Jim,
I think it is merely simple humility to realize that
there are limits to any individual's knowledge and
understanding and human knowledge and understanding in
general.
In complex things, reasonable people may differ. I
don't think anyone has to be a seminarian to be a
scholar of Aramaic or Attic Greek, but being a scholar
of those languages would help in understanding the
meaning of Genesis 1. The fact that one relies on
someone else's translation (which involves
interpretation) -- and the fact that there are
significant ambiguities in our knowledge of the
languages and differences in English translations --
should give us pause before relying on what may be
very technical or precise meanings of English words in
doing an exegesis of any biblical text.
In complex matters of interpretation, reasonable minds
may differ and understanding involves knowing why
people differ rather than being dismissive of the
difference. This is why the early Church held
periodic ecumenical councils to discuss and attempt to
iron out differences within the Church in
interpretation of the canon of the bible, which itself
was adopted by one such of those councils. The
Eastern Orthodox Church still maintains this
ecumenical, consensus driven approach to
interpretation, as opposed to the (from their
perspective) Bishop of Rome's (Pope's) claim to
definitive interpretation and opposed to the (from
their perspective) atomistic and individualistic
interpretation of protestantism. Indeed, the kind of
nastiness being evinced in this discussion is why the
Eastern Orthodox Church sees protestantism as anarchy
and self-defeating. Sometimes, I am inclined to agree
with them on that point.
The point is God is not a masochist, but commends us
to be wise as serpents and trusting as children and to
humbly approach our discussions of God. I support
your urging open mindedness, but you should practice
it as well. Wisdom often comes from knowing what you
do not know.
Peace,
--- Jim Eisele <jeisele@starpower.net> wrote:
> Jan writes a long-winded piece about how difficult
> to know
> the Bible. Jan must think God is a masochist. Us
> poor fools
> who haven't been to seminary don't have a chance in
> hell.
>
> Jim
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