God's Work of Art

 

And God said, “Let there be a Bible”, and there was a Bible.  It was written in every language known to man, imprinted on an imperishable material, and set on display in the sky for all to read.  It contained specific details on right and wrong, how to live, and how to achieve salvation.  All who read it obeyed its contents.  And God saw that the Bible was good.

There are a host of things wrong with this scenario, not the least of which, it didn’t happen!  But how different the world would be if it did!  There would be no question as to God’s existence – it would be plainly visible in the sky.  No one would have to work to find truth; they would have only to look in the sky.  God would never have used any mere mortals to construct it.  It would be perfect (because God is perfect), undeniable, and untainted.  It would be very black and white, and so incredibly impersonal!!

So unlike God to do something like that!  God could have brought the Bible about this way, and no one would question how authentic it is, no one would point out contradictions (there would be none!), but it would contain little to nothing about God’s relationship to people, which is why we were created in the first place!  God does not want to force people into His family, which is what would happen if the Bible was printed in the sky.  Rather, He wants us to choose Him.  What better way to do that than to put it in a book, where people can choose to disregard it, or read and follow it?

But the Bible itself is so personal!  From the beginning, God is talking directly with the first man and woman.  God cares for Noah and saves him from destruction.  God calls Abraham out of a life of idolatry, and because of Abraham’s faith in God, he blesses the entire world through him.  Then, God himself comes to mankind in human flesh and walks with us, teaches us, gets sick with us, gets bitten by mosquitoes with us, and sweats under the sun with us.  How incredible!!!  What other god would do such a lowly thing?  Not only that, but God dies for us!  None of this would be in the Bible if God printed it in the sky!

So, I like to see the Bible as a work of art.  Not only are its contents beautiful, but God used sinful and imperfect man to help construct it.  God inspired it, man wrote it, scribes preserved it, and we have it today.  Is it perfect?  It depends what you mean by perfect.  I think it is.  Say there’s a vase of flowers sitting on the table, and an artist paints a picture of them.  At the end, the artist is very happy with his work, and even thinks it his masterpiece.  Is the painting perfect?  I think the answer would be yes!  The artist made an accurate portrayal of the vase of flowers, and his work was beautiful.  Most importantly, the artist himself though the painting perfect (and shouldn’t the artist be the judge of the perfection of his work?).  But does it look exactly like the vase of flowers?  Probably not, because he painted it.  If it was supposed to look exactly the same, he would have just snapped a picture.  That would be so easy, it would be so impersonal, and the value of that picture would basically be nothing.  Same as if God printed the Bible in the sky.

Anyone who has a study Bible can look in the notes and see places in the Bible where a word can’t be translated, or someone misspelled a word or had a slip of the pen here and there.  There are a few places where verses were added (e.g. from scribes who remembered there should be a verse in a certain section and thought it had gotten lost… but turns out it was from a different place in the Bible.  Or the end of Mark, where someone probably thought a conclusion was needed to complete the book).  We don’t know how tall Goliath was (Hebrew manuscripts have him at over 9 feet tall, but some Greek manuscripts record almost 7 feet tall).

There are also some varying details in the Gospels.  For example, remember the story of the demon possessed man at the tombs?  Jesus cast out the legion of demons, sent them into the pigs, and all the pigs died.  The account in Matthew records two men at the tomb, while Mark only talks about one man.  Similarly, at Jesus’s resurrection, Matthew and Mark only record one angel, while Luke and John have 2.  These varying details aren't direct contradictions, but here’s one: Matthew and Mark both have Jesus dying, then the curtain tearing.  Luke has the curtain tearing, then Jesus dying.  Or at Jesus’s birth – Matthew has Mary and Joseph married at the time Jesus is born, while Luke just has them pledged to be married.  I guess one could call these contradictions, but I wouldn’t consider them contradictions any more than I would an artist using a paintbrush instead of a camera.  Technically, yes, the painting isn’t identical to the vase of flowers, but if you’re going to be critiquing so close up to the picture to see that the painting has strokes and the flowers don’t, then you’re missing the picture!  Literally!!  

God used his paintbrush to create a masterpiece.  He put his tools (people) to work to write it, preserve it, live it, and pass it on.  And because He did that, it makes his family much more personal and valuable.  As evidenced by the discovery of the dead sea scrolls, God has supernaturally preserved his message to us, and he has honored humans, making them tools in that process.  In doing so, he did not prevent every single scribal mistake, nor did he require each eyewitness to remember or emphasize events exactly the same way.  Rather, God made each instrument that He used to write and preserve the Bible, so He could have (and I believe He did) fine-tune each tool to work in a way to complete his masterpiece perfectly.  Take Luke and John as an example.  Luke is like me – he provides detail, and tons of facts throughout his gospel, and especially Acts, where he records water levels, routes he and the other apostles took to different locations, accurate political leaders of the time… really factual stuff that can’t be made up.  John, on the other hand, is much more artistic.  He starts his gospel off much differently than any other, almost romantically.  He uses a variety of vocabulary all throughout his book.  Luke and John are VERY different people recording the same events, and putting them together makes the Bible really personal and beautiful.