How to Read the bible for All its worth - Gordon D. Fee, Douglas Stuart

How to Read the bible for All its worth
Gordon D. Fee, Douglas Stuart
2007, IMprint Edition

This book was passed to me by my boss (ok, ex-boss now). Found it very useful.

Introduction: The need to interpret
…the aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before. Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to “out clever” the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deeply buried truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). Unique interpretations are usually wrong… uniqueness is not the aim of our task.

The Epistles: Learning to think Contextually

… you need to develop the habit of reading the whole letter through in one sitting. You will need to block out an hour or more to do this, but nothing can ever substitute for this exercise. It is the way one reads every other letter. A letter in the Bible should be no different.

…you are not trying to grasp the meaning of every word or sentence. It is the big view that counts first.

We cannot stress enough the importance of reading and re-reading. As you read through the whole letter, you may find it helpful to jot down a few very brief notes with references if you have a hard time making mental notes.

Thus we suggest 4 kinds of notes:
What you notice about the recipients themselves (e.g. whether Jew or Greek, whether wealthy or slave; their problems, attitudes, etc.)
Paul’s attitudes
any specific things mentioned as to the specific occasion of the letter
the letter’s natural, logical divisions

The Old Testament Narratives: Their proper use
It should help you as you read and study OT narratives to realize that the story is being told, in effect on three levels. The top (“third”) is… called the ‘metanarrative’, this level has to do with the whole universal plan of God worked out through his creation. Key aspects of the plot at this top level are the initial creation itself, the fall of humanity, the power and ubiquity of sin, the need for redemption, and Christ’s incarnation and sacrifice. Sometimes this top level is also referred to as the “story of redemption” or “redemptive history”

The 2nd level is the story of God’s redeeming a people for His name. These people are constituted twice – by a former covenant, and a ‘new’ covenant.

Finally there is the ‘first’ level. Here are found all the hundreds of individual narratives that make up the other two levels. This includes both compound narratives—for example, the Genesis narratives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Joseph as a whole – and the smaller units that make up the larger narrative.

An awareness of this ‘hierarchy of narrative’ should help you in your understanding and application of OT narratives.

The characteristic of Hebrew Narrative
Hebrew narratives have some distinctive features that, if looked for and recognized, can greatly enhance your ability to hear the story from the perspective of the divinely inspired narrator.

Perhaps the single most useful bit of caution we can give you about reading and learning from narratives is this: Do not be a monkey-see-monkey-do reader of the Bible. No Bible narrative was written specifically about you. The Joseph narrative is about Joseph, and specifically about how God did things through him – it is not a narrative directly about you. The Ruth narrative glorifies God’s protection of and benefit for Ruth and the Bethlehemites – not you. You can always learn a great deal from these narratives, and from all the Bible’s narratives, but you can never assume that God expects you to do exactly the same thing that Bible characters did or to have the same things happen to you that happened to them.

Principles for Interpreting Narratives

1. An OT narrative usually does not directly teach a doctrine


2. An OT narrative usually illustrates a doctrine or doctrines taught propositionally elsewhere.


3. Narratives record what happened – not necessarily what should have happened or what ought to happen every time. Therefore, not every narrative has an individual identifiable moral application


4. What people do in narratives is not necessarily a good example for us. Frequently, it is just the opposite.


5. Most of the characters in the OT narratives are far from perfect – as are their actions as well


6. We are not always told at the end of a narrative whether what happened was good or bad. We are expected to be able to judge this on the basis of what God has taught us directly and categorically elsewhere in Scripture


7. All narratives are selective and incomplete. Not all the relevant details are always given. What does appear in the narrative is everything that the inspired author thought important for us to know.


8. Narratives are not written to answer all our theological questions. They have particular, specific, limited purposes and deal with certain issues, leaving others to be dealt with elsewhere in other ways


9. Narratives may teach either explicitly (by clearly stating something) or implicitly (by clearly implying something without actually stating it)


10. In the final analysis, God is the hero of all biblical narratives.

The Gospels: One Story, Many Dimension
Thus as you read the four gospels, one of the questions you will want to ask, even if it cannot be answered for certain, is whether Jesus’ audience for a given teaching was his close disciples, the larger crowds, or his opponents. Discovering the historical context of Jesus, or who his audience was, will not necessarily affect the basic meaning of a given saying, but it will broaden your perspective and often help you understand the point of what Jesus said.

Some books as good background information:

• Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 2nd edition (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 1993)


• Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Philadephia: Fortress, 1969)

To be continued...

Honestly, it's not an easy read. I've got to stop half-way, so I can continue in my Bible-reading. Too many points to remember. Will pick it up again soon...