People read the Bible for many different reasons. Let us explore some of those reasons and see if we can increase our understanding of why the Bible has survived and thrived in so many different forms, translations and interpretations.
Why do people read the Bible?
If we look at reasons why people might read the Bible, we can identify five categories.
- Reading for spiritual growth
- Reading for moral/ethical guidance
- Reading for historical research
- Reading for intellectual curiosity
- Textual analysis
- Literary analysis
- Cultural continuity
We will explore each of these in turn and will attempt to increase our understanding of each one and how it might enable us to get more from our own Bible reading.
Reading for spiritual growth.
Online searches show spiritual growth as the most often cited reason why people read the Bible.
Many people read the Bible in order to facilitate their own spiritual understanding and to enable them to live their lives in what for them is a better or more accurate grasp of the place of humans in the larger universe and their specific place in that construct.
The reader seeking spiritual growth might take lessons from the many stories of human interaction as well as stories of the interaction of humans with the divine.
The Bible contains many verses, chapters and entire books which can give the reader instructions in gratitude, praise and worship and can lead the willing reader to a better understanding of the relationships between people and their God.
Reading for moral/ethical guidance
Moral/ethical guidance is a common reason why people read the Bible. There are many moral and ethical lessons in the Bible. There are, however, some contexts and complexities we must consider before we make that decision.
In the pages of the Bible we find a wealth of moral and ethical lessons from the warning of Adonai to the humans in the Garden not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to the 613 mitzvot of the Hebrew Bible to the parables of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount to the admonitions of Paul and of those writing in his name after time of Jesus.
Seeking moral and ethical guidance from the pages of the Bible has been one of the primary reasons for Bible reading for centuries.
There are many stories, parables, anecdotes and specific lessons from which the reader can obtain guidance for how he can live his life in relationship to other people, to the earth, to the cosmos and to the deity as he interprets the scriptures.
In the pages of the Bible, there is no lack of passages which prescribe behavior for the faithful. There are many passages, however, in which the seeking reader will find more moral and ethical questions than he finds answers.
The Hebrew Bible, later adopted by Christians as the Old Testament, contains a wealth of moral and ethical guidance.
In order to have a reasonable understanding of that guidance, the modern reader must understand some things about how, when and in what circumstances the Hebrew Bible was written.
What are the cautions about moral/ethical lessons in the Old Testament?
The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was written by Israelite and Judahite scribes, priests, and prophets over a period between the 8th century BCE and the first century BCE and possible later. This makes the period of its writing between 600 and 800 years. In that time, the united Kingdom of Israel, in whatever time and in whatever configuration the united monarchy actually existed, the kingdom was violently split by the Assyrian Empire, and less than 150 years later, the surviving kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. The people were scattered from Judah and from Jerusalem, its capital, and the city and the Second Temple were destroyed.
Influences from outside the Bible
Subsequently, the area of Israel/Judah was conquered by the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great’s Empire and then the Roman Empire.
The Old Testament is a document chronicling defeat after defeat, instance after instance of the Israelites disobeying their God and his punishments for their lack of faith.
Evolving understanding of nature
It is important to realize that certain ideologies and beliefs that we hold today are based on 2500 years of scientific and technological development that the Bible authors did not have available.
- The structure of the cosmos
- The size and configuration of the earth
- Basic animal and plant biology
These are the basic natural concepts that conflict with “facts” stated in the Bible. The Bible was written by ancient people who had limited ideas about the world and the universe.
Beyond these natural laws, the Bible authors lived in a different kind of world and saw it through eyes that did not have the benefit modern insights.
Modern vs. ancient insights and attitudes
I will give three examples of how we must cautiously approach the Old Testament laws and rules for conduct.
- The Bible authors did not condemn such things as slavery
- The Bible authors were quite willing to condone killing in spite of the commandment
- The Bible authors did not have the same ideas about sex and sexuality and how it informs and is informed by such cultural aspects as marriage, polygamy, slavery and adultery
In addition, we need to understand that there are two kinds of laws in the Old Testament: ritual laws and moral laws.
The Bible authors did not condemn such things as slavery.
It might be difficult to learn that the people who wrote the Bible did not have any prohibition against slavery. Slavery was a part of day-to-day life in the ancient world, both in Israel and in the world around it.
In fact, Adonai gave specific laws to the Israelites regarding the acquisition, treatment and release of Israelite and foreign slaves.
To this, I would add that in ancient times, slavery was mostly a product of conquest and, in specific instances, for the resolution of debt.
Raiding other nations solely to enslave people was not widely done in the ancient Middle East. Land was the main objective of conquest. The enslavement of the people was usually secondary.
The Bible authors were quite willing to condone killing in spite of the commandment
Of course, the commandment clearly states: “Thou shalt not kill.” (KJV) This is the translation by bishops in 1611, using various texts including the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint and other manuscripts.
More modern translations, using more advanced linguistic and textual skills, together with the discovery of additional ancient manuscripts since 1611, give a more nuanced interpretation:
The English Standard Version, Exodus 20:13 reads, “You shall not murder.”
The New International Version, Exodus 20:13 reads, “You shall not murder.”
The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, Exodus 20:13 reads, “You shall not murder.”
Government actions are not included here: capital punishment, conquest and genocide are all permissible under Old Testament Law.
The Bible authors did not have the same ideas about sex and sexuality and how they inform such cultural aspects as marriage, polygamy, slavery and adultery
The Old Testament was a product of the ancient world and specifically, the ancient Middle East.
This complex juxtaposition of modern attitudes with ancient norms can cause a great deal of confusion. Religious dogmatists will maintain that the Bible is clear on these terms. It is not. There are considerations we cannot ignore when using the Old Testament in a quest for moral guidance.
- The sex act was not seen culturally or legally as a mutual act. It was seen as something done by someone to someone. (This does not negate sexual attraction and consenting, mutual activity. It does, however, set up a dominant and a submissive role culturally if not personally.)
- Bible verses regarding sex, sexuality and all things related to it must be read with an understanding that in ancient times, in Israel and in the surrounding countries, people thought much less about such things as gender, preference and orientation than we do today.
In fact, our current seeming obsession with sexual identity would simply get a quick side-eye in ancient times. People had far more important things to do than peer into the bedrooms of their neighbors.
In addition, we must realize that not only did the laws in the Bible inform sexual matters in ancient Israel, but the people were confronted with customs and conventions from a series of conquering cultures, Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman, each, in turn.
I think it would be difficult to find a consistent, reasonable and understandable set of guidelines for sexual behavior solely within the pages of the Bible. There are too many voices and too much history to simply find a verse or two and make them one’s guidepost.
I am certain that there are fundamentalists who would disagree, but my opinion stands as far as I am concerned.
Reading for Historical Research
There is a wealth of history, political science, anthropology, psychology and sociology as well as theology contained in the Bible. The historical researcher can find texts written by Jewish scribes and priests, prophets, Christian evangelists and others.
The original authorship of many Bible books in unknown. The earliest copies of the texts contain no author attribution at all. This gives the student of history a ready-made set of things to investigate, research, and write about.
One who reads for history will find any number of books to assist in focusing the research. The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce Metzger, the Hebrew Bible by Robert Alter and the Oxford Bible Commentary edited by John Barton are all excellent.
In addition to these print resources, I can also cautiously recommend YouTube videos and podcasts by such scholars as Bart Ehrman, Richard Friedman, Joel Baden, Dan McClellan and many others.
I recommend these cautiously because the cyber-space is currently in a kind of “Wild West” mode in which the scholar must tread on tiptoe with the understanding that some people find pleasure in putting ridiculous and demonstrably false information online.
Reading for Intellectual Curiosity
Reading for intellectual curiosity can take many forms. We will discuss two of the more common ones.
- Textual analysis
- Literary analysis
Textual Analysis
Textual analysis or textual criticism is the study that evaluates the texts we have available in an attempt and task to determine what the oldest and most original texts say and what meaning we can extract from context, vocabulary, sentence structure and other features.
The textual scholar compares texts of the same books and makes judgments about the possible original meanings and understandings of the authors.
Literary Analysis
The literary scholar of the Bible will find in the text, both prose and poetry.
He will find literary devices that are like the ones we use today, like word punning and hyperbole. There are also devices such as repetition and parallel construction which we use less nowadays for emphasis since we now have tools like bold words and Italics which were not available to ancient writers. Even punctuation was a late development.
The literary analyst can find threads which run all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This makes the Bible a literary tour de force when we consider that these threads are carefully placed in the books of the Bible by the authors, editors and redactors over hundreds of years.
Adam’s fall is contrasted with the Risen Savior. Prophecies throughout the Bible succeed and fail in subsequent books. What is said about Moses is said about Yeshua.
The literary scholar will find a lifetime of literatury analysis available. The really dedicated scholar can find literary devices in the English translations and many more in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament.
Cultural Continuity
In the U.S., the Bible and public education have been the two features of our culture that have homogenized it from the beginnings of the nation up to the time television took over a big part in that role. That role today is for better or for worse largely taken over by the internet. The Bible can still have great cultural influence, especially when we see that its contributions are both direct and indirect.
So much that we see in our culture today can be traced to the Bible.
Religious holidays, tithing, a professional clergy, places of worship, closing on Sundays, legal oaths and many other aspects and features of our culture today, exist directly or indirectly from ideas found in the Bible.
What can we conclude?
I believe that we can derive great benefits from reading the Bible in many areas of interest and study from personal spiritual benefits to the study of literature, ancient texts, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology and political science, not to mention that several evolving theologies that are explicit inn the text and the more vague and less lucid personal and tribal theologies that existed simultaneously.
The reader can find many things in the bible to hold his interest. He has only to begin.
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