Reading the Bible After Being Hurt by It

Biblical Passages:

2 Timothy 3:16

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Luke 24:27

Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

Reflection

Not all wounds bleed visibly. These wounds may be left by the Scripture which taught to love and the way to live, and then the same saying that you do not belong. For many queer Christians, the most intimate violence they have suffered has come from the Scripture or by those who had the power to read and interpret it.

2 Timothy 3:16 has been used to establish the doctrinal foundation for the authority of the Bible as a totalising and inerrant document. The word θεόπνευστος — theopneustos, “God-breathed” appears only once in the entire New Testament. Yet this single word has been used for centuries to build the theological frameworks of inerrancy, infallibility and the belief that the Bible speaks only with one voice, authoritatively and finally, on every question, including the question of who gets to exist as they are. Biblical scholars remind us that this text, most likely written by an unknown author under Paul’s name, was addressing the emerging disputes among many Christian writings of its era and that it was not a divine mandate.

Therefore, the question today is not whether the Scripture is sacred but who has the power to say what sacred means, and in whose interest it has worked. The Bible does not read itself. It is always read by someone, from somewhere, in service of something. So, when a passage is extracted from its historical setting and pressed on the living bodies, it is not revelation; it is unchecked interpretive power, making it an act of control.  And it is this unchecked interpretive power that distorts the life-giving essence of God’s word.

In Luke 24, we see that Jesus walks alongside his two disciples who are grieving. They have not recognised him yet. But he does not begin with condemnation or correction. He asks them, “What are you discussing?” he begins with the wound. And then he opens the scripture to them in a way that heals rather than harms, illuminates rather than excludes and recognises rather than shames them. Jesus, in this passage, shows a way of reading the scripture that starts with the wound and suffering of the reader and works towards life.

The queer believers who have been hurt by the Bible, the invitation is not to return to the text as though nothing has happened. But to bring the experiences as hermeneutical ground, survival as theological evidence and reading as Jesus did, reading from the wound to healing and life.

Prayer: Gracious and loving God, you breathed life into words but also into us. When Scripture has been made a weapon against us, heal our reading. Walk with us on the road where we are still grieving, and help us to recognise you not in doctrine but in the breaking of bread. Amen.

Author: Rev. Priscilla Rawade

About the Author: Rev. Priscilla Rawade works for the Gender and Social Justice Desk of the Student Christian Movement of India.