What We Believe
What is the Bible?

What Is The Bible?
How Should We Read the Bible?
Which Bible Shall I Read?

What is the Bible?

The Bible is God's Word. But who determined that, and just what does it mean? The Bible is the book of the believing community: the Israelites of Old Testament times, the Jews of the days of the Second Temple (including the days when Jesus was on earth), and the Christians. I use the term believing community to include all who accept the Bible (Old or New Testament or both) as of divine origin and authoritative in matters of faith and life.

No one person wrote the Bible, and no group or council made it the word of God. The Bible, for the large part, began as oral accounts. Some were stories told around the campfires or in the tents or in religious congregations, telling of God's wonderful works. Some of the "books" of the Bible are accounts of messages proclaimed by God's prophets. Others are letters written by the Apostle Paul or one of the other apostles. Psalms are hymns and prayers used by the believing community to worship God. Proverbs are collections of observations on life made by members of the community. In some cases -- for example, the prophets -- those who spoke, believed that God had given them the message. At times, it was not even what the prophet desired to say (for example, Jeremiah or Ezekiel), but what God told him to say. Over the years and centuries the believing community came to the conviction that God was speaking to them through "holy men of old time."

By the end of the first century (A.D.) the Jews believed that God had spoken in certain writings, which we as Christians know as the Old Testament. The Jews know it as the Hebrew Bible. It was therefore considered to be canonical, that is, with binding authority in matters of the beliefs and the life of the community. Likewise, the Christian church came to accept the Scriptures (the term used for the Old Testament), and they also believed that certain writings by the apostles were of equal authority. As the Church grew and spread, some portions of the Church accepted certain writings as canonical which were not accepted by other portions. Hence we have a "Catholic Bible" and a "Protestant Bible." Actually, the difference is not great, for the sixty-six books of our "Protestant" Bible consist of the thirty-nine books accepted by Jews and Christians, and the twenty-seven books accepted by Protestants and Catholics. Other books are considered to be of value, but not of equal value in establishing the doctrines of the church (Catholic or Protestant).

So we speak of the Bible as God's Word. But we do not believe that God dictated it word for word. The Muslims believe that Allah dictated every word, including the vowel marks and punctuation to Muhammad. Christians believe that God's Spirit influenced holy men of old time in such a way that what they spoke or wrote was what God wanted to say to His people. The Mormons believe that Joseph Smith discovered certain golden documents which he translated as the Book of Mormon. Christians do not believe that the books of the Bible were given by any such miraculous manner, but were written down by human beings in their own words (occasionally, they give us the exact words which God spoke to them), using their own style and vocabulary. Among Jews there is the belief that God gave both the written law (the Torah) and the oral law (later incorporated in the Talmud) to Moses on Sinai, but this view is modified even in the Mishnah to include the work of human agents such as the "men of the Great Synagogue." In certain teachings of Jesus, He seems to reject the authority of the oral tradition of His fellow Jewish teachers.

How Should We Read the Bible?

There are a number of ways to read any book. Usually we begin at the beginning and read through to the end. Mortimer Adler, in How to Read a Book, suggested that it is sometimes better to begin at the end, discover what the author is trying to say, and then read the book to see how the author proceeded. Since the Bible is both the word of God and the words of men -- that is, God used human beings to receive and transmit His word to the believing community -- we should use various methods of study.

The separate books should be read as individual works. We should read Luke and Acts as documents written by Luke to a specific person (Theophilus) for a specific purpose (see Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-5). The Gospel of John was addressed to the believing community for a specific purpose (see John 20:30-31). In every case, we should begin with the author's purpose (stated or implied) and the person or persons to whom he was addressing the work. In some cases this is difficult or impossible to determine. Then we should seek to discover the original purpose and consider it as addressed to a part of the believing community.

Since we as members of the believing community should accept the conviction of the community that God has spoken and is speaking in these biblical writings, we should move on from the original situation to the long-term application. Those who collected, persevered, and believed the Scriptures were not merely interested in what Paul, for example, said to the Corinthians. They were seeking to hear what God was saying to their own situation (note the words that follow each of the letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3: "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches"). In other words, we begin with the particular situation in which the revelation was given by God to His servant the prophet, and then we seek to learn what lessons in that situation apply to us in our own situation.

But God spoke at different times to different situations (see Hebrews 1:1). It was always the same God, but the message varied to suit the need. This may seem to introduce contradictions. Therefore the students of the Bible have developed the concept of the analogy of faith, or comparing Scripture with Scripture. To understand God's word, we need to seek to comprehend all of His revelation to His people. This is not an easy task, and it requires careful and continued study.

The application of the revelation in specific situations to its relevance in modern situations can and does provide opportunity for difference of interpretation. We therefore find Bible students disagreeing over the meaning of a passage of Scripture. Jewish scholars have been content to allow these differences. "Rabbi so-and-so says...but Rabbi so-and-so says..." is found often in the Talmud. Christians have instead tended to accept only one interpretation and divide into sects and denominations over the differences. It would seem to be more mature to agree that no one of us has the entire truth; rather "we know in part," and we seek to learn from each other's interpretations.

What about reading the Bible from beginning to end? A method often recommended is to read "three chapters a day and five on Sundays" and go through the Bible in a year. This is only valuable after the Bible student is fairly familiar with the significant portions of the Bible. The Scriptures are designed to teach us what we need to know about God and His will, about how we should serve Him by loving Him and our neighbor. (See 2 Timothy 3:16-17.) This instruction has been given, we believe, by God's activity on behalf of His people in historic situations, and His interpretation of those acts. By reading the Bible through it is possible to get a grand view of this revelatory and redemptive activity of God, in other words, what God has made known to His people concerning His redeeming love. But in many cases, the person who has not yet learned that God loves us, that God wills that we should love one another, that His will can be done on earth only as we love Him and love our neighbor, that person will have difficulty comprehending God's actions by reading through the Bible from beginning to end.

Which Bible Shall I Read?

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (portions of Daniel and Ezra and a few other verses are in Aramaic). The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Many translations have been made in many languages. There is no single translation or version that is perfect. It is therefore better to use two or three different translations.

There are two main types of translations: the literal, which seeks to translate the original word-for-word, and the dynamic equivalent, which seeks to present in English (or another modern language) what the original meant to its original readers and what it means to the modern person. The New American Standard Bible is an example of a dynamic equivalent. What about the "King James' Version"? It is a literal translation in the language of the Elizabethan era (17th century), and frequently difficult to understand in the twentieth century. The Revised Standard Version was an attempt to remove difficulties and inaccuracies from the King James' Version, while retaining the language of the KJV. The Bible you will use is largely a matter of personal choice. God's word comes through loud and clear in any version -- but it is often clearer in the dynamic equivalent translations.

Get yourself two or three Bibles. Select a passage you wish to study, perhaps something about Jesus in the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John. Read it several times in each of the translations you have at hand. Use a Bible dictionary or a Study Bible to understand technical terms or difficult portions. Ask yourself often, "What is God saying to me in this Scripture?" Make it a practice to study the Bible regularly. Expect God to speak to you. He will.