Reading The BibleHow? When? Why?

The Bible is NOT a rule book

• Most of the bible isn’t rules and regulations, or creeds (things to believe)

• When people look at it this way, someone stakes out a position from which to criticize others...it’s all black and white...

• Leviticus for example, or what Jesus says in the Gospels (The Beatitudes), or polygamy in the OT, or even how to do church…

• This is how you make a legalist…

The Bible is NOT written DIRECTLY to us

• The entire bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is culturally conditioned.

• In other words, it’s written to a certain people at a certain time for certain reasons...1 Cor. 13, Genesis 1, The Letters of Paul

• And not recognizing this turns Scripture into something it’s not and makes it do things it was never intended to do...

The Bible is NOT meant to be read without context

• Phil. 4:13• This is not a verse on

conquering the world• Jeremiah 29• Most of these people

who go into exile never come back…

• Leadership lessons from Nehemiah 13:25

The Bible is NOT history NOR fairy tale

• Neither historical inquiry in the way we know it today nor creative nonfiction existed

• Round numbers, different temple cleansings

• The Gospels are not written by reporters as we know it

• Doing theology• But they are also eyewitnesses,

and many historical things have validated the Bible

The Bible IS full of different types of writing

• Historical books, the Law, the Psalms, the Wisdom Literature, The Prophets, The Gospels, The Letters, Apocalyptic literature

• Different genres require different types of reading

The Bible IS primarily a narrative

• The hero of which is GOD (the Bible is not about YOU)

• The point of which is Jesus

• Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, Church, The End

• We live between “Church” and “The End”

Let the Bible be the Bible.

• We can’t belittle Scripture by bringing the world’s models of authority into it (Constitution, etc.).

• We must then make sure that the church, armed in this way, is challenging the world’s view of authority…this book is different…

• Invitation, not ultimatum! • Within Christianity, we must also

not force theology before we allow it to speak…

• The real authority of Scripture is in its story…

Narrative authority

• Think of any movie you’ve seen with a narrator…

• The narrator’s authority comes from the story…

• Stories themselves have INCREDIBLE authority!

• Stories have a unique power to change people – all the more when we are talking about the story of God as ‘the immanent lover of the human race.’

What kind of Story?

• A postmodern person would view the Bible as just a collection of odd stories.

• Postmodern scholars might say that the biblical text is “a multi-voiced tapestry” that can be interpreted in “myriads of ways.” They would see no central interpretive principle at all in the Bible.

• They’re kind of right…• Yet, if the Bible is the record of the

self-revelation of God to the world, we would expect there to be a plot and direction to the Story.

Which way?

• Metanarrative!!• "Big Story” 11 (there are more, but here

are a few) themes that run all the way through…

•  1.  The Incarnation• 2.  The Two Covenants• 3.  Salvation History• 4. Worldview Approach• 5.  Drama• 6.  The Jewish Two-Age View of History• 7.  The Hebrew Prophetic Tradition• 8.  The Promised Line• 9.  The Presence of God• 10. The Mission of God (Missio Dei)• 11. The Kingdom of God

A five act play

• Act One: (Creation). Whatever means God uses to create the world it’s a crucial feature of the play that creation is good and that humans are in God’s image.

• Act Two: (Fall) God’s good creation is full of rebellion: evil and idolatry become real features of the world.

• Act Three: (Israel) The story of Israel as the covenant people of God for the world. This act begins with the Abrahamic covenant and ends with the Jewish anticipation of an event in which God will liberate Israel from spiritual exile and reveal himself as the world’s true King.

• Act Four (Jesus) The story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. As the climax of the narrative it represents the inauguration of a new kingdom in which death and sin are being reversed throughout all of creation.

• Act Five: (New Testament and the people of God). The New Testament forms the first scene of this act. The church is the people of God, in Christ, for the world; their job is to act in character: to live out Act Five by showing the world the true way of being human and to bring about God’s victory over evil on earth. This largely involves living out (“improvising and retelling”) God’s story and gospel – namely that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead to ‘put the world to rights.’

Why care?

“The story of the Bible, and the power that it possesses, is a better story than

any of the power games that we play in our world. We must tell this story, and

let it exercise its power in the world. And that is the task of the whole church.”—

NT Wright

Now what?

• We’ve looked at the BIG picture…

• Narrative (Meta)• Multiple themes• 5 act play of Scripture• How?• Hermeneutics! • Exegesis vs. Eisegesis• “Lead out” vs. “Lead into”

Attitude is everything

“Exegesis and eisegesis are two conflicting approaches in Bible study. Exegesis is the exposition or explanation of a text based on a careful, humble, prayerful analysis. The word exegesis literally means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text. The opposite approach to Scripture is eisegesis, which is the interpretation of a passage based on a non-analytical reading that is careless with the text and prideful in its approach. The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants. To read the Bible means to SUBMIT to it, not make it submit to you.”

A Method

• Step #1: Meaning THEN…• Pray.• Set the limits of the passage.• Get familiar with it!

• Read it several times, maybe write it out word for word, ask questions! Bring in your senses! All kinds of things you can do here!

• Be honest about your assumptions and presuppositions…• Your background• How would someone else read

this?

A Method

• Step #1: Meaning THEN…• Historical and Cultural

Contexts?!• Is it important HERE in this

text?!• Literary Context• Maybe MOST important• Read before and after• Read in light of the rest of

Scripture

A Method

• Step #1: Meaning THEN…• Examine the content…• Genre?• Important details?

• How would the original audience have heard it?• How would the first

readers have heard it?• What does it mean?

A Method

• Step #2: From THEN to NOW…(Bridging the GAP)• Theology• What does this text say

about God?• Where is Jesus in the text?

• Canonical Context• Other passages in the Bible

that speak to the matter at hand?

A Method

• Step #3: Meaning Now• Points of Contact?• Between our culture and

theirs?• May not be obvious…

• Between their faith and ours?• Ways of hearing?• Function?• Command, illustrate, warning,

etc.?• “Come and See”• “Go and Do”