Why Didn't Jesus Write it Down, Revisited
Like many progressive Christians, I am fond of asking the religious right (who insist on a text-centered Christianity) why Jesus never wrote anything down. How helpful would it be to have for Jesus what we have for Paul: his thoughts precisely preserved, first-hand in text rather than preserved second or third-hand? Why didn't Jesus do this?
Secularists, of course, will say that Jesus never wrote anything down because he was an illiterate carpenter. But, for the faithful, this logic is circular. That is, even if Jesus were an illiterate carpenter, we are still left with the equally perplexing (and functionally identical) question of why Jesus was an illiterate carpenter. If God had wanted Jesus to be well-read and educated, certainly he would have been.
Progressive Christians have explained that Jesus never wrote anything down because God never intended a text-based Christianity. Indeed, we have long pointed to this as a reason that Christians should look at how Jesus lived his life rather than to Paul's letters or to ancient Jewish texts in their search for Christian truth.
But I think that there's more to it than this.
How much time do Christians spend reading and rereading and rereading the Bible? How much time do Christians spend debating the import of obscure passages in the Old Testament? How much time do Christians spend trying to reconcile petty details in the Bible?
Can we justify such abstract intellectualism in the face of a world that is obviously very far from the Kingdom of God? If you have a few spare hours a week, wouldn't it be better to volunteer at a soup kitchen than to commit yourself to a "read-the-Bible-in-a-year" plan or a Bible study group? (What would Jesus do?)
I think that Jesus not writing anything down suggests that we should be acting more and reading and speculating less. I have long believed that Jesus' message was much simpler than the Church has made it out to be. Exceedingly easy to understand, exceedingly difficult to follow:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Help the poor. Heal the sick.
The message, spoken and lived, was simple. Clear. There was no need to write it down. You don't need to read thousands of pages; you don't need a degree in theology to understand Jesus' message.
Of course, all of this proves too much. I read the Bible for insight on Jesus' life. I read theology. I spend several hours a week on this blog. I implicitly ask you to spend a few minutes a week reading it. But I'm not here to be perfect. Or even consistent. I'm here to raise questions.
posted by jj @ 12:57 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
If you have a few spare hours a week, wouldn't it be better to volunteer at a soup kitchen than to commit yourself to a "read-the-Bible-in-a-year" plan or a Bible study group? (What would Jesus do?)Not necessarily. Liberation theology makes bible study a central part of its discipline (at least the Latin American variety does). Mind you -- the agneda there is unpacking how misrepresentations of the gospel have contributed to the oppression the participants experience.
And soup kitchens are necessary because there isn't the political will to take the gospel seriously. That is the gospel that takes the preferential option for the poor seriously. The gospel that truly is good news.
I appreciate that perspective. Maybe my statement is more normative than descriptive. It SHOULDN'T be hard to understand Jesus' message. But, given all the distortion, it actually is difficult to cut through the morass and get back to basics.
I agree that actions speak loder than (reading) words :-) but if we hadn't read the words of the writers of the gospels, we'd have no idea what Jesus' actions had been ... how to follow Jesus in his mission without having read of it in the first place?
Very interesting discussion. I think if Jesus never wrote anything down ... it was meant to be ... it must have been for a purpose.
For a friendly, open and constructive discussion .. I invite you all to visit my blog @
http://thesimplemessage.blogspot.com
Peace.
not being a devout christian, in the bible bashing sense, i do think his doctrine is simple and correct, however why he never put pen to paper puzzles me,after all if god his father is so all knowing he would have known the word coming directly from him would have carried more weight, and he must have been literate or he would have been able to read in the temple, strange.
he message of jesus is simple, but religeous leaders prefer to preach the word and not live it, how many would live in poverty or sell their car or possesions to help the poor or give up their pension schemes from the churches and give them to the poor...not many i think...still they may have to answer in the end to the christ they say they believe in...christ wants you to live the message he gave not be a paid employee of the company.
I was looking for what people thinks about the question of "Why Jesus didn't write anything". I share very similar idea as yours.
We don't need to be spending time reading Bible all our free time, and participating worship services every weekends. We need to be doing what Jesus said to do "Treat the lowest as if it was Me."
Great article. I've often wondered about this myself but I came up with a different reason why there are no writings from Jesus. The Church destroyed them.
How's that for a conspiracy theory?
Perhaps you are right, Evil! One of the main ocupations of the Church has been to combat and destroy heresies. Jesus's teachings would have never submitted to the church's horthodoxy. The Cathars, for example, were burned alive at the stake for not submitting to the pope's orthodoxy. Let's keep in mind, that Jesus's purpose was not to destroy the religions of his time, neither to create a new one, e.g. catholic. Who knows, maybe someday Jesus's writings would be found in some desert caves somewhere, or perhaps at the Vatican's archives.
I'm not so sure that we have to do an either/or situation here (working at a soup kitchen vs. reading the bible). Why not both? And I also feel that the fact that those who were closest to Jesus (like the Apostle John himself) felt the need to write an account of Jesus for future generations speaks volumes. Could it be that perhaps God's sovereign plan involved the writing of scriptures? As John 20:31 states, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
It was postulated that Jesus spent time with the Essenes the authors of the Dead sea scrolls, who were a Jewish community of scholars and scribes dedicated to scripture. It seems very odd that a learned jewish man who spent time with the most astute of the Jewish community of his time would not commit his eloquent thoughts to paper much less let time ravage and twist his words. Even Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 commandments written, at least that's how the bible would have you believe. The notion that the son of God would not be able to write in his own words behoves
all rationality. I guess that is why they ask so much faith of one to be a believer.
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