Scripture readings and explanations

Christians don’t agree on the subject of authority

- even when they agree on the source they still don’t really agree, especially when it comes to reading the Bible. But the Bible remains the best place to begin debating authority.

Christians are literally ‘Christ’s ones’; the word describes people who belong to him. The focus for the Christian is the man called Jesus we meet in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the New Testament. John is the most upfront about claiming authority: (Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 24-25)

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

John’s point is this: Because I have seen I can be believed. Whether we believe him or not – especially after 2,000 years - is another question.

Richard Hooker, 1554-1600:

- was a clever chap who had one or two interesting things to say about authority. Hooker knew that the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about the world – nowhere does it pass direct comment on global warming or the specifics of abortion. Hooker realised that if we are to live as Christians without going mad in our own time – whether it be the 17th or the 21st century – we need to employ many different authorities to guide us through life. So, in addition to the Bible Hooker said we also need to rely on reason (including our experience of life) and the traditions of the Church since the death of Jesus. So, today most Christians will happily look to science for some answers and to God for others.

Genesis 2: 15-17

This passage is the first real debate between freedom and authority in the Bible, and the template for many that come after it. To be made in God’s image – according to Genesis 1:26 – means to have a God-like freedom to choose, make and destroy. But the limits of human beings in comparison to God are underscored in this moment of encounter between the earthly and the eternal. Men and women may be the pinnacle of God’s creation, but they’re never be more than a part of it. As creatures we only have a certain amount of freedom to draw upon. The Bible only really gets going when Adam and Eve decide that God’s imposed limits need to be challenged.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Isaiah 61: 1-3

Liberty/freedom and authority are always political as well as moral ideas in the Bible, Old and New Testament. Many of the great biblical stories are about small persecuted minorities fighting back against the bullies who would seek to take away their liberty and freedom of expression – especially religious expression. Perhaps the most famous is the liberation and exodus of the Hebrews (ancient Jews) from slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh. To read the entire story, see the book of Exodus. Most of the political stuff is found in the Hebrew prophets – preachers who criticised the governments of their day for their oppression of the weak and vulnerable in society. Isaiah is one of the great prophets of the Old Testament.