As Christians, the Bible is our holy book. It ostensibly contains all the truth of the world, more truth than you or I could ever grasp in our lifetimes. What the Bible tells us about a situation should be what we follow.
Too often for me, this isn't the case.
I was raised to believe the Bible was a book written mostly by Jewish men, full of outdated social mores. It was good if you wanted to use it to study history, and good if you wanted to read Jesus's words and some of the rest of the New Testament, but definitely not something to apply to today's life. Definitely not the Definitive Truth. My parents either didn't like what the Bible said, or (and I think this is more the case) they either hadn't read it or didn't know how to read it in order to get stuff out of it.
I find myself now in a culture of Christians (in fact most Evangelicals I know) who assert the Bible is the absolute and literal truth of God, and should be referred to and learned from in all situations, having truth for all parts of life. They act on this assumption through regular Bible Studies and advocating for any struggle, "read the Bible more". Do I struggle with this perception of the Bible? Of course. I'd be lying if I said I didn't.
The other problem I have is that when I read much of the Old Testament, while I like the parts that read like an instruction book (like Proverbs) or show God's miracles of power (which I've seen in real life; which hit that same sense of wonder that Star Wars instills in me, this idea of super-human power/prophecy or miracles or big action events which all fit together), my mind automatically begins tuning out when I get to lists of names and dates, or old language. Basically, it's very foreign sounding names (and while I love certain cultures' names, most of the Hebrew names I love are the bad guys). So, reading the Bible more doesn't help me. I find it eats up more of my time, but often I don't get anything out of it. Either the reading's point seems patently obvious, or it bores me and I find my mind drifting. Especially when it gets to lists of numbers of trees, pots, etc. used to build stuff, or a list of everything that's going to be destroyed, etc.
Yet, I have at least one friend who gets so much out of the Bible every time she reads. She is constantly in awe of its truth and applying it to her life. How does she do it?
So here I have some techniques for reading the Bible. I'm planning on using this blog for Bible Study insights, along with personal accountability/assessment of a Christian lifestyle and some exploration of larger Biblical topics and themes.
Bible reading aids:
- Read the NASB, the most literal version of the Bible. If you really believe it is the truth of God for your life, then you should be reading exactly what it says.
- Read the Amplified version of the Bible, which gives the implications and shades of meaning a native speaker understands, to help get some of the connotations and implied messages you may have missed.
- Read the Message version of the Bible, which is only paraphrased, not literal, but it breaks up that whole mind-drifting from foreign language structures, because it puts it in today's vernacular. I read this as if it's a friend telling me some wisdom I should know or giving me some insight into the situation. I find it's good for the New Testament but not so much for the Old Testament, where it still keeps much of the original language.
- Even reading the Bible like the Jedi Council members are saying it. Yesterday when I wrote the post on wisdom, picturing the Jedi Council members telling me it as if I were a Padawan made me accept it as wisdom (it sounded like what they'd say!) and hunger for more. It just seemed like The Truth then that I could apply to life.
- On that note, listening to the Bible. Hearing a certain pastor quote lines from the Bible helped me see them in a different light. Hearing is a different medium from reading, and can help it sink in in a different way.
Bible Reading Techniques:
If just reading the Bible straight up is not helping, take any passage and apply the following:
- What does it literally say? What does it mean? How can I apply this to my life?
- The SOAP method - basically the same as above. Say, Observe, Apply, and then Pray about how to apply it.
- The SORT method - Say, Observe, your Response to it, and then how would you Tell the truth contained in this passage to one of your non-believing friends? This one is fun because most Christians speak in Christianese. They use terms like "saved", "blood", etc. that have a whole idea or concept behind them that most Christians know but most non-Christians don't. So it can be a challenge to tell this truth in everyday terms. Plus, most non-Christians are turned off if you just quote the Bible incessantly. Better to tell them the truth and have them be amazed and question where you got it, and then reveal it's the Bible, rather than shoving the Bible down their throats.
- The Question method: What is so and so explaining? (usually the answer will be right there). Then Why, and what effect does this have? Or, if it’s an argument, who is arguing, and to whom? What is he explaining? What is he arguing? Why - what is his goal?
It would probably be easier if the Bible were some mysterious old book full of runes, which promised ancient truth* and arcane magic to the reader...
*Note: oh wait! All of the above is true (except for the arcane magic part), if you read it in its original language! Try reading Hebrew and Greek if you don't know the language - they look like runes. It's just an old book that has become so immersed in our culture that it's no longer "cool".)
