How to Read Your Bible

Intro: Famous Messages

Reading the Bible is a matter of your convictions

-what you believe about God and His Word will profoundly shape the way you read the Bible.

The goal of reading: understanding authorial intent (the golden rule of reading: do to authors as you would want readers to do to you)

the most basic question a reader must ask is “what does this text mean?”

it is impossible to validly answer that question without understanding and respecting the author’s intent.

if an authors intent is not of central importance, then communication itself loses its meaning!

This is true for human authors—

How many times in life has someone taken an email or text message you sent the wrong way, and you find yourself saying “that’s not what I meant!”

Without clarity about what the author intended to convey, our understanding will be compromised.

The problem with Amelia Besdelia is that she passes right over what the author/speaker was intending by their use of a figure of speech

A modern paradigm for reading: reader response.

the goal for the modern reader is not to find the meaning placed in the text by the author, but to create meaning for themselves.

there is no fixed meaning, you read a text and you create its unique meaning for yourself

for the modern reader, reading is not about discovery, but about creation

reading has become an incredibly self-centered act…you do not read to encounter another mind (that of the author) but merely to be entertained by the fancies of your own mind.

—> We engage in reader response all the time—in a bible study have you ever said (or heard someone else say) “This is what this verse means to me”? That is reader response.

Putting everyone in their proper place: The Author and the Reader

1. The Author

What is Scripture?

-the self-disclosure of God

-it is a divine communication to mankind

What does this imply?

-that God desires to be known

-that God desires us to understand his Word

Two tiers of authors of Scripture

The human authors

We often jump straight past the human authors as unimportant in Scripture, but that is simply not the case

God could have simply given us Scriptures written by His own hand—in fact this happens once in Scripture

Exodus 31:1

Exodus 31:18 NKJV

And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

The fact that God does not normally use that method, but writes through Scripture through the personality of human authors, tells us there is something important about that process.

The human authors each bring a unique background of experience and way of writing that enhances our understanding of the meaning of the text.

Moses’s writing—highlights the great and faithful character of God to a stubborn, stiff-necked people with the insight of one who wandered the wilderness with them for 40 years.

David’s psalm’s are written by one who has experienced much blessing and much sorrow—his life informs the Psalms he writes

—>

John writes his gospel with a theological (rather than narrative) emphasis—employing right imagery (the word “light” for example) and literary devices (double entendre)

Luke writes not as an eyewitness but as a careful historian, forensically marshalling the evidence to convince a third party.

Paul writes as someone who is painfully aware of his debt of grace to God—his theology of justification has the personal impact of his awareness of his unworthiness.

Our understanding of the text is enhanced by the human authorship of Scripture.

The Divine Author

The human authors write under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit

2 Peter 1:16–21 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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What are implications of God’s divine authorship of Scripture?

He desires to be understood

He speaks with clarity (perspicuity of the Scriptures)

He speaks without error (the inerrancy of Scripture)

His word is authoritative (the authority of Scripture)

His word is without contradiction (the self-consistency of Scripture)

His word will endure (the preservation of the Scripture)

> Therefore I say that right reading of the Scripture is about conviction, because reading the Bible correctly requires foundational beliefs that impact the way you read it.

I do not read the new Fredrick Douglass biography by David Blight with the expectation that the author will be without error in his presentation of the facts or his conclusions about those facts.

I do not read Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning with the idea that Frankl’s ideas about my psychological motivations have authority over the way in which I will live my life.

I do not read the editorial section of the New York Times and expect conistency between the editorial authors.

> In other words, my beliefs about Scripture mean that I can read it unlike I read anything else.

2. The Reader (communication is a two-way street)

Remember your goal: to understand the intended meaning of the author (an even more vital task with Scripture)

Obstacles to right reading:

Our Baggage

We all bring presuppositions, pre-understanding horizons, to the text. These can be long term and short term (what would be examples of long vs. short term pre-understandings?)

longterm examples: political dispositions, educational background, family upbringing, cultural context (place in history and type of culture), etc

short-term examples: perceived needs/motivations (“I really need some encouragement today”, or “I really need help making this important decision”)

The consequence will be that we run the risk of reading things into the text from our lives, rather than reading the truth out of the Scriptures and into our lives.

We then make the Scriptures our own play thing (Thomas Jefferson bible)

It is not longer the word of God

Our Lazy Reading Habits

Unstructured (no intention), undisciplined (no principles), unfaithful (irregular) readings

A Reader Response Culture (subjective)

We are expected to find an objective truth in God’s Word

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timoth 2:15

3. Context

Immediate context (this is the passage)

Remember, words are a part of sentences, which are parts of paragraphs, which are parts of discourses.

We lose all kinds of interpretive endeavors when we fail to pay attention to context

Examples:

1. Prodigal son parable

2.

3. Romans 8

2. Metanarrative context

a. Remember this text fits within the greater story of redemption (ask—how does this fit?)

b. You will miss some of what’s there if you aren’t aware of the whole