What is the Bible?
What is the Bible? Obviously the question cannot be answered adequately in a blog post, but as I continue reading on the subject it seems to me that there are some distinctions that are often ignored that should be observed. Allow me to take the time to make these distinctions in order to perhaps provide some clarity of language around this question. First, the Bible is a public document. This is an important observation because it acknowledges the formative influence this book has had on Western Civilization and thus opens up the door to audiences that have vested interests in this book beyond its function as Holy Scripture. To acknowledge the Bible's public character is also to affirm that it is a book written in human languages that can be translated into any other human languages and is thus open to be read, as a text, by any literate person. The public nature of the Bible opens up the possibility of many ways to read the text. As a historical document, it can be read both