Before we get started, I need to clear one thing up.  Lest you think that “interpretation” is best left to the professionals, i.e. our pastors and theologians, you would be wrong.  Here’s why: EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU READ THE BIBLE, YOU MAKE ASSUMPTIONS AS TO WHAT THE TEXT IS SAYING – WHICH MEANS THAT YOU ALREADY MAKE INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BIBLE.  Everyone does this.  So here will be some tools that should help you make those interpretive decisions better.

First up is taking a look at the genre. The bible is filled with many different types of writings.  We all know this and recognize this.  The trouble is that some people (many in fact) don’t know what to do with all the different types of writing.  It is important for us to get this right because our job is not to read the Bible passively: it is to be a central part of our lives, meaning that we are to read Scripture with transformation in mind.  If we get the interpretation wrong then we will most definitely get the application wrong.

1. Narrative.  A Narrative tells us the facts and even sometimes the motives for actions taken.  Narrative is not a flat out acceptance of a particular behavior.  Just because it is written that Solomon had hundreds of wives, does not mean that if we are to be wise like Solomon we also need hundreds of wives.  Narrative simply tells us what happened.  Narratives also illustrate for  us the fallibility of human nature – just because there is a story in the bible does not mean that it endorses that particular behavior – quite the contrary.  In fact, I would wager that most of the narratives in the Old Testament are the “what NOT to do” stories and illustrations.  Bear this in mind when reading narratives.
2. Law.  Law (or statutes) are prescriptive – they do tell us what we should and should not to.  However, not all Old Testament laws apply to us today.  A prime example would be the dietary restrictions.  How do we know this?  Because in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, chapter 10, Peter has a vision in which God tells him that God has made all things clean and that it is okay for him to eat of the foods that were previously restricted.
3. Poetry.  This should be self explanatory, but poetry is descriptive and imaginary and should not be read literally.  Mountains do not skip like rams (Psalm 114:6) and God is not a physical rock (Psalm 18:23).  These psalms are figurative and poetic.  They are humanity’s attempt to pour out their feelings (the good, the bad and the ugly) to God.  Read them for the emotions that they evict and the images that come to mind.
4. Genealogy.  The Old Testament is notorious for this.  They are simply lists of people.  Why are they there? Partly to highlight the brevity of life and partly to provide physical evidence that people are who they are.  David was promised the monarchy forever.  Jesus is a descendant of David, therefore Jesus is heir to the monarchy.  This is why Matthew and Luke open with genealogies.
5. Parable.  Jesus conveyed tough biblical concepts with stories – stories that are masked in such a way that they have double meanings: there is the literal meaning of the story, which is what most people “got” and then there is the theological meaning which most people did not “get”.  Don’t take parables literally, but look for the deeper meaning that is being conveyed.  It is important.
6. Wisdom.  There are a few books in the Old Testament that are considered Wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs (Song of Solomon).  Wisdom is is a topic of discussion in and of itself, but our purposes here, wisdom is what leads us into a better understanding of God’s sovereignty, His truth and His justice.  We humans have our own sense of fairness and justice that don’t always accord with God’s, so the wisdom literature helps us understand this.
7. Prophetic and Apocalyptic. These are two types of literature that are constantly misunderstood.  First, prophetic literature is calling God’s people into a better (right) relationship with Him by proclaiming the ways in which they are disobeying Him.  There is always an immediacy to prophetic literature that has the application in the day/time in which it is being proclaimed.  Sometimes, though, prophetic literature has a double application in that it also predicts what will happen in the future, i.e. the predictions in Isaiah of a Messiah.  Apocalyptic literature, on the other hand, is always future in that it has not happened yet and it always deals with the end times.  Apocalyptic literature is also highly figurative and poetic and therefore cannot, and should not, be interpreted as being literal.

Keep in mind that these are very broad categories.  There are probably some that I’ve missed, so if you have a question about a particular passage and its genre, please leave a comment.  I would love to hear those.

Knowing how the bible is organized can lead to a more productive study session.  Here are a few basics.

There are two main divisions:  the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). 

There are a total of 66 books in the bible:  39 in the OT and 27 in the NT.

The Old Testament is further divided into sections by groups of writings:

1. Pentateuch or Torah: These are the first 5 books of the bible (Genesis-Deuteronomy) and are also referred to as “The Books of the Law” or “The Books of Moses”.  Anytime you read a reference to “the Law” or ”the Law of Moses”, these 5 books (in their entirety) are what is being referred to, whether Old or New Testament.
2. Historical Books: Joshua – Esther.  These books detail the nation of Israel from the time they enter the Promised Land until after they come back from exile.  The rough dates for this are 1200 BC – 430 BC.  There is some repetition between some of the books and this is because they were written by different authors and for different purposes and focuses. 
3. Wisdom Literature: Job – Song of Solomon.  Wisdom literature is meant to highlight how we are to live in relation to a Holy God and provides insight on how to have real emotions (anger, hurt, jealously, hatred, fear…) and still live in a right relationship with God.
4. Major Prophets: Isaiah – Daniel (Lamentations is stuck in there because many people attribute its author to Jeremiah, but it can also be considered wisdom literature).  These prophets are called Major prophets because their body of work is greater than those of the Minor prophets, not necessarily because of the content of their prophesies.
5. Minor Prophets: Hosea – Malachi.  The last 12 books are the minor prophets.

The New Testament is divided into 4 main sections:

1. The Gospels: Matthew – John.  These books are the accounts of Jesus and his ministry on Earth.
2. Acts – This book is a continuation of sorts of Luke (and written by the same author) and gives us the history of the first few decades of the Church after Jesus died.
3. Epistles: Romans – Jude.  These books are letters written to specific people and/or churches.  They were written by Paul, Peter, James, Jude, John and an unknown author (Hebrews).  This is where church doctrine mostly comes from because it provides for us the basis for how we are to think theologically in light of Jesus.
4. Apocalyptic: Revelation.  Revelation is a book written by John (the Apostle) and is a book that provides a present, 1st century context to its readers and an End Times context for us today.

There you have it, the major divisions of the bible.  Next time I’ll cover the types of writings in the bible and how we are to read the text in light of the genre – a very important topic.

Until next time!

I have been entirely neglecting this blog for a while because I have felt that I don’t have a whole lot to contribute, at least in the way that I had originally thought about this blog.  Part of my struggle is that my interests and methodology for studying God’s Word is in all likelihood more academic than what an average person would want and/or need.  And I don’t want to be responsible for being overly academic and actually turning someone away from actively reading and participating in the wonders that is His Word.

So I have decided that I’m going to do a 90 degree turn and take a different approach.  What I would like to do, if possible, is to first get you ready for reading the bible and then to help you read by providing some tools that you may need – all of this on a book-by-book basis.  Some of the stuff in the beginning might be boring or too technical, but I will try my best to keep to an agenda that is not overly academic and yet interesting – interesting enough so that you will be as excited to be in the Word on a daily basis as I am.

The more I study and read about the construct of the Bible the more I am entirely amazed.  The Bible is a book that is a collection of 66 individual books, written over 1,500 years, by many different authors and in many different places –> all with one single purpose: to provide us (humans) with information about God, from God, so that we may know Him.  The 66 individual books that make up our scriptures are singular in intent and in message: the bible does NOT contradict itself.

The bible is also an authority.  It would be a mistake to hold any other writing on par or above the Bible.  Why?  Because the writings that are in the Book have gone through centuries of testing and analysis to ensure that we recognize the hand of God upon the inspiration that is our Bible.  What, exactly, does this mean?  Let me see if I can give you an example.

I am reading a fiction book right now that presents the idea that the books that were found in the Nag Hammadi find are books that were “hidden/destroyed” by the Catholic church in an attempt to alter our understanding of the Gospel.  Going further, I also think that the book is going to make the claim that books like the Gospel of Thomas are books that should be on par (or greater) than the New Testament writings that make up our Scriptures today.  There are several problems with this theory.

First, if you actually read the Gospel of Thomas, you’ll discover that it does not completely “accord”, or line up, with the other New Testament writings.  This should be a HUGE RED FLAG for us.  Like I said above, the Bible that we use today is one message, with no contradictions, so anything that does make a contradiction should raise a flag for us.

Second, one of the fundamental claims that the Gospel of Thomas, and other gnostic writings, make, is that there is a “hidden” knowledge out there (which is what gnosis means – knowledge) and that we should have to work to be let in.  God’s word is not secret and don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.  Knowledge of God, from God and about God is free and plainly written in the Bible with no hidden message there at all.  There is no secret to being a Christian: the only “requirement” is that you believe in God and His Son, Jesus the Messiah (Christ) and are willing to surrender your will to His.  That’s it: belief.  Very straightforward and open.

Finally, these books were not “admitted” into the New Testament simply because they don’t accord with what the other 27 books of the New Testament say.  I would encourage you to read the gnostic gospels side-by-side with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  You’ll see a huge disconnect between them.

So going back up to my original thought, I would like to start laying out a foundation of ideas about what the bible is that will help us study why the bible is.  The why is the point.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Have you read any books lately (fiction or non-fiction) that have caused you to reflect on what you know about the bible?  Or have had an unsettling effect on you because it challenged what you know about the bible?
2. Are there news items or current discussions going on around you that give you pause with regard to what you know to be true about the Bible?
3. If someone were to challenge you by saying that the Bible has “loads” of contradictions in it, would you be able to counter their claims?

Hopefully, you have not had your fundamental beliefs challenged in such a way that it destroys your belief at any level.  If you have, then please hang tight – we’ll try to help you out.

I want to continue the exploration of God’s Holiness today.  I’m struck by the similarity of the 3rd commandment in Exodus 20:8-11:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And the parallel verse in Genesis 2:1-3:

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.  

How many of us think about keeping the Sabbath Holy?  I know that I have problems with this.  I often wake up on Sunday with selfish thoughts of sleeping in, taking it easy, and occasionally wanting to ditch church for having a solitary, relaxing day.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Where is the honor to God in all of this?  How does this recognize His Holiness?

It is not surprising that his command, to keep the Sabbath Holy, follows the first two:  you shall have no other Gods before me and you shall not make any idols for yourself.  These two commands should give us a clue as to what constitutes a Holy Sabbath.  In my description in the previous paragraph about my usual thought pattern regarding Sundays, I believe that I’ve broken both of the first two commandments.  If I place myself first, and worship that which makes me happy (and is not God-centered), then I’m dishonoring God and placing importance on the things of this world instead of honoring God by thinking about Him and being concerned with His nature.

So what does living a Holy Sabbath look like?  I’ll try and address this next time.

Holiness is one of God’s attributes that I believe goes under-studied these days.  Society seems to be on an upward slippery slope of “anything goes” and the word of the day is “tolerance”.  The catch is that once we become tolerant of a behavior or attitude, we become susceptible of exhibiting that behavior ourselves; but God wants us to strive for holiness within our lives and at minimum understand His holiness. 

This word has numerous connotations for us today.  What does holiness mean?  What, or who, can be holy?  How does one become holy?  What is required of me?  These are just some questions we could ask. 

Before we dive into this study, it would be best to understand a basic definition of the word and term as it is used in theological circles and writings.  The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh.  The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines it this way:

connotes the state of that which belongs to the sphere of the sacred. Thus it is distinct from the common or profane. ..it [also] connotes the act by which the distinction is effected. 

Warren Wiersbe defines holiness this way:

God’s holiness isn’t simply the absence of defilement, a negative thing. The holiness of God is positive and active.  It’s God’s perfect nature at work in accomplishing God’s perfect will. 

God is perfect and in that sense He is also holy.  It is an attribute of God’s that we can’t completely have, yet there is a striving for His holiness that we should be living out.  There is little that we can do to have holiness in our lives except to live within God’s will for us and to be transformed into His image.  This transformation is called sanctification and it is a process by which we turn over all of our fleshly thoughts and practices and replace them with thoughts and practices that are in alignment with who God is, namely His holiness, righteousness and perfection.

This idea of holiness has the most effect on us in our relationship with God.  Because He is so entirely Holy, Pure and Just, we simply cannot even think of approaching Him.  To be able to approach a Holy God, we MUST do it His way.  This is the basic tennant of the book of Leviticus: to teach us how to be able to approach a Holy God so that we might be in relationship with Him.  We don’t have the same challenges today – His Son, Jesus, the Messiah, died so that we could have immediate access and relationship with God, Christ being our priest and mediator.  But there are times when we know that sin is blocking us from having a right relationship with God.  Certainly David felt this way when he penned Psalm 51.  It is virtually impossible to know God’s holiness completely, however, sin is something that keeps us from having a right relationship with Him; if we could just eliminate, or at least minimize our sin (the process of sanctification), then we can come close to knowing His holiness.

Psalm 51

1      Have mercy on me, O God,
          according to your steadfast love;
     according to your abundant mercy
          blot out my transgressions.
2      Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
          and cleanse me from my sin!
3      For I know my transgressions,
          and my sin is ever before me.
4      Against you, you only, have I sinned
          and done what is evil in your sight,
     so that you may be justified in your words
          and blameless in your judgment.
5      Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
          and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6      Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
          and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7      Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
          wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8      Let me hear joy and gladness;
          let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9      Hide your face from my sins,
          and blot out all my iniquities.
10      Create in me a clean heart, O God,
          and renew a right spirit within me.
11      Cast me not away from your presence,
          and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12      Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
          and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Did you think about the anticipation of the Messiah and all the expectations that the Jews had for Him?  Thinking of it in this way, by putting ourselves into the story, makes it seem a little more real.  It also helps us to understand why so many Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t want to see him as the Messiah.  He certainly didn’t fit the bill as far as their expectations went, far from it.

There was one who spent his whole life in anticipation of the Messiah.  Simeon, as it is recorded in Luke2, had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Messiah before Simeon died.  This was his response when he saw the baby Jesus:

28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

29  “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
      according to your word;
30  for my eyes have seen your salvation
31  that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32  a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
      and for glory to your people Israel.”       (Luke 2:28-32 ESV)

He understood.  He understood the mission of the Messiah, something that so many of Jesus’ own countrymen missed.  Do you see what he said in verse 32?  A LIGHT for revelation to the GENTILES?  Now read John 1:1-19.  Do these two passages accord with each other?  I think so.  Amazing.

Here are some passages traditionally associated with Advent.  When you read these, can you see the Messiah?

Genesis 3
Isaiah 9:1-7
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 66

Can you wait for Him?

It is hard to believe that the season of Advent is upon us already.  Merriam-Webster defines advent as “the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting; the coming of Christ at the Incarnation”.   But what is Advent really?

In the most basic sense Advent is a season of waiting: waiting for the birth of our Lord and Savior.  It is not known when the first, regular holidays now known as Christmas were practiced, but evidence goes back as far as the late 300s (late 4th century).  As late as the end of the 6th century there was a regular, scheduled time (or period of time) that marked the preparation for the Nativity of Our Lord (the precursor to Christmas).  It seems as though the original intention was more of a penitential season similar to Lent.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states that the faithful are asked to do the following during Advent:

• prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world as the incarnate God of love,
• in order to make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace,
• thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge at death and at the end of the world.

So in preparation for for this year’s Advent season, I wanted to start of with a few thoughts.

The end of the Old Testament record dates to around 430 BC with the prophet Malachi speaking a promise of God as follows:

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.  5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.  (Malachi 3:1-5)

and

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 5:5,6)

These are quite some promises.  God is going to send His Messenger (Jesus) and just prior to that He will send a prophet like Elijah (John the Baptist).  Can you imagine the hope that is caught up in this promise?  For the 200 years prior to Malachi the nation of Israel had seen destruction beyond their imagination.  The Temple of the Lord was completely destroyed by the Babylonians in 586/7 BC and the Jews were carried off into captivity, meaning they were physically removed from their land, the land that had been promised to them through their ancestor Abraham, and relocated to various Babylonian provinces.  Can you imagine how difficult that would have been?

I think a modern day analogy for us is the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers.  But instead of it ending where it did, imagine the terrorists forcing us to move – say, to the Middle East.  Put yourself there.  What would it be like?  For one thing your idea of safety in this world would be totally destroyed.  Average Americans have no real concept of living in war times – at least not any generation born after 1945.  We don’t know what it is like to live on rations.  Take any notion of that and then move yourself to the Middle East, a place where you are treated like dirt just because you are an American.  Seem surreal?  I can imagine that the Jews of the 5th century BC felt this way.  Their temple was the place where GOD lived.  The most significant cultural thing of its day.  Destroyed.  Their world gone.

But – God does not forget them.  God raises up men like Ezra and Nehemiah who are allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city walls and rebuild the temple.  God is gracious and raises up prophets so that His people can once again know Him.  And the last promise, the last word God is to speak, is the promise to send THE ONE.

Can you wait for it?

I have spent most of my life wanting to know who I am. I grew up in a typical small, middle-class family. I grew up not being around other family. My parents moved so that my Dad could attend a PhD program in another state – a state that was 4 states over from where they grew up. I grew up with my Mom writing letters weekly family, both her family and my Dad’s family. They were connected in such a way that I was a little jealous. They had a history between them that I could never have.

Identity is such a personal thing. Some people claim identity with certain religious groups. For some, identity is simply acceptance in their peer group. For me, identity was, and is, my heredity. Who were my grandparents? Who were their parents? What were their struggles in life? Who did they vote for for President and why? What were their family traditions growing up? Were there other languages spoken in their home? Ultimately what countries did they come from? What nationalities make up my family?

It is difficult, at best, to answer these questions when you can’t form a dialogue with the people who you are interested in. To be sure I had some wonderful conversations with my grand-parents about times when they were growing up, and I am even privileged to have known my great-grandmother really well – she passed away when I was 26. Unfortunately their stories were presented as stories, little anecdotes that were told about a past and time long gone. Even with the abundance of stories there still seemed to be something lacking. Connection? Community? I’ve not quite put my finger on it exactly.

Part of my mystery was solved a few years ago. My grandmother, Mam-ma (it’s a southern name, I can’t explain), voluntarily placed herself into a nursing home in late 1998. After nearly 2 years of her house standing vacant, my Mom, Aunt and I decided that we needed to sell the house. Before we could do that we needed to clean the house. How do you clean a house that has 70+ years of collected stuff? Answer: spend several weeks wallowing in it.

It was amongst said stuff that I discovered a picture of my grandfather and my Mom’s biological mother, Kathleen. Kathleen died when my Mom was six, so I (obviously) never met her. My grandfather, Pap-pa, remarried soon after and they had a child soon after that (my Aunt mentioned above). Pap-pa’s second wife is my Mam-ma. She was my grandmother for all intents and purposes. I’ve always known that she was not my “biological” grandmother, but there was never any discontinuity with how we were treated, and so the notion of having a “step-grandmother” never really entered into the equation.

But I digress. The picture of Pap-pa and Kathleen is a black-and-white that has been colorized and they both look really young and beautiful in the photo. I asked my mom if I could have the picture and she said yes. Now at this time, summer of 2000, I already had the sense that I would be moving soon and so I never unpacked that photo from its box. When I finally did unpack it, in the summer of 2003, I discovered a part of me that I never knew I had. What I discovered is that I look like Kathleen. I have her smile. We are connected in a way that I had never thought of before. And for some reason this little discovery has partly answered the question of who I am. I have discovered part of my identity. I belong to Kathleen.

Now this discovery does not answer all my questions, by any means. But it has begun a thought process in me that I’ve been mulling over for several years. What the picture did for me was place the question of identity at the top of the list of things to think about. Here’s where I am currently.

I can imagine that some people feel this way when they come to Christ and are accepted into the eternal and ginormous family of God. I can well imagine that some people have no family, or their family is estranged. Perhaps they want to forget about their family and are running from a bad past. But here’s the thing. By becoming a Christian, we gain identity. No longer are we “that” person’s son/daughter/wife/husband. We are the chosen children of God. We matter to Him more than any earthly being could claim. We are all connected. We are loved. And, best of all, we can identify ourselves with the creator of the universe. No more floating around identity-less. Our identity is in Christ.

The women’s Thursday morning bible study group is reading a book this summer and discussing it online.  I think it’s a pretty cool concept, and even though I am not a part of the Thursday morning bible study, they are letting me participate anyway.  The book is turning out to be fairly interesting.  We’re reading Eat This Book: A Conversation in Spiritual Reading by Eugene Peterson (who is the author of The Message bible translation).

I was thinking (hoping, really) that the book would be more instructional – as in how to read the bible in a more transformational way.  Instead he is exhorting us to do this, a prodding if you will, explaining why we should.  He has some really great points and ideas.  However, I’ve lost my book.

So I did a sensible thing and purchased an audio version of the book.  I thought..”wow, I can knit and read at the same time!  Who wouldn’t do this?”  So last night, I was listening to Chapter 5 while doing things like: putting away laundry, washing dishes and generally getting things gathered and organized for work today.

Result?  I can’t remember a thing I heard.  I can distinctly remember several times last night when I was excited about a point that he made and several times when I thought “I need to remember this..”, but alas, I can’t remember anything today.

So I guess I need to go an buy the book again.

Question: how long does it take for one to remember a password that one types in about 15 times a day?

Answer: At least a month.

I changed my network password at work over 3 weeks ago and still, to this very minute, I type in the old one, get an error message and then remember to use the new one.  When will it end?  Perhaps I should just change it back.