus did indeed make these prophecies, then of course Jesus too was mistaken, and this does not sit well with those who would like to believe that Jesus, being fully God, could not have made a mistake. Of course, there are many Scripture experts who question whether Jesus actually made these statements, and that instead perhaps these were beliefs of the early Church, which were then  retrospectively attributed to Jesus. And there are many reasons to support this stance.  In many places in the Gospel we have Jesus insisting that the kingdom of heaven is within us. For example in  Luke’s Gospel we have Jesus saying: "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”(Luke 17:20-21). So here we have a Jesus who kept focusing on the kingdom of God as being internal, and who, as we know from many other parts of the Gospel, also strenuously denied that he was the kind of Messiah the Jews and even his own disciples were expecting, i.e. one who would usher in a new external kingdom. Then isn’t it strange that this same Jesus should suddenly turn around and admit that the Messiah would indeed take over external control of the whole world, though at a later time, but still during the lifetime of some of those living then.  Even today’s Gospel parable about the five wise and five foolish virgins fits more comfortably with the rest of Jesus’ teaching about the internal kingdom of heaven that he repeatedly stressed, when he teaches them through this parable to be ever ready, for they did not know when they would be asked to give an account of their individual lives.   

However, whether Jesus himself made these prophecies or not, whether Jesus himself believed that the end of days would come with himself coming on the clouds to judge the world or not, what does seem to be clear is this belief of the early Church is clearly found in the New Testament -  not in any allegories or parables, but even in letters which give instructions as to how Christians should live their lives ‘for the time is short’.(see 1 Corinthians 7). And this creates a huge problem for those of us whose faith rests on a belief that the Bible can have no mistakes.  In fact, in one of his official teachings in 1920, Pope Benedict XV  taught, for example, that “those depart no less from the teaching of the Church… who hold the view that the historical parts of the Holy Scripture are not based on the absolute truth of facts….”(Encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus).

I would suggest, however, that such passages ought to make us re-visit our understanding of what we mean when we say that the Bible is the Word of God.  It is interesting to note that Pope Benedict’s teaching was effectively ignored by subsequent official teachings in the Catholic Church - though in an indirect manner without officially saying Benedict was wrong. So, for instance, in 1948, the Biblical Commission of the Vatican, in a letter to Cardinal Suhard, would officially teach  with regard to the first eleven chapters in Genesis (the story of creation and of Adam and Eve till the story of the Tower of Babel), which like everything else in the Bible was considered absolutely true by Benedict, that these chapters “actually related in simple and figurative language, adapted to the intelligence of less educated people the fundamental truths underlying the divine plan of salvation.  They are a popular description of the origins of the human race and of the chosen people”.  

So how then should we understand the phrase that the Bible is inspired by God, how do we use the Bible as a divinely inspired guide to the way we should live? Here is a parable of mine that may help to find an answer to this question: 

Sonia was a young girl who was very close to her father. And from a young age she had this habit of writing in her own personal diary, all about all her interactions with her father, and the conclusions she drew from these interactions. 

For example, one day when she was in  the first grade, some of the children in her school started bullying her. When Sonia went to her father with this problem, he advised her to stand up to the bully, as bullies live on the fear of the ones they bully. And as per habit, Sonia, using her limited language abilities, noted this down  in her diary. And the next time the bully tried to intimidate her, Sonia stood up to her. Unfortunately, this caused her to be beaten up even more. When she brought this frustration to her father, her father signed her up for karate classes and, of course, Sonia shared this conversation with her father in her diary.  

The karate classes worked and Sonia did not get bullied again. However, seeing her new found prowess, some of her friends started coming to her for protection and Sonia offered it, all too willingly. One day Sonia’s dad received a complaint from the teachers that she was often found beating up other children. So Sonia’s dad had a long talk with her explaining to her that her power had to be used only in a limited manner, e.g. in self-defence or in defence of others, but not beyond stopping someone from hurting others. Sonia noted all this in her diary. As she grew up Sonia started having discussions with her father about Gandhi and his thinking, that suggested  that there was a still better way of responding to violence and that was the way of ‘ahimsa’ or non-violence.  And Sonia recorded all of this in her diary.  

After a few years Sonia’s father died leaving behind Sonia and her pregnant mother. A little time later her brother was born, and they named him Rahul. A few years later Sonia too died an untimely death and Rahul was left without a father or a sister. One day a young Rahul decided to ask his mother about his father. Rahul’s mother tried to describe her husband to her son, but Rahul was somehow not satisfied.  

Then one day Rahul’s mother remembered the diary that Sonia had written. She offered this diary to Rahul and told him that since Sonia was so close to her father, the diary would give him a good glimpse into what his father was like. Rahul was thrilled and started reading the diary. He learnt a lot about his father, but being a clever boy he also noticed  that the various kinds of advice that his father had given Sonia seemed to vary and even contradict each other at times. For instance, at one point his father had told Sonia to hit back, but, at a later stage, he had taught her about ahimsa.   

Also at one point, his father had advised Sonia, when she was a teenager, that she should come home every night before 8 p.m. as it would not be safe for her on her own beyond that time. But Rahul, who was a powerfully built 6-footer, did not feel that applied to him, as he was quite capable of defending himself; and in any case, life had changed. Streets and trains were awfully crowded even at 11 p.m. and things were quite safe. So he wondered how there could be contradictions and sometimes inapplicable teachings offered by his father.  

But as he read and reflected, gradually Rahul realised that despite the contradictions and inapplicable teachings, what did come out consistently in Sonia’s diary were three things: (i) the kind of person that his father was; (ii) the kind of relationship he had with Sonia; and (iii) the kind of person he wanted Sonia to become. As far as these three aspects were concerned, the entire diary was consistent. And he could really see that the entire diary was inspired by this relationship between Sonia and his father.

 Keeping this story in mind, I would suggest, as I have said in previous blogs, that the BIBLE is an inspired  diary of the relationship of human beings with God, that has been penned down the ages by various ‘religious geniuses’ (to use the words of a famous Hindu philosopher, and former President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan) or those close to them,and represents the pilgrimage of the Jews and subsequently of the Christians, as they grew in their understanding of, and relationship with, God. This understanding of how the Bible is the inspired word of God is surely quite different from  believing that the Bible has been dictated by God, or something akin to that.  In such an understanding, it is quite possible that the early Church could make mistakes - for like Sonia, these religious geniuses too had limitations - limitations in their language abilities, and in their knowledge of the world from a historical, scientific or even understanding of other religions perspective.  And so, their diaries, while focusing on their experience of God, are naturally expressed in the context of such limitations that they had as human beings.  But what Christians believe is that through this inspired recording of this pilgrimage (the Bible) we come to know at least three things with unerring truth:   (i) we get an increasingly deeper understanding of God; (ii) we get insights into the kind of relationship that we could aspire to in our relationship with God, and (iii) we get insights into the kind of person God wants us to become.  

And so we could, and do, say that, like Sonia’s diary was inspired by her experience of her father, the Bible continues to be the inspired Word of God for us.

First Reading: Wisdom 6: 12-16

Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her and is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths and meets them in every thought.

Second Reading: First Thessalonians 4: 13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

Gospel: Matthew 25: 1-13

 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’  Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.