Professor Offers Thoughtful Guide To Scriptures

“The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart” By Peter J. Gomes (Morrow, 383 pages, $25)

It is the world’s greatest best seller, a cornerstone of Western civilization.

A Bible can be found in most Christian homes in America, yet it remains largely unknown and misunderstood. Worse, ignorance of the Bible has led to the abuse and distortion of Scripture to promote racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia.

A cottage industry of books about religion and politics has sprouted. Biblical passages are used to promote religious agendas of right and left.

But the Bible is too important to be left to ministers, theologians, religious activists or other so-called experts.

For those baffled and disturbed by the culture wars that use the Bible as sword and shield, the Rev. Peter J. Gomes’ brilliant and thought-provoking book should be welcome.

Gomes, a Baptist who is minister of Harvard University’s Memorial Church, professor of Christian morals at Harvard and one of the nation’s most renowned preachers, has provided a wonderful road map to a text that, if read properly, can provide solace and wisdom in troubled times.

Gomes shows how the Bible has been used as an instrument for injustice. Anyone confused about what Scripture has to say about abortion, the rights and roles of women, homosexuality and other tough topics will find his book useful and challenging.

“These discussions are intended to remind the faithful of the wickedness done in the name of good, of God, and of the Bible,” Gomes writes, “and to make us more cautious and self-conscious of the besetting sin, alas, endemic to the faithful, of confusing our cultural prejudices with the immutable will of God, and of using the Bible as a footnote to our convictions.”

Regarding abortion, perhaps the most divisive issue in America today, Gomes skillfully points out the dangers of taking the Bible literally.

Ardent abortion foes commonly cite Exodus 20:13 to buttress their position. In many English translations, the commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.”

But, as Gomes points out, this is a poor translation. Older versions of the Bible came closer to the real meaning: “Thou shalt do no murder.”

Gomes writes, “Murder, in the Hebrew language and culture, refers to the premeditated taking of life outside the womb; killing had to do with the ritual slaughter of animals for sacrifice. Not only is the Bible therefore silent on the question of abortion, but the one text used to justify opposition to it is wrongly construed in English.”

Gomes, who is gay, argues that the use of Bible passages to cast homosexuality as a sin is the product of simplistic interpretation and a failure to comprehend the context in which Scripture was written. In reading Paul’s Letter to the Romans, for example, most modern readers assume references to “dishonorable passions,” “unnatural relations” and “shameless acts” are a clear condemnation of homosexuality, a word that Gomes says had no comparable counterpart in biblical languages.

A more nuanced appreciation of Paul’s times would reveal, Gomes says, that the “homosexuality Paul would have known and to which he makes reference in his letters … has to do with pederasty and male prostitution.

“What is patently unknown to Paul is the concept of a homosexual nature … something that is beyond choice, that is not necessarily characterized by lust, avarice, idolatry or exploitation. … All Paul knew of homosexuality was the debauched pagan expression of it.”

Paul cannot be faulted for his ignorance, Gomes asserts, but neither should it be an excuse for our own prejudice.