The Bible is a really hard book to read.

Reading the Bible is no small feat. To think otherwise, in fact, is to fail to account for the vast array of literature held therein, which was written over the span of hundreds of years by many authors on various countries and places, translated multitudes of times, and transmitted generation after generation by human beings, flawed, fallible, and susceptible to error and making mistakes. To be sure, the Bible is the Word of God, but, as the name itself implies, it is still a book. Seeing as the Bible did not fall out of the sky from heaven, come down to us from God, but was written by the hands of men, we must so address the Bible as a work of literature in large part, demystifying it from its often pride of place as a spiritual text of the divine. This is not to say that we ought not to respect the Bible for what it is nor to not think it divine, but we must not so regard it with such reverence that we are afraid to approach it as anything other than the book that it is, lest we indeed fail to analyze or apprehend its contents as such.

To read the Bible is not like reading the daily news or even last year’s news, nor is it like reading any book from today, for the text of the Bible is ancient twice over–perhaps, more so. For it (namely, the NT) comes to us from about the first century AD/CE and then the OT a few hundred years (though some would say several thousand) from before the first century text of the NT. The copies we have, some of the oldest of which are from the third century BC/BCE, attest to a great deal of steady transmission of the texts, but also a great deal of the transmission of variants of the texts. Thus, we have ancient upon ancient documents that are attested by some contestable texts, which putatively bear the mark of humanity and human error, correction, and redaction.

This, however, is nothing new, for a text of today is fraught with error, correction, and redaction. But the concept that the Bible is the Word of God seems to carry with it that it then is also not fraught with what is common to human works and productions. If I were God, however, working with fallible human beings, trying to guide and direct them without dominating them by complete and utter takeover, I think I would, as frustrating as it might be, have to allow for the marks and errors, the fingerprints, the scribbles and squabbles of the human scribes marking out the texts of the book I wanted to communicate myself through to humanity. In fact, the Bible is very much a book of both God and man, even as much as Jesus in the incarnation is fully God and fully human.

To interpret the Bible, then, we must sift through all the mountain of texts and codexes, getting as close to the original manuscripts, none of which we have, to read the text as it was possibly written in the context in which it was written. When I was in school, I was taught that context is king. The context of a text is what determines the meaning of the text, as do a myriad of other things, like the number of copies of the texts we have. While we might approximate unto the original context in our imagination, the thousands of years between us and the texts makes such relevance hard to pin down and apply. To be sure, God can and does use such an ancient of ancient text to speak to us today, but we must needs read it as it was written, without ecclesiological or historical blinders upon us.

Many of us, indeed, read the Bible blind, without even knowing it. We read not the text before us, even, but the traditions imposed upon us upon the text by those in our faith tradition, as a pastor or professor or parent, who tell us that this text means such and such and that text means this, that, and the other. With so many hurdles to overcome, how can we even read the Bible to begin with? Furthermore, what’s the payoff for reading it, if it not indeed be so divine, but also very human?

To be sure, such a daunting task it is to read the Bible, and not for the faint of heart. While a cursory reading of the Bible might give one a provisional understanding of the Scriptures, taking a deep dive into the pages of the Word of God will provide one with the transformation that many a person seeks, and never finds.

I must confess, that though I have read the Bible, first beginning with the KJV, since I was about six-years-old, I have found that the Bible must be interpreted in light of the wisdom of the age and the ages, for my meager knowledge base is hardly enough with which to comprehend the vast magnitude of the wisdom that is the Bible. Not only that, it must needs be read thoroughly through the lenses of various perspectives, else we tend to become myopic in our view of the text, narrowing in on a word or letter and forgetting the whole of the rest. Additionally, I have found that the Bible does not have all the answers I have sought–until I seek it again with renewed wisdom and understanding, having soaked in the wisdom of the age and the ages, so that with fresh perspective I come back to the Good Book and glean new fresh insights before inaccessible by me in my ignorance.

Reading the Bible with proper perspective is really important.

In order to best and better read the Bible, we must begin with proper perspective. I was in a class at a church once that spoke about the biblical worldview, which surprised me, because as far as I can tell there is no one biblical worldview: there are many, as the Bible itself attests to many various views and worldviews; otherwise, why else would there be so many denominations, churches, sects, divisions? When I write that we must begin with proper perspective, I do not mean that there is some one way in which to view the Bible; what I do mean is that there are ways in which not to view the Bible. Let me list a few here.

Do not view the Bible as a rulebook guide.

While the Bible has rules and regulations, laws and legislations, it is not a rulebook by which we might guide ourselves through life. It ought not be read as such, for it is an historical book that tells us of a particular people’s experience with the divine at particular times in particular places; it tells of what these particular people thought about the divine, who God is, and what it meant for them to know and follow God. The rules laid out in the Bible, dare I say, are so much for us to follow today; though the rules, as the Ten Commandments, are very good for the ordering of self and society, that is not the point of the Bible. Indeed, we might glean general truth applicable to ourselves and our lives from some ancient or even very old text, like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the fact that the text is so far removed from us in our context today, requires that we do a lot of work to figure out what actually would apply to us today and what would not.

Do not view the Bible as a ouija board.

Too often it seems, some might look to the Bible as a guide for the future, a kind of ouija board that tells us exactly what we ought to do with our lives. Indeed, many a pastor I have heard say that the Bible is very clear about what God commands his people to do in a very general sense, and I have believed that for a long time. While, again, the Bible has much goodly wisdom in it that might in some way apply to a given situation, it is not meant to be a book of divination, whereby we discern the future–our futures! God gave us brains and minds therewith as well as personalities, abilities, preferences, and resources with which to make our way in life. We do not need to turn to the Bible for fortunetelling.

Do not view the Bible as my personal devotion.

As personal and devotional as it may be, the Bible is not my personal devotional book. It was written for a group of people in ancient times to make sense of their times and situation. Again, while general, overarching truths may be gleaned of the Bible, the fact is, it was not written for you or for me, let alone to be my personal devotional book or journal or diary. I am not the main object nor the main character of the Bible. When I read the Bible, I am entering into someone (many someones) else’s world and seeing reality, insofar as I am able, as they did. To do otherwise, is to essentially rape the Bible and make it say or do whatever I might like it to.

What is proper perspective in reading the Bible?

There is no one proper perspective in reading the Bible. That itself is, of course, one perspective, to which another might say, there is a proper perspective in reading the Bible. How might we resolve this conundrum? We might give in to the asserter who says that there is one proper perspective in reading the Bible, and we might say, “Okay…there is a proper perspective in reading the Bible!” Accommodating an asserter, especially a demanding one, however, does not thereby establish defeat nor does it establish truth. Rather, we must dig in and see how there is no one proper perspective in reading the Bible, and yet there are proper perspectives in reading the Bible.

When I come to truth, I come to it with my own perspective and perspectival lenses by which I read it and take it in and express it and give it out. You, too, do the same. Of course, we can agree on some basic facts of the reality of truth, but we also must appreciate the various views that come to and arise from reading the Bible, as any text. We need not say, however, that all truth is relative, but some truth is relative, especially insofar as it relates to each subject, whose subjective perspective brings forth a new and different element of the object or text upon which all look.

To be sure, there is objective truth, else there would be neither objects in reality nor would there be anything to discuss about reality. Heavily conditioned, however, are our views and perspectives by our subjective and relative states, whereby we judge another, even a text of the Word of God, to be this and that or thus and so. We may or may not be correct in our perspective, but we are no less welcome to the table of the feast of the Word of God than anyone else. If we err, God will show us how, whether by his Spirit, his angels, or his people.

Then, proper perspective in reading the Bible must be born of desire to see it for what it is worth–nothing more and nothing less. We must not make too much of the Bible, as if it were some divine text by which we might twist the arm of God or discern the future fates of the faithful and faithless. Neither must we make too little of the Bible, and think it only some fairy tale told to faithful followers for the sake of tyranny and larceny. Rather, we ought to curiously and with a taste for adventure, seek the text of the Bible, to read it as a text that not only tells us about itself but also about ourselves, as mirror reflects back to us what we reflect to it.

More than seeking mere internal transformation in reading the Bible, we must also appreciate and respect the antiquity of the Bible, recognizing its distance from us as a text that we cannot necessarily directly apply to our lives without some due process of hermeneutical interpretation. Additionally, we should look into the context in which lies the text of Scripture that we are reading or studying. We cannot, for instance, read about Jesus’ call to discipleship at the end of Luke 14 and assume we understand exactly what Jesus is saying; though at some basic level, Scripture is perspicuous, that is, clearly understood, it is also complex and multilayered, even as is all reality wherein we each abide.

Reading the Bible with hermeneutics really helps us read the Bible accurately.

When we employ hermeneutics in reading the Bible, we are simply employing interpretative methods whereby we come to understand the Bible as it is–not as we might have it: we read it, then, in its literary, historical, and social context, unearthing layer by layer the manifold insights and treasures laying therein. We must approach it as it is written and as it was written, not as we might superimpose our own context or constructs onto it.

Take for instance, Jesus’ call to discipleship at the end of Luke 14, verses 25-35: the call of Jesus is often looked as a call to “count the cost.” In fact, some Bibles will have a heading inserted above this passage with the words “Counting the Cost” or “The Cost of Being a Disciple.” While Jesus does talk about counting and money in this passage as well as planning ahead for big and audacious tasks, as if we should consider whether the cost of following Jesus is less than not to follow him, that is not what he’s talking about in this passage.

First, we must look at the literary context in which this passage lies: between Luke 14:1-24 and Luke 15. The first is a passage about who gets into the Kingdom of God and who does not, those who think they’re in and those who don’t know any better that they are in. The second, Luke 15, is a passage about finding what is lost and the great joy of rediscovering what has been lost. The point at the end of Luke 15 is in the last two verses, 32-33, which is a call to the Pharisees and religious leaders to come and be a part of the Kingdom of God, not to stand outside the kingdom because they are afraid or envious of or disgusted by those whom Jesus is welcoming into the kingdom.

Thus, the call of discipleship in Luke 14:25-35 is firstly and primarily to the Pharisees and religious leaders, as he is in the home of a Pharisee, having dinner on one Sabbath (14:1). Jesus intentionally confronts the religious leaders, even as they have set him up to perform a miracle of healing there at dinnertime on the Sabbath at the home of the Pharisee, which would have been a big “no-no” as well as a “breaking” of the Sabbath law regarding work done on the day of rest. Jesus walks right into the trap the religious leaders have set for him, and calls them out, pointing out their hypocrisy, how they themselves don’t even follow the Sabbath law regarding work, so why should he?

This ties in neatly with Jesus’ call to the Pharisees and religious leaders, setting the stage for his call of discipleship to them: pointing out their hypocrisy, he shows how bankrupt they are before God, law-breakers as they already are and so, according to the law itself, deserving of death–indeed, God’s eternal wrath. Thus, Jesus calls in Luke 14:25-35 the Pharisees and religious leaders not to count the cost of whether it’s worth it to follow him, but to abandon all hope in anything else or anyone else, both the Law and Moses included, and to submit to his coming kingdom, which has already come with the King before them. The parable of the king who has not enough troops to fight the coming king, but must surrender, is the point of the whole passage: Jesus is not calling the religious leaders to count the cost, but to give up everything whatever the cost! If they don’t submit to him and his kingship, then, when he comes in his glory, they’ll be worse than burnt toast.

The historical context is one wherein Rome ruled the roost, and when the Roman Emperor came against someone, it would behoove that person or people group to submit to Caesar, lest they suffer a painful and excruciating death, possibly even crucifixion. Indeed, to resist Rome and its Pax Romana would be to wish death upon yourself. Furthermore, the Roman Emperors, for all their civility and kindnesses, were as ruthless as any ancient powerhouse of the day. The current safeguards in America were absent in ancient Rome, especially if you were not a Roman citizen, in which case you were a second-class citizen, if you were lucky, and possibly even considered subhuman.

To be a Jew in first-century Palestine and beyond provided some privileges, as the worship of Yahweh and the exercise of Mosaic Law. However, it also proved to be a challenge, as great discrimination might come upon the Jews for their religious and sociocultural divergent ways, living in a way that was unlike and unusual to the Roman citizen and commoner alike. Thus, the Jews were permitted with a modicum of tolerance to worship their God in the temple in Jerusalem, but were largely looked upon with disregard; some God-fearers did admire the Jewish way of life and adhered to the Jewish laws and culture, though not to the full extent of becoming circumcised. Still, the Jew, especially the common Jew, like Jesus and his disciples, would not have been considered anyone of great import.

For Jesus, then, to assert that his kingdom required complete and utter surrender would have sounded crazy to the Pharisees and religious leaders, because Jesus was a nobody from nowhere, an insignificant Jew from the backwards backwoods of Nazareth, far from the great city of Jerusalem, the center of social, economic, and religious enterprise in the world of the Jews. Jesus was no king, let alone anyone to command the complete and utter surrender of everyone around him to submission to his rule and reign.

Thus, to read the Bible, as Luke 14:25-35, we must read it in its original historical context, wherein we find much sociopolitical influences upon the text; we also find the literary context to be a complex of various grammatical, lexical interplays with the sociopolitical context of the day. Digging into a text of the Bible, let alone the Bible as a whole, requires not just a spoon, but a whole backhoe: to dig with a spoon will afford us a spoonful of insight; however, to dig with a backhoe will afford us with a greater context in which greater insight will obtain. We cannot read the Bible, until we have not read the Bible; that is, we must read as much as we can about not just the Bible, but everything we can about the context in which the Bible was written. Then, we can extrapolate general truths from that historical contextual interplay, which we might apply to our own context in a particular way.

Interpreting the Bible, especially today with the interconnectivity of information systems online, does not necessarily require experts, like preachers, priests, or professors. It does, however, require a basic understanding of hermeneutics, which is essentially to read and interpret the biblical text within its context, and let the reading be determined not by our preconceived notions of what the text says but what the text tells us, in light of the ancient context from which it comes down to us today.