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i think the question from the beginning isn't the first question that tecoyah puts out. the idea that the bible is "inerrant" is a late development in western Christendom. it can only really come after the Enlightenment, when people start developing the modern idea of history. asking that question, in my mind, is a theological mistake.
the real question is number two. why listen to this text? i believe the power of the bible, and especially the Gospel, is to de-mythologize us. I don't think of it as an ethical guidebook, or a warning sign. it is the story of God's upside down love, one that surprises and confounds. Tertullian's classic quip, "i believe because it is absurd" captures some of what i'm trying to say. we tell lots of stories about ourselves, how good we are, that we're powerful, we're nice, that people do us wrong....
and in the face of the story of One who loves the least, who saves the sinner, who makes the last the first...that all falls apart. And that's why i spend time, and keep coming back to the Jesus stories of the Gospel and later traditions. At their best, they have the power to take apart the lies of the world.
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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-John 3:16
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