Pillars are Just Crutches

I’ve been listening to William Webb recently as he has brilliantly brought some insights on finding God in the tough texts. So I thought I would take the time and share what he refers to as the ‘Redemptive Movement Hermeneutic’. This way of interpreting the Bible does not seek to find the ultimate ethic with in the static scripture, but finding the direction of where God is moving the ethics to.

Most will know that if you listen to the critics of the Christian faith for long enough you’ll no doubt be dragged through the law of Moses to be shown the hypocrisy of God. How could God love everyone if slaves and women are treated so poorly! A couple such verses may be brought to your attention:

When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property. Ex. 20:20-21

or

If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death … If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay to the slaveowner thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Ex. 21:29, 32

In both cases, the penalty of the master for killing the slave is minimal. In the second example the slaves are definitely not on the same level as free people. The problems with these verses (and similar ones) are so evident that they are offensive in today’s society.

So what do we do with them? In comes “Redemptive Movement Hermeneutic”. The argument for this hermeneutic is that humans do not change quickly and require long periods of time to get out of former ways of thinking.  Second hand smoke is a prime, modern-day example. We’ve known that second hand smoke kills people for 50 years and yet (in Canada) smoking in public places has only been banned within the last ten years and meanwhile many of the States have no such law!  Still, it’s been proven for over 50 years that it kills people!!  Why the delay?  People do not change easily.

When the Bible is read it is usually read within the understanding of the reader (in my case, white Canadian 21st century male) instead of being read with the understanding of the writer (in Moses case, Ancient Near East nomadic tribe).  Therefore the text is not read correctly even though the words on the page are read the understanding is not there.

Through out the Biblical text God is moving the human race towards an ultimate ethic one step at a time.  In every other Ancient Near East nation at the time of Moses slaves had absolutely no rights.  The killing or beating of a slave would have been met with no punishment.  But in Israel’s case that was different.

In another example, any Ancient Near East slave owner could maim and disfigure their slaves (it was a form of intimidation so slaves wouldn’t run away!) while in Israel if a slave was maimed the slave was freed!

As well, foreign slaves were rejected from other nations while Israel was commanded to accept them (all of Israel became a ‘city of refuge’).

So although the treatment of slaves by Israel in our standard today was horrendous it was a big leap from how slaves were treated in every other nation in the Near East.

In Redemptive Movement Hermeneutics the ‘fossilized’ law is not the focus, the focus is on the movement of where the law is pointing.  In the case of slavery, the Bible does not speak directly against it but has pointed the human race in that direction.  So the Bible is not the ultimate ethical handbook, it’s history that moves us towards the ultimate ethic.