The Bible is one of the most popular books of all time. Just take a look around. You can buy bibles online. You can buy bibles at the bookstore. You can buy bibles at stores like K-mart and Walmart. I’ve even seen them at the grocery store. You can buy bibles just about anywhere. The bible is the best selling book of all time.
As we read the Bible, we should do so with a few guides in mind, which will help us to understand and appreciate it, and to interpret it honestly and fairly.
We should try to check the accuracy of translation. This is not easy to do since most of us are not familiar with the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. We can study a great number of translations and scholarly commentaries and thereby arrive at the opinion of men of learning. Our only other check is our own practical wisdom and the inspiration we may seek and receive from the Lord.
We should read each book within the Bible as a separate work, seeking to learn what we can about the language, author, people, and circumstances of the day. This we can do by referring to a good Bible commentary and by studying the best historical works on the subject. Often the latter are less prejudiced and fair than books published by churches. The little book of Amos, for example, becomes much richer in meaning if we now that Amos lived in the Eighth Century B.B. in Judea and went north to the Kingdom of Israel at the a time when Israel was enjoying a post-war prosperity and the people were both self-righteous, shallow, and hypocritical in their “religious life.”
We should keep in mind the Spirit and emphasis of Jesus Christ. Christians, who look to Jesus Christ as the great teacher, revelator of the Father, the Son of God, and their Savior and Redeemer, do well to make his life and teaching normative for their own interpretations of scripture and religion. He fulfilled and thereby did away with many things in the Old Testament. Other teachings he strongly affirmed and strengthened.
We should have his concept of God and man in mind as we read all scripture. When we find ideas which seem to contradict his Spirit and teachings in the scriptures, then we cannot accept them for ourselves and live by them. Either our interpretation is wrong or there is an error of translation, or there is a teaching adapted to people of different needs, circumstances, or understanding, or there is some other human limitation in the picture. Great fundamentals of religion are found in the Bible, including the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel, although contained in the Bible, is greater than the Book. So we use the Gospel to interpret all passages in the Bible.
We should remember the poetic character and the rich imagery of Biblical writers. Jesus himself chose strong figures of speech to drive a great religious truth home. He said, for example, “Ye are the salt of the earth…Ye are the light of the world…Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers…O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets…” The religious teaching implicit in these sayings is to be taken literally, but not always the figure of speech which makes the teaching remembered.
We should read the scripture with humility, prayerfully seeking inspiration from Deity as we read. If they were written by men of God under his inspiration, surely the same kind of attitude is needed by the reader and by the student if he is to gain what went into their writing. When we read poetry, we do so in a poetic mood, with feeling s well as thought, searching for the mood of the poem. Much scripture is also poetic and cannot be appreciated except with feeling, with aspiration, and with a desire to worship. The Bible is not a treatise in philosophy, nor a scientific textbook, nor a scholarly, thoroughgoing historical chronicle, nor even a text in theology. It is a deeply religious and moral work, trying to teach Israel and all men how to worship and serve God and how to deal fairly and considerately with fellow men.
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