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Similarly, to read the Bible closely is to be open to reading it again and again and again. Do not assume you know everything in the text and there is nothing more to see or to know. The same rings true for God; we cannot know everything there is to know about God either through the biblical text or through personal encounters with God. As the Apostle Paul says, we see through a glass darkly. But we continue to peer through that glass hoping the image will become a little clearer and more focused each time, perhaps adjusting our lens to see it from different angles and perspectives. God is a multidimensional God, I like to believe. God is accessible and yet inaccessible. God is God; we are human beings created by God. As we re-read or revisit the biblical text, we should pay attention to the smallest literary units (words) and the larger units like stories/narratives and letters or books and how they interconnect and mutually impact one another. Pay attention to how characters are described and how they interact with each other. We should ask questions as we read and note our questions and observations. For example, who is speaking and acting? Who is silenced and rendered invisible? What difference does it make? Of course, close reading also involves a search for historical contexts and how they help us understand our text. KIM: I agree with my colleague. Reading the biblical text closely means various things and requires an informed, critical reading. In my case, for example, the occurrence of the word faith requires a close, critical reading of the NT. Faith is diversely—often divergently and complexly—understood in various writings of the NT; it is never a mono sound. First, we can see God is the most faithful character in the Bible. God calls Abraham out of nowhere and gives him hope. Second, the Messiah Jesus is faithful to God and embodies God’s love and justice in a chaotic world. The result is his crucifixion, because the dominant classes oppose his message and ministry. A Christian Gospel that does not emphasize Jesus’s faith is hollow and naïve. Third, we see the faith of Christians who trust God and the Messiah Jesus. Fourth, there is another concept of faith; that is, faith can refer to specific knowledge or teaching about God and Jesus. This aspect of faith appears mostly in the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Letters where one of the major issues is false teaching. Fifth, in Hebrews, faith is understood as assurance or conviction. Here, faith signifies that God is with his people under any circumstances. Lastly, in James, we see the work of faith. Faith without works is dead: “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (Jas 2:24). Of course, the above aspects of faith are not exhaustive, but the point is that a close reading should recognize the diverse ways that the word faith is used in the NT. Otherwise, readers should not absolutize one understanding or one aspect of faith. How Do You Understand Ideas Like Freedom and Transformation in Relation to Reading the NT? KIM: Freedom and transformation are very important to me as a NT scholar. The Messiah Jesus worked to liberate the oppressed and marginalized from the grips of the Roman Empire and elites. He proclaimed “the good news of God,” not the good news of Caesar or of the High Priest in Jerusalem. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with the “sinners,” motivated them to rise against all restraints, and wept for the daughters of Jerusalem. All that Jesus did was to help the oppressed live a life of freedom. Jesus’s followers should base their action on Jesus’s teaching. Then, they will know the truth, and the truth will make them free (John 8:32). Notice here the future tense of “the truth will make them free,” which means freedom is yet to be realized; it comes after one follows the footsteps of Jesus. Freedom is not completed even though Jesus died for freedom. For me, transformation means a change of self, community, and the world. John’s water baptism was a means of entering a world of transformation, based on God’s justice and peace. The Greek word metanoia means a change of mind, not a repentance as most of us understand it. Metanoia is not like a penitential prayer of confession of one’s sins. The Hebrew equivalent is shub, which means “to turn back” or “return.” That is, a return to God is important. John was committed to renewing a Jewish society by calling for a change of mind toward God. Now after John was arrested, Jesus continued his transformative work, proclaiming God’s good news, starting with Galilee. He declares that God’s time or God’s rule has come or is present now; in the present, people are asked to change their minds toward God. Jesus said that now is the time that they must embrace a new rule of God by seeking God’s mercy and justice. The Apostle Paul also asks for a renewing of mind to seek the will of God (Rom 12:1–2). Likewise, we need to transform ourselves, moving away from sectarianism, triumphalism, individualism, exclusivism, and any ideological constructs that hegemonize or oppress others. SMITH: For me, at this moment, as an African American woman who stands in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us—“the least of these” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it—I read for freedom. Freedom and transformation are interconnected. The Apostle Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). Slavery in our contemporary contexts may be understood historically and metaphorically. As a metaphor it signifies various systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and so on. The Galatian believers had experienced a change or revolution from enslavement to freedom. Freedom is not just freedom to do something, but freedom from oppression, hatred, violence, poverty, and so on. A function of truth, according to John’s Jesus, is to set people free or to liberate. I think the closer we come to the Truth as a full revelation of God, the freer we become. I also think that faith as seeking understanding, the pursuit of the Truth about God is for human beings a perennial search—the search of a lifetime that remains incomplete when we die. The more freedom-loving and free we become the more we recover the image of God in us that has been tainted by sin. And the more we understand or discover about God, the more we experience and encourage freedom. The more freedom-loving and free we become the more justice-loving and justice-doing we become and the less oppressive and violent we will be toward ourselves, other human beings, and the earth over which God has given us guardianship for our benefit. Just as the Sabbath was made for human beings and not human beings for the Sabbath, it is the same with the earth, I believe. We are, if we choose, forever becoming more human and will act more responsibly. God created us to be human and humane. So as we learn and practice reading Scripture with transparency, with vulnerability toward God, our own insecurities as individuals, groups, and communities, we discover truths and Truth. Again, God is not synonymous with the biblical text. As human beings created in the image of God, we are sacred texts that God pronounced as very good and set apart for good and redeemed for good. I think most religious people, Christians and otherwise, would acknowledge that it is not by reading our sacred texts alone that we came to believe in God but by personal experiences or encounters with the divine. The biblical text was not the first to tell me that God calls women, calls me to ministry; it was God speaking to me, beyond the text. Some people do not like the word “transformation,” but I have not heard a better suggestion (this does not mean none exists). Our language is limited, but God’s action is not; God is not limited by our words—those that we speak or that we read printed in text, even sacred texts. God in various ways engenders transformation or change toward freedom in our lives and in the world. I think the more we allow God to transform us the more vulnerable we become in the direction of freedom, justice, love, and peace. This does not mean we become more certain about our interpretations and constructions of God, but we become more humble about them and therefore more open to freedom, not just for myself but for others different from me. God took a chance when God created humans with free will and this earth; we are the product of God’s vulnerability and humility. This same vulnerability and humility should be brought to our reading of sacred texts in order to engender freedom and transformation.