I have a problem with the Bible. Here’s my problem…
I’m an ancient Egyptian. I’m a comfortable Babylonian. I’m a Roman in his home.
That’s my problem. See, I’m trying to read the Bible, but I’m not a Hebrew slave suffering in Egypt. I’m not a Jew conquered and deported to Babylon. I’m not a first-century Jew living under Roman occupation.
I’m a citizen of a superpower. I was born among the conquerors. I live in the empire. But I want to read the Bible and I think it’s speaking to me. This is a problem.
One of the most remarkable things about the Bible is that in it we find the narrative told from the perspective of the poor, the oppressed, the enslaved, the conquered, the occupied, and the defeated. This is what makes it prophetic. We know history is written by the winners. That’s true — except in the case of the Bible, it’s the opposite! This is the subversive ghost of the Hebrew prophets. They wrote from a bottom-up perspective.
Imagine a history of colonial America written by Cherokee Indians and African slaves. That would be a different way to tell the story! And that’s what the Bible does. It’s the story of Egypt told by the slaves. The story of Babylon told by the exiles. The story of Rome told by the occupied. And the brief moments when Israel seems to be on top? In those cases, the prophets told Israel’s story from the perspective of the poor peasants as a critique of the royal elite. As when Amos denounced the wives of the Israelite aristocracy as “the fat cows of Bashan.”
Every story is told from a point of view; it has a bias. The Bible’s bias is from the perspective of the underclass. But what happens if we lose sight of the prophetically subversive point of view of the Bible? What happens if those on top place themselves in the story not as Egyptian, Babylonian, and Roman Emperors, but as Israelites? Well, when that happens you get the strange phenomenon of the elite using the Bible to endorse their dominion as God’s will. This is Roman Christianity after Constantine. This is Crusader Christendom. These are the colonialists who see America as the promised land and the native inhabitants as Canaanites to be conquered. This is the entire history of European colonialism. This is the American prosperity gospel inherited by Brazilians. This is the domestication of Scripture. It makes the Bible dance to the music we choose to play.
While Jesus preached the arrival of the kingdom of God, he frequently emphasized the revolutionary character of God’s reign, saying: “the last shall be first and the first last.” How does this statement of Jesus hit us? I don’t know about you, but it makes me a little nervous.
Imagine the following scenario today: a powerful charismatic figure arrives on the world scene and gathers many followers, announcing the arrival of a new era in the world where those at the bottom should be promoted and those at the top should have their lifestyle “restructured.” How would people receive this? I can imagine the Syrians saying, “Can we start this right now?!” and the Americans saying, “Hold on a second, let’s not get carried away with this baloney!”
Now think about Jesus announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God with the proclamation of his beatitudes. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” how was that received? Well, it depends on who’s listening. The poor Galilean peasant would hear it as good news (the good news, the gospel), while the Roman in his home would hear it with great suspicion. (I know it’s an anachronism, but I can imagine the Romans saying something like, “that sounds way too much like socialism to me!”)
And that’s the challenge I face in reading the Bible. I’m not the Galilean peasant. Who am I trying to fool?!? I’m the Roman in his home and I need to be honest about that. I can also hear the gospel of the kingdom as good news (because it is!), but first I need to admit its radical nature and not try to tame it to endorse my rights.
I’m a white man in America and (relatively) rich. That’s all fine, but it means I have to work to read the Bible properly. I have to see myself as essentially aligned with Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Caesar. In that case, what does the Bible ask of me? Voluntary poverty? Not necessarily. But certainly the Bible calls me to deep humility — a humility demonstrated in hospitality and generosity. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with being a relatively-good white “North-”American man, but it’s better to be humble, hospitable, and generous!
If I read the Bible with the right perspective and humility, I don’t use the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus as a text that helps me condemn others to hell. I use it as a reminder that I am a rich man and Lazarus is at my door. I don’t use the conquest narratives of Joshua to justify the Doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Instead, I see myself as a Rahab who needs to welcome the newcomers. I don’t compare myself to Elijah calling fire down from heaven. I’m more like Nebuchadnezzar, who needs to humble himself so as not to go mad.
I have a problem with the Bible, but it’s not all lost. I need to change my perspective. If I accept that the Bible is trying to lift up those who are different from me, then maybe I can read the Bible properly.
*Text translated from https://brianzahnd.com/2014/02/problem-bible/