Arguably, interpreting the Bible would be a lot simpler if Jesus had written it Himself.
Muslims make such a claim about Mohammed and the Quran, and Mormons believe that Joseph Smith received their holy book in a single download from an angel. Such a book would surely be beyond question, which would likely make theology and practice much more straightforward.
The question, then, is why God would choose to oversee the unfolding of Christian scriptures over thousands of years.
Why would he want dozens of authors from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds, living in vastly different historical circumstances, to write it?
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?
An unfolding story.
The Bible is best understood as the unfolding story of humankind's relationship with and understanding of God. For example, Old Testament believers didn't differentiate between God and Satan, seeing Satan as God's left hand.
In the New Testament, we see Christ overcoming temptation, destruction, and death. We are told to resist the Devil, and he will flee, to stand against his wiles and bad intentions. In fact, Jesus differentiated between God (himself) and the Devil in the clearest possible terms, declaring that the thief (the Devil) "comes to steal, kill, and destroy," but Jesus (the perfect expression of the Father) came "that we might have life, and have it to the full."
In the Old Testament, temptation, destruction, and death are not attributed to the Devil but to God Himself. Old Testament saints would not pray against the wiles of the Devil, as the New Testament teaches, but would beg God to stay His own, wrathful hand. Satan was not seen as the cause of such destruction but rather as God's minister of wrath, while God Himself was seen as the cause of both good and evil.
A crucial element of Jesus' mission was to eradicate such confusion and to make God known. In John 14:9, he made God's consistently loving nature abundantly clear, teaching His disciples that if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father.
The Bible then reveals the unfolding of humankind's understanding of God, and as such, it is more powerful and instructive than a simple set of theological statements could ever be, even if dictated by God Himself. We get to see humankind's knowledge of God evolve, and the crux of that unfolding is Jesus Himself—His words, deeds, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus is the climax of the story, the answer to all questions, the clarity that blows away theological confusion.
We, too, are part of this same story and take our rightful place within it when our understanding of God is based solely on what we see in Jesus, as the scriptures about Him radiate through our hearts.
God wants us to think for ourselves.
Another inference we can draw from the way in which Christian scripture was formed is that God wants us to use our brains when interpreting it. In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul encourages Timothy to be diligent in "rightly dividing the word of truth," which means to understand the context of what has been written and apply it in the light of other scriptural principles and covenants as well. Again, Jesus is our perfect example of this. In the Sermon on the Mount, He taught the crowd to disregard specific instructions of Hebrew Law. Matthew 5:38-45:
'You have heard that it was said, "Eye for eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…
You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.'
Jesus diligently divided the word of truth, understanding that Old Testament teachings were to be overruled by grace. On another occasion, the Pharisees criticized Him for breaking the rules of the Sabbath, saying that what he was doing was "unlawful." Jesus responded by giving an Old Testament example of King David doing the same and concluded that "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Jesus let the Holy Spirit be His guide and boiled the entire Hebrew Law down to loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It would be foolish to see these examples as slight reinterpretations. We cannot study the Gospels honestly without accepting that Jesus reinterpreted and overrode the Law as part of his teaching and ministry, calling us instead to love.
We are called to be like Jesus, and that includes our approach to scripture. If God had given Jesus a download of a single, flawless text, we would never have witnessed His approach to sacred texts nor understood that we are to see Him as the perfect image of God, overriding anything that contradicts the supremacy of love.
The Bible is not the Word of God
This might come as a shock, but it is entirely unbiblical to call the Bible the Word of God when the Bible itself only uses that title to refer to Jesus (John 1:1-5). Jesus is the Word of God, so why on Earth do we refer to the Bible that way?
The truth is that the books of the Bible reflect the perspective and limitations of each writer, as well as their place in the unfolding of humankind's understanding of the nature of God. It is beautiful, full of inspiration and power for personal growth. It brims over with wisdom and calls us to love, but only when personally interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit. We have made the Bible God – unquestionable, perfect, immortal – rather than use it as a resource to draw near to God himself. It might even be true that we have flirted with idolatry, preferring to exalt the word of God over the living Word of God, who is Jesus Himself.
Treating scripture as Jesus did.
Jesus greatly valued the scriptures available to Him, particularly the prophets, whom He often quoted, interpreting them through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When He was 12, His parents found Him at the temple in Jerusalem, debating the scriptures with His elders; He read from Isaiah 61 to announce the beginning of His ministry, and He used scripture to send Satan packing in the wilderness. Jesus saw the scriptures as essential to a life of faith, keeping them close to His heart, but He didn't see them as beyond question. By publicly reinterpreting them, He encouraged others (along with us) to think for themselves. We are to approach the Bible with our hearts tuned to His love and our ears turned to the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus did, we are called to meditate in the scriptures, know them, fill our hearts with them, and use them to turn aside evil.
This empowering, spiritual dynamic would not exist if God had delivered a single, downloaded scriptural document. We would not understand our place in the unfolding of humankind's understanding of God, as perfectly displayed in Jesus. God does not require that his children switch off their brains and unquestioningly accept the dogma given to us. He wants enlivened, intellectually engaged, empowered, Spirit-led believers who grow increasingly like Jesus.
