On Being Informed by Reasonable Inquiry Into the Bible and the Christian Tradition

 

The general, modest goal of studying the Bible and the Christian tradition is to know more about them than before.

The specific goals for those of us with a personal commitment to the gospel of God in Christ is to allow God to use that encounter to inform and transform our lives, our relationships, our culture, and our national policies.

The value will be relative to our investment in time, in thoughtful consideration, and - for those “in the game” - in personal application of lessons learned (complete with resulting feedback from family, friends, employers, and, if you jam up the works of the Powers That Be, the government! :-) )

That commitment can range from, say, an hour a week to getting a Ph.D. in biblical studies and devoting your professional life some specific area of inquiry (e.g., the historical Jesus, Gnosticism, the Johannine literature, the Apostle Paul, the development of the canon, etc.).

But even an hour a week will be rewarded. The interpretation of the Bible is too important to be delegated in to to the professionals!

The presumption of the following is that you have (ideally) a good translation of the Bible, preferably with study resources and / or access to online resources via the internet.

My preferred source is the Oxford Study Bible (New Revised Standard Version), which tends to be a bit more liberal and captures a bit more of the underlying genres (e.g., poetry, psalms). My secondary favorite is the conservative New International Version, which is a bit more literal (even “wooden”) in its translation but still very accurate in its rendering of the text into English. Comparing the two side-by-side will give you two good translations from differing perspectives that may give you greater insight into issues regarding the original Hebrew or Greek text being translated. Or you can learn Hebrew and / or Greek and make your own translation.

That’s a case where I’m quite willing to delegate to the professionals. :-)

I’ve not really studied Catholic Bibles (which include material from the intertestamental period relegated in Protestant study Bibles to the Apocrypha) but I know some good translations with study resources are authorized by the Church and other very good non-authorized versions are available in Catholic format.

Step One: Consider and critically question the assumptions and perspective you bring to your study such that your awareness can be confirmed or challenged by your study. Being challenged is a good thing: if we never read anything in the Bible or the Christian tradition that challenged us there would really be no reason to read it at all beyond academic curiosity. This prior understanding (e.g., the Bible is infallible and inerrant, the Bible is a fairy tale, or anything in between) we bring to our study is our key to the scriptures and the tradition and our consciously considering our prior understanding is the first step in distancing ourselves from it such that it may be challenged  by the various texts themselves.

Step Two: If your pre-understanding is the key to the lock, the lock itself is the Bible and the tradition. And that lock has two parts. The first part, the easy part, is the content of the particular aspect of the Bible or the Christian tradition you are studying. What is the passage saying? If you are reading it in English translation, this part is no different than it is for any other book you read in English, whether the NRSV Bible, William Shakespeare, or H. P. Lovecraft.

Step Three: The second part of the lock is the not so easy part. What is the context of what you’re reading? You can spend ten minutes examining that… or, if you’re a professional biblical scholar or historian, you’re entire career. Before losing hope remember: since the Reformation opened up access to the Bible in the language of the people (e.g., the King James Bible, Luther’s German Bible, etc.), ordinary people have read the Bible in its normal, literary context (e.g., what comes before and after the text being studied) and in its canonical context (e.g., what does this passage mean in the context of II Corinthians, in the context of the writings of Paul, in the context of the New Testament, and in the context of the Bible as a whole - same  as one would read a passage of Henry V in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare) and have understood its message adequately. And, for those who are committed to accepting the Bible as an authority for their beliefs and ethics, one should also read it in the context of their community of interpretation: the contemporary Christian community.

The first link, below, is a very good introduction to understanding the Bible and the Christian tradition beyond just the literary context and the canonical context to the many other contexts (such as the historical-critical). It begins with an example of the analysis of Joseph story in the Old Testament.

The second link is to a more general  list  of online study resources regarding the Bible and the Christian tradition.

What Is the Historical-Critical Method?

On Being Informed by Reasonable Inquiry Into the Bible and the Christian Tradition (Resources)

This article dedicated to my own, personal, “Introduction to the New Testament,” the late Fr. Hubert L. Flesher who was, aside from everything else, an extraordinary teacher of Scripture.