Trying to understand the Bible can seem intimidating. This is true even for those who spend their lives teaching Scripture. We all come across passages that don’t make sense to us, and in the process, require us to do some in-depth research. Sometimes, even that can leave us uncertain. Research often leads to more questions, and somewhere in here, we step back, pray, and ask God to show us what we might be missing.
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Open Bible on Coffee Table, Vidal Balielo
All the New Testament women named Mary, who can keep track? Who was Mahershalalhashbaz again? Where exactly was the “land of Uz?” Jacob did what with his two cousins who were also sisters? Who was king, when? These are examples of specific issues we face when studying Scripture:
Multiple people with the same name
People with more than one name
Crazy-sounding, long names
Unknown territories
Cultural practices unlike ours today
These aren’t the only pitfalls we may experience in Bible study, but they are definitely some of the most common. These, and other issues, can render Bible study intimidating.
What can we do to understand the Bible?
I believe we sometimes approach Bible study with fear due to lack of guidance when it’s time to study. Most Sunday School and Bible study programs are geared around how we might feel about the Bible or our thoughts on it as opposed to developing good study habits. Given most Sunday School and volunteer Bible study groups aren’t led by ordained ministers with Bible College or Seminary experience, such classes can feel more like Bible support groups (where people sit around and talk about how they feel about Bible passages).
Bible study – especially with the goal to understand the Bible – is nothing to fear. Here, I will provide ten different tips to help you better understand the Bible, whether you are a beginner or advanced student of Scripture.
1. Not just one book, not just one author
The Bible, also called Scripture, the Scriptures, or Holy Scripture, is not one book. It is an anthology, or collection of different writings spanning a period of about four thousand years. This, all by itself, tells us a few things. First, the Bible doesn’t have one human author, but many. In some instances, we are aware of a text’s author; in other instances, we aren’t certain. Still, in other instances, authors used a practice known as pseudepigrapha. In this tradition, a writing is attributed to a major Biblical figure (such as Moses or Samuel) but was authored by someone else (kind of like what we know as ghostwriting).
Second, having many authors proves God’s work across the ages. The formal term for God’s hand in the Bible is inspiration. This means God moved upon the authors of these works; whether first in the form of oral traditions between generations or as written documents, giving them the ability to write their documents. God moved through many different people, all of whom came from different eras, variations in tradition, and cultural experiences. God was with each of them, and we know from this fact alone that He is with us now.
Third, multiple books and multiple authors mean the Bible contains different perspectives. To understand the Bible is to both see and embrace these diverse perspectives. It is not just one set of principles for one experience, but many, providing us a fascinating record of God and His people in ancient times.
2. Different styles of writing
As a collection of books, the Bible contains a number of different literary styles. These include:
Stories or narratives
Ancient laws and rules
Songs, prose, and poetry
Prophecy and apocalypses
Histories and genealogies
Wisdom sayings and proverbs
Gospels
Epistles or letters
Some books of the Bible contain more than one literary form. For example, the book of Job is a wisdom book complete with wise sayings, proverbs, prose, poetry, and narrative. The Gospels don’t just contain the teachings of Jesus; two contain genealogies, several contain prose or poetry, one has a prologue, and all have various shades of Jesus’ life and miracles. Each form of Bible literature reads in its own unique way. Familiarizing yourself with different forms of literature (especially how they read in the ancient world) will greatly enhance your level of comprehension with Bible text.
3. There is more than one “canon” of Scripture
It surprises many to learn that the sixty-six book Bible canon, as we understand it in the west, is a product of the sixteenth century. Throughout Christian history, there have been a number of different canons, or accepted collections of Biblical text, all containing unique book combinations. Some you may have heard about (especially on social media) while others are very unique to a culture or church experience.
The reason for canonical variety is complicated, and relates to whatever books were considered canonicalthrough different councils or when a denomination was founded. For example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has a Biblical canon containing eighty-one books, including the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, Books of the Covenant, four Books of Sinodos, an Epistle of Peter to Clement, and the Ethiopic Didascalia. Eastern Orthodox Christians include Psalm 151 in their book of Psalms. Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, and some high Protestants use a seventy-three book canon, including a section known as the Deuterocanonicals or Apocrypha. The Deuterocanonicals consist of “intertestamental literature” between the end of Malachi and beginning of Matthew.
If you are struggling to understand Scripture, an overview of books not found in your Biblical canon might help enhance Bible understanding. Even if you don’t feel these books are inspired, they provide important historical information about the people, customs, and beliefs of a time. All books contained in canons are definitely worth reading.
4. You’re reading a translation
Contrary to what some might think, the Bible was not written in English. It was written in a time and place far different from our own, in an era where “English” didn’t exist. Every Bible that exists in common language is a translation.
The Bible’s original languages are Hebrew, Aramaic (a dialect of Hebrew), and Greek. Early Bible manuscripts include these languages, plus some manuscripts in Syriac, Coptic, and Latin. Every Bible translation we have today is based on the existing manuscripts and fragments of these texts. Are some translations better than others? This a complicated question, and the answer is both yes and no. Older translations, such as the King James Version of the Bible, are based on manuscripts available at their points in history. The quality of translation was also dependent on the working knowledge of language and culture present back then.
Can we trust our translations?
This doesn’t mean older translations are bad; it means the translators did the best with the information they had at the time. Some of the language is now archaic, or might mean something different in modern vernacular. It also means that newer translations utilize different knowledge of language, culture, and manuscript quality.
I recommend everyone have a few different types of Bibles available for study, especially on matters of cross-reference. For a list of different translations as well as recommended ones, check out my books, Ministry School Basic Training: Be All That You Can Be in God’s Army (A Guide for Lay Membership) and Ministry School Boot Camp: Training for Helps Ministries, Appointments, and Beyond.
5. Religion in Bible times wasn’t like religion today
A number of years back, I was surprised to learn I knew ministers who thought modern-day Jews slaughtered animals in their synagogues. Many people think Satanism and neo-Paganism, in the context of modern-day religions, are the same as Biblical paganism. Others see Jesus as an American patriotic figure, concerned about First Amendment rights.
For the record: none of these things are accurate. None of these perspectives help you understand the Bible. If you want to understand the Bible, you have to have some knowledge of ancient pagan practice.
Why did I say you need to understand ancient pagan practice rather than ancient Judaism? The ancient world regularly borrowed ideas and practices from each other. Ancient Judaism was, in some ways, an extract of ancient pagan custom. While yes, the Biblical Hebrews were set aside for the worship of one God alone, they still borrowed different customs (such as covenant) from their original cultures. (This is also not to point out the frequency with which Israel sought the gods, worship, and customs of their neighbors.) If you want to know Bible, you have to know how people worshiped back then.
Paganism in Bible times
While we don’t have the space for an exhaustive study, we can describe ancient pagan custom in a few sentences. For one, it was either polytheistic (worshiping many gods and goddesses) or henotheistic (worshiping one central deity while still believing other gods exist). There are other theologies and variations from these two, but the majority of ancient societies in the Bible embraced some form of them.
In henotheistic worship, the ancients saw themselves as married to their deities through covenant. The religious calendar related to ancient agrarian society, with different feasts, festivals, and often deities as the focus at different times of year. Maybe most relevant, ancient pagan custom was highly sexual without much discretion, often revolving around various fertility deities and the hope of reproductive abilities (such as getting crops to grow, favorable weather, prosperity, or other things). Ancient pagans would perform magic rites of different sorts to both manipulate and pacify deities, hoping to gain their favor. Temples were used for offering sacrifices to deities, in the hopes such would be pleasing to their gods.
Knowing these few facts greatly helps understand the foundational imagery present in Biblical issues such as covenant, marriage, idolatry, adultery, and other important ideas found therein.
6. The ancients didn’t use the Bible like we use it today
Today we use the Bible often as a defense of ideas, whether such are doctrinal or personal opinions. We are quick to get out our Bibles to prove a point or tell someone else where we feel they are in error. We cut, paste, and reassemble verses divided by chapter and verse, and insist our understanding is more accurate than someone else’s.
How we got the Bible
What we now know as the Bible started out as stories passed between generations by a process known as oral tradition. These stories served as historical points to inspire believers in their faith and understand their heritage. This heritage was both cultural and spiritual, recognizing the Israelites were a nation as well as a people of faith. The purpose in these stories was not to create a debate between the Bible and science or to see Scripture from a literal perspective. Even if someone had this goal, such was impossible.
Most ancient people were illiterate. They didn’t read the Bible because they couldn’t. There was knowledge of major Bible stories and characters, but most didn’t know the content of the Bible well enough to argue it. Once the Bible was written down, its contents were found on large scrolls. These were impossible to store at home; thus, people heard the text without reading it. There were no divisions, chapters, verses, or headings in the text. These things were added later.
Thus, the Bible wasn’t a defense mechanism. It was a faith record, something that inspired people to believe in God, because He was the true Author. Its contents inspired people to live according to His precepts and find answers, meaning, and hope, especially in difficult periods.
7. Biblical culture and society were nothing like ours
The Bible was written in ancient Middle Eastern form. It reflects the culture, language, religion, and understanding of the world at that time. This doesn’t mean the Bible can’t apply today. It does mean we need to understand the Bible in context to better understand what it means for us today.
Jesus wasn’t a Caucasian male, but that doesn’t mean there were no Caucasians in the Bible (hint: the Galatians were Celtics living in Asia Minor). It does mean the Bible doesn’t contain a “white narrative.” Women and children were regarded as property. Slavery (although in a different context than the Atlantic Slave Trade) was a very real thing. People brought animals and grains before God in the hopes such could atone for the wrong they’d done. Nobody had a phone, cell phone, television set, computer, or website. Memes existed on cave walls. The culture and social mores were different than today, and that’s all right. If we want to know what God says now, we can learn from what He said back then. If we want to understand what God said, we have to understand the people He addressed.
8. There is both a human quality and a divine quality to the Bible (and don’t reject either one)
The Bible is inspired by God while written by human beings. In it, we see God in many different ways: through His instructions, emotions, struggles to connect with His people, discipline, and ultimately, in Jesus as the Word and the Holy Spirit living in us. The Bible also shows us things about human nature we would rather pretend don’t exist: wickedness, sinful actions, bad leaders, idolatry, abuse…and beyond. It doesn’t whitewash human behavior. Instead, the Bible represents raw reality: whether or not one claims to believe in God doesn’t mean one always acts like it.
The Bible is the “word of life” because it reflects life. It is war, peace, love, hate, sex, abstinence, marriage, death, birth, divorce, separation, and humanity’s messiness, all under the banner of faith. Somehow, despite our messes or maybe because of them, we find God in the midst of the lives we create. Whether good or bad, don’t ignore the humanity of the Bible. It’s an essential part of understanding the Bible story!
9. The Bible doesn’t only say “one thing”
Whenever someone says “the Bible is clear,” that tells me a lot about that person (and yes, I’ve said it myself before). While yes, the Bible is clear on some things, it isn’t crystal clear on many things. In one place, the Bible seems to say one thing; in another, it’s different. The purpose of the Bible wasn’t intended to say “one thing” to end an argument (as we discussed earlier). If anything, it represents many different times, places, circumstances, and situations. As a result, there’s more than one solution, one situation, and one answer to Bible issues.
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Trying to understand the Bible can seem intimidating. This is true even for those who spend their lives teaching Scripture. We all come across passages that don’t make sense to us, and in the process, require us to do some in-depth research. Sometimes, even that can leave us uncertain. Research often leads to more questions, and somewhere in here, we step back, pray, and ask God to show us what we might be missing.
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