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His Thought
The Exegete
The exegetic works of José Porfirio Miranda that he wrote mainly between 1964 and 1974 have made him world renown.
He says: “It was a good decision to put my possibilities at the service of exegesis. It is to change the very bases of the occidental civilization” (1).
The principle of his exegetic works is the same as his philosophical ones: science translated as an exegetic rationale. “Marx and the Bible” is one of the first exegetic books written with a scientific erudition.
“He, who does not feel that "Marx and the Bible" has to have plenty of other authors sites, is not aware of the revolutionary nature of this book. I did it in such a way that people would not say I was the only one who does it well” (2).
It is interesting to realize, that in the exegetic works of JPM, there are some truly philosophical studies. For example in “Being and the Messiah” the author explains St. John’s Gospel working on a parallel with the existential philosophy of Heidegger, Walh, Kierkegaard and Sartre.
Let’s have a look at the following text:
Kierkegaard affirms that the future is the source of the temporality and the historical.
I am in accordance with that, says Miranda, but Kierkegarrd learnt that by reading the New Testament, which was written precisely with this in mind: do what you decide with the possibility that I, John, am writing and describing what is desirable for humanity. The NT is not an edifying writing.
In the following text, taken from his personal diaries, Miranda shows what it is and to where his exegetic work can go:
Prologue for an Article
Before scientific exegesis acquired the methodological sureness that it can have today on some questions, before we had arrived at the demand that prevails today to stick to the truth and demonstrative; it was understandable that each Christian church would prefer to stick to its own tradition instead of taking as normative the intention and will of Jesus of Nazareth as this did not appear completely acceptable to them. Also the churches did not believe it possible that the writers of the New Testament and ecclesiastical tradition would distort the thinking of Christ. Distortion that is today a perfectly confirmed fact Each church stuck to certain paragraphs of St. Paul, or St. John, or St. Matthew, or a church Council as they could not even conceive the possibility that these differed from the thinking of Christ.
But, today we can make that to be Christian would be based, as its name implies, on Christ himself. Today it is possible to be Christian without being a Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican, etc.
The origin (recognized or not) of the Western scientific attitude which insists on demonstration to justify their choices before their own conscience, is Christianity itself with its implacable and unlimited sharpeness of the moral responsibility known as the search for truth. Today the conscientious Christian cannot find any opposition to being Christian or scientist; but definitely he perceives that it is impossible to be a Christian without also being a scientist and vice versa.
This constitutes a historic new position for the Christian churches. The concept of Christianity, the definition of what it means to be Christian, can no longer depend on disciplinary and random decisions, it has to be determined scientifically. The religious “authorities” can no longer simply affirm or decide; they have to demonstrate; but to demonstrate they are not trained as are the exegetists (3).
The exegesis books can be consulted, in books menu Literature.
The manuscripts on exegesis will begin to be published in 2008.
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[1] Diario 16, Pag. 365, 28-X-72
[2] Diarios JPM, 3-IV-73
[3] Diarios JPM, Pag. 1458-59
Back to: Porfirio Miranda
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