When one asks what is the WORD OF GOD? I am very quick to answer that Jesus is the WORD OF GOD, the Logos, the Fully incarnate WORD. That is understandably and unarguably the Truth. However, the Bible has often been referred to also as the Word of God, and personally, I had trouble accepting that. Certainly not because i am questionning the validity of the sacred book itself, but because it limits our infinite God and his abilities in a book.
Then it begs the question? Why would the Early Church Fathers (first 300 years of Christianity) who clearly existed before the full fledged canonized Bible (4th century) decide to term the bible "the Word of God".
Here we have now 1600 hundred years later, Jesus and the Bible both being termed as .... the Word of God.
Then on this glorious day of easter it became quickly apparent to me that the fully human and fully divine nature of Jesus is what God intended to parallelize in the Bible.
John starts his gospel on a very high christology depicting Jesus as the Incarnate Word. "In the beginning was the WORD." Surely enough the early Christian fathers understood that very same concept, leading to the dogma of Jesus being truly and fully human and truly and fully divine. ANYTHING ELSE WAS CONSIDERED HERETICAL, most prominently arianism and . This is the mystery of our Faith.
How can someone be truly human and truly divine?
This dual nature, MYSTERIOUS YET EVER SO HOLY AND PURE, resides in one person of the trinity and resounds again and again throughout scriptures. In Mark 5:30, We observe Jesus (i) fully human - perceiving of His senses, realizing someone had touched him when he asked "WHO TOUCHED MY GARMENT?", (ii) whilst at the same time fully divine to feel that "POWER PROCEEDING FROM HIM had gone forth" whereby Jesus cures the woman. His question was obviously misunderstood by his disciples who were yet to be revealed THE FULL TRUTH, THE WHOLE THRUTH ABOUT THEIR MASTER'S DUAL NATURE.
Where is this going?
Well Just as God intended for his son to be fully Human and Fully divine, God also intended for the bible to be so. The Written word of God reflects not only the divine thought, but a human touch. The Word of God depicts truths to us as written by men, conveying the thoughts, personalities and even limitations of the writers inspired by God. Fr James Bernstein writes:
"This means that the human element in the Bible is not overwhelmed so as to be lost in the ocean of the divine. It became clearer to me that as Christ Himself was born, grew, and matured, so also did the written Word of God, the Bible." It did not come down whole-plop-from heaven, but was of human origin as well as divine. The Apostles did not merely inscribe the Scriptures as would a robot, but freely cooperated with the will of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The Early Church Fathers understood that ever so well and were comfortable accepting that truth. The fact of the matter is that God desires to draw close to Humanity, his creation, at every moment, and desires us to be an integral part of his divine plan of salvation. Dr Kreeft once said: If you are seeking God, most likely it's simply because God is seeking you a lot more than you can imagine.
To minimize Jesus' humanity diminishes the price He paid for us on the Cross. Similarly to dismiss his divinity questions the credibility of Christianity. Let's not make the same mistakes with the Bible. Its Human element is just as divine as its divinity was rendered sacred by Humans.
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