THE BIBLE – A BOOK FOR ALL PEOPLE

When Jesus stood before Pilate at his trial, he made a startling claim:

“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate cynically responded by asking, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38).

Jesus had already answered that question, for in the previous chapter of John’s Gospel he prayed to his Father, saying, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Followers of Jesus Christ who take his claim to be God in the flesh seriously usually also take the divine inspiration of the Bible seriously, and regard the Bible as an accurate and reliable record of God’s truth. But does God’s truth apply only to those within the community of faith, or does it also have relevance to those outside it?

Is the Bible an exclusively Christian or Jewish book or is what it says relevant to the general public as well? The Bible contains history, poetry, legislation, prayers, wisdom sayings and ethical teaching, but at its heart it is a story presented in the form of a history of what God has done and will do. However, the world is full of stories that come from different cultures and regions.

Is the Bible any different from these other stories? Or is it like them in being just the story of a god’s dealings with one particular group of people? The difference is that the Bible offers not just a story but what it claims is “the story”. It bears testimony to events and words in which God has revealed the shape and significance of the world’s history as a whole.

To anyone who reads the Bible closely, it will be evident that it does not present its story as a special history separate from human history. Rather it seems to view its story as part of an unbroken fabric of interconnected events that constitute the whole story of humankind.

The Christian faith asserts that in the Bible’s testimony to Jesus, the whole meaning of the story, the decisive key to the purpose and significance of world history, is disclosed. Jesus’ announcement of the arrival of God’s universal reign is good news to all people, and the message of the Bible is therefore relevant to all people everywhere on the planet.

However, while the message of the Bible is directed to the entire human race, it is always grounded in particular places, peoples and cultures. The OT focuses primarily on the history of Israel, one nation among many peoples and nations, and the focus of the NT is on the story of Jesus, one of the billions of people who have lived on this planet. Keeping this balance between the universal and particular is very important if we are to have a fair and balanced interpretation of the Bible’s message.

There are two common objections to viewing the Bible as a book for all people. One of these emerges from within the community of believers, where some regard the Bible as the exclusive possession of the church and believe that the community of faith alone has the right to interpret its true meaning. There are also those outside the community of faith who would like the Bible to remain an exclusively Christian document. Sceptical about the universalistic claims within the biblical narrative, they view it as inherently imperialist. But are all claims to universal truth imperialist? All the major religions are universal in their vision. Likewise, all human progress in science, historical research and philosophy is made on the basis of a fundamental recognition of the universality of truth and the transcultural testing and communication of truth claims. There is thus no reason why the Bible’s claim to assert universal truth should be regarded as imperialist, unless it asserts this claim by force and denies others the right to make the same claim.

The message of the Bible is relevant to the needs of all humanity in the twenty-first century. For one thing, although the Bible is not a scientific textbook, its attitude to the material world has been the basis for scientific enquiry and research. The development of the scientific method in the seventeenth century was based on the biblical view of a God of order, reason and unchanging decrees.

The Bible also addresses practical issues relating to the way we run our lives and order our society. It teaches that God provides all people with a conscience, a built-in moral guide to help us distinguish between right and wrong. He has also provided institutions such as the family, community and state that encourage goodness and restrain evil. Against the rising tide of sexual promiscuity, the biblical ideal of a family based on a lifelong monogamous covenant not only enhances the status of women but also provides a secure and emotionally healthy environment for both parents and children.

The Bible constitutes the basis for many legal systems. It views crime as a moral act for which the offender must take responsibility, but tries to ensure that the punishment is always proportionate to the crime. Penalties for offences against people are more severe than for offences against property. While protecting society from offenders, it makes provision for the criminal to choose the path of reform after justice has been served.

The Bible’s relevance to the lives of people of every race, tribe, nation and culture is thus not based on specifically “Christian” beliefs, but on “public” truth – the way things are – and on the acknowledgement of a scientifically rational and morally ordered universe.

Ivan Satyavrata