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What are the primary considerations I should remember when I read the Bible?
When you read the Bible, the very first thing you need to remember is that you are reading God’s story. That may sound like a no-brainer, but we often approach the Bible looking to learn something about us. When we do, we get a small part of what’s available. We need to learn about God. The more we learn about God, the more we can understand where we’re at and where we need to go. That said:
Reading the Bible isn't like reading any other book, and yet it is. The more you know about the book itself and the time in which it was written, the better you’ll be able to understand it. For example, if you’re reading a story and the writer says a character is “gay,” you have an immediate idea of what that means. But, if the story was written a hundred years ago, you would be wrong in your assumption. A hundred years ago (and even less), “gay” meant “happy.” (Do you remember when the Flintstones had “a gay old time”?)
So, Rule 1: Don’t make assumptions based on your own understanding. How does that work? One of the things that will help is to have multiple versions of the Bible. (See “What version of the Bible should I read?” for more on translations.) Sometimes a word means something to us that is different from what the translator intended. A good example would be in the King James Version, men were said to “know” their wives. “Know” is a euphemism for “had sex with.” Hardly anyone uses it today. Instead today “know” generally means “has a pretty good acquaintance with.”
Another point about our assumptions is that we might have been taught erroneous information before, but we assume we were taught correctly. For example, most translations of the Bible say that there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the “inn” but a simple study of the word Luke used in verse 2:7 shows us that it was actually katalyma. The most common meaning for that word was “guest room.” Virtually every Judean peasant’s house had an upper room which was often used as a guest room for out-of-town visitors or as a “honeymoon suite” for newlyweds. Do you see how those facts can change our understanding of the nativity story?
The way we can find these things is through the use of Bible dictionaries, commentaries and concordances with the Greek & Hebrew words. (See “How do I use resources like concordances, commentaries and Bible dictionaries?” for more information.)
Rule 2: Always, always, always read in context. Do not ever use a verse as a stand-alone passage. Every verse of the Bible has a context. Even Proverbs, which often contains short pithy sayings that are unrelated to the verse before or after, has a context. It’s wisdom literature and if you don’t understand the meaning and purpose of ancient wisdom literature, you’ll get yourself in trouble with Proverbs! Most of the Proverbs are not promises from God, and yet we use them as such. (e.g. Train a child in the way he should go and when he’s old he will not depart from it. That is not a promise from God! It is wisdom.) An excellent resource for a simple understanding of context of different styles of literature in the Bible is How to Read the Bible Book by Book by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.
Most verses of the Bible fit into a paragraph, which fits into a passage which is related to the passages before and after it. You need to understand the whole flow to properly understand the parts. In fact, you can safely disregard all chapter and verse numbering in the Bible. The numbering system was not inspired! (Check out Luke 9:30 and 20:30 for two very interesting verses.) It was added many years after the canon of scripture was closed. Also, headings in the Bible are also extraneous. They are not inspired.
Part of context includes understanding themes are central to a book. How to Read the Bible Book by Book and commentaries are great for learning about themes and understanding context when it’s a little confusing.
Rule 3: Always look first for what a passage teaches you about God. As I said above, the Bible is primarily about God. In fact, it is the only reliable objective source we have for understanding him. Yes, the Holy Spirit does dwell in us and helps us understand God, but our own desires and our previously held beliefs can keep us from properly hearing what the Holy Spirit is communicating. When you think you hear something from the Holy Spirit, check it against the Bible first. If you think you hear the Holy Spirit saying to divorce your wife and marry another woman, you’re wrong! That would violate God’s clearly stated rules about divorce, from both the Old and the New Testaments.
Rule 4: After you get an understanding of what the passage teaches you about God, next try to understand what it teaches you about the people in the Bible. This is critical. Every book of the Bible was written primarily to teach the original readers something about God and their relationship with him. With the exception of some prophecies, the Bible was not written with the intention that someday down the road people would understand a “deeper meaning.” It was written for the people who read it! It is true that there are some prophecies that were not fully understood at the time of the original writing, but every prophecy had a meaning for the people who originally received it. Before you can try to apply a passage to your own life, you have to understand it the way the original readers would have.
Rule 5: The Old Testament must be filtered through the New. The Old Testament was the old covenant which Jesus fulfilled on the cross. The new covenant, as the prophet Jeremiah had promised, is written on hearts. It is made with individuals, not with a country. As God showed Peter in Acts 10, some of the portions of the law have been fulfilled in such a way that they do not apply anymore. Before you try to apply passages from the Old Testament to your life today, you have to make sure that they still stand under the new covenant. The best way to do that is to find where the New Testament either reaffirms the passage or makes it obsolete. Two that are easy to find are clean-unclean laws and the rite of circumcision. One of the quickest ways to find related passages is by using a cross-reference Bible.
Rule 6: Only after you have fully understood a passage the way the original readers did can you get a universal truth out of the passage. That’s what you need to get to before you can legitimately apply the Bible to your life!
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