Revelation

I have to admit to having always been intrigued by the question of how our Bible came about. Despite the various tongue-in-cheek parodies of the KJV in previous posts, it's something that I actually think about... and have some kind of vague academic interest in, what with having been involved in some historical and translational study at points in the past...

Which is why I'm particularly puzzled by a few questions... not least of which is how the three main families of Christianity (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) have ended up with three different bibles, all with a different number of books in them... 

Protestantism being what it is, we appear to have gone for the most risk-averse option and adopted the Jewish bible as our Old Testament without any additions... but surely there must be good reasons why the Catholic bible contains things like Maccabees (I'm so tempted to write Makka Pakka... thanks Moo!), and Judith... and why the Eastern Orthodox bible has a book called Baruch.

And the New Testament is even more confusing... Did you know (I didn't, until I went and found out) that the Orthodox New Testament doesn't contain the books of 2 John, or 3 John, or Jude... or Revelation !?

And it's revelation that I wonder about when I hear things like that... because it makes me realise that while I grew up in a tradition that regards the cardboard bits on the front and back of my bible as some kind of holy institution... "Beware... revelation stops here"... the cut and dried reality of revelation is perhaps very different.

For example, I've always been told that Paul's letters are in the bible... so they qualify for words like 'truth', and 'inspired', and 'God breathed'... And that other stuff that's not in the bible... no matter how good it is... is just... well... 'stuff'.

But when Paul wrote his letters, did he think "This is going to be read for over 2000 years, so I'd better get all of the truth that's out there into this". Not unless he had a planet-sized ego and the truth is a very small thing... No, he just wrote a letter, and through bits of it, showed us bits of who God is.  

Other bits, if I'm honest (he said very quietly) appear to be a big old load of waffle... if you want an example, try reading bits of 2 Corinthians 7 in detail!

Since we're just as human, and just as flawed, isn't the same level of divine revelation possible through what we do, and say, and write, and sing, and paint, and... and... and... ? 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we can simply go off and rewrite the bible... But I am suggesting that a revelation of who God is doesn't just rest in the 66 (more or less) books that we find bound and piled on the end of a pew on a Sunday morning.

We don't worship a silent God... we worship a vibrant, singing, shouting, dancing, creative God... and if we could lift our eyes... I think there's a whole adventure out there in looking for a revelation of Him in some very ordinary... but also potentially in some very odd and unexpected places...