The Good Book Quotes

“than not, that we read scripture not only in the light of our own culture but as a means of defining and defending that very culture over and against which scripture by its very nature is meant to stand. In other words, scripture is invariably used to support the status”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“language of the Bible is meant always to point us to a truth beyond the text, a meaning that transcends the particular and imperfectly understood context of the original writers, and our own prejudices and parochialisms that we bring to the text. Literalism is not part of the solution to this”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“The Bible is not God, nor is it a substitute for God, and to treat it as if it were God or a surrogate of God is to treat it in the very way that it itself condemns over and over again.”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“We trust the text not because it is “true” in the sense of fact, but because in its infinite variety it points to the truth and communicates truth because it comes from the truth which”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“when we understand that the Bible comes to us as a trust both from God and from the people of God. It is the record of holy encounters between people and God, encounters that have been reckoned to be decisive and compelling, and that have been preserved from generation”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“The parables, however, and indeed, the miracles and the healings, are all teaching devices, exercises in interpreting the larger principles”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“In reality, the world have played too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“Says Freud: We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do that without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally, from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful than any other. Morality,”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“the uprising of the sons of Canaan fueled by a long-standing”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“Genesis 9:18–27. This is the account of the debauchery of Noah, and the indiscreet discovery of his naked drunkenness by his son Ham. Ham told his brothers of their father’s condition, but they, averting their eyes from the humiliating sight, did not see what Ham had seen, and were therefore spared the curse that Noah”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“Thou shalt do no murder,” and the distinction between murder and killing is not a small one. Murder, in the Hebrew language and culture, refers to the premeditated taking of a life outside the womb; killing had to do with the ritual”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“The Bible is silent about abortion, but the religious zeal of the protestors at abortion clinics is based upon what they believe to be the plain and clear meaning of Exodus 20:13, where in many English translations the familiar commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“Interpretation is the fuel that drives understanding. The making of meaning is what”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“The Ethiopian replied, “How can I, unless someone guides”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“scripture that Jesus was intending to convey. The Sermon on”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“What was concealed in the Old is revealed in the New.” The New Testament itself is”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“How can one interpret a Bible “full of alien genealogies, barbaric practices, strange prophecies, and eccentric epistles”? While we”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“They believe the “Bible to be God’s written revelation to his people,” and that “it records in human words what God desires.” Their”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

“This relationship among author, text, and reader is known in the literary trade as”
― Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart