Did Jesus Treat the Scripture the Way a Literalists Treat the Bible?


Literalists  claim the Bible is their supreme authority for the way they believe and act. They claim that their actions are parallel with the way Jesus acted in the Bible.

Though there was no such thing as the Bible in Jesus day, there was the the books that Moses wrote. The way Jesus treated the scripture is a far cry from the way the literalists do today. The way Jesus treated the scripture was in a way that literalist religionists are taught not to treat the Bible. 

Literalists are taught to stick to what the Bible says and not to go beyond it...Jesus did the opposite.

For instance, unlike literalists, Jesus felt He could "pick and choose" what parts of the Old Testament were valid and which were not.

Religionists are taught in no uncertain terms that the Bible is a package deal. Believing what the Bible says isn't like being on a buffet line where you "pick and choose" what you like. Yet, that's what Jesus did.

For example, in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew, Jesus is on a mountain speaking to people around him. Several times He quotes something from the Law of Moses and then contrasts what the Law says ("you have heard it said) with a teaching of his own ("but I say to you").

Don't be blinded to what is happening here: Jesus is acting like Moses. He is on a mountain declaring to the people the Word of God. Really the "Sermon on the Mount" isn't a sermon, it is a public declaration that, now that He was here, changes were going to be made.

At some points in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus simply expands on what the scripture said...like murder being more than not just physical but also emotional (anger) and verbal (insults). But Jesus also claims that some parts of the Bible over and done and it's time to head in a new direction.

God told Moses that Israelites were to make solemn oaths to one another as a sort of a binding contract, but Jesus said the true people of God shouldn't make any oaths. "Let your 'Yes, be Yes and your 'No, be no'; anything more than this comes from the evil one."

God told Moses that crimes were punishable by an "eye for an eye" so as to insure the punishment fit the crime but Jesus said to turn the other cheek rather than seek restitution. In doing so, they would be truly following the will of God.

Jesus taught that some of what God said in the Old Testament was inadequate, and real obedience to God mean it was time to move on. If denominational preachers, or teachers taught this about the canonized Bible they would be out of a job.

Jesus read the scripture as a Jew would, not an evangelical or fundamentalist christian does.

As much as this might not need to be said, it does. From observation of the way Jesus read scripture, we conclude that it was Jewish man reading. His creative flare and even his "debating" with scripture and going in a different direction were part of what it meant to read the Holy Writ in Jesus' Jewish world.

That doesn't mean Jesus didn't respect scripture. He did. But He respected it in Jewish ways, not religious ways.

And that may be the hardest lesson for the religious literalists to understand...Jesus did not agree with things in scripture that religious literalists take for granted and considers non-negotiable and stick to what the text means...or should I say, what they believe the text says. 

By doing so religion has deafened the ears of believers and they are unable to hear from God for themselves. 

Comments

  1. If Bible religious literalists would heed what you have written, it would liberate thousands of believers. But, the likelihood of that happening is remote. Literalists seem to equate Jesus' teaching that He would send the "Holy Spirit" as He would send the "Holy Bible". You would think that if such an infallible Book was to come years after Jesus and the apostles lived, that either Jesus or one of His disciples, would have made such a prophecy. Now, we have denominators treating the Bible as if it were the Holy Spirit.
    Thanks for addressing this very important matter. Hopefully, it will lead to some further discussion(s).

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  2. While it is true that there was no Bible as we know it today in days of Christ they had the Scriptures. God has saw fit to see that we have the same Scriptures today. As a matter of fact Christ said that this Gospel of kingdom would be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then the end would come. This is one of reasons why God has provided us with the Scriptures.

    I like Paul`s attitude towards the Scriptures. When we compare the Apostle Paul`s attitude toward the Scripture with the modernist of our day we know whose side they are on. You won`t find Paul trying to discourage the Bereans from taking the Scriptures literally. What will you find?

    These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.(Acts 17:11)

    The Bereans checked all off Paul`s grace messages with the Old Testament Scriptures and as a result they were given the characteristic as being more noble than the Christians at Thessalonica.

    If Paul was a fake preacher he would have been exposed by these Bereans but instead they received the Word with all readiness.

    Fake preachers today would be wise to avoid the Bereans of our day and just go where people want their ears tickled.

    I also like the attitude of Christ towards the Scriptures especially the Old Testament.Jesus wasn`t afraid to take the Old Testament literally.

    As an example, when Jesus was tempted by Satan in Luke 4, He answered by quoting the Old Testament. If God’s commands in Deut. 8:3 6:13, and 6:16 were not literal, Jesus would not have used them and they would have been powerless to stop Satan’s mouth, which they certainly did.

    The disciples also took the commands of Christ (which are part of the Bible) literally. When He commanded them to go into all the world they did. Why do we today want to get hung up on whether His commands are literal or not. If we today will take Christ Word literally and go Christ will go with us today.

    Off course we have to use common sense. There are some figures of speech in Bible but they are obvious.

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