‘Different kinds of truth’

Veronica Zundel unpacks how we read the Bible, and asserts that, since the coming of Jesus, everything needs to be read through a different lens

I’d like to share with you my favourite Bible verse. It’s 2 Timothy 4:13 (ESV): “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” What great spiritual sustenance there is in this little verse, how it draws us to follow Jesus in life, what comfort it gives us in sorrow…Of course, I’m joking. It’s a passing remark that Paul makes in a letter to his favourite co-worker, and it signifies no more or less than what it says (although we might cobble together from it a sermon on the importance of books). I quote it to demonstrate how absurd it is to treat every jot and tittle of the Bible as sacred text to rule every detail of our lives.