Prolegomenon
At the beginning of this year, we did something very commonplace in many Evanglical churches: we challenged our congregation to start a Bible reading plan for 2022. Challenged is a nice, amicable term, though we might begrudgingly admit that we strongly challenged our people to read Scripture. Part of the benefit of a Bible reading plan is that it forces you to be both regular and methodical in your reading, beyond what is our natural inclinations. We advanced this challenge not to burden or intimidate our people, but for the sake of their flourishing as Christians. Christians need Scripture, and we need it regularly and in large quantities.
"The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home" —Augustine
I would like to say that there is no wrong way to read Scripture, but that would be grossly misleading. There are certainly wrong ways to read the Bible (as we will discuss below), but generally speaking, any reading of Scripture is better than no reading at all. We might also observe that not every Bible reading plan is created equal—there are certainly some approaches that are better than others, but any approach that exposes you to the whole of Scripture will be greatly beneficial. If you are currently looking for a Bible reading plan, Ligonier has some excellent options to choose from (here). Christians often tend to approach Bible reading like we do diet plans—it is all or nothing, and if we stumble at all we tend to throw the whole project away in frustration. Let me encourage you not to do this with Scripture reading. Remember, Scripture is the food we need for life—do not panic if you miss a meal, but always return to the table for true sustenance.
As we are beginning the month of March, this is the time when many Bible reading plans are hitting some of the longer stretches of the Old Testament, and our resolve which shone so brightly in early January has waned quite a bit. If Leviticus is the place where Bible reading plans often die, then the weeks leading from Winter to Spring are often the time. With that being said, let me revisit some methods of Bible reading that may help us navigate those tough stretches. What follows is mainly directed at our congregation here at Grace Community Church (BC), and some of what follows is based on material from our hermeneutics coursework.
More Than Just a Book
Scripture is different than other books. By its own self-definition, Scripture alone is "God-breathed" (theopneustos, 2 Tim 3:16), which sets Scripture apart from any other book. Yet it is certainly not less than a book, which means it contains some features that are similar to other books. Books use such things as words, rules of grammar, and logical flow that are generally enduring features to reading and writing. There are also various types of writing (genre) within Scripture, there are various literary features that adorn its pages, and there are general rules of reading and interpretation that can aide us in our study.
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” —Romans 15:4
Scripture is mainly written in the languages of Koine Greek (New Testament) and Hebrew (Old Testament), though there are some portions which include Aramaic as well (notably in Daniel 2:4b–7:28 and Ezra 4:8–6:18,7:12–26). That means that having biblical references at our own disposal is incredibly beneficial, even in our personal (or devotional) Bible reading. For example, we may be in our private Bible reading and encounter the phrase "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Yet we may wonder, what does Scripture mean when it says love? An English dictionary will not get us very far, as this is not originally an English word—while our aim is to know what the biblical word in the text means (not just its translation). Modern English usage of the English word love does not always carry the same connotation as the biblical writers intended when using such words as agapē, phileō, or ḥeseḏ (all variously translated love in various contexts). Access to theological dictionaries, biblical thesauruses, lexicons, wordbooks, and even study Bibles is invaluable for studying Scripture, and many of these resources are readily available in digital form. There is abundant help for us, while we must be thoughtful when selecting such helps.
You may also note in your Bible reading that your translation (a much better word than version) of the Bible has some parts that are "missing" or "added" when compared to other translations. In the world of biblical textual research, there are over 5,600 Greek manuscripts (MSS) that have been discovered dating as far back as within a century of Christ's ministry. Over time, that means there are certain textual variants that appear in the translation lines of the manuscripts being worked through. These variants do not affect any core Christian doctrines, but different translations handle these in different ways (with explanations usually noted in the footnotes). Though the existence of textual variants may sound alarming, it is actually an incredible testament to the wealth of resources that we have in biblical source material (for further, see Dan Wallace's work at The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, here). Rather than disproving the Bible's reliability, textual variants show how incredibly reliable our modern biblical translations truly are.
Working Through the Text
You may also note that there is work to be done in reading Scripture. Part of the problem with places like Leviticus and Deuteronomy is that Christians often feel that these books have very little to teach us and very little to do with our lives. The customs and culture we encounter in the text seem quite palpably removed from our own, and we struggle to see how these portions are connected to the rest of Scripture. This is where the challenge of interpretation comes in:
We observed that all of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16; also 2 Pet 1:21), and all of Scripture testifies about Christ (John 5:39). That does not mean that every jot and tittle of Scripture expressly speaks about Christ and His redemptive work, but it does mean that Leviticus and Deuteronomy are indelibly tied to the grand story of Christ in all of Scripture.
Within any given biblical reading, we need to pay close attention to the context in which it was written. This is one reason many Christians use study Bibles (or reference Bibles) to help us set the passage in its context. The notes in a study Bible are not infallible, yet they help us consider some of the basic information on any given passage. In general, there are three levels of context we might observe:
There is a meaning within each specific verse or passage. We pay close attention to how that verse or passage is structured, what the main points of focus are, and what sort of verbs and nouns that passage uses.
Zooming out a bit, a passage's meaning can be better understood by placing it within its immediate context. The immediate context may be the paragraph, chapter, or even the whole book—it is the wider flow of the text that the passage occurs within. This flow of the text gives a specific context to our verse—what is the flow of the verses before and after it? (I may note here that a great many misinterpretations of Scripture can be immediately solved by doing precisely this: reading what came before and what comes after the given passage)
Finally, there is the broad context—this may consist of a block of several chapters, a whole book, or even a section of Scripture (such as the New Testament). This level of context is greatly important—when we are reading Leviticus, we do not read it the same as we would Song of Songs or Ezekiel, due to the broad context within which it occurs. In biblical interpretation, context, as they say, is king.
In each passage we encounter, we do well to identify and remember the following interpretive factors:
Author—who wrote the passage?
Date—when was this written?
Location—where was the author when he wrote it?
Occasion—what events were occurring during the time of writing?
Destination—to whom was the author writing?
Purpose—what did the author hope to accomplish?
if you are reading progressively through the Bible (passage by passage, book by book), many of these factors will remain constant as you read through each book of Scripture, yet these interpretive factors are vital to keep in mind while reading and interpreting.
Be Encouraged
As one final word of encouragement, remember that before we rush to apply Scripture and ask "what does this mean to me?", we must be deeply concerned with what Scripture meant when the author put pen to paper. Faithful biblical interpreters (including you, as a student of Scripture) strive to unveil the original intent of the message (what it meant when it was written) in order to correctly grasp what it means now. Because we are dealing with inspired Scripture, this means both the intent of the human author as well as the intent of God that is ultimately behind the text (what is often called the sensus plenior) are in view. Though God breathed Scripture through human authors, He allowed their own writing styles and linguistic choices to come through in the text. This is why Mark’s Gospel sounds different than Matthew’s, for example. The task of every student of Scripture is to determine what the human author was writing, in his time, and for what purpose. We then join that particular writing together within the whole counsel of Scripture, and determine what God is saying to His people—both then and now.
Dedicate yourself faithfully to Scripture, and you will encounter God's blessings from that endeavor. The news headlines may terrify, the economy may teeter, our society may boil—yet God's Word is a source of comfort in all things.
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" —Matthew 4:4
SDG,
Josh Howard
Josh Howard serves as the Elder/Pastor at Grace Community Church in Battle Creek, MI, co-hosts the Good Doctrine Podcast and The Age to Come Webcast, and is an alumni of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (PhD, ThM).