Whether it’s Shakespeare, Tolkien, Kipling, or Alice Walker, the path to fully engaging with their writings is to understand the context: the history behind their stories, the times in which they were written, and the type of literature they used.
The same is true with the Bible.
Far too often the Bible has been misused, misunderstood, dismissed, condemned, or ridiculed because it has not been read as the Bible wants to be read.
Part of reading the Bible as it wants to be read is to understand what the Bible is not and what the Bible is.
As we read the Bible we want to keep in mind that the Bible is not:
A self-help book, although there are many great life-insights in the Bible
A rule book with guaranteed rules to follow for a successful life
An answer to every question book, although it does wrestle with the big questions of life
A life-manual, although it can certainly be useful for living
The Bible, at its core, is a human-divine story. (Check out this great line from the Netflix Film: A Boy Called Christmas: The Universe is made up of stories, not atoms.)
It’s human in that the story is rooted in the human experience. It tells stories about:
Who we are
How we came to be
Why we are the way we are
How we disfigured our humanity
What our purpose is
It’s divine in that God enters into the human story to reveal God’s self to us. The Bible is:
The story of God’s passionate drive to claim us, shape us and guide us with his love and grace
The story of the radical nature of God’s love for us
The story of the depths to which God will go to capture us with that love
The Bible is filled with stories about God reaching out to humanity with grace, in real human settings, seen through the lens of the context, history, and world-view and language of real human beings. As the story moves through history, humanity’s understanding of God grows and evolves.
The Bible was written by human beings in a particular context and setting. But somehow their words have life in them—life breathed into them by the Spirit of God. These are not dead words or old stories. These are ancient stories that still speak life to us thousands of years later.
To read the Bible is to interpret the Bible. No one can read it without trying to discern its meaning. So, if we want to read the Bible as the Bible wants to be read—if, regardless of our belief about God or Jesus, we want to understand this unique story—then the following principles can guide us.
1) Start with the context:
When was it written?
To whom was it written?
What was their understanding of the world?
What did this passage/story mean to them in their time in their world?
Why is the story there?
What questions/issues is it dealing with?
Context matters.
I received the following email from one of the members of my congregation:
I was taking a systematic theology course and about the second session we started getting into "creation." I raised my hand and said, "So, Professor, cut to the chase for a minute. Do you believe the account in Genesis is true?"
He replied, "Well, Tom, you're going to have to learn to ask better questions."
I thought that was rude, but he went on to explain that we could argue that question both ways for the rest of the semester and never get anywhere. Then he said, "Isn't it a better question to ask: What is there in the stories we find in Genesis that were so powerful to the emerging people of Israel that they preserved them virtually verbatim for centuries and then wrote them down when doing so was still very difficult, expensive, and time consuming? Why were they so important, and what does that say about their relationship with God? Isn't that a much more useful question?"
2) Understand the genre or literary type of literature
The Bible, a “library” of 66 books, is made up of a variety of genres or literary styles: Poetry, History, Parable, Gospel, to name a few. All of them need to be read in the context of their literary style.
We don’t read Harry Potter the same way we would read a biography of Abraham Lincoln. We don’t read poetry the way we would read the newspaper.
Genre matters.
For example, in describing a time of great joy Isaiah says:
For you shall go out in joy,
and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)
If we say we take the Bible literally, then we have to believe that at some point mountains and hills will grow the capacity to break out in song and that trees will grow human arms and hands so they can clap along.
Or, we can literally believe the truth behind the metaphor—that someday all of creation will be renewed under the compassionate rule of God. And that will bring about a world-wide celebration.
Genre matters.
3) Apply it to today:
The Bible was not written to us, but it is written for us.
Once we have context and genre down, we can then ask the question: What is this passage/story/poem/history, saying to us today?
4) Let Scripture interpret Scripture:
The Bible is remarkably consistent in its message. Even though the view of God evolves over time, God’s mission in the world does not change.
When struggling with tough Biblical issues, it’s helpful to let the Bible interpret itself. And it’s important to not build a whole theology on one verse or one historical event in the Bible.
There’s the old story about a man who wanted God to speak to him:
God, when I open the Bible, I pray you will speak to me through the first verse I read.
He opened his Bible and the first verse his eyes fell on read: Judas went out and hanged himself.
So, he tried it again. He opened his Bible and the first verse his eyes landed on said: Go and do likewise.
That’s not the way to let the Bible speak to us!
5) Recognize that some things in Bible are more important than others:
Loving our neighbor is more important than not picking grain on Sabbath
Forgiveness more important than head coverings for women in worship
Mercy and justice are more important that animal sacrifices
6) Jesus is the key for understanding the Bible
Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the ultimate expression of who God is. Jesus is the face of God. If we want to know what God is like, we can look to Jesus.
Jesus is the filter through whom we read the Bible. He’s the lens that helps us see what God is like from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Jesus is the context for how to interpret, read, and hear what God is saying to us through the Word in writing—the Bible. And it’s always important to remember that the God Jesus shows us is the God of the Old Testament.
You can reach me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org