De-Mystifying the Bible (at Least a Little Bit)*
by Diana L. Hynson

The Bible—the Holy Scriptures—is a book of books about God, what we have experienced of God over many centuries, what we have recorded about God’s activities and interactions with Israel and the ancient world.

To those who are unacquainted with the Scriptures, there may be a certain mystique about what the Bible is, what it says, and what it means. Even those of us with a seminary education and/or who have been thoroughly immersed in the Scriptures can’t agree on everything! So, whether you are a novice or expert at the Bible, if it seems mysterious to you, there is good reason. At the same time, God longs to be known, and the Bible is one of the means by which God is revealed to us.

Here are a few pointers to help new Christians or biblically inexperienced Christians take the plunge into the Bible.

First, and most important—don’t be afraid to read it and try to figure it out on your own. If scholars haven’t come to consensus for hundreds of years, there’s no fault to you if something seems strange or unclear. Remember that we are 2000 years away from the historical Jesus and much, much farther from the Old Testament events. Someone from the 40th century picking up a 2008 whodunit might need some help understanding the idioms, 21st century stuff (what’s a gun?), and history, at the least. So, use a good study Bible with notes and cross-references to help understand customs, terms, history, and context. Since the Bible is one of God’s many ways to speak directly to you, also try to leave your mind and heart open to what that word might be. Then check it out with others you trust.

The Bible is a book of books, written over time. There are many understandings of who wrote the Bible, and there are numerous contributors. Suffice to say here that much of the Old Testament, at least, was shared as oral history before being written and collected. When it was collected in writing, it was copied and tweaked (with and without copyist mistakes) over and over again. The texts of what we know as the Old Testament were centuries old before they became “official,” over time, around the end of the first century A.D. (though that is also by no means certain).

The events in the Old Testament span several millennia; the New Testament, about two centuries. Keep in mind that the biblical text tends to compress time, as if events happened more quickly or contemporaneously than they did. Remember the sweep of time as you read. If we read one of the Gospels straight through, it could seem as if everything happened over the course of a few days or weeks, rather than years.

The Bible books are not in chronological or historical order (which is sometimes highly inconvenient!). Everything in the Old Testament happened before the New Testament, and the first five books of the Old Testament are roughly in some chronological order, but not the prophets, for example. All of the Gospels were written after the letters of Paul, and Paul’s letters are in order of length, not date. What this means is that you need to do a bit of historical homework by reading the introduction to the biblical book in a good study Bible to help get oriented to the time, cultural location, and so on.

The chapter and line verses were not original to the texts, but added to aid in our reading and organization. Scripture references note the book, then the chapter, then the verse or verses, such as John 3:16—the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16. Bibles include a table of contents, and it’s there to be used. Some books, such as Philemon, are only one chapter, so that reference would be to book and verse, as in Philemon 10.

Some books have the same name. That I, II, or III before the name of a book means something. There are two letters to the Corinthians, for example, and they are not the same. Another example -- there are three short letters ascribed to John that are each different from the Gospel of John.

There is a multitude of translations and paraphrases of the Bible, and they are not all equally good. You might want to have more than one “flavor” to help with understanding. The New Revised Standard Version and the New International Version are the two biblical translations used in the highly acclaimed The New Interpreters Bible commentary series. Those Bibles were translated from the original texts of the ancient Scriptures from (mainly) Hebrew and Greek. The Message, for example, is a paraphrase that started with the English translation and reworded it into colorful and colloquial, English-based phraseology and idioms. This does not carry the same weight or accuracy of an actual translation, though the different twist of phrase can bring some insight.

Any Bible in English (or Spanish or French or something other than the original languages) is at least one step away from the original biblical text. It is subject to the nuances of the language into which it is translated, and that language itself changes over time. Compare, for example, the King James Bible (ca 1611), which was actually a revision of earlier Bibles and the New Revised Standard Version (1989).

The Bible means what it means, but not necessarily just exactly what it says. Virtually any specific text is interpreted somehow. While this statement can open a huge debate on the doctrine of Scripture and the interpretation of Scripture, we can probably agree that Scripture should be studied. When it says something happened in 40 days or 40 years, for example, that may really mean a generation or a general passage of time.

There are some teachings, laws, practices, and portrayals of God that seem troubling and difficult to believe. Some are more benign, like the law against eating pork (Leviticus 11:3-8) or shellfish (11:9-12) and against wearing a garment made of different kinds of fabric (19:19), and Christians typically ignore them. Others are much more difficult. Some seem excessively bloodthirsty (1 Samuel 15:1-3 or Psalm 137:7-9, for example) or contradictory (see for example Matthew 10:34 and John 16:32-33). How do we reconcile all this?

First, we return to the issues of culture and history. We are thousands of years and miles removed from the events, culture, history, land, and way of life. We have a different set of civil laws that govern life like it is now, though they are certainly based on biblical ethics. (It’s still not nice to steal or kill!) Biblical laws and precepts, especially those very specific laws in the Old Testament, relate to life like it was then. When we sort through those that we might take with a grain of salt and those that are still universal, we take the entire Bible into account. As a whole, the Bible portrays a God and Savior of love and grace, of justice and accountability. Any specific text is viewed and interpreted according to the best that scholarship (and God’s speaking) can tell us about it as well as its place in the whole. What is the message “underneath” the text?

Second, depend on the wisdom of the community. First John 4:1-6 speaks of “testing the spirits” in order to discern the true from the false. Christian faith is nothing if not communal. The Bible is a book for the community first, not just for any individual. It tells us how to live together as well as what our roles and responsibilities are as members of the community of God.

Third, weigh the text against your best biblical/theological understanding of love, grace, accountability, and justice. This may be another way to ask, “What would Jesus do or understand?” As United Methodists, we consider another set of filters, which we refer to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. We consider Scripture to be primary and also recognize that we understand and filter our doctrine of Scripture (as a whole) and certain texts (in particular) through our traditions, experiences, and reasoning. Scriptural interpretation is formed and informed by those three filters and those three filters are informed and formed by Scripture. To understand the pieces, we must also look at the whole.

So, in short form, keep these questions in mind:

• What do I think this Scripture passage means?
• What do I know of the history, culture, and context of this passage and time period?
• How is God/ Jesus / the Holy Spirit presented in this passage and is it consistent with the broad range of what we know and have experienced?
• How does it square with a biblical/theological understanding of love, grace, accountability, and justice?
• What might God be saying to the community and also to me through the Bible?
• How does the community confirm (or not) what I think is true about it?