Shibboleths

By Robert R. Meyers

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     A shibboleth is a test word or password, a phrase which is distinctive of a party or faction. Judges 12 shows how the word originated. As the Ephraimites tried to cross the Jordan fords, they ran into the enemy soldiers of Jephthah. They were tested for identity by their ability to pronounce the word "Shibboleth." If their linguistic apparatus failed to make the "sh" sound, they were known to be enemies and were killed on the spot.

     From this event, the word passed into the language as a term which defined any phrase, formula, or even custom which was considered the special property and distinctive badge of a group. Members of the party were indoctrinated carefully so that they knew all the shibboleths. Those who spoke the language of the party and who checked out on all the party customs were friends. Those who spoke a slightly different language, even when it defined the same thing, were enemies.

     During the famed Battle of the Bulge in World War II, German soldiers penetrated Allied lines deeply. Those who could speak good English were dressed in American uniforms, given American equipment, and put behind the wheels of captured American vehicles. They created havoc for a while, until headquarters passed along certain words and phrases to be used as testing devices by uncertain Americans. When the German linguistic organs were unable to manage these sounds, the infiltrators were betrayed.

     Necessary as this may be in the ugly hazards of carnal warfare, it is sad to think how often Christians split into warring camps because they create their own special shibboleths and deny friendship and fellowship to all who fail to master it.

     There is, of course, an "accent of God." Any man who is deeply committed to the Kingdom of God will betray himself in his speech. But the kingdom embraces men who are scattered around the world, and although their basic commitments are identical, their vocabulary is not. Certain little set phrases used by some groups in Christendom may be completely unknown to them.

     Since I grew up within a small factious group which thought that only those who pronounced exactly as they did were disciples, it was hard for me to learn that more men speak with the accent of God than my party thought. I had to find out that it is not merely the language of God that such factions require, but exactly that use and pronunciation of it which has become respectable within their own camp. Any who cannot pass that test, however gracious and fruitful their Christ-led lives may be, are enemies.

     I recall how we knew at times whether a visiting stranger who claimed to be a member of the Church of Christ was really one of the true ones. If he spoke of having "joined the church," or if he asked what "your church" did during the summer, you knew that he could not really be one of the true ones. He had betrayed himself; he did not know the passwords.

     Many of the shibboleths really meant nothing, of course. They were "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But they hung on, even when to thoughtful persons they had lost all real sense, sim-

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ply because they served to separate the sect members from all outsiders and foreigners.

     The beauty of life is that some people grow up and away from this kind of childishness. They learn that the party shibboleths are often silly and senseless devices for separating people who ought to be together. They find out what that splendid scholar, McGarvey, knew, that there is a proper use for the phrase, "join the church." It dawns upon them that when men say something about "your church," they no more mean to imply that it belongs to you than they mean to imply you own a hospital when they ask which is "your hospital."

     We pay a high price when we draw ourselves up haughtily and condemn all who do not say our shibboleths correctly. Our vocabulary is seriously limited and, since ideas can be expressed only through words, our ideas are limited also. Our thought world narrows until we can no longer understand those who live in a larger one. Dealing exclusively with our own ideas, clothed in our own special words, we create a closed system which keeps us from ever questioning seriously our own knowledge.

     A man who had served as an elder for many years in such a party, but had apparently not read much in Paul's letters, once went to hear a minister who had a reputation for being "unsound" and a violator of the party passwords. When asked what be thought of the sermon, the elder replied that he guessed it was all right, except that the minister had talked of "the inner man" and "the outer man." He said, "I know about that outer man, but I've never heard about any inner man. Sounds like modernism to me."

     It is incredible that this man of ripe years had served for more than two decades as a spiritual guide, but had never thought seriously about Paul's prayer that Christians be strengthened with might "in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16). Yet he had no doubt at all of his ability to pass judgment upon a brother. He knew "the truth" and he knew how "the truth" was expressed, and when he heard an expression straight from the Bible but not in his own party vocabulary, he decided the speaker was an enemy!

     This kind of thing is the inevitable result of a self-righteous assurance that one knows all that is worth knowing. Such an assurance is based on a limited religious vocabulary and cannot recognize even an idea from God if that idea is expressed in terms different from those employed within the party. In recent years I have found the word "insight" very meaningful. It suggests a clear understanding of the nature of a thing, the ability to see and grasp something clearly. It functions well as a word for expressing how we try to understand God's will. But this is not a word customarily used within the party I know so well. Consequently, when some of my friends hear it, they quote it with either fascination or horror, holding it gingerly by the tail as if it might turn and bite them.

     But this is no word to fear. Use of it does not mean that one has turned his back upon Christ and the eternally true ideas of His Kingdom. The Goodspeed version translates part of Phil.1:10 this way: "And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight, so that you may have a sense of what is vital...

     Some things are vital, some are not. Insight helps you know which are which. The phrase "honest insight" means that we deal honestly and fairly with what we read or hear. We do not pretend to understand something which we do not understand at all, and we resolve to look facts squarely in the face, even when they appear to be in conflict with our party line. We are not afraid to speak of differences of insight, even though the phrase is not one of our shibboleths.

     It is right, according to Paul's prayer, to ask God for better insight into His word. One of the ways of getting better insights into His word is to get outside that narrow little world in which we know only our own language with its special, group meanings, and move about like free men. In a world of larger

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thoughts and sympathies, God will meet us, and He will be a greater and more meaningful God than we have ever known before.