Bible 2 - How would you write? ...

Wednesday, Nov 26, 2009. How would you write the bible? We are talking about the role of the bible, about the purpose of this millenium book. To gain a better understanding of how things are written in the bible, let us become authors ourselves for a moment. Assume you are one of the Evangelists. How would you write?

First of all, before you can make your decisions, you need to think about what you want to express. Assume you have been with Jesus. You have witnessed the wonders he did. You have traveled with him through Galilee. You have heard his big speeches, and you had many private conversations with him, where he was explaining the facts in more detail, where he gave interpretations about the parables, where he talked about the past and the future.

Before you start to write, you also need to clarify the purpose of your writing. What do you want to do? Do you want to inform people about facts? Do you want to report the basic framework of the life of Jesus? But you have been there as well on the day of the crucifixion. You know, that he died on the cross. You have run away after that, perhaps you were there when the disciples met in a closed room, completely frustrated that the messiah had been killed. All your dreams and hopes were gone, from one day to the next. What to write, why to write something about all this?

But then you have seen Jesus, coming into this room, through locked doors. You have seen the scars in his hands and feet. You have heard him talking, you have even touched him … yes it was him! Should you give a plain account of the framework of his life? What do you want to tell people?

You have made your decision. You want to tell people about the risen Jesus, about the fact that he is a man, but more than that, that he is really God's son, who came to be with us. He died, his death had a purpose, his death is the central tool of God's forgiveness, a door to enter, a basic fact of faith. You have realized that God's possibilities are far beyond our options, that he can do wonders, that he can change anything. Can you still write a book with merely reporting the framework of the life of Jesus?

If God is God and Jesus is who he claims to be, the bible cannot be a standard book. It must be special. It must contain many things, which surpass our imagination, which break the laws of our standard existence, which do not fit into our standard world view. God's power will be visible at every corner of this book. His power and his love will be visible in every story. How would you write as an Evangelist? How would you tell the people around you? [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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