The Bible as a rulebook
I came across a Newsweek article recently about A.J. Jacobs, a journalist and author whose schtick seems to be to wade through huge books for his edification and our amusement. He’s got a new book out now, chronicling his year-long experiment of trying to live out a literal interpretation of anything that could be interpreted as a rule in the whole Bible. I phrase his experiment in this way because he even does things that I don’t think even the most literal-minded fundamentalists would have seen as rules, such as:
Ecclesiastes says let your garments always be white, and I loved it, so I look like Tom Wolfe now. Wearing white just made me happier. I couldn’t be in a bad mood walking down the street looking like I was about to play in the semifinals at Wimbledon.I think this article is probably part of what nudged me to finally start blogging about religious stuff (and, when I get around to it soon, especially the Bible). I rather like the idea of zany experiments as a means to changing the way we experience life. Heck, when I was feeling kind of bored and depressed at my post-college summer job, it worked wonders to just quit and drive across the country. And if this guy can grow out his beard and attempt to stone adulterers for a year, surely I can make the time to leverage the internet in pondering religion and spirituality.
Something tells me, though, that when I tackle the Bible myself, it will not be as A.J. did — as a rulebook, I mean, not as a zany, one-year experiment. I don’t really see the Bible as a rulebook. I mean, it’s neat that he tested what it must be like for a year to treat it that way, as sort of an exploration and a statement on the literalism of others. The thing is, though, that it doesn’t really work as a single, cohesive instruction manual. Imagine following a recipe that tells you to mix in a quarter cup of cream, and then several paragraphs later, tells you not to worry about the cream. That is kind of how the Bible reads in some parts, largely thanks to stuff in Leviticus (the book of Hebrew law) that we’re told not to sweat about in the New Testament, like food proscriptions.
The sermon I mentioned in my first post — the one that finally did get me blogging here — stated outright that the Bible is not what most people probably think of it as being. When we call it “the word of God,” that does not mean it was dictated directly from The Lord into the ears of a few select authors whose names appear on those pages. Even parts bearing a single author’s name have been added to over time by people attempting to keep it historically relevant. Rather, it’s more of a collaborative process of combining the wisdom of the community of faithful over thousands of years. Though the reverend didn’t draw it out to this point, in that way, it sounds like the Bible is more like Wikipedia than the “Read Me” file for life, the universe, and everything. I’m very interested in reading it, not because I think it’s right about everything, but because I think it’s important and nonetheless useful.
Still, I’m glad some other, relatively unbiased fellow followed all the rules
for a year just to see how it would go. I’ll probably check that book out from the library.
