Theological Fragments

The Bible is, first and foremost, a story. Books of stories make up about 35% of the Bible’s table of contents. However, if you break it down by the actual length of each book, you find that story-books make up about 65% of the Bible. If that surprises you, it might be because you were taught to treat the Bible as a reference book, full of facts, figures, doctrines and commands for you to obey. Of course, it is true that the Bible contains many facts, figures, doctrines and commands—but most of those are actually part of the story —and overall scripture seems much more interested in teaching us a story than in teaching us facts and doctrines. This is very foreign to our modern way of thinking. We prefer to have everything laid out in formulas. We want to put things under the microscope. We like to classify everything the way our scientists classify living things—kingdom, phylum, class, order, anatomy, etc. etc. And we do this in our theology, as well. Think of how we talk about God

My goal this month is to convince you of one thing: there is a whole world of meaning hidden in the original words of Scripture. By “original words,” I mean the words in the original language—whether it be Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Very often these meanings get lost in translation because translators don’t always translate the word the same way, or there just isn’t a good English version of the word. This is why we have study bibles, commentaries, and Sunday School classes! But I know that all of that may seem daunting if you didn’t take classes on the Bible, or if you don’t have a head for languages. So today, to help motivate you to start looking a little deeper into the Bible, I want to show you one of my favorite language gems—hidden in the book of Ruth. Ruth is an interesting book. I’m not sure that most Christians are clear on why Ruth is in the Bible. When I was a teenager, I often saw it used as a divine dating guide (which it definitely is not!). I’ve seen it used as a Ch

This month I’ve decided to focus on something very practical: how to choose a Bible translation. For 1600 years, you couldn’t read the Bible unless you knew Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and/or Latin. For about 300 years, there was only one English translation that was readily available: the King James Translation. Nowadays, with changes in language, the discovery of more ancient Biblical manuscripts, and advances in technology, I carry around at least 50 different English translations on my phone all the time. How are we supposed to choose? There are two basic approaches to translating the Bible. First, there is the “Literal” approach—also known as “word for word.” In this approach, the translators take each work in the original text and translate it into an English word, so that they can get the most precise translation possible. This is the approach used by the King James translators, as well as the ESV, NRSV, and NASB. The benefit of this approach is that it gives you a highly accur

 One of the challenges of reading the Bible is the fact that it’s an anthology—a collection of shorter works, shorter stories, that don’t always seem to fit together all that easily. It’s not always obvious to us what this story in Genesis has to do with that story in Judges, or why this prophet has to do with that prophet. Sometimes it can seem like the Bible is a bit of a jumble, without a greater design. If you look deeper, however, you will find that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Bible is an intricately woven masterpiece, a single work of dazzling complexity and elegant simplicity. See, every Biblical author was also a Bible-reader, and was inspired by the ultimate Biblical author, so that when they wrote they made all kinds of connections with other books and stories to help you fit the Bible into one great story.  True, some of the strands that connect scripture together can be harder to see once it’s been translated into English, but they are still there when you

This month in Powerhouse we’re going to start a new series in our “year of the Bible,” called “Bible-ese.” This series focuses on the words we use that get their meaning from the Bible, such as soul, spirit, sin, salvation, atonement, mercy, grace, and messiah. If you’ve been in the Church long enough, you probably think that you know what all of these words mean. The problem, however, is that all of these concepts are rooted in ancient languages and cultures, and they have had thousands of years to develop and change (for better or worse) since they were written down. What we assume these words mean may not be exactly what the Biblical authors had in mind. Let’s look at an example: atonement . The dictionary defines atonement as “reparation for a wrong or injury.” When you atone for something, you are paying for a crime or offense you caused in order to make things right. This is probably how most of us use the word, and this is what we think of when we talk about Jesus atoning f

There are three basic types of literature in the Bible: narrative, poetry, and discourse, and each type communicates in a different way. In April we talked about reading Bible stories, and last month we talked about poetry.; this week we’re talking about the last genre: discourse. What is “discourse?” Basically, discourse is any passage of scripture that lays out logical reasoning for why we should behave a certain way. Think of the Law of Moses, the Wisdom books, the Sermon on the Mount, or the New Testament Letters. Discourse is what we are used to reading, because it’s often simple and easy to break down into short statements. “Do not murder.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul and mind.” These are short, simple, and easy to apply. This is how we want the whole Bible to be. The truth is, however, that even in discourse things are not quite so simple. There are several factors we have to keep in mind while we are reading, in o

There are three basic types of literature in the Bible: narrative, poetry, and discourse, and each type communicates in a different way. Last month we talked about reading Bible stories; this week we’re talking about poetry. Did you know that one out of every three chapters in the Bible is poetry? When you think of poetry in the Bible, you probably think of the Psalms, or maybe the Song of Solomon—but there’s a lot more poetry in the Bible than that. In fact, Hebrew prophets tended to also be poets. You can’t tell as easily once it’s been translated into English, but when the prophets wrote down their prophecies from God they were writing deep, sophisticated poetry. Even the Apostle Paul incorporates some poetry into his writings! (I’m glad we don’t expect that from our pastors now—I can’t imagine writing an entire sermon in verse!) So why do we care that there is so much poetry in the Bible? Because poetry is read differently from other kinds of writing. When you see a passage of s

The Bible is not one book; it’s an entire library. And in that library, there are many different types of books: history, biography, poetry, music, philosophy, novel, letters—the list goes on. When reading the Bible, it’s very important to understand the type of material you are reading so you can interpret it properly. For our purposes, we’re going to divide the Bible into three types: narrative (stories), poetry, and discourse. This month I want to focus on narrative: how do we read Bible stories? Narrative is the biggest category of Biblical material: it makes up 43% of the Bible. The majority of Biblical stories are found in the Old Testament History books (Genesis through Esther) and the Gospels (Matthew-Acts). In my opinion, the key to properly interpreting Bible stories is: remember that Bible stories are history, not fables. They tell us what really happened, warts and all. If you keep this in mind, it will help you avoid two common pitfalls: 1. Do not assume that you are s

Last month I wrote about how complicated reading scripture can be: there are language, culture, and literary barriers that can keep us from properly understanding the text. These obstacles can be discouraging—they can make it feel like we’re just not qualified to read and understand the Bible. However, our tradition, the Restoration Movement, is founded on the idea that every Christian can read the Bible for themselves. How can this be if there are so many obstacles before us? How is an average Christian to read the Bible without a seminary degree? Many people read the Bible with a certain approach, which I call “Dragnet” Reading: they’re looking for “just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.” In Dragnet reading, you take a passage, chop it up, and mine it for the “facts” it contains. When you’ve figured out the facts in that passage, then you can say “This is what the passage means!” and move onto the next passage. For example, someone who is Dragnet-reading might read Leviticus 19:28 (

Reading the Bible is simple, isn’t it? “The Bible says it, I believe it.” It’s a simple as that, isn’t it? Of course, if it is that simple, then why are there so many interpretations of the Bible? And not just small disagreements, but perspectives that are completely opposite of each other? The founders of the Christian Church movement believed that the Bible is accessible to each and every Christian, not just pastors or scholars—and I agree whole-heartedly. But just because the Bible is accessible to everyone does not mean that the Bible is simple. In fact, I believe that many of the theological problems we get into come from the fact that we assume the Bible is simple and easy to read. In reality, there are several obstacles that we have to hurdle in order to understand the Bible: Language: Quick: can you recite Genesis 1:1? If you started with “For God so loved the world…” then you’re… wrong! Well, in a way. That’s an English translation of John 3:16. The actual test of Joh

Christians should read the Bible. We all know this, right? And yet, if you’re like me, you often struggle to make it a regular habit. Why is that? Why do we have such a hard time reading the Bible? If you’re like me, you start to feel guilty. Maybe I don’t love God enough. Maybe I’m not sincere enough in my faith. Maybe I’m drifting away from God…. Maybe. But maybe not. I find that there are several practical obstacles that get in the way of reading the Bible, and they have nothing to do with how sincere my faith is. Sometimes I read the Bible the wrong way for what I’m trying to accomplish; sometimes I don’t pay attention to the genre of the book I’m reading; sometimes I’ve lost sight of where I am in the overall story of the Bible. There are plenty of practical obstacles that get in my way, but this month I want to focus on the first one: reading the Bible in the wrong way. I find that there are (at least) four ways to read the Bible: Reading : approach the Bible like you wou