Bible 101
What is the Bible?
- The Bible is not a book, but it is many books.
- It is best to think of the Bible as a library.
- ·It contains legal codes, narratives, poems, songs, letters, etc. It was written over hundreds of years by many different authors with many different intents for many different audiences.
- The Bible is the documentation of how the ancient Jewish and Christian communities interpreted their very real experiences of God’s presence and activity in their lives.
Different ways of understanding the Bible’s authority
- Monarchical vs. dialogical
- Monarchical: has all the answers for us and commands and directs our lives.
- Dialogical: as a conversation partner. It does not “rule” over us like a king but it is something the Christian community has been, and should remain, in conversation with throughout time.
- Many biblical scholars now argue that the authors most likely never intended for the Bible to be read monarchically, but rather dialogically. We can see this in the fact that the Bible starts off with two different versions of the Creation story or has four different stories of Jesus’ life.
- “I take joy when scripture contradicts itself, because this indicates that God’s truth is far more complicated than my truth. If we use it to make life easy, we betray how scripture makes truth work.” - Dr. Diane Jacobson
Biblical Inspiration:
Some different ways of understanding biblical inspiration:
Some different ways of understanding biblical inspiration:
It’s important to think about what we expect from the Bible:
We often approach the Bible with inappropriate expectations. We expect scientific and historical facts or answers or proofs when those were never what the authors intended to provide. It is important to be honest about the expectations, prejudices and baggage we bring with us to the text.
It’s important to think about what we expect from the Bible:
We often approach the Bible with inappropriate expectations. We expect scientific and historical facts or answers or proofs when those were never what the authors intended to provide. It is important to be honest about the expectations, prejudices and baggage we bring with us to the text.
Questions that are useful to ask when reading scripture:
- How do these verses reveal my brokenness and how do they offer me healing and hope?
- How do I see Christ in these verses?
- How do these verses connect to the overall biblical story?
- How were people expected to understand these verses in the first place?
- How might someone in a completely different life-situation interpret these verses?