Feb 21 Fri
How should I read the Bible?
Sixteen Bible-Reading Rules Everyone Should Know (Plus One)_
Begin with the New Testament, with the four Gospels. Read attentively for a few minutes, and leave a marker to begin the next day. Bible study can be tough, but if we can’t resolve a difficulty at the present moment, it doesn’t mean that the Bible is in error or that it is uninspired. It just means we don’t know how to resolve that difficulty.
Rule 1: The Bible’s human authors were not divine stenographers.
Everything asserted in Scripture is asserted by the Holy Spirit, but God allowed the human authors of Scripture to incorporate their own words, ideas, and worldviews into the sacred texts.
Rule 2: The Bible’s human authors were not writing scientific textbooks.
Scripture does not assert a scientific description of the world, so details in the Bible that utilize “the language of appearances” are not erroneous.
Rule 3: The Bible contains many different literary styles.
Some of these communicate true, historical facts using poetic, nonliteral language.
Rule 4: Check the original language. Some Scripture passages are only difficult because they have been mistranslated.
Rule 5: The Bible is a witness to history.
Ancient nonbiblical historians could have made mistakes or failed to record events.
Rule 6: Read it in context! Sometimes biblical passages only sound bad because they are isolated from their original context.
Rule 7: Consult a reliable commentary.
Rule 8: Evaluate Scripture against the whole of divine revelation.
Interpret Scripture in light of what God has revealed in Natural Law and through his Church in the form of Sacred Tradition and the teaching office of the Magisterium.
Rule 9: Differing descriptions do not equal contradictions.
Rule 10: Incomplete is not inaccurate.
Just because the sacred author did not record something another author recorded does not mean his text is in error.
Rule 11: Only the original texts are inspired, not their copies or translations.
Rule 12: The burden of proof is on the critic, not the believer.
If a critic alleges that Scripture is in error, he has the burden of proving that is the case. If the believer even shows a possible way of resolving the text, then the critic’s objection that there is an intractable contradiction is refuted.
Rule 13: When the Bible talks about God, it does so in a nonliteral way.
Because God is so unlike us, Scripture must speak about him with anthropomorphic language that should not be taken literally.
Rule 14: Just because the Bible records it, doesn’t mean God recommends it.
Rule 15: Just because the Bible regulates it doesn’t mean God recommends it.
God progressively revealed himself to mankind over several centuries. During this progression, the authors of Scripture regulated sinful practices to help God’s people eventually reject them in the future.
Rule 16: Life is a gift from God and He has complete authority over it.
As our discussion draws to a close, I’d like to leave you with one last rule:
Give God’s word the benefit of the doubt.
Illustration: Medieval manuscript of the Bible.
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