I spent nearly a decade preaching the Bible and somewhere in there I was also, without fully realizing it, preaching a set of assumptions about the Bible that I had never actually examined.
Great thanks Beau. I think the one verse that, to me anyway, is fairly unambiguous and doesn’t seem to need too much sophisticated interpretation is Jesus’ command to love your neighbour as yourself. Yet it remains one of the most ignored teachings of the Bible.
This is why “I just read what the Bible says” usually means “I inherited an interpretation and mistook it for God’s handwriting.” The Bible is a library, not a vending machine for culture-war snacks. Context matters. Genre matters. History matters. May the proof-text warriors be gently freed from laminated certainty.
This is so profound. You wrote this just like my pastor will do before he starts any teaching series.
Sometimes we input our meanings into the Bible just to suit our ourselves while forgetting that for every interpretation, we have to sit where the original audience sat. Recognising identification unifiers, motifs and codified languages across the Bible helps us to grasp the minds of the writers and how it applies to our world today because the Bible will not mean today what it doesn't mean when it was written. Many examples in the Bible are descriptive and not prescriptive in nature. They are there for us to learn. In fact, most of the epistles.
Another problem is trying to read the Bible in verses and chapters rather than paragraphs forgetting that it was written as letters.
Thank you for showing that there are still people invested in proper Bible interpretation ❤️
Excellent piece! Regarding Job, I don't know how many Christians look at it like I do. Probably not many - most Biblical literalists are a serious bunch - but I see it as a comedic treatise lampooning the way in which religious people blame suffering on a person's secret sins. That's what Job's friends, mainly, are doing. But the reader is told right at the very beginning that Job is the most righteous man in the world. The reader is also given the entire reason why Job is suffering - it's a bet made between God and Satan. If anything, Job is suffering *because of* his extreme righteousness. It's not a document telling us that Satan is behind all suffering. It's not supposed to be a document that tells us that Satan exists at all, although much 'satanology' (is that a word) i.e. what Christians think of Satan as being, is obtained from Job's story. All that story part is simply to explain where Job's suffering comes from, so that the reader sees right from the start that it's not Job's secret sins. And the language of Job's friends is beautiful, and contains much truth. But it is not intended to be held up as definitive, nor indeed is the story of Job supposed to be a true narrative. It may well be, but that's not what it's for.
#3 is my favorite! Realizing that the Bible is a collection of varied genres makes reading anything in it a genuine adventure. Thanks for a great overview.
“Plus, every translation you read is already an interpretation.” Honestly, wouldn’t you say that long before the translators translated we had scribes making individual decisions as well based on what seemed culturally appropriate or doctrinally right. How much had the “New Testament” already been interpreted through micro decisions like those in the first 200 years of the church?
Beth - Yes! I’ve long wondered how much the bible is like the children’s “telephone game” with the message relayed across centuries, languages, contexts…. Even a choice about whether & where to punctuate can yield very different meanings (famously: eats shoots and leaves 😉). Given we’ve always been fallible humans, sometimes perhaps humans with our own agenda in how we pass the message along, seems sorta unrealistic to claim the bible we read today is exactly what the first scribe jotted down
This is so wonderfully practical. I did one year of an MTS degree at Vanderbilt Divinity School and these echo much of the knowledge I was exposed to. Can't wait to read your book, Beau. Thanks for your important work.
I had found the Bible for a matter of months before I studied it with members of a cult. I was not prepared. I grew up Catholic and our giant white Bible with scary pictures was kept open on a shelf. I raised my children in fear, fear of questioning and thinking and in turn damaged them and their ability to accept faith in Jesus. This is a great start for people. I think we all need to keep reminding ourselves and each other that we are constantly learning, constantly revising. I’m going through a hard time right now, an emotional crisis if you will regarding decisions made in my life with the version of the Bible you have described. It is painful. We were given a mind. It should not be dismissed for anyone and I’ve learned that God is not scared of my questions.
I’m glad I found your page. I’m also interested in the place where theology, Scripture, culture, and the moral condition of modern society meet.
I’m currently working on several theological essays and arguments — especially about Christ, freedom, secular liberalism, weakness, redemption, and the way broken people try to become whole again before God.
Do you actually think inerrancy originated with protestants in 1978? I know you are speaking of it in a protestant context and you don't define it at all but the general idea is held to outside of protestantism. Gregory of Nazianzus (4th century): "We however, who extend the accuracy of the Spirit to the merest stroke and tittle, will never admit the impious assertion that even the smallest matters were dealt with haphazard by those who have recorded them..."
Thank you, Beau. You summarize so well some questions I’ve asked (rhetorically) for decades - then you provide sensible, spiritual answers. This one here is a keeper for me 💖
Great thanks Beau. I think the one verse that, to me anyway, is fairly unambiguous and doesn’t seem to need too much sophisticated interpretation is Jesus’ command to love your neighbour as yourself. Yet it remains one of the most ignored teachings of the Bible.
This is why “I just read what the Bible says” usually means “I inherited an interpretation and mistook it for God’s handwriting.” The Bible is a library, not a vending machine for culture-war snacks. Context matters. Genre matters. History matters. May the proof-text warriors be gently freed from laminated certainty.
This is so profound. You wrote this just like my pastor will do before he starts any teaching series.
Sometimes we input our meanings into the Bible just to suit our ourselves while forgetting that for every interpretation, we have to sit where the original audience sat. Recognising identification unifiers, motifs and codified languages across the Bible helps us to grasp the minds of the writers and how it applies to our world today because the Bible will not mean today what it doesn't mean when it was written. Many examples in the Bible are descriptive and not prescriptive in nature. They are there for us to learn. In fact, most of the epistles.
Another problem is trying to read the Bible in verses and chapters rather than paragraphs forgetting that it was written as letters.
Thank you for showing that there are still people invested in proper Bible interpretation ❤️
Critical 5 assumptions. So much damage done by not having this framework.
Excellent piece! Regarding Job, I don't know how many Christians look at it like I do. Probably not many - most Biblical literalists are a serious bunch - but I see it as a comedic treatise lampooning the way in which religious people blame suffering on a person's secret sins. That's what Job's friends, mainly, are doing. But the reader is told right at the very beginning that Job is the most righteous man in the world. The reader is also given the entire reason why Job is suffering - it's a bet made between God and Satan. If anything, Job is suffering *because of* his extreme righteousness. It's not a document telling us that Satan is behind all suffering. It's not supposed to be a document that tells us that Satan exists at all, although much 'satanology' (is that a word) i.e. what Christians think of Satan as being, is obtained from Job's story. All that story part is simply to explain where Job's suffering comes from, so that the reader sees right from the start that it's not Job's secret sins. And the language of Job's friends is beautiful, and contains much truth. But it is not intended to be held up as definitive, nor indeed is the story of Job supposed to be a true narrative. It may well be, but that's not what it's for.
#3 is my favorite! Realizing that the Bible is a collection of varied genres makes reading anything in it a genuine adventure. Thanks for a great overview.
“Plus, every translation you read is already an interpretation.” Honestly, wouldn’t you say that long before the translators translated we had scribes making individual decisions as well based on what seemed culturally appropriate or doctrinally right. How much had the “New Testament” already been interpreted through micro decisions like those in the first 200 years of the church?
And not threatening to allow it to be so, right? But how many of us feared our own heresy if we considered it!
Beth - Yes! I’ve long wondered how much the bible is like the children’s “telephone game” with the message relayed across centuries, languages, contexts…. Even a choice about whether & where to punctuate can yield very different meanings (famously: eats shoots and leaves 😉). Given we’ve always been fallible humans, sometimes perhaps humans with our own agenda in how we pass the message along, seems sorta unrealistic to claim the bible we read today is exactly what the first scribe jotted down
This is so wonderfully practical. I did one year of an MTS degree at Vanderbilt Divinity School and these echo much of the knowledge I was exposed to. Can't wait to read your book, Beau. Thanks for your important work.
I had found the Bible for a matter of months before I studied it with members of a cult. I was not prepared. I grew up Catholic and our giant white Bible with scary pictures was kept open on a shelf. I raised my children in fear, fear of questioning and thinking and in turn damaged them and their ability to accept faith in Jesus. This is a great start for people. I think we all need to keep reminding ourselves and each other that we are constantly learning, constantly revising. I’m going through a hard time right now, an emotional crisis if you will regarding decisions made in my life with the version of the Bible you have described. It is painful. We were given a mind. It should not be dismissed for anyone and I’ve learned that God is not scared of my questions.
Great article Before one says, "That's what the bible says." One should know what the Bible says.
So much I totally disagree with.
I’m glad I found your page. I’m also interested in the place where theology, Scripture, culture, and the moral condition of modern society meet.
I’m currently working on several theological essays and arguments — especially about Christ, freedom, secular liberalism, weakness, redemption, and the way broken people try to become whole again before God.
Do you actually think inerrancy originated with protestants in 1978? I know you are speaking of it in a protestant context and you don't define it at all but the general idea is held to outside of protestantism. Gregory of Nazianzus (4th century): "We however, who extend the accuracy of the Spirit to the merest stroke and tittle, will never admit the impious assertion that even the smallest matters were dealt with haphazard by those who have recorded them..."
Thank you, Beau. You summarize so well some questions I’ve asked (rhetorically) for decades - then you provide sensible, spiritual answers. This one here is a keeper for me 💖
You are an amazing teacher. I have learned so much from you.
Good 👍