What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the bible? Is it just another book? a moral instruction guide for ancient history? a record of the acts of the Judeo-Christian God? The Bible is much more than all that.
The Bible is the written Word of God. A divinely inspired work of literature written with a narrative complexity that is not always apparent at first glance — the poetry of the Psalms, the wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes, the didactic history of Jonah. This complexity, however, does not make the bible difficult to read. Instead, it makes it worth reading to every Christian as we find an opportunity to unpack the layers of depth and meaning hidden in each verse.
Some scholars tend to think that the bible is so complex that it shouldn’t be read by just anyone. They believe that it requires a special education to study scriptures but we know that a great number of the authors who wrote the scripture didn’t need the qualification of scholarship to receive divine inspiration. Amos was a shepherd. Matthew — a tax collector. David — a shepherd boy. Peter — a fisherman. Luke — a doctor. God can use anyone regardless of their background.
Amos answered Amaziah, I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ — Amos 7:14
Christians today have the same Spirit that inspired scriptures, therefore, understanding how to read the bible is not adverse but critical to Christian growth. In this article, we will be looking at two practical means with which we can better interpret the bible — Exegesis and Hermeneutics. Exegesis simply means explanation. It is the critical analysis of a text in its grammatical context, taking note of things like conjunctions, punctuations, verbs etc.
For instance, in our culture, a popular phrase like “I no kuku send you” has various meanings depending on the situational context in which it is used. First, it could mean that the speaker could not care less about what you think. It could also mean that the speaker does not want you to interfere in their matter, or it could mean that the speaker is warning you not to send yourself on an errand that the speaker has no interest in.
If we took another pidgin phrase like “Ehen”, which has several different meaning based on pronunciation, we’d find that It would be very difficult for anyone ignorant to our norms and culture to interpret a lot of our language. Evidently, Language is often relative to culture and only a literal attempt at translation can sometimes obscure true meaning. “Abeg” has no translation beyond its cultural context. The same applies to some of the language used in the bible.
Consequently, in exegesis, we like to ask five important questions.
- Who is speaking?
- Where is this conversation taking place?
- Who is being spoken to?
- Why are they speaking?
- What is the relationship between interlocutors?
- What is being discussed?
Exegesis allows Christians to journey into the world of the bible to discover the original and intended meaning of the author as at the time when the text was written. It is very important to not go reading the bible looking for justification of already assumed meaning. History teaches that our minds will often always skew the words to fit our assumptions. It is a big part of why the Bible has been used to justify things like slavery, racism etc.
Too often, we don’t look to the bible to learn as though it were something that should teach us. We look to the bible to justify our biases, to validate our ideologies, philosophies and predicaments as though we were receiving some divine mandate of rightness. When it doesn’t, it becomes easy to disregard the bible as backwards and regressive. It is important to let God’s word be a filter for us and not the other way round.
It is inevitable that a story documenting people who lived thousands of years ago will offend our current cultural sensibilities. Today, we continuously evaluate the culture and traditions of our parents and grandparents, making decisions about what to continue into our own lives. It is evident of a natural and inevitable human process. The Bible shows God’s perfect ability to work through highly flawed people and societies to work His will and purpose.
To make sense of the bible, it is important to not always go in with a twenty first century mindset. Taking historical and literary context into account helps us to make sense of certain biblical language or practices, giving us a better understanding of scripture. To do this, we need to ask a couple of questions.
Historical Context -
- Where in the timeline does this story take place?
- Who are the Characters in our story?
- What is the relationship between Characters?
- What is the Cultural and Geographical setting?
Literary Context -
- Why is the author telling the story?
- What is the author’s train of thoughts?
Using the questions we have defined, Let’s take a practical example from the book of Malachi.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. — Malachi 3:10
Some people often use this verse to get Christians to pay tithes by assuring them of God’s intentions to punish them financially if they don’t. Let’s make our own analysis.
- When exactly in bible history is this verse being spoken? We know that it’s happening after the Jewish exiles from Babylon have made their way back to the promised land.
- Who are the Characters? Malachi the prophet and the returning Jewish exiles from Babylon.
If we look earlier in the book of Malachi, we find another interesting verse in Malachi 1:2.
I have loved you, says the Lord. But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ — Malachi 1:2
From this verse, we see that the returning exiles had a certain level of reservation to their belief in God’s love for them. Given the scale of the rebuild the exiles had to undergo having returned, they find it very hard to believe that their circumstance is indicative of serving a loving God. A number of the exiles didn’t even want to come back. Some had found great success in Babylon. This had led to a lackadaisical approach to the things of God which Malachi was criticizing.
Through this, we now see that Malachi 3:10 was simply God affirming his commitment and faithfulness to a faithless Israel. God was telling them to test Him. To have the courage to restart their lives in the now desolate promised land, commit to serving Him with all their heart and watch how He intended to provide abundantly for them as he had done in times of old. It was a genuine statement of God’s Love and care for His chosen people. Not blackmail.
We see clearly how easy it is to put misconceptions about scriptures to bed, simply by taking the time to study the Bible in detail of the culture and people who wrote it and for whom it was written. Not just as isolated stories that are easily caricatured into vehicles of opinion affirmation. This is exactly how God wants us to read the bible and in the next article, we’ll be talking about Hermeneutics as a tool for understanding scripture.