Thursday 15 September 2011

The Bible has no Contents Page

Just a thought, while we're still in the midst of thinking about Biblical inspiration and interpretation, as developed again by Doug - the Bible has no contents page. Yes, I know your Bible does. But the Bible doesn't. However we decide what's in it, and what's out of it, there's no Spirit-breathed contents page that must be infallible. No definitive list of Bible books in the Bible. And no note at the end of Revelation to say "there are the other 65 (or, as it may be, 70-odd) books after which no-one can add any more". Wherever the list and order of books came from, it's not the Bible. No, really. It's not.

2 comments :

  1. Hm, let me see, Scripture, Reason, and ... what was the other one? I'd have thought the Archdruid would be very comfortable with the idea that the church's choice has an authority of its own!

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  2. The Bible also lacks a set of handy maps and a table of Biblical weights and measures. It's as though we're still supposed to know where was where, what was what and who was who thousands of years after the event. Surely an omnipotent God would know how ulikely that is! Or maybe that wasn't the point ...

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