Preaching the Bible

One of the key ways in which the Bible is actually is during church services, particularly with a sermon or homily. ‘Preaching’ can refer to both reciting scripture and to the exegesis on it. In denominations where preaching is seen as more important than the Eucharist preaching may take on a sacramental character. This means that it will typically be longer, more central to the service, and involve more personal discretion of the minister. Elsewhere, the big churches of Catholicism, Methodism, and Anglicanism share a liturgical devise called the Lectionary. This is a calendar of readings from the Bible which cycles every three years, each year based around a Synoptic Gospel– with John used on special occasions.

π Canon

I didn’t make this myself, although I wish I did.

From Peter Hardy, Chaplaincy Assistant:

After our Bible For Bluffers session on the Biblical Canon I was wondering to myself what happens if you skim through the Bible, focusing on verses corresponding to pi (that is, 3.14)? What would the Bible be like if we were limited to these passages?

Bible Translations

It’s takes a pretty large slip of the mind to forget that the Bible wasn’t written in our native language, yet the majority of Christians who aren’t scholars of the original text often forget to give enough weight to this fact. As the above graphic aims to demonstrate we should be aware that there are different types of translation.

Life Eternal

As mentioned previously, ‘Life Eternal’ (or equivalently Eternal Life) appears to take the place of the central motif of Jesus’ discourses in the Gospel of John, as opposed to ‘the Kingdom of God’ in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus is also often spoken of as giving us new life in Paul’s Epistles.

To begin with, in terms of images and ideas:

• What do you think of when you think of ‘heaven’?

• What do you think of when you think of ‘eternal life’?

Genre in the Bible

In our previous session we looked at a medieval hermeneutic or way of reading the Bible, and I also mentioned one modern method, the historico-critical approach. Another modern method is ‘form criticism’ which focuses upon the diversity of forms or genres of writing. Since different genres tend to follow their own fixed forms they also have their own laws of style, and thus it is important for biblical criticism to make use of  literary techniques to appreciate this.

The Ascension

In this session we explore the narrative of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. While reading the passage we asked: what ideas and thoughts about the belief in Jesus can you find in the imagery of this story? And what might the doctrine of the ascension be about?

Canons Within the Canon

In the last session we explored the Biblical canon in the context of the non-canonical ‘gospel’ of Thomas. Here we look at the issue that different groups of Christians always tend to focus upon and prioritise their own particular parts of the Bible creating a kind of ‘canon within the canon’.We imagined that we were forgetful Christians who had crash landed on a desert island. Four different bands of survivors settled on different parts of the island and each could only remember a few small parts of Scripture. Despite this they are committed to carry on living their Christianity guided by these few passages.

The ‘Gospel’ of ‘Thomas’

An 8th century Austrian copy of the cannonical Gospels. This text, known as the Lindau Gospels was produced using fine metals and jewels, and depicts the four Gospels- but is there room for a fifth?

‘Thomas’ is a short text of about 5,000 words comprising 114 statements attributed to Jesus. It is a book of aphoristic wisdom like the book of Proverbs.

Apocalypse

The Divine Council: God is adored by the heavenly host of angels.  (By Gustave Dore)

In the language of the Bible the word ‘apocalypse’ does not mean the end or destruction of the world, but a revelation from God, especially disclosures characterised by strange visions and symbolism. This is why Apocalypse, the final book of the New Testament (and thereby the Bible) is also called the book of Revelation. In this session we explore this strange text.

Quote

Quote

“One does not read in the Gospel that the Lord said: ‘I will send you the Holy Spirit who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon.’ For He willed not to make men mere scholars, but Christians.” – St. Augustine