The word Bible comes from an Ancient Greek word simply meaning book or books. In one sense, that’s fair enough. It has solid claim to the title ‘The Book’ since it’s hard to imagine a more influential work. In another sense, though, it’s misleading because it’s actually more like a book collection. Still, whilst the many books are of diverse origins and styles, they do come to form a remarkably coherent story. This is clearly the work of skilled editors but also something rather more uncanny.
In his illuminating 2020 poetry podcast, Frank Skinner used a great phrase when describing his experience of the Bible in English translation. He called it the gist of God rather than the Word of God. He was pinpointing the inevitable shortfall and potential distancing that occurs in the translating process. However, through his exploration of select poems by Tadeusz Dabrowski, it became clear that this is true in another even greater sense. No words ever really do justice to reality as experienced, let alone to God. Not even the original Hebrew and Greek of the Bible. All words are shortfalls, learner slopes, translations or gist.
But there’s also a sense in which this isn’t true at all. Words ever stand in relation to Word and some words, in fact, mediate a raw encounter with Word. In other words, they’re beacons in whatever language. Through the meshes of meaning in the Bible and good translations comes an unvarnished voice echoing in the universal language of the human heart. The Un-bested Word seeks for us even whilst we seek the best words. There’s destiny in expression and translation.
Scriptourer is a journey through this destiny of word in the Bible. It’s an attempt to explore the uncanny. It isn’t claiming any expertise in interpretation. There are nowadays myriad excellent commentaries to be found elsewhere. Its focus is, rather, upon the storytelling power of the Bible’s many wonderful books and their reflective wisdom.
It’s truly astonishing that a story, painting, poem, musical piece or single song might change not just the way we look at the world but our whole selves. That first encounter becomes a watershed between an old and new self: more transformed than merely formed. The Bible reveals to us that words themselves are precisely life-changing events and if we’re open to their reality they’ll lead us with hidden power along spangled paths from the earthly many to the great glittering word-banquet of the Ineffable.
In one way or another, this journey’s been the happy preoccupation of my whole life and it’s my hope this also holds true for you.
Header photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
A Bible Gateway Writer