Your Bible Version Matters

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Two recent news stories point to the crisis of biblical literacy, not only of knowing the biblical text but also of properly understanding it. An editorial published at the Washington Post by Princeton professor Gregory Conti (a self-professed "non-believer") explained how common it is for college students not to know the basics of Christianity: 

(They) seldom recognize the allusions to the Bible that appear in Shakespeare's work or in Lincoln's second inaugural address (or in Obama's first, for that matter) . . . their ignorance of religious ideas means they struggle to understand a wide array of Western art, literature, and philosophy.  

In short, the lack of Biblical knowledge means they are unable to understand American history and culture. 

Another New York Times story profiled the pastor and the church of Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. According to the article, Pastor Jim Rigby of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, welcomes new members by: 

…handing them a new copy of the Inclusive Bible, an unusual feminist translation St. Andrew's has used since the 1990s. In Genesis, instead of saying that God created a man, Adam, the translation first refers to an "earth creature." It often uses the term "kindom" of God in place of "kingdom," which it deems classist. 

The Inclusive Bible is promoted as "the first egalitarian translation." In addition to replacing the male pronouns for God and humankind, it purports to "re-imagin(e) . . . the [S]criptures and our relationship to them." The innovative version promotes progressive Christianity and includes a strong postmodern emphasis, rejecting absolute "truth" in favor of a newly created narrative.  

Those who only read the Inclusive Bible will not really know the truth of Scripture, any more than those who never read any version. Nor can they understand a culture inspired by and built from, mostly, the King James Version. And yet, that is actually the point of the postmodern way of approaching reality: there is no truth to be known or revealed, only that which is constructed. 

Among the exhibits and experiences at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., is a virtual flying tour called "Washington Revelations." Visitors are taken throughout the nation's capital to find the biblical and Christian references inscribed on various monuments and buildings. The sheer amount of references is impressive, but even more so when you consider how many more there are across the city, not to mention across the country. 

Vishal Mangalwadi's book, The Book That Made Your World, and Daniel Dreisbach's Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers both trace the influence of the Bible on Western culture, including American culture. Put simply, cultural literacy requires biblical literacy. Inversely, as our biblical literacy has diminished, so has our cultural literacy.  

Moreover, those who do not read the Bible are far more susceptible to whatever claims people make about it. Not only will they be unable to distinguish between an inventive, ideologically loaded translation and the actual text of God's inspired, infallible and inerrant Word, but they will become subject to those who speak on their own authority rather than relying on the authority inherent to the text. The Inclusive Bible is another example of making the Bible say something that it does not say. We must put ourselves under the text of Scripture and not above it as the ultimate authors.  

The older meaning of the word "crisis" means "turning point." If the recent emergence of theism in America turns into greater openness to Christianity specifically, proper guidance on how to read the Bible will be desperately needed. With God's help, this could mean a turning, or returning, to the Bible as our ultimate authority.  

In A Practical Guide to Culture, Brett Kunkle and I described how to approach the Bible as if it is true. Not only is what It contains true, but the Bible presents to us the true account of reality. It frames for us the truth about God, the truth about the cosmos, the truth about God's image bearers and the truth about Jesus Christ, and His work in the world. Thus, we can and should read the Bible as it was written, to avoid imposing moralistic and therapeutic applications, whether they are sourced in critical theory, cultural power, or legalism.  

The Bible is God's revealed Word to us, not our word to make say what we want. As Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel put it,  

The great challenge to those of us who wish to take the Bible seriously is to let it teach us its own essential categories, and then for us to think with them, instead of just about them. 

Photo Credit: ©GettyImagese/SergioYoneda

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.