c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “American life would be so much better if we just obeyed the Bible.” That kind of sentiment is frequently invoked to cut off any meaningful religious discussion. It’s also used to shut off debate on contemporary issues or to buttress a specific political position.

But we Americans, who pride ourselves on individualism and personal freedom, should never be bullied into silence when clergy or politicians smugly throw a Scripture passage into our faces and cite those verses as the ultimate authority on a particular subject.

If such politicians and clergy are the only people able to define the Bible’s meaning for the general American society, we are all the losers. If they are able to convince the public that they alone correctly interpret the Bible, they can then label their opponents as “anti-Bible,” “anti-faith,” or “secular” _ all nasty pejoratives in today’s supercharged polarized arena of public opinion.

The truth is that the Bible, a magnificent collection of ancient books that required centuries to compile, “says” many things in many ways on many subjects to many different audiences. Sadly, some people are not aware of the extraordinary tradition of biblical interpretation that is an integral part of both Judaism and Christianity.

We don’t merely “read” the text; we study it and interpret for meaning. Failure to do so allows the Bible to be hijacked for narrow political and religious agendas.

We need a vigorous scriptural debate, or else a cowed public that often lacks biblical knowledge will simply assume those verses prove the point in question and end the matter altogether. Frequently, such verses, standing alone, call for harsh penalties or dire consequences if not fully obeyed.

Judaism _ far from a static collection of laws and regulations that some think it to be _ long ago consciously moved away from a literal interpretation of severe biblical regulations.

A clear example can be found in the Jewish interpretation of Deuteronomy 21: 18-21. I wonder if Bible-quoting politicians or religious leaders really want to obey these dire words:

“If a man has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his parents and does not obey them even after they discipline him, his parents shall bring him to the town elders. … They shall say to the elders: `this son of ours is disloyal and rebellious; he does not heed us. … ‘ Thereupon the men of the town shall stone him to death. … ”

Despite the Bible’s call for capital punishment, there is no record of a rebellious or defiant son ever being executed in biblical Israel. One ancient rabbi declared: “It never happened and it never will happen.”

The Talmud, Judaism’s post-biblical oral tradition, reduced any possibility of the death penalty being used against a son. How?

A son is specifically defined as a youngster between 13 years and 13 years and six months in age. Beyond that time frame, a son is considered a “man,” a completely different legal category. A male below 13 is a minor and is exempt from capital punishment.

In the case of a rebellious son, parents can “condone” their child’s alleged offenses and withdraw their complaint, i.e., press no charges. But if the angry parents persist, a court of three judges must adjudicate whether the son is, in fact, rebellious and disloyal. Those biblical terms must be carefully defined before any judgment is made.

The Talmud’s authors clearly aimed for the abolition of capital punishment, whether for a rebellious son, an adulteress, a homosexual, or other persons the Bible says are liable for execution.

The biblical text, like that of the U.S. Constitution, always remains intact, immutable, but its meaning is subject to constant interpretation and reinterpretation by the rabbinic courts and scholarly opinion. The biblical text alone is never the beginning and the end of any matter.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/LF END RUDIN

Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.