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Dr. Tim Vivian, associate professor of religious studies at Cal State Bakersfield and vicar at Grace Episcopal Church, has agreed to write a weekly column on the New Testament class he's teaching this quarter at the university. Randall Smith, Vivian's teaching assistant, will share his insights as well.

Why metaphor matters

By Tim Vivian

<U> </U>It is impossible to read the Bible literally.

A quote attributed to a Rabbi Ben Sylva explains why: "A literalist interpretation of Scripture tells us that God is a rock that sent a bird to cause a virgin to give birth to a loaf of bread. And this is supposed to be an improvement on obtaining a chiseled code of conduct from a flaming shrubbery in a cloud. If a literal understanding is all that is required for faith, then I'm a yellow ducky."

All language is metaphor. Therefore, at one level, everything in the Bible is metaphorical. All God-talk (theology) is metaphor. Something a friend told me the other day illustrates why it's important that we understand this. He said that for a long time when he heard "God the Father," powerful emotions of his own father -- a controlling disciplinarian and alcoholic -- gripped him. It took him years to outgrow and get past this idea -- and, more difficult, past the apprehensive wrench in his gut.

In last week's article I said that as a historian I don't think the historical Jesus said "Before Abraham was, I am" or "The Father and I are one," or most of the statements attributed to him in the Gospel of John. I was remiss in not stating my historical reasons: (1) such language is alien to the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; (2) such theology and Christology is far from what Jesus says in those Gospels. The quotations attributed to Jesus in John's Gospels are in fact theological reflections on the risen Christ by John.

Such theological reflections are "history metaphorized" states Marcus Borg, whose book we're using in our New Testament class. Borg pushes beyond metaphorical language to speak of metaphorical narratives that "express the meaning of the story of Jesus" (my emphasis). Not what Jesus ate for breakfast on some Tuesday, but what Jesus means -- present tense -- for the Gospel writer, for the historian, for the believer.

For example, most scholars agree that "the cleansing of the Temple" by Jesus is historical; the commotion and ruckus in the Temple right before Passover was one of the things that got him killed. But the cleansing of the Temple is also a metaphorical narrative: it symbolizes Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God. God's kingdom will, pun intended, overturn everything.

Matthew, Mark and Luke place the Temple incident near the end of their Gospels, after Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. John places this momentous event as a metaphorical narrative near the very beginning. Historically, this seems impossible -- if Jesus had "cleansed" the Temple so early, that would have been the end of his ministry. But John's not interested in historical accuracy. His interest lies with what the cleansing of the Temple symbolizes: when Jesus says he will rebuild the destroyed Temple in three days, the disciples later realize that he was talking about "the Temple of his body," that is, his resurrection.

To read the Bible responsibly, whether you're a historian, a believer, or both, you need both history and metaphor. All religious talk, symbol (liturgy, art), and action "effs the ineffable"; they express the inexpressible. Which is why metaphor matters. All religious expression is metaphor. Liberation rather than literalism.

The simplicity of the Gospels

By Randall Smith

If you have been reading our articles for the last few weeks, you may have been struck by how complicated scholars tend to make the study of the Gospels. But if you simply begin to read the Gospels, you will be struck, not by their technical complexity, but by their simplicity. Sometimes, scholars tend to overcomplicate an issue. The life blood of scholarship is technical debates and new insights (preferably for publication); that is what we do. But the reality is that the parts of the New Testament have been around as long as Christianity and the Bible, as canon, has continuously been read for over 1,500 years. There is a reason for that.

The Gospels are historical as well as theological, but the central message is simple -- that we are not alone and that we are loved absolutely and unconditionally. This simple message appears again and again. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; love God, love one another; love as I have loved you; love your enemies and do good to them who treat you badly ... it doesn't end.

I agree with Dr. Vivian that whoever picks up and reads the New Testament needs to be aware of the context of the passages. But I believe that the reason that people keep coming back to it is that it does not couch its truths in code or in secret. It is open to be read, to be understood, and to be enjoyed for generations to come.