Reflections for 11/28/11

"Whatever else they may be, the people in the Bible are real human beings."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 309)

If you were to go into a library I wonder where you would find the Bible?  At Barnes and Noble its in the "religion section" but most small town libraries aren't that elaborate. The standard fiction or non-fiction seems to be the norm.

I don't know that I could classify the Bible as either.  At a certain level its fiction. There are stories within that have some historical validity but have been written with a certain slant.  Much like, "historical fiction" there is a deeper truth being told using some historical realities.  But to call it fiction is to rob it of its overall effectiveness for me.

At a certain level its non-fiction, there are historical figures that appear in other sources.  But I can't spend too much time validating every name and event, because to me that misses the point also.

What I know is that as I read the Bible, I find the truly important parts to be very real for me.  They speak to my life as I lived it.  Not so much in terms of the rules of a nomadic culture, but in the realities of what being a human meant and continues to mean.  There's a Jacob in all of us. There is a Mary in all of us.

I know that what I've said can probably hold true for any good novel.  But for me the Bible has something that differentiates it.  And maybe it is that each time I read it, something new comes into view for me.  Not because the words have changed, but because I have.  And no other book that I've read more than once does that for me.

Blessings,
Ed