Z-Theory #15: The Bible part 2

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post on the bible.

For me, the bible used to be The Truth. Then, the bible became truth. Then, the bible became something that contained the truth. These are all deficient. Now I see that the bible points to the Truth. Actually, this is quite Barthian. He compared the bible to John the Baptist who pointed to the Light.

Like all symbols, myths, sacred texts, objects and ideas, they are not the truth. Nor should we say that they simply contain the truth. Once one comes to a deeper comprehension of transcendent reality or truth, one realizes that this truth finds expression in the temporal, manifesting itself in the mundane. Incarnationally. It is not just a reflection, but somehow connected to the Truth. In a sense, I suppose, they contain truth, but only partially. It is fragmented truth. Like if I went down to the river and scooped up a cup of the river, I could point to the cup and say that I have the river in this cup. But at the same time we know that it doesn’t contain the river, only a part of it, a fragment of it.

I have found a helpful way of understanding this is to see that the bible refers to Truth, as well as mediates Truth.