ReadOTc
As sacred scripture, it is appropriate for sympathetic readers to engage in "sacred reading."
Info Box: A Personal Confession
Years ago, just before I went to Bible college a friend warned me, “Don’t let the Bible become just another textbook.” At the time I thought his comment was needless and silly. It didn’t take long, however, for the Bible to become simply a resource for a term paper, a dorm Bible study, or a sermon. And now after years of teaching, a new insight from reading the Bible can become simply a profound point to be noted for a lecture, rather than a new insight about the way of God in my life and world. I have discovered that an occupational hazard of being a Bible teacher is that “understanding” the Scriptures can all too easily be exploited and reduced to an intriguing idea to enthuse students in the classroom. The same could be said for personal and group Bible studies.
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Sacred Scripture, Sacred Reading
“Sacred reading” is vital—literally—in order to ensure that our Bible study is life-giving. In the intricacies and wonder of studying the Bible it’s all too easy that we forget to read it and especially to hear it, as the Bible itself enjoins us in the words of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel …” (Deut 6:4).
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In principle, all of our reading and studying Scripture should be part of sacred reading, but in practice it may be best that we consider sacred reading an essential step alongside the tools and skills of Bible study and exegesis. In the process of studying the Bible we consider words, grammar, literary genre, historical background, biblical cross-references, theology, and so on. But in sacred reading we are deliberate as we step on holy ground and, so to speak, take off our sandals (Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15) and listen to God’s voice. We step beyond the realm of books into the realm of sacred space. While much of Bible study focuses on what the passage meant in its original context, sacred reading focuses more on what it means to the people of God today, especially its application to contemporary situations. (Admittedly, this is an overly simplistic distinction.) In sacred reading, we listen to God’s present voice through voices from the past. “Sacred reading,” or lectio divina, as it has been called in church tradition, has a clear biblical basis, as this article intends to demonstrate.
The Emergence of Scripture in the Development of Israel’s Faith.
Before we ask why and how we should read and interpret the Scriptures, we must first look at the role that scriptures played in the development of Israel’s faith. When and why did Scripture come about? What events precipitated this act of committing sacred traditions to writing? Strange as it might sound, the notion of written Scriptures or a Bible would have been anachronistic through most of the Old Testament period.
As God's teaching was first transmitted during worship services (song came before scripture), so "sacred reading" is meant to revive Bible reading as an act of worship before God.
The public reading of God’s “torah” or “instruction” was more the exception than the rule, according to the Old Testament itself. In Exodus 24:3-7 Moses read the “words” (Exod 20:1) and the “judgments” (Exod 21:1) of “the book of the covenant” (Exod 20-23) to the generation of the exodus and Mount Sinai. The book of Deuteronomy presents itself as a series of Moses’ sermons to the second generation. But the next public reading of God’s written “instruction” recorded in the Bible does not occur until some 600 years later, when “the book of the law” (probably an early edition of the book of Deuteronomy) is discovered during Josiah’s reform (2 Kings 22-23). The next public reading takes place over 160 years later after the exile when Ezra reads “the book of the law of Moses” (probably some form of the Pentateuch) in Nehemiah 8. And in both readings, the people respond as though these sacred texts were new news to their ears.
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So how did the people of God learn of their faith during the pre-exilic period or more precisely the First Temple Period? The principal means were through the hymns, prayers, and prophetic psalms sung at the Temple during the three major pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Weeks/Pentecost, and Tabernacles). Many of the major blocks of biblical material do not emerge until after the crisis of the exile, when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, deposed the king, and deported much of the population of Judah in 587 BC. With no available sanctuary for the gathering of God’s people to hear God’s word, the psalms and prophecies that had been sung and proclaimed were “rescued” on the scrolls taken into exile. In addition, they were joined with other sacred scrolls, such as those of “the book of the covenant” and “the book of the law.” It is in the exilic and early postexilic periods that many of the Old Testament scrolls were compiled and edited into their more or less final editions, such as the Pentateuch, the Deuteronomistic History (i.e., Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, books that share the language, themes, and theological perspective of Deuteronomy), and many of the Prophetic scrolls.
This is not to suggest that these scrolls were composed at this late date, only that their regular publication for the awareness of the general public does not occur until the Second Temple Period.
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So, in the First Temple period, God’s house was the primary stage, where God and his will were proclaimed in the context of worship, namely through hymns and prophetic psalms, and where the people responded in praise and prayer. Then, in the Second Temple Period there was promoted a second means for the disclosure of God’s will: Torah (i.e., God’s “instruction”). The gradual shift from Temple to Torah can be illustrated in the Chronicler’s rewriting of First Temple traditions in 1-2 Kings. The pre-exilic phrases, “before me” (1 Kgs 8:25) and “the sight of the Lord” (1 Kgs 14:22), which principally refer to God’s presence at the Temple, are replaced with expressions referring to the God’s “law” or “torah” (2 Chr 6:16; 12:1). The Torah psalms (Pss 1; 19:7-14; 119) celebrate this new Torah piety. And as made clear by the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., this shift in Israel’s religion from Temple to Torah was indeed providential. So we can see that in the absence of the Temple, the written Scriptures come to take center stage. This historical review makes a clear theological point: the proclamation of the sacred traditions that relate God’s self-disclosure to his people originally took place in the context of worship, that is, the living, dialogical encounter between the God of the people and the people of God. And it is this encounter with the living God that the practice of “sacred reading” is meant to restore and promote. As worship includes our experience of God and our affective responses, such as joy and grief, and wonder and fear, so our Bible reading should not be merely a cerebral, scribal exercise.
How to Do “Sacred Reading.” (Latin: lecto divina)
1. Reading (lectio): Reading the text. Listen to the scripture as you read it aloud several times over. What does the biblical text say?
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The Hebrew word for “meditating” (הָגָה, hagah) on the Lord’s “instruction” (as in Josh 1:8; Psalm 1:2) actually includes this and the following steps of sacred reading, as the verb literally means “to mutter.” We must keep in mind that silent reading is a relatively recent invention. So biblical meditation is not merely a mental exercise — it is, literally, a dramatic reading. Our first act of interpretation should always be an attempt to read the passage aloud in a manner that is most appropriate to its literary form (e.g., narrative dialogue, command, lament) and contents. At the same time, we must “hear” what we ourselves are reading, as hearing is fundamental to one’s reception of the Scriptures. We who live in an literate culture have forgotten the skill of listening to the voice of scripture.
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Try emphasizing different parts of speech: the verbs or actions in one reading, the subject or actors in another, and the objects receiving the action in yet another.
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What is the mood or tone of the passage: joyful or mournful, stern or sarcastic?
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Try hearing the passage from different perspectives: as an insider and then as an outsider, as in ancient Israelite, and as a Christian/Gentile.
2. Meditation (meditatio): Thinking about the text. What did and what does the biblical text mean?
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Enter imaginatively into the living, breathing world of the text and have a look around. Deliberately step beyond the words on the page into the scene painted by those words.
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How are God, the people of God, and outsiders characterized/portrayed?
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How does the passage read differently through its expanding circles of context: within its biblical book, the Old Testament, the New Testament, other passages of the same literary genre, other passages of the same historical period, etc.?
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What parallels of situation and character types does this passage have with our contemporary world? What differences? How does the passage match our modern-day expectations? What surprises does it offer?
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What existential/experiential issues/questions are raised?
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Do I genuinely believe what I have read? How do I feel about this passage?
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Using the checks and balances of interpretation, how do my subjective impressions square with the plain meaning of the literary text and with my faith tradition?
3. Prayer (oratio): Praying to God about the text. What can I say to God in response to this text?
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Narrate to God your own discoveries about the passage, elucidated by questions such as those listed above.
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Ask God questions about the passage, and petition God for understanding and for a heart willing to listen.
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Ask God for insight as to how this passage should apply to believers today and to situations in our contemporary world.
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Offer your own confession, prayer, intercession, thanksgiving, or praise in response to the passage.
If we genuinely believe that the Scriptures are, in fact, “inspired by God,” then one of our first acts of interpretation, if we are puzzled by a passage, should be to ask God about it. In most cases, the answer will not be instant but will involve a process of “asking, seeking, and knocking” (Matt 7:7-8) and “examining the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11).
4. Contemplation (contemplatio): Listening to God. What is God saying to his people through this scripture?
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In this stage we listen to God in the quietness of the heart, and we are intentionally open to God’s answering our questions by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. By definition, this stage of sacred reading cannot be taught, because here we defer to God and his discretion, thereby acknowledging his freedom to speak and to act as he chooses. And as made clear in Jeremiah’s “new covenant” oracle, ultimate understanding is attained when the Scriptures are, in fact, internalized by God’s own action: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts … No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me …” (Jer 31:33–34). In this respect, we allow God’s word to change us from within.
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One of the key differences in sacred reading is that we hear holy Scripture in the context of relationship with God as a personal (though not always private or intimate), living communication. We are not merely reading and studying an ancient document, literary art, or a historical and religious artifact. It is not merely text; it is speech. If, indeed, we genuinely believe that “scripture” can be characterized as “inspired by God” (2 Tim 3:16), then we must hear divine speech through these Scriptures. Sacred reading is not quantitatively different from studying the Bible, whether by believer or secularist, in the sense that it yields new information, data, or secrets about the literary text. Rather, it is qualitatively different, in the sense that it becomes personal and is understood subjectively. The difference lies in understanding that not only did ancient Israel believe that God loved them, but that God actually loves his people now, which includes me. Sacred reading brings the “Aha!” back into Bible study.
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5. Action (actio): Acting in thought and deed. How will I change my thinking and my behavior today in response to hearing this text?
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The encounter engendered by sacred reading is meant to affect concretely our daily life and work in the world. At the end of his last “sermon” in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses presents a fine summary of the practice of “sacred reading,” or perhaps more accurately, “sacred confession and action”:
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“Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” (Deut 30:11–14, NRSV)
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The Bible is not about divine secrets and mysteries merely for the super-spiritual, nor is it bound to a particular sacred space to which we must make pilgrimage. It is now accessible to all who willing to confess it, embrace it, and do it. The word of God is more than a good book in our hands (the habit of the literate culture), but it is meant to be expressed as a word in our mouth (the forgotten habit of an ancient, oral culture), to be incorporated in our heartfelt motives, and to be incarnated in our actions. It is in doing the will of God that we discover that the Bible’s teaching, in fact, originates from God (see John 7:17). Long before modern psychology, the ancient Scriptures exhibited profound insight into holistic approaches to human existence. Sacred reading touches all aspects of the human personality: its cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, that is, our knowing, feeling, and doing. God’s word acts and does things to its listeners/readers. It is not merely “objective revelation” that promotes cerebral exercise. It is “like fire” (Jer 23:29). It is to be “at work in you believers” (1 Thes 2:13). It is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12).
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