The Complete Rob Bell: His Seven Bestselling Books, All in One Place. Rob Bell

Bible is a communal book. It came from people writing in communities, and it was often written to communities. Remember that the printing press wasn’t invented until the 1400s. Prior to that, very few if any people had their own copies of the Bible. In Jesus’s day, an entire village could probably afford only one copy of the scriptures, if that. Reading the Bible alone was unheard of, if people could even read. For most of church history, people heard the Bible read aloud in a room full of people. You heard it, discussed it, studied it, argued about it, and made decisions about it as a group, a community. Most of the “yous” in the Bible are plural. Groups of people receiving these words. So if one person went off the deep end with an interpretation or opinion, the others were right there to keep that person in check. In a synagogue, most of the people knew the text by heart. When someone got up to teach or share insight, chances are everybody knew the text that person was talking on and already had their own opinions about it. You saw yourself and those around you as taking part in a huge discussion that has gone on for thousands of years.

      Because God has spoken, and everything else is commentary.

      Contrast this communal way of reading and discussing and learning with our Western, highly individualized culture. In many Christian settings, people are even encouraged to read the Bible alone, which is a new idea in church history. A great idea and a life-changing discipline, but a new idea. And think of pastors. Many pastors study alone all week, stand alone in front of the church and talk about the Bible, and then receive mail and phone calls from individuals who agree or don’t agree with what they said. This works for a lot of communities, but it isn’t the only way.

      And it can’t be the only way if we take seriously Jesus’s call to be binding and loosing, which must be done in community. In fact, binding and loosing can only be done in community with others who are equally passionate about being true to the words of God.

In Jesus’s world, it was assumed that you had as much to learn from the discussion of the text as you did from the text itself. One person could never get too far in a twisted interpretation because the others were right there giving her insight and perspective she didn’t have on her own. Jesus said when he was talking about binding and loosing that “where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”18

      Community, community, community. Together, with others, wrestling and searching and engaging the Bible as a group of people hungry to know God in order to follow God.

      Perhaps this is why the Bible can be confusing for some the first time they read it. I don’t think any of the writers of the Bible ever intended people to read their letters alone. I think they assumed that people who were hearing these words for the first time would be sitting next to someone who was further along on her spiritual journey, someone who was more in tune with what the writer was saying. If it didn’t make sense, you could stop the person who was reading and say, “Help me understand this.”

      When we’re serious about dealing with the Bible as the communal book that it is, then we have to be honest about our interpretations. Everybody’s interpretation is essentially his or her own opinion. Nobody is objective.

      Several years ago I was in an intense meeting with our church’s leaders in which we were discussing several passages in the Bible. One of the leaders was sharing her journey in trying to understand what the Bible teaches about the issue at hand and said something like this: “I’ve spent a great deal of time recently studying this issue. I’ve read what the people on the one side of the issue say, and I’ve read what the people on the other side say. I’ve read the scholars and the theologians and all sorts of others on this subject. But then, in the end, I decided to get back to the Bible and just take it for what it really says.”

      What was she really saying?

      Now please understand that this way of thinking is prevalent in a lot of Christian churches, so I don’t mean in any way to single her out. But this view of the Bible is warped and toxic, to say the least. The assumption is that there is a way to read the Bible that is agenda- and perspective-free. As if all these other people have their opinion and biases, but some are able to just read it for what it says.

      Think about that for a moment: This perspective is claiming that a person can simply read the Bible and do what it says—unaffected by any outside influences.

      But let’s be honest. When you hear people say they are just going to tell you what the Bible means, it is not true. They are telling you what they think it means. They are giving their opinions about the Bible. It sounds nice to say, “I’m not giving you my opinion; I’m just telling you what it means.”

      The problem is, it is not true.

      I’m actually giving you my opinion, my interpretation of what it says. And the more I insist that I am giving you the objective truth of what it really says, the less objective I am actually being.

      Obviously we think our interpretations are the most correct; otherwise we’d change them.

Or as one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, put it, “Everybody thinks their opinion is the right one. If they didn’t, they’d get a new one.”19

      The idea that everybody else approaches the Bible with baggage and agendas and lenses and I don’t is the ultimate in arrogance. To think that I can just read the Bible without reading any of my own culture or background or issues into it and come out with a “pure” or “exact” meaning is not only untrue, but it leads to a very destructive reading of the Bible that robs it of its life and energy.

      I have heard people say their church is growing because they “just teach the Bible.” As if other churches don’t. And what about the church that teaches the Bible and shrinks? The church that’s growing in numbers is probably growing for a lot of reasons, but the teaching-the-Bible reason is that they are teaching a particular understanding of the Bible. A yoke. They aren’t objective, and they aren’t just telling people what it says. They have interpreted it and made decisions about it, and this particular yoke they’re spreading resonates with people. This version—their version—is striking a chord with people, and so they are coming to hear more of this take on the Bible.

      The Bible has to be interpreted. Decisions have to be made about what it means now, today.

      The Bible is always coming through the interpretation of someone. And that’s because binding and loosing require awareness.

      Awareness that everybody’s understanding of the Bible rests on somebody’s binding and loosing.

When was the last time you saw a Christian greet another Christian with a holy kiss? But it’s right there in the Bible. I can show you verses in Corinthians and Thessalonians and in one of Peter’s letters that say we should greet each other with a holy kiss.20

Or how about women having to wear head coverings?21

Or cursing people who don’t love the Lord?22

Or selling all your possessions and giving everything to the poor?23

Or men raising their hands when they pray?24

Or slaves having to obey their masters?25

      These are all commands that appear in the Bible. And yet they are rarely followed. This is because someone somewhere made a decision about those texts; someone decided that Christians didn’t have to greet one another with a kiss or wear head coverings or curse people who don’t love the Lord.

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