My Bible needs really needs to go to a nursing home, or perhaps be subject to the book equivalent of a mercy killing. I doubt it could be revived, even by the best bookbinder’s care. The gold on the edges of the pages has faded to dingy yellow, the leather cover has a shiny worn look, and the embossed words on the binding are almost invisible. I smile when I remember that this is the “New” Revised Standard Version.
I bought this Bible 25 years ago at the Christadelphian Office in Birmingham, England, and it replaced a similar but much less expensive one, which I purchased when I was a student. Due to somewhat unusual circumstances, I was not exactly penniless as a student: I remember Bro. LG Sargent, the editor of the Christadelphian magazine at the time, being surprised and perhaps a little envious that I had bought a copy of the Jerusalem Bible when the Christadelphian Society at the University was studying the Apocrypha. As a Catholic Bible, it had this content, and my sister had recommended it as she had some experience with the French version from which it was derived.
However, in 1981 I was quite gainfully employed, so I bought the most heavy duty version I could find, hoping it would serve me well. Indeed it has, being in my “Bible bag” almost continuously since. It has seen several hymn books come and go, as well as many Bible bags. There is cellophane tape over many of its torn pages, which I assume is a testimony to my favorite passages. (Why do only Bibles use this tissue-thin paper?). It perhaps has been protected more than many Bibles in our community, because I use pencil, usually dislike underlining, and are somewhat sparing in what I put in. But many pages are dog-eared, and I must admit some of the notes have gotten erased over the years — but still many question marks remain. I don’t always remember a chapter-and-verse citation, but I usually remember where that verse can be found on a page of this old Bible.
I should get another copy, but I can’t bring myself to put this so old book on the shelf. The older my Bible becomes, the deeper it travels into my heart. That’s not because there haven’t been new suitors. It was not the first Bible to attempt to capture me, and one of the penalties of being a little bit of a Bible student is that you tend to buy most of the new versions to compare.
I was brought up in a normal Christadelphian home, if there is one, with my father being for quite a while the Recording Brother of a large meeting, and I had the opportunity to hear many prominent brethren give excellent exhortations and lectures, a few I still remember. They certainly must have influenced me in ways which, as a normal teenager, I did not appreciate at the time. But they all affected me and served to drive the reverence for the Bible into my psyche.
University
University was disruptive, as it often is. But during those formative years I must have developed a sense that the book was something I would now call something more than just a collection of paper: something to rely on. I was an engineering student, but somewhat naturally got involved with the religious studies department and developed many friends among its students, as well as an appreciation for the knowledge of some of its professors.
So I learned how to appreciate the current scholarship approaches to the text, although that was certainly my most difficult learning experience. In those days I sometimes felt as if my faith was dangling over a cliff, clinging to a branch. But I always came back to my Bible (then a well-worn pocket edition that fitted in my jacket.) So I was amazed to discover I fell easily only inches from where I started.
The more I understand about the Bible’s dust-and-grit humanity, the more real it became as I finally appreciated the knowledge and wisdom of my father and his generation: after all, those times were a revolutionary period in England as well as America. I found that the Bible had even more authority because it revealed how God inspired humans, who stayed human when they wrote. Communities of faith, whose members have already committed every sin and faced every peril they could possibly experience, recorded in fallible ways the infallible truth of our redemption. That makes me love both God and ancient human words about God all the more.
I have long believed that the events and message of the Bible was passed down through many generations, before, through inspiration, it became the text as we know it. I realize that we have no idea who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, and I read some of the Old Testament without totally being able to appreciate its context and treatment of the numbers and details. But if my house were on fire, this old Bible is still one of the first things I would grab before running out the door.
I cannot discard it on the shelf of previously read books: I might have newer copies, but the old one it the one I carry on a Sunday. I might have numerous versions and many notes present on my laptop in my Bible bag, but my old Bible is the one I read from.
There have been many times when I could not sleep and finally surrendered to the restlessness and went into my study. There I pulled out my tattered old Bible and read words like, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?” (Psa 56:8). Then I could finally go back to sleep.
On the dark nights there is a reason that I don’t go to my Kindle or my laptop to read those words of spiritual comfort. Just holding the cherished, tattered old book reminds me of what I believe in — a great faith that has persevered even though it’s been tossed around with everything else.
Person of the Book
I was thinking of doing this editorial on the way to use the numerous books that comment on the text, the people, the contemporary environment, and the message they present. To comment on the ones that discuss the doctrines of the Bible, the commandments of Christ, the history of the times, the history of our community, archeology, prophecy in all its details, but I find I come back to the text itself to draw strength and comfort. I read most of the magazines of our community, but often I find they make me think of other passages in the Bible. I read learned dissertations, written by those in our community and others. But I often find they seem to focus on the twigs on the trees, not even on the trees or the forest: they focus on the text with a microscope, but miss the central message. I find the totality of the message can only be grasped, at least by myself, by thinking about what the passage as a whole is saying: reading the words without comprehension is so easy, as we let the familiar words wash over us. I actually find it easier to focus on the content by hearing the passage read and thinking about the words: after all, I have certainly read them many times before. Listening is a skill, I believe: hearing is a physical endowment, but we are told:
“And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law” (Neh 8:2-3).
And how many times did Jesus say “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”. Let us not be as the Jews in Ezekiel’s time, of whom God said: “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house” (Ezek 12:2).
Concluding thoughts
The previous issue (August 2015) of The Tidings was focused on the topic “God has Spoken”, which demonstrated quite clearly the numerous proofs and evidences for its veracity and place in our lives. But I believe that close familiarity through intelligent reading and study of a particular physical Bible can help reinforce this message. We will become familiar with not only its words, but with the layout of those words on a page: be ready to turn to various passages because you might not remember the precise reference, but know where to find it. And have passages that are with particular insights, gathered in my case from both personals study as well as the study of others, both from within our community and outside.
So an old battered Bible still serves me well. I wonder indeed if it will continue to serve until the Lord returns, which we all hope will be soon.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One