Why Should We NOT Think of the Bible as a Powerful Sword?
Deconstructing Christianity: The idea of scripture as a powerful weapon is not scriptural. It is the product of white Christian supremacism.
There are several scriptural references—seemingly about scripture itself—that warrant attention concerning how scripture is understood and interpreted. The first is Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God [ho lógos toȗ theoȗ] is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and judging of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
At issue here, is what is meant by “the word [lógos] of God.”
Some early theologians would have it refer to Christ, the Logos from the gospel of John. The immediate context in Hebrews does not support this. There is plenty of Christologically significant material in Hebrews, to be sure, but it contains no specific approach to the definite use of lógos for Christ. Everywhere else in Hebrews, Christ is consistently referred to as the Son. Moreover, other than “living,” the predicates translated “active,” “(more) sharp,” and “judging” are better suited in usage to an impersonal subject, and less applicable to a personified Logos.
“The word of God” is used colloquially to refer to the Bible as we know it. Some traditions interpret the verse this way, so the Bible is described as a sword, according to the terms in the verse. This would also call to mind “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” from the “full armor” discourse in Ephesians 6.
But in Ephesians 6, the term for “word” is not lógos, but rhȇma, which denotes the spoken word, and thus indicates the preaching or telling of God’s truth as a kind of weapon against untruth. Such reference to the spoken truth about God in the broader sense is made with “word” in several other passages, whether lógos or rhȇma.[1] So it is with this passage in Hebrews. Its context does not support the facile application of a common expression for the Bible to the meaning of the phrase “the word of God” in this verse, even if there are traditions accustomed to doing so.
Check out the ARCHIVE of Faith Shifter posts.
The whole chapter in Hebrews up to this point is about the disobedience of the Israelites in the wilderness, and God’s declared punishment of not allowing them to enter the “rest” of the ‘promised land’: “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” This is a metaphor for admonishing epistle readers to be obedient to God in the present and future so they will be allowed to enter the “rest” promised to them. The preceding verse reads, (11) “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. (12) For the word of God is living...” The following verse begins, (13) “And there is no creature hidden from his sight...”
So, “the word of God” is best understood here as what God proclaims concerning those God observes, whether ancient Israelites in the wilderness, contemporary readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews, or anyone else. The primary reference is to God’s declaration of punishment to the disobedient Israelites, quoted twice from Psalm 95 seven and nine verses earlier, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” That declaration is part of a story set in a time when the Hebrew Bible as a compilation did not yet exist (much less the New Testament).
The secondary reference is to whatever powerful proclamation a watching God might issue in response to the behavior of epistle readers, at a time when the New Testament as we know it did not yet exist. This verse is not about the Bible. Its immediate context is not a discussion of scripture but of God’s active declarations concerning the fates of people whose behavior God is observing, related to their level of obedience. To make “the word of God” about the Bible is to read something into the text that is not there.
Understanding “the word of God” cast in the metaphor of a sword in Hebrews 4 as referring to the Bible goes along with an imaginative view of the Bible as a powerful rhetorical sword that exposes how other people are wrong, and convinces them of one’s correct viewpoint. (Conviction of people concerning the truth is rightly understood as the work of God alone in the Holy Spirit—see John 16:8.) Worse, the Bible can be seen as a sword of cultural supremacy for a particular worldview, religious tradition, or preferred interpretation of scripture, and of societal supremacy for those who hold to them. At the same time, if “the word of God” refers to whatever God proclaims through any medium, then that should include the truth obtainable through careful hermeneutic processes rightly interpreting the language of biblical texts—even through our imperfection and fallibility—into truthful ideas that we can hold and share. That is hard work. It requires much background knowledge, great care, and no small measure of humility.
[1] 1 Cor. 14:6, 2 Cor. 2:17, Col. 1:25, 2 Tim. 2:29.