In the last post we looked at why we should read Scripture. This time we'll try to answer the question, How should you read the Bible? Books and books have been written on this issue, and so my temptation is to give an extremely complicated answer. Instead, I'll keep it as simple as I can and point to you to the books so you can work through the details and complexity as you grow in your Bible reading skills.
Here goes: the reader of the Bible must come (1) with a heart attuned to faith and (2) eyes attuned to seeing what is there.
First, if Scripture is indeed God's own Word to his people that reveals his infinite grace in Jesus Christ (see the last post) one must approach Scripture in grateful humility. One must listen to what it says by faith in the One whom the Bible reveals. It's very easy, especially for theological students, to become adept at the most subtle textual analysis of the Bible while keeping what the Bible actually says at arm's length distance from their souls. (D. A. Carson has spoken and written on this with some eloquence, but my Google search to locate an actual quote fails me. If anyone knows where please post it in the comments). Rather, the first step in interpreting Scripture is to believe--believe that the Bible is God's own Word and therefore receive its teaching with joyful submission to its authority. Furthermore, we affirm that the Holy Spirit actually works in our hearts so that we receive it with faith, but as my goal is simplicity I won't expand on this at present.
Second, we must see what is there. This sounds obvious, but in the end biblical interpretation is just seeing what is actually in the text of the Bible. Working out how exactly to do this brings in the complexity. Again, for simplicity's sake, four steps:
(1) Read the passage slowly and repeatedly so as to catch every detail. It is very common for the most accomplished biblical scholar to catch something new on the tenth reading of a passage that he or she missed on the first nine readings. So read slowly, read the passage over and over again, and read with pen and paper at hand to maximize your mental capacities.
(2) Read a passage in light of its context. No passage or verse of the Bible fell down from heaven all by itself. Every text exists within a context. Just as it would be very difficult to understand the plot of a novel by only reading the even numbered pages, so it is for trying to understand a passage of Scripture without paying careful attention to its context. In Paul's letter to the Romans, for instance, one must read and understand chapters 1-3 before trying to competently understand chapter 4. This makes for hard work but fruitful payoff.
(3) Read a passage according to its genre. By genre I more or less mean the style of literature. Some parts of the Bible are narrative, others are poetry, others (such as Paul's letters) have logical argumentation, and others (such as Revelation) are in a genre that does not have an equivalent in modern literature. Thus, when you're reading poetry in the Psalms, look for vivid images, metaphors, and something called parallelism; but don't expect the author to develop and defend a logical proposition. Similarly, narratives will employ such devices as plot development and character development, irony, suspense, and so on.
(4) Finally, read a passage of the Bible in the light of the Bible whole. This can be really difficult without familiarity with the flow of Scripture's entire plot line. One very accessible book I've found helpful on this topic is Graeme Goldsworhty's According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible. At the very least, remember this: Jesus Christ lies at the heart of the Bible. The Old Testament looks forward to him and the New Testament reveals his person and mission in all its fulfillment. Interpret your passage with an eye to Jesus.
Next post: helpful books and an even simpler model for interpretation by my pastor David Helm.
This makes me think of a really helpful illustration Tim used in a sermon a couple of months ago - he told us about a time in seminary where his professor required all the students in the class to go off by themselves and take one verse of scripture and write something like 45 things from it. He said that while it wasn't easy, when he looked back on it, his best and deepest observations and insights came when he was close to halfway down the list. His point was, you only really get the meat when you work for it, dig for it.
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