KRCC Bible Workshop Session 3 - How To Interpret The Bible
So for my session today I want to give you an introduction to interpreting the Bible. It’s an introduction because we can’t in a half hour possibly cover everything that biblical interpretation is.
What I want to do really is to share my heart in the journey that I have been on so far in studying the Bible. And by the way, none of this stuff is original to me, this comes from a number of helpful sources, specifically The Bible Project. So I want to talk about this in three phases.
1. What is biblical interpretation?
2. What kind of literature is the Bible?
3. How genre is key to understanding what you read.
What is biblical interpretation?
“Interpreting Scripture is the process of personally discovering what God through his human authors intended the biblical text to mean and effect.” (Jason S. DeRouchie, Interpreting Scripture: A General Introduction)
So to put it simply, interpreting the Bible is working to understand what it means and how that meaning is intended to shape your life.
Easy right?
My guess is that if you’re like me you have really wanted to understand the Bible and there are really important parts of it that make sense and are understandable. Things like how to be saved and who Jesus is. But there is a lot of it that just makes us scratch our head.
Let me see if you can relate to this. It’s January 1st and you are excited and energized with the possibility of reading through the Bible this year. You believe it’s true, you believe it is the most important book in the world, and you know it teaches us who God is, how to relate to him, and how to live in this world. So you know you should read it and you actually want to read it.
So you start in Genesis 1. You’re pretty fired up about God creating things, like that’s pretty cool to read about. But then you get to Genesis 5 and start reading this.
Genesis 5:3-8 CSB
Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. [4] Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters. [5] So Adam's life lasted 930 years; then he died. [6] Seth was 105 years old when he fathered Enosh. [7] Seth lived 807 years after he fathered Enosh, and he fathered other sons and daughters. [8] So Seth's life lasted 912 years; then he died.
You’re like ok, this is a bit tough and I know I’m not supposed to say boring but I’m wrestling here. But I can’t give up because I’m gonna look really bad if I quit five chapters into the Bible.
So you push through and you get to Noah’s Ark and that story is pretty crazy and you read about Jacob and Joseph and you get to Moses and your like ok, the story is going some places here, but then you get to the second half of Exodus and you come to things like this:
Exodus 23:14-16,19 CSB
"Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year. [15] Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. [16] Also observe the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. [19] "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God. "You must not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Now you’ve been told, hey I’m supposed to live my life every day according to this book, but um…the only festivals I’m currently honoring is like the St. Charles County Fair. And I don’t really have crops on my less than a fourth of an acre of land so I’m not bringing those with me to church and I don’t really see anyone else doing that either.
I guess I’m good on the not boiling a young goat in it’s mother’s milk though. I’ve never done that but I’ve also never owned a goat so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with all that. And before you know it, even though you had good intentions, you’ve kind of drifted away from your bible reading plan and you feel guilty but you just don’t know what to do with large portions of this book.
I don’t know if that’s been you but it’s certainly been me.
And what I want you to know, what our heart in having this bible workshop is all about, is that scriptures truths are knowable and it is possible to have an understanding of the Bible that leads to a genuine desire and love for the Bible.
And if you are here and you feel like a failure because you wrestle with the Bible and you want to read it but you think maybe I’m just not smart enough or a good enough reader I want to share with you something that was really helpful for me.
In that same article I referenced earlier, DeRouchie references a scholarly essay by Wayne Grudem in which he explains that:
"The Bible itself testifies that we can understand it, but:
Not all at once;
Not without effort;
Not without ordinary means;
Not without the reader’s willingness to obey it;
Not without the help of the Holy Spirit;
Not without human misunderstanding;
Never completely.”
(Jason S. Derouchie, “Interpreting Scripture: A General Introduction” Wayne Grudem, “The Perspicuity of Scripture”)
What this means, and I think this is important and good to know up front, understanding is possible, but if you really want to understand the Bible you have to be willing to put some work in.
And as we will see in a minute. The Bible is actually purposefully written so that we will have to dig into it.
That brings us to Phase 2.
2. What kind of literature is the Bible?
We can answer that question by asking this question. Who was the Bible written to? The Bible was written to a specific people in a specific culture at a specific time.
I don’t remember who originally said this or where I first heard it but it is foundational. The Bible was written for us, not to us.
The original audience was ancient near eastern in the old testament and Greco-Roman in the New Testament. So the Bible is ancient Jewish literature.
And when it comes to understanding ancient near eastern literature, a key feature is that it lacks a lot of the details that modern readers have come to expect in stories and poems.
So it can seem really simple when actually there is quite a bit of complexity. Every detail that is given matters. Which is helpful. Except that the lack of certain details means the stories are loaded with ambiguities.
For example. Think of the garden of Eden. If you are talking about a place to someone what is something that will almost surely come up in conversation? Where it’s located. Where did you go on vacation? Barcelona. Where is Barcelona? It’s in Spain? Well, where is Spain? Mostly in Europe. Well, where is Europe? As a part of understanding a place we want to know where it is. We’re not told that.
We know it was likely somewhere in the middle east but we don’t know for sure and we don’t really know how big it was. The text doesn’t seem interested in being a GPS for us.
Think of all the things that happen in story of Adam and Eve. There’s a talking snake. And we aren’t really given an explanation for why this snake is there or why it can talk or why Eve doesn’t seem to be surprised that it can talk. We’re just not given much in the way of those kinds of explanations.
Or this offspring of Eve that is mentioned that will crush the head of this serpent but the serpent will bite his heel. We aren’t told who this person is or what exactly is going on with this picture.
And this can be confusing and frustrating for the modern reader. Because there are sometimes things we want to know that the Bible doesn’t tell us because it’s not the point. And then there are times when there seems to be so much detail in things that we are like, why are you telling me all this?
But if we want to become good students of the Bible we need to realize that that is actually the point. This is actually incredibly helpful for understanding the Bible and actually learning to love to read it.
The Bible is telling a specific story and if we want to understand it we’ve got to let the Bible tell the story God wants it to tell, not the story we sometimes want it to tell.
And one of the ways we do that is by understanding that sometimes the Bible is intentionally being ambiguous because it wants you to be asking questions as you read it.
Because these oddities, these things that make you ask questions, are really invitations into an adventure of reading and discovery.
Here’s what I’m talking about. Take the strange promise about the offspring of the woman crushing the head of the snake and being bitten by it. The word “offspring” is a clue to pay attention to genealogies, which run throughout the whole biblical narrative.
They are tracing the lineage from Eve all the way to Kind David and his offspring. And in the New Testament, Jesus is connected to the offspring of this royal line.
When you read the prophets, Isaiah connected this king to the suffering servant who would die on behalf of his people, and then in the book of Revelation there is this symbolic vision about, what? A woman and her offspring. It is Jesus and his followers who conquer the dragon by giving up their lives.
So each part of that story when you just look at it by itself is filled with ambiguities, but when you put it all together, it makes sense.
This is the literary genius of the Bible. It forces you to keep reading and then interpret each part in light of the others. And here’s the thing, you are actually not expected to notice all of this by yourself or all at once. This dense way of writing forces you to slow down and then read carefully, journeying on the process of interactive discovery, through the whole biblical narrative.
And this is meant to happen over a lifetime of reading and re-reading. The Bible was not meant to be read like a novel or a newspaper and then closed and moved on from. It’s meant to be lived with. It’s intended to be meditated on.
The ideal Bible reader is discussed in Psalm 1. Someone who meditates on the scriptures day and night. The idea is that every day for the rest of your life, you slowly, quietly read the Bible out loud to yourself and then go talk about it with your friends, pondering the questions and the puzzles, making connections and discovering what it all means.
And when you approach the Bible on its own terms and let it interpret itself, something amazing happens. That as you read the Bible the Bible starts to read you.
Because ultimately, the Bible writers want you to adopt this story as your story.
So let’s talk about what I hope is a helpful way to read it to understand it better. This is Phase 3.
3. How genre is key to understanding what you read.
What we are asking is how can we interpret the Bible well so that we understand what we are reading?
I want to give you one of the most important sentences I think you will ever see when it comes to learning how to read and understand the scriptures. It’s from Tremper Longman, an incredible scholar of the Old Testament. Here’s what he says:
“Genre triggers reading strategy.” - Tremper Longman III
What does that mean? A genre is a specific category of writing. It is a style that communicates in a specific way. A general example would be fiction and non fiction. When Longman says that genre triggers reading strategy what he means is that you don’t read The Lord of the Rings the same way you do the front page of the Post Dispatch.
When you read the Lord of the Rings and you come across hobbits and elves, you don’t wonder as to why you haven’t seen a hobbit in the grocery store. You know you are reading a story.
And as Glenn has already talked about in his session, the Bible is not just one genre, it is a library of genres. And when it comes to understanding the Bible, one of the first questions we need to ask ourselves is, what genre is the particular passage of scripture I’m reading.
Here’s an example of why that’s important. In Luke 14 Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters and even their own life they cannot be my disciple.
It is really important to understand what style of language Jesus is using there, otherwise your application could have a destructive effect on your family.
So, what I want to do is give you a breakdown of genres in the Bible and some key identifiers in the text that you are reading that will help you recognize what style of writing you are reading in order to better understand it, and to properly apply it.
Again, this is just scratching the surface.
There are a number of genres and sub genres in the Bible but they can in many ways be classified under three major headings - Narrative, Poetry, and Discourse. Let’s walk through each.
Literary Styles in the Bible (The Bible Project)
Narrative
Makes up 43% of the Bible
These are events about what God and his people have done throughout history. They are stories that are taken and put together in a sequence that helps to see meaning and purpose.
Types, Examples - Historical Narrative, Narrative parables, short biographical narratives (four gospels)
How do I know I’m reading narrative? Look for characters, settings, and plots. These are the key markers that you are reading a narrative. And there are different types of narratives in the bible.
An example of narrative in Exodus 14
Exodus 14:21-22,26-28 CSB
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided, [22] and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left. [26] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the water may come back on the Egyptians, on their chariots and horsemen." [27] So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal depth. While the Egyptians were trying to escape from it, the LORD threw them into the sea. [28] The water came back and covered the chariots and horsemen, plus the entire army of Pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea. Not even one of them survived.
Since this is a narrative, let’s look for our key markers. Who are the characters here?
Moses, Yahweh, the Israelites, the Egyptians
What is the setting?
The sea, but we know this is a physical place, the Red Sea of the sea of reeds.
What is the plot?
Pharaoh and the Egyptian army wants to bring Israel back into slavery, but through Moses, God fights against Egypt and rescues Israel by making the waters do his bidding. He is in control of all things and is on a mission to rescue those who can’t save themselves.
When you are reading the Bible, these are the bright lights indicating, ok, I’m reading a narrative part of scripture.
Poetry
Makes up 33% of the Bible
Biblical poetry uses dense creative language, linking together images to help us envision the world differently. Poems use lots of metaphor to evoke your emotion and imagination. Forces you off the path to think about things in a different way.
Types, Examples - Songs or psalms, reflective poetry of wisdom books, resistance poetry of the prophets
How do I know I’m reading poetry? Look for creative, dense language, imagery, and metaphor, often in Psalms or Prophets.
Exodus 15 is the first worship song in the Bible sung by Israel. This is right after the narrative events we just talked about in Exodus 14.
Exodus 15:4-8,10 CSB
He threw Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea; the elite of his officers were drowned in the Red Sea. [5] The floods covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. [6] LORD, your right hand is glorious in power. LORD, your right hand shattered the enemy. [7] You overthrew your adversaries by your great majesty. You unleashed your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble. [8] The water heaped up at the blast from your nostrils; the currents stood firm like a dam. The watery depths congealed in the heart of the sea. [10] But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Let’s look for the key market of poetry here. Do we see creative, dense language, imagery here? What is it?
“He threw Pharaoh’s chariots into the sea.”
“They sank to the depths like a stone.”
“LORD, your right hand shattered the enemy.”
“Your burning wrath consumed them like stubble.”
“The water heaped up at the blast from your nostrils.”
So what is happening here? In Exodus 14 we have the narrative. It tells us what happened. In Exodus 15, the people are expressing how what happened affected them.
And it is effective language. Cause you can say the Egyptians drowned and that evokes a response. But there’s another kind of response you feel when you read the lyrics of the song and it says the elite of the officers sank like a stone, like lead in the mighty waters.
This is poetry and we read it differently than we do narrative style. Narrative is giving us events as they happened, poetry is filled with metaphor. That doesn’t mean that the metaphor isn’t describing something that actually happened, but it informs how we handle that information.
So when Jesus says, whoever wants to be my disciple must hate his family, he’s speaking of what kind of love we should have for him. That’s a real thing. But he’s using a poetic device to describe the kind of love we should have. He’s not telling us to hate our families, he’s saying that following him means loving him more than anything, including our families.
So you can see how understanding genre and literary style helps with interpreting the Bible.
Prose Discourse
Makes up 24% of the Bible
These are explanations and invitations for how the follower of God is to live and shape their life in the world.
Types, Examples - Biblical discourse is found in law collections, wisdom literature, and the letters written by the apostles.
Requires a logical response. It’s information calling for a change of behavior.
“Hey, have you thought about this thing? You should also consider how it connects to this other thing. And if you do then you will see that this is the result. And in light of that conclusion, therefore, you should probably stop doing that one thing so that this other thing will be the outcome.”
How do I know if I’m reading discourse? Look for speeches, letters, or essays that build a linear argument.
In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy is a great example of this. God’s laws and how the people of God are to live. All of the New Testament letters are this kind of genre.
Here’s an example. Ephesians 5
Ephesians 5:1-5 CSB
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, [2] and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. [3] But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. [4] Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. [5] For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Ok, so taking our key markers of discourse, what are the logical arguments and responses we are supposed to pay attention to here?
Logical Argument - “Be imitators of God,…”
Logical Response - “as dearly loved children,…"
Logical Argument - “Walk in love…”
Logical Response - “as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us…”
Logical Argument - “sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not eve be heard of among you…”
Logical Response - “as is proper for saints…”
Logical Argument - “Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable…”
Logical Response - “but rather giving thanks.”
When you read biblical discourse what you are reading, and really this is connected to the whole story of the Bible, is not simply do’s and dont’s. Do this, don’t do this. It is telling us that behavior is important, but it’s main goal is to get us to think in new ways. To see what happens when people live for themselves and how destructive that is to us as individuals and as a society and to see the other side and how letting God be the one who decides what is right leads to human flourishing.
It is about accomplish change on a fundamental level in the lives of the people who read this.
It’s meant to engage your brain, to invite you into a new story, turned into a set of ideas, that you then turn to, that motivate a whole different course of action.
So there you go. Those are some strategies for identifying genre and then understanding when you see it how to understand it and what to do with it. Again, there is so much more that can be said about that. This is just scratching the surface.
Oh, let me say this too. I mentioned that the Bible is not one genre but many but also, each book of the Bible has multiple genres. So Genesis is not just one genre, Isaiah is not just one genre, Philippians, and so forth.
Most books have a primary literary style, like narrative for example, but embedded in the narrative you’ll come across poems or parables or a collection of laws.
Every biblical book is a unique combination of literary styes. And to read that book well we need to be familiar with each literary type and how it works. This is so you know what to pay attention to and what questions you should ask.
So, maybe you’re listening to this and you feel some encouragement because there’s a strategy to help, but there’s still the question, where and how do I start all this.
Let me wrap things up this way. If I were to take all of this information and begin to implement it into my life, what would that look like?
How to study and interpret the Bible
1. Get a good study Bible. (CSB Study Bible)
2. Read slowly. Find a Bible reading plan that doesn’t overwhelm you. (LifeBible.com Three-Year Bible Reading Plan)
3. Get a journal or use your notes app. Identify the genre of the text your reading. Write down questions and observations.
4. Meditate on what you read throughout each day.
5. Connect the dots as you see your questions and observations show up in the overarching themes in scripture. Write those down.
6. Talk about what you are reading with someone.
7. Pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to understand what you read.
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