Questions of interpretation—whose interpretation, which interpretation, what interpretation—are at the forefront of discussions about truth. Perhaps best summarized in the familiar saying “I am only responsible for what I say, not what you understand,” our contemporary culture assumes objective and definitive truth do not exist. As such, we are left with suspicion as to whether or to what extent we can access the truth.

Issues of interpretation, of course, are not simply matters of intellectual speculation. For people of faith, these questions are personal. In dealing with sacred texts, there are many familiar questions: What does this particular passage mean? What are its implications? How does it make sense in the world today? And how can there be so many different interpretations for the same text?

Questions of interpretation notwithstanding, many faiths claim to know and to represent the truth. Christians, like other Abrahamic faiths, claim that the truth can be ascertained through what has been written and recorded in the Bible. Yet, Christians still find themselves traversing the murky world of interpretation; how is the truth presented in Scripture apprehended in a way that transcends culture and language? St. Augustine, for example, writing in the fourth century, asked these kinds of questions about the opening words of Genesis:

“Does it mean ‘in the beginning of time’ because it was the first of all things, or ‘in the beginning,’ which is the Word of God, the only begotten Son? And how could it be shown that God produced changeable and time-bound works without any change in himself? And what may be meant by the name heaven and earth? Was it the total spiritual and bodily creation that was termed heaven and earth, or only the bodily sort? And in what way did God say Let light be made? Was it in time or in the eternity of the Word? And what is this light that was made? Something spiritual or something bodily?”(1)

Augustine illuminates just some of the complexities of interpreting the text of Scripture. Yet, Christians like Augustine believe that the Scriptures are alive with truth. As one inhabits the world of the Scriptures, God speaks through a living, breathing narrative. God reveals the truth about salvation in and through the history of Israel for the whole world. The writers of the Old and New Testaments were inspired to give testimony of God’s redemption for future generations. In this way, God saw fit to enflesh the truth in concrete history and action. All those who encounter the written narrative might come to know the essence, nature and character of the God who inspired its writing.

According to the written word, Jesus is God’s ultimate act of speech. He is the living bible, the incarnation and the inscription of the very nature and truth of God. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “in the former days, the days of old, God spoke through the prophets; but in these last days, God has spoken to us by a Son.“(2) And in the Gospel of John, long before the written word, Truth is a person: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from God.”(3) The writers of the written word tell us that the ultimate, final, definitive word of God is the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the living bible and his life communicates the truth of God to us. More than just an interpretation of ideas and information, the truth is a Person.

The writer of Hebrews makes a distinction between what had been inscribed (the law and the teachings of the prophets) and the living word, Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father. Of course, the advent of Jesus as the living word does not nullify or invalidate the written word. Indeed, the two have something of a reciprocal relationship. All of written Scripture points to the living word, Jesus, and to God’s wonderful salvation history through Israel to the world. Indeed, Jesus is the living embodiment of Israel’s law and prophets! Jesus says this about himself in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” In his life, Jesus embodies God’s Kingdom rule and as the Word made flesh interprets for us what it looks like to live in God’s kingdom.

Of course, issues of interpretation will continue to press all those who seek to understand Jesus and his proclamation of the truth. Yet, New Testament scholar N.T. Wright suggests that the truth can be ascertained as those who follow Jesus live in his light and follow his ways: “The authority of Scripture is most truly put into operation as the church goes to work in the world on behalf of the gospel, the good news that in Jesus Christ the kingdom of God has come and the living God has defeated the powers of evil and begun the work of new creation in this world.”(4) In other words, Christ longs to be known and he will never cease breaking in and breaking through. He is the good news of God himself, the truth in person among us.

 

 

Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington.

(1) Saint Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Volume 1 (Ancient Christian Writers Series; New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 168-171.

(2) Hebrews 1:1-2.

(3) John 1:1-2, 14.

(4) N.T. Wright, The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture (San Francisco: Harper, 2005), 113.

 

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