Quotes on Scripture as Scripture

What make scripture scripture is when an ancient story of a particular people at a particular
time can become a story for all peoples and for all time. "
Thomas W. Mann
[T]he spectacles of Scripture can help us see Gods revelation in the natural world.
Anna Case-Winters
[A]ll the words in the Bible are Gods words.

Wayne Grudem

The mystery of the word of God is appreciated both sides of the expression seriously. It is a
human word, for God does not speak. But it is OF God, and not simply a human composition
about God. The Bible makes us confront the seeming contradiction of a divine self-revelation in
human terms.
Raymond E. Brown

[F]eminist theologiesinsist that the central commitment and accountability for feminist
theology isnot to the Bible as a whole but to the liberating word of God finding expression in
the biblical writings.
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza
The meaning of Scripture is not found in the words of scripture as such but only in the power
to point beyond itself to the reality of Gods revelationthat means black liberation. by
reading it a community can encounter the resurrected Jesus and thus be moved to risk
everything for earthly freedom.
James Hal Cone
We read Scripture believing in Gods promises of hope and salvation
Loida Martell-Otero
What makes Scripture Scripture is the ethical relation.
Gary A. Phillips
We read biblical stories as stories of struggle and survival.
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz as quoted by Leticia Guardiola-Saenz
The Word of God is not identical with the biblical text. The story of these texts is
experienced as Gods Word when it is heard in communities of faith and struggle as a witness to
Gods love for the world by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Letty Russell quoted by Margaret Elizabeth Kostenberger
1

In fact, most traditions treat scripture as something that is always surprising, ever renewed.
What we call scripture is best defined by what it does, rather than by what we outside
observers think it explicitly says. To call a book scripture reflects how deeply the book is
cherished, respected, and distinguished from other books by the degree of devotion it
commands.
Scripture refers not to any text by itself, but to an intimate and ongoing relationship
between a text and the community who reads it. Or this can be put another way: scripture is
the name a tradition applies to a set of words when and only when these words trace an intimate
and ongoing relationship between a community and the transcendent (or one who is
transcendent).
Peter Ochs on Wilfred Cantrell Smith
...[T]he time has come for theologians to look at the Bible with and the larger multiscriptural
context. [T]he Bible is not meant simply for Christians but also for the global community.
[with] religious resources for the use of all whole humankind. The question shifts to how it
can bear meaning for the survival of human beings and the planet. ...[T]o learn from them [Bible
stories] religious insights for dealing with the common issues that face all human societies.
Kwok Pui-lan
The Bible [needs to be viewed] through African eyes to distinguish and extract from it what is
liberating. Since the Bible depicts other peoples' culture, and we know from African culture
that not everything in culture is liberating, we come to the Bible with the same cautious
approach we have to culture. Any interpretation of the Bible is unacceptable if it does harm to
women, the vulnerable, and the voiceless.
Mercy Amba Oduyoye
Like the shield which was gold on one side and silver on the other, the Bible has two sides or
aspects. As travellers approaching the shield from opposite directions quarrelled over its
nature because each saw only that side which he had approached, people have differed in their
view of the Bible and its influence upon mankind because only one aspect has been visible to
them. [As] the inner meaning of the Bible will appear, woman's nature as the individual and her
true relativity to man be seen. Then the mistakes which have been ignorantly made will be
rectified, because both sides of the shield will be seen.
URSULA N. GESTEFELD from the Womens Bible
Scripture written as something more like a play to be staged, that is, a charter for a new
community, a set of books designed (in their very different ways) to fuel worship and witness.
N. T. Wright
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The Bible must be read back to front -- that is, understanding the plot of the whole drama in
light of its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet the Bible must also be
read "front to back" -- that is, understanding the climax of the drama, Gods revelation in
Christ, in light of the long history of Gods self-revelation to Israel.
Ellen Davis & Richard Hays
the Bible might also, in some respects, be considered a novel. A novel or storybook has a plot
or theme running throughout it; and as this plot or theme unfolds, a storyline is developed.
Rose & Walt Huber
Scripture is like a musical score that must be played or sung in order to be understood;
therefore, the church interprets scripture by forming communities of prayer, service and
faithful witness. The Psalms, for example, are "scores" awaiting performance by the community
of faith. They school us in prayer and form in us the capacities for praise, penitence, reflection,
patient endurance and resistance to evil.
Ellen Davis & Richard Hays