Part Pointer

Distinguishing between the literal and the literary

01/24/2023

Mk 3:31-35 The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Today I would like to try to explain the difference between the literal and the literary. Now the two words sound very similar but they are dramatically different. The literal is what is on the surface, what is on the page, what we immediately read. But what is literary is the deeper meaning, beyond what is on the surface. And it takes more effort to discern that deeper meaning.

And of course this is extremely important when the read the Scriptures, because sometimes we just stop at the literal level. After we have read what is on the page, we sometimes conclude we have understood all there is. But in fact there are great depths. Therefore we have to learn the read the Scriptures with a literary mindset, beyond the literal. Otherwise, the Bible will remain a closed book to us.

Now I enjoy a very simple example of this every day as I try to train my dog Apollo. He has a hard time moving beyond the literal and catch the literary. Sometimes I point and tell him where he should go and do his business. But instead of looking where I am pointing, Apollo comes and sniffs the tip of my finger. You see, he is stuck at the literal level, what is right in front of his nose. Poor Apollo cannot grasp that when I am pointing to something, I am indicating something beyond the literal, beyond my finger.

Incidentally, this is very surprising to me because part of his DNA is that he is a pointer, so he should readily understand when I am pointing at something. Right?? But unfortunately, he doesn’t (he cannot) because he is stuck at the literal level, understanding only what I say, and nothing beyond the actual words.

And this is essentially what is going on in the Scriptures today, and also why so many people have trouble understanding. When Jesus asks rhetorically who are my mother and brothers and sisters, some readers only hear what Jesus is saying on the literal level, and stop right there. They therefore conclude that Jesus had other brothers and sisters. As a result, Mary, his mother, must have had other children. And such readers think this is rather obvious, because that is what is on the literal level of the story.

In a sense, they are just sniffing my finger like my dog, but not moving beyond, that is, they are not seeing what the Scriptures are pointing at. That is why Jesus has to explain to them to think beyond the literal level. Who are my mother and brothers and sisters? They are the ones who do the will of God. In other words, there is another kind of family that I have come to establish, and so try to think beyond the literal level of a nuclear family, your own immediately family.

There is another kind of family that I belong to and that I want you to belong to, namely, the world-wide family called the Catholic Church. And hence, Christians beautifully refer to one another as brother and sisters in Christ. Catholics refer to their parish priests as father. That is more than what is happening on the surface, the literal level, there is also the deeper meaning, the literary level. And that literary meaning is the more important one.

I would encourage you to read the Scriptures like a murder mystery. Have you ever read a good murder mystery, that was a real page-turner, that keeps you on the edge of your seat? The reader is trying to figure out who dunnit? And there are many people who come across the scene, maybe so and so did it, or so and so did it. But the smart reader will move beyond the surface of the story, if he hopes to solve the murder. You must look deeper at people’s motivations, and why they did it. Thus you discover who is the really guilty party.

Now this is not such a strange analogy for the Scriptures, because the Bible in a sense is a great murder mystery. It is the murder of God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God was murdered. And it is not obvious on the surface, on the literal level, who dunnit. It was not just Pontius Pilate who gave the command to the Roman soldiers. It wasn't just the Pharisees and Sadducees, who put Jesus on trial, and found him guilty of blasphemy.

The real culprit is me, and you. We are the ones who crucified God because of our sins. But that is hard to understand if all you’re doing when you read the Bible is looking at the surface, the literal level. When we do that, the Bible remains a closed book to us, unless we learn to read it in a literary way.

Praised be Jesus Christ!