This post is part of the
Spiritual Toolbox series.
For anyone new to the faith, I recommend starting a “toolbox” of resources to help you grow spiritually. As you mature, it’s good to have a variety of tools at your disposal: books, articles, podcasts, videos, relationships, etc.
One of those tools is a solid “how-to” manual for reading the Bible. In my opinion, the best one out there is “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.
From the publisher:
Whenever we read the Bible, we need to ask two important questions:
- What’s so?
- So what?
What’s so?
What’s being said?
How should I understand this part of the Bible? [1]
So what?
What am I supposed to do with this information? How do I apply it to my life?
For the original readers, this was a straight-forward process. It’s dangerous, however, to assume the original readers were just like us.
There are obvious similarities: all humans share some common insecurities, fears, hopes, and struggles. But there are also major differences between them and us: culture, language, geography, etc.
Those differences have to be taken into account if we’re going to understand the message the way God intended it to be understood.
Our challenge today is to read a Book that was written in the “then and there” and apply it to our lives in the “here and now.”
To do that, we rely on scholars and translators to grapple with the context and the content for us—producing accurate translations and reliable commentaries. However, we can do some of this ourselves.
Every page of the Bible was written to “everyday people” like you and me. God wants us to read it ourselves—not just rely on “professional believers” to read it for us. That’s what this little book is about.
One of the most practical chapters in the book addresses the many different translations we have today: Why are there so many and how do you pick one?
They explain the two basic approaches to translating the Bible:
1. Literal Translations are word-for-word (i.e.: English Standard Version and New American Standard Bible)
2. Dynamic Translations are thought-for-thought (i.e.: The Message and The New Living Translation)
After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, they recommend some “happy medium” versions.
This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.
The rest of the book discusses how to “use” the Bible, section by section.
- What are The Law and OT narratives good for today? What are they not good for?
- How should we use books like Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes today?
- Was the job of the prophets really the job we think it was?
- Why do we have four books about the life of Jesus?
- Did Luke want us to use the book of Acts as a manual for how we should “do church” today?
- Did Paul intend for his letters to be circulated to other churches and then used by us, 2000 years later?
- Why are there so many disagreements over the book of Revelation?
The Bible is priceless and practical, but it only helps us if we understand it as the Author intended it to be understood. This book is a great tool for increasing your ability to do just that.
From the Fray,
-bill
[1] The process of learning how to study the Bible is known as “hermeneutics.”