“One if by land, and two if by sea…”
I remember something one Catholic scholar of the Bible stated that is apropos to this subject. While it is true that modern approaches to study of the Scriptures in the Church might sound a lot like (and thus often get confused with) the critical approaches that try to make the holy writ sound like fiction, it isn’t the same.
Take for example the poem,
Paul Revere’s Ride, which most Americans have used to learn the facts about the most important horse-ride in U.S. history. Who in American can say they’ve never heard the famous opening lines:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…?
Now the poem is a true story. It
really happened. But the poem
is not as historically accurate as you might think. In fact, if you really want to be accurate and get a passing grade on a history test regarding what really happened during that historical ride,
you had better not answer with any the details you learn in the poem.
Of course we are talking about a poem, not a historical news report here. It’s not meant to read or tell the story of Paul Revere with the coma-inducing coldness of a dusty, small print, encyclopedia page. But it is a powerful tool nonetheless, a tool that brings the truth across even though it doesn’t preserve the historical details with accuracy. In fact most Americans don’t know much about their own history because it’s boring. But they do remember Paul Revere. Why? Because the poem about Paul Revere’s Ride is artistic, fun, exciting, and memorable! Would so many know about it if the poem had never been written?
How much do you know about political leaders of the 20th century? Probably not as much as you know about Evita Peron. Why is that? Because there’s a modern-day opera about her, entitled
Evita by the award-winning duo of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber. We can all probably hum the music to “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” but how much can we say about the personality and political views of other 20th century leaders? Probably not as much.
The list can go on and on, but the fact is nobody here remembers dry, dusty facts as well as those presented through some literary device. The Bible writers knew this. Especially aware of this was God. Therefore while the stories within are real, are truly history, like Paul Revere’s tale, the writers avoided writing down encyclopedia entries. The information is presented in drama form, and like all dramatic narrative, some liberty is granted here and there.
In fact, not only are different styles of writing and narrative used to tell what really happened in a way that would be more memorable than your school-days history book (and we all know how much of that you remember, right?), to be honest God used the medium of song to proclaim a large number of the prophecies about Christ Jesus.
That’s right, predictions about Jesus were often written as Psalms–poetry!
And how accurate is verse meant to be? Let’s see? “Listen, my children, and you shall hear…”
True, a lot of scholars abuse the term “myth” and “legend” to make the Bible stories seem false (myths and legends aren’t actually false, they are forms of narrative for telling a “true” story), and the History Channel wouldn’t be raking in the big numbers for February sweeps by concentrating on how accurate the Bible really is (raising controversy brings in the ratings that makes for big bucks), but at the same time God isn’t offering us
world history in the pages of the Bible, but
faith history.
And with February sweeps going on now, you just shouldn’t expect that the secular world is going to back up your faith or even in the scholarship of the Church (even the modern scholarship).
And Catholics should be diligent to follow the direction from the Pontifical Biblical Commission that recognizes and has repeatedly taught that there is a deeper sense to the written Word of God, no matter how accurate the literal words may be. Often it is not the literal details that God is trying to get across to us as much as the reason for telling the story in the first place.
Like the parables of Jesus (which are actually illustrations, like the moral lessons or fables of Aesop–not necessarily true but they teach truths), the accuracy of the divine truth is more important than the accuracy of the words used to transmit that truth.
And remember, just because
Evita is filled with dance and song doesn’t make it any less a true story…I mean, who really goes around singing every word in their life like if they are Patti LuPone?
Unless you are Patti LuPone.
