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Interpreting the Word in Today's World

By Dr. Amy S. Anderson

Christians frequently ask what the Bible has to say about various situations. Followers of Jesus deeply desire guidance from God's Word for current dilemmas. For that reason, it is good for us to spend a few minutes on the purpose of Scripture, especially for those of us who find ourselves in ministry without having had the time or opportunity to pursue biblical training at a college or university setting.

Purpose of the Word

We tend to read the "books" of the Bible as if they were chapters in one large document, which we also call a book. And, as a matter of fact, "book" is not a bad designation for Exodus, Isaiah, Mark, or 1 Thessalonians, since each section of the Bible was originally written as a separate document, for a specific audience in a specific situation.

Scholars will often call the books of the Bible "occasional" literature. Something happened — an occasion — to cause them to be written. The prophet Haggai felt constrained by God to speak out about the decadence and sinfulness of Israel. The author of the Gospel of John found it necessary to write to his congregation with a treatise that would encourage their faith in a difficult situation. The apostle Paul was so upset that he was moved to strong words when he heard that the Christians in Galatia were on the verge of giving up the freedom of the gospel for the slavery of legalism.

And so they wrote. We thank God for the situations that caused them to write, because the biblical documents give us a window into the Jewish backgrounds and early stages of the Christian faith. But that is not all. The collected books of the Bible have been recognized as the revelation of God to the people of God in all places and generations. For that reason, the words of Scripture are eternal and do not fail to achieve this revelatory purpose. They still give life and guidance to us, who live 2000 years later in an entirely different culture.

Understanding and Applying the Word

The distance of time and culture, however, challenges us to interpret and apply the teachings of the Bible faithfully and correctly. If the earliest Christian documents were written to a specific situation, then they have a liveliness and vitality that we often miss when we attempt to read Scripture as if it were a theology book. This is about real people in real historical situations. So if we want to understand the books of the Bible, we need to work at understanding the time and place for which they were originally written.

How to find help in reading and applying the Scripture appropriately? Let me suggest a number of sources to get you started.

First, I suggest you buy How to Read the Bible for all its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. This book has become a classic because it covers all the essentials in a style that is easy to understand. The authors take you through each type of biblical literature and help you to understand how to read and apply it. They also offer a helpful list of the best commentaries on each book of the Bible in the back.

If you have the time and finances available, the best way to become educated is to attend courses at a local Christian college. There may be a course called something like "Bible Study Methods." That, plus a survey course in both Old and New Testament, will give you a great start, and can be followed up with individual book courses. The advantage of taking actual courses is that you will have live interaction with an instructor who is passionate about the subject and available to answer your questions.

Courses can also be taken by correspondence or online. Try to choose courses that are truly college level so that they take you beyond what you've already learned in Sunday School or other church-based offerings.

Finally, you may find your passion for the text growing to the point that you would like to learn the original languages. Reading the Old Testament in Hebrew or the New Testament in Greek will open windows into the ancient world and help you to begin to understand thought patterns and communication methods of ancient peoples.

As a closing thought, I encourage you to surround yourself with people who love the text, some of whom have college-level training. When you are concerned about the interpretation or application of a passage of Scripture, talk to others about it. Normally, the plain meaning of the text is the correct one. One of Fee and Stuart's principles is that a text "cannot mean now what it could not have meant then." Do not easily accept any sort of "special" or "spiritual" understanding, but test it by doing the historical work yourself and consulting experts if needed.

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