如何讀福音書

By : Leo Tolstoy 托爾斯泰

1896

Bill Lin 譯

在公開宣稱是耶穌基督的教導裡，有許多奇怪的、不能置信的、不可理解的，甚至自相矛盾的說法，使得人們不知如何去了解它。

不同的人有很不一樣的理解。有人說救贖是最重要的；其他的人說，能從聖禮裡得到恩典是最重要的；還有其他的人認為，順服教會才是真正最主要的。但是教會自己也不一致，對教導都有不同的看法；羅馬天主堂認為聖靈是從聖父和聖子而出，教皇是不會犯錯的，而人的得救是出於好行為；路得宗不同意這一點，認為人的得救最需要的是信心；東正教則認為聖靈僅出於聖父，得救同時需要好行為和信心。

而且英國國教和其他聖公會、長老會、浸信會，更別提無數的其他教會，都各自解讀耶穌基督的教導。

在教會的教導下長大的年輕人和成年人，懷疑教會的教導的真實性，經常來找我，討教我的看法，要知道我是如何去了解耶穌基督的教導？這些問題，常常使我感到悲哀，甚至激動。

耶穌基督，教會說祂是神，來到世上顯示神的真理給人，指示他們生命的方向。一個人，甚至是個平凡愚拙的人，假如他要給人們重要的指示意見，都會想辦法表達出來，使他們能了解他的本意；所以，有可能神來到世上，特別是要拯救世人，卻無法清楚明白的說出不讓人們誤解的話語，而使得他們有互不同的意見嗎？

假如耶穌基督是神，不可能是如此；甚至假如耶穌基督不是神，僅僅是個好教師，也不可能；有可能祂會無法清楚的表達祂自己嗎？因為一位好老師之所以好，就是因為他能將真理毫無隱藏、不含糊的表達出來，有如白晝般的清晰。

所以，無論如何，傳達耶穌基督的教導的福音書一定包含了真理。的確，所有真心想認識真理、沒有偏見、更要緊的是不要以為福音書裡有些使人無法理解的特殊智慧，來讀福音書的人，真理就在那兒了。

這就是我如何讀福音書的方法；同時我發現書中的真理容易到小孩子都能懂，正如福音書裡所說的。所以當我被問到我的教導的內容，和如何了解耶穌基督的教導時，我回答：「我沒有自己的教導，但是我了解耶穌基督的教導正如福音書裡所解釋的。」假如我會寫關於耶穌基督教導的書，我也只是要指出那些福音書的注釋者的錯誤的解說罷了。

想要了解耶穌基督真正的教導，最主要的，就是不要去闡釋福音書，只要照著所寫下的去了解他們。所以針對耶穌基督的教導要如何了解的問題，我回答：「假如你想了解它，就是讀福音書。把一切先入為主的結論拋開來讀；以要懂得所說為何的全一的慾望來讀。但是因為福音書是神聖的書，要周詳的，理性的念，要有洞察力，而且不能隨便或機械式的，把所有的字都是為同等重要的念。」

一個人要讀懂任何一本書，一定要挑出很明白的部分，將它和含糊的或混亂的部分分開。而且從明白的部分，我們必須形成我們的游離的理念和全本的精神。然後，根據我們已經了解的，我們或許可以繼續去釐清混亂的或不太理解的部分。這是我們讀各樣書的方法。尤其是對於經過如此多樣的編輯、翻譯、謄寫，而且是寫作於十八個世紀以前，由一些沒受過高等教育，而且迷信的人所寫的福音書，更特別需要如此的讀法。

所以，為了要了解福音書，我們首先必須分開那些很簡單、可理解的和混亂不可理解的，然後把這個清楚可理解的部分讀好幾遍，試著完全消化它。然後藉著對整體含意理解的幫助，我們可以試著對自己解釋，看起來相關但是含糊的游離部分。那就是我讀福音書的方法，耶穌基督的教導對我變得如此的清楚，以致於不可能對它有任何的懷疑。所以我建議每一位想了解耶穌基督的教導的真正含意的人，可以沿循著這個相同的方式。

讓每個人在讀福音書時，挑選所有對他看似清楚、明白和可理解的，在邊上用藍色筆畫線，然後在做過記號的章節裡，先分開耶穌基督的話語和那些傳道人所敘述的，第二次把耶穌基督的話用紅筆做上記號。然後把那些做兩次記號的讀過好幾遍。只有在他已經完全消化這些以後，再去讀他第一次讀不懂的其他有關耶穌基督的部分，把那些看得懂的畫上紅色記號。留下那些沒畫上記號的耶穌基督的話語是很不解的，還有不解的福音書作者所寫的。那些畫上紅色記號的章節，將提供給讀者，耶穌基督的教導的精義。他們將滿足人類的需要，而且正如耶穌基督所說的，是所有人都能了解的方式。只畫上藍色記號的地方，是福音書作者說過能使人理解的。

從不能完全理解中，挑出完全能理解的；很有可能，人們不會都畫出相同的章節。我能理解的可能對別人是含糊的。但是最重要的，所有的人一定會同意──我們會發現有些事情一定會使每一個人都能十分的理解。

正是如此，對所有人都可以理解的，就構成了耶穌基督的教導的精義。

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THERE is so much that is strange, improbable, unintelligible, and even contradictory in what professes to be Christ's teaching that people do not know how to understand it.

It is very differently understood by different people. Some say redemption is the all-important matter. Others say the all-important thing is grace, obtainable through the sacraments. Others, again, say that submission to the Church is what is really essential. But the Churches themselves disagree, and interpret the teaching variously. The Roman Catholic Church holds that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son ; that the Pope is infallible, and that salvation is obtainable chiefly through works. The Lutheran Church does not accept this, and considers that faith is what is chiefly needed for salvation. The Orthodox Russo-Greek Church considers that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only, and that both works and faith are necessary to salvation.

And the Anglican and other Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, not to mention hundreds of other Churches, interpret Christ's teaching each in its own way.

Young men, and men of the people, doubting the truth of the Church-teaching in which they have been brought up, often come to me and ask what my teaching is, and how I understand Christ's teaching? Such questions always grieve, and even shock me.

Christ, who the Churches say was God, came on earth to reveal divine truth to men, for their guidance in life. A man even a plain, stupid man if he wants to give people guidance of importance to them, will manage to impart it so that they can make out what he means. And is it possible that God, having come on earth especially to save people, was not able to say what He wanted to say clearly enough to prevent people from misinterpreting His words, and from disagreeing with one another about them?

This could not be so if Christ were God; nor even if Christ were not God, but merely a great teacher, is it possible that He failed to express Himself clearly? For a great teacher is great, just because he is able to express the truth so that it can neither be hidden nor obscured, but is as plain as daylight.

In either case, therefore, the Gospels which transmit Christ's teaching must contain truth. And, indeed, the truth is there for all who will read the Gospels with a sincere wish to know the truth, without prejudice, and, above all, without supposing that the Gospels contain some special sort of wisdom beyond human reason.

That is how I read the Gospels, and I found in them truth plain enough for little children to understand, as, indeed, the Gospels themselves say. So that when I am asked what my teaching consists in, and how I understand Christ's teaching, I reply: “I have no teaching, but I understand Christ's teaching as it is explained in the Gospels.” If I have written books about Christ's teaching, I have done so only to show the falseness of the interpretations given by the commentators on the Gospels.

To understand Christ's real teaching the chief thing is not to interpret the Gospels, but to understand them as they are written. And, therefore, to the question how Christ's teaching should be understood, I reply: “If you wish to understand it, read the Gospels. Read them putting aside all foregone conclusions; read with the sole desire to understand what is said there. But just because the Gospels are holy books, read them considerately, reasonably, and with discernment, and not at haphazard or mechanically, as if all the words were of equal weight.”

To understand any book one must choose out the parts that are quite clear, dividing them from what is obscure or confused. And from what is clear we must form our idea of the drift and spirit of the whole work. Then, on the basis of what we have understood, we may proceed to make out what is confused or not quite intelligible. That is how we read all kinds of books. And it is particularly necessary thus to read the Gospels, which have passed through such a multiplicity of compilations, translations, and transcriptions, and were composed, eighteen centuries ago, by men who were not highly educated, and were superstitious.^[1]

Therefore, in order to understand the Gospels, we must first of all separate what is quite simple and intelligible from what is confused and unintelligible, and afterward read this clear and intelligible part several times over, trying fully to assimilate it. Then, helped by the comprehension of the general meaning, we can try to explain to ourselves the drift of the parts which seemed involved and obscure. That was how I read the Gospels, and the meaning of Christ's teachings became so clear to me that it was impossible to have any doubts about it. And I advise every one who wishes to understand the true meaning of Christ's teaching to follow the same plan.

Let each man when reading the Gospels select all that seems to him quite plain, clear, and comprehensible, and let him score it on the margin, say with a blue pencil, and then, taking the marked passages first, let him separate Christ's words from those of the Evangelists by marking Christ's words a second time with, say, a red pencil. Then let him read over these doubly scored passages several times. Only after he has thoroughly assimilated these, let him again read the other words attributed to Christ, which he did not understand when he first read them, and let him score, in red, those that have become plain to him. Let him leave unscored such words of Christ as remain quite unintelligible, and also unintelligible words by the writers of the Gospels. The passages marked in red will supply the reader with the essence of Christ's teaching. They will give what all men need, and what Christ therefore said, in a way which all can understand. The places marked only in blue will give what the authors of the Gospels said that is intelligible.

Very likely in selecting what is, from what is not, fully comprehensible, people will not all mark the same passages. What is comprehensible to me may seem obscure to another. But all will certainly agree in what is most important, and there are things which will be found quite intelligible to every one.

It is just this just what is fully comprehensible to all men that constitutes the essence of Christ's teaching.

Footnotes:

1. The Gospels, as is known to all who have studied their origin, far from being infallible expressions of divine truth, are the work of innumerable minds and hands, and are full of errors. Therefore the Gospels can in no case be taken as a production of the Holy Ghost, as Churchmen assert. Were that so, God would have revealed the Gospel as he is said to have revealed the commandments on Mount Sinai ; or he would have transmitted the complete book to men, as the Mormons declare was the case with their holy scriptures. But we know how these works were written and collected, and how they were corrected and translated; and therefore not only can we not accept them as infallible revelations, but we must, if we respect truth, correct errors that we find in them.