Answering a Fool According to Their Folly

One of my least favorite activities to witness is fundamentalists debating atheists on YouTube. Depending on who posted the video, it is always titled something like, “Biblical scholar destroys atheist,” or, “Physicist ruins Christianity.” And the arguments on both sides are usually based on some kind of literal interpretation of the Bible. The fundamentalist will say something like, “you’re going to hell because [insert favorite proof text about women staying silent in church].” And the atheist will reply, “oh yeah, well your God says [insert favorite clobber text implying that slavery is OK].”

What they both miss is that a literal reading – at least what modern minds mean by literal reading – of the Bible will only lead to confusion, frustration and derision. And rightfully so. You’re not meant to read the Bible that way. In fact, the people who compiled the Bible deliberately included verses and entire stories that contradict each other. This wasn’t some oversight that somehow went unnoticed for 3,000 years, even though that idea is convenient for atheist arguments. No. They knew the contradictions and included them for your own growth and understanding. They put the pain and confusion right in the book so you would recognize those moments in your own life and learn how others got through it.

Can you imagine if you described how meaningful a Kurt Vonnegut novel was in helping you get through a difficult part of your life and instead of listening and appreciating your experience, your friend just said, “yeah, but none of the stuff in Breakfast of Champions really happened.” That’s what arguments based on literal readings are like. They miss the real meaning of the story in a very disrespectful and dismissive way.

I’ve had both atheists and fundamentalists tell me that I am the one disrespecting God’s direct words. Is the Bible in fact a letter from God? It’s awfully hard to read the Bible and come away convinced that a single and perfect voice wrote every verse.

What would you think of a person who wrote these words in their letter to you:

• In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” However, in Genesis 32:30, Jacob says, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.”
• If you compare Samuel and King with Chronicles, you will get all kinds of contradictions. The same story is told in each, but written hundreds of years apart and for different purposes. A simple one involves David’s census numbers. 2 Samuel 24:9 says that there were 800,000 fighting men in Israel and 500,000 in Judah. But in 1 Chronicles 21:5, the same census reports 1,100,000 fighting men in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. But the larger contradictions highlight a shift in what the faithful considered to be important in different times and so it is worth our studying those contrasts.
• My all-time favorite is Proverbs 26:4-5: “Do not answer fools according to their folly, lest you be a fool yourself. Answer fools according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own eyes.”

If the Bible is a letter from God, God is an unreliable narrator.

You could really twist your brain around coming up with logic to try to explain away these contradictions. But better yet is accepting them as part of your wisdom tradition. Different people writing at different times and trying to figure out the incommunicable ultimate mystery of God.

The Bible incorporates subtle nuances of ancient languages, cultural contexts, and diverse authorial perspectives that no single translation can relay to us in our own time. I know a lot of fundamentalists who try to justify the contradictions by saying we just don’t understand the greater purpose and context. But read those back-to-back verses from Proverbs again. The authors, compilers and translators of our sacred texts couldn’t have missed that contradiction. The tension in two adjacent verses was not lost on them. I believe the contradiction is the point and a more enriching approach is to accept these seeming inconsistencies as integral elements of your wisdom tradition.

Like other sacred texts, The Bible is not simply an historical or factual account; it is much more profound. Contradictions do not detract from its value. Instead, contradictions, uncomfortable passages and even offensive ideas invite readers to delve deeper into the text, to wrestle with its complexities, and to engage with it in a thoughtful, reflective manner.

I cannot really see these contradictions as flaws or errors either, since so many generations have included them and found value in them. Instead, they the record the rich diversity of experiences and understandings of the divine our spiritual ancestors held up as trustworthy. They are richer because they don’t always agree. They remind us that our wisdom tradition is not static but is a dynamic, evolving conversation about the ultimate mysteries of existence.
OK, so it’s not God’s letter. Is the Bible a library?

This is closer. Any fifth grade Sunday School attendee should be able to tell you that the Bible is a compilation of texts authored by various individuals across centuries. Each writer was attempting to articulate their understanding of God – an ultimately divine mystery far beyond human comprehension. If there weren’t contradictions in that kind of exercise, I would find it even less convincing. Given this, it is only natural that different authors, writing in distinct historical and cultural contexts, would offer diverse perspectives on divine truth.

But what is even more interesting to me is how this library was built. We can and should assume that the people who argued over the canon were very smart and knew full well the confusing and contradictory aspects of different books. They were included because the very contradictions tell us something about our approach to wisdom in our tradition.

Guess what? The people who compiled Proverbs knew full well that the two verses above were in contradiction and chose to put them right smack next to each other so that you would know as well. Why would they do that? Because for most of life, there is no single right answer that satisfies every situation throughout eternity. Wisdom is here to teach us how to think and respond, not to be a rule book.

Most Biblical scholars now believe that the Book of Proverbs is a compilation of probably five to seven different collections of writings and traditions. And they were probably gathered over an extensive period of approximately 300 years or more, reflecting the evolving thought processes and societal norms of those times.

When we read anything from the past, we are frequently confronted with extremely offensive ideas. One glaring example is the acceptance of slavery in the US Constitution. As society evolves, so do our perceptions and attitudes. No reasonable person today believes in a barbaric practice that was widely accepted hundreds of years ago. There isn’t much of what was once deemed acceptable or normal that should survive in light of contemporary understanding and values. Thus, it’s crucial that our responses and interpretations adapt accordingly.

Proverbs likely served as a form of instructional manual for the children of the elite – sages and scribes teaching young people to become sages and scribes. The proverbs were tools to impart societal norms, ethical principles, and practical advice to the young individuals who were destined to become future leaders. The context in which these proverbs were written was vastly different from our own, reflecting the unique challenges, expectations, and norms of that era. But we can think about our own context and let a conversation begin about our own values.

The scribes who compiled Proverbs presumably found these teachings useful and relevant, not just for their immediate audience, but for generations to come. They trusted that we would read them and make important adjustments. We can discern the wisdom inside the writing without thoughtlessly clinging to their historical and cultural context. In many cases the exact what being said is less important than the why.

This Bible is a conversation between you and your ancient spiritual forebears held in the presence of the living God. You are standing on holy ground every time you have that conversation. And no — edge-lord atheists have not added anything new to the conversation by thinking they discovered some hidden landmine in the text. They’ve been there all along placed in plain sight and with good reason. And yes, fundamentalists have degraded the conversation to a shouting match by papering over those contradictions instead of following them in God’s grace. The stumbling blocks are like speed bumps to make you slow down and think, not turn your brain off and yell louder.

So which verse is right, how should you answer a fool’s folly? It really depends on the fool.