[zeek]

Originally Posted by awareness

The Johannine Jesus wasn't speaking of The Book. When he said "My words" he, the writer of the gospel, uses the word rhēma for words.

...which illustrates the value of the written word without which we would likely have little or no knowledge of Jesus' words.

It doesn't surprise me that we (the royal we) have holy books. The Jews have theirs, the Christians theirs, the Muslims theirs, the Mormon theirs, so forth and so on. The truth is the whole world is hooked on the written word. Everything we do involves the written word. When you write, "Words in the most general sense give form to thought and behavior," you speak an understatement by speaking of the spoken word. Now the written word trumps the spoken word. You can take that to the bank, and to court, and every other transaction. The written word is as ubiquitous as the air we breath, almost.

I said "words in the most general sense" thus including both the written and the spoken word. The value of writing to transmitting a religious tradition can hardly be overestimated.

In a sense we're so addicted to the written word we take its involvement in our lives for granted. It's just the way it is. So we all worship the written word. The written word is worshiped way more than God, or the Bible, because everyone worships the written word.

That's not an accurate characterization of my view of my relation to the written word or the Bible. I see them as media or vehicles. In general words including written words are vehicles for conveying information. The Christian Bible is a vehicle for the transmission of Judeo-Christian salvation history. I don't think that necessitates Bible worship as I imagine the object of worship as independent of the Bible itself. Don't you?