Reading Scripture for yourself

Program / Course 2: The Solitary Christian in Depth / Lesson 4.1

What you will learn

• Explain why the traditions encourage every believer to read Scripture, and where they differ about interpretation.
• Describe the Protestant idea of the clarity of Scripture and the Catholic and Orthodox emphasis on reading within the church.
• Use five basic habits of careful reading: context, genre, translation, cross-reference and humility.
• Keep a simple notebook method for personal Bible study.

The big idea

Every major Christian tradition wants believers to read the Bible. They differ on who has the final say about what it means. Protestants teach that the main message of Scripture is clear enough for ordinary readers, and that each believer is responsible before God to read it. Catholics and Orthodox teach that Scripture is read most truly inside the church that produced and handed on it. Whatever one’s tradition, careful reading follows certain habits that any student can learn: read the passage in context, notice its type of writing, compare translations, and be ready to be wrong.

Key terms

Interpretation (hermeneutics)

The work of understanding what a text means. Hermeneutics is the study of how that is done.

Context

The surrounding verses, the book as a whole, the time and place of writing, and the author’s purpose.

Genre

The kind of writing: history, law, poetry, proverb, prophecy, gospel, letter. Each is read differently.

Perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture

The Protestant teaching that the central message of Scripture is plain enough for any believer who reads it with care, although some passages are hard.

Sola scriptura

A Latin phrase meaning by Scripture alone. Protestants use it to teach that Scripture is the final authority for faith and practice. Different Protestants understand it in different ways.

Exegesis

Drawing out the meaning that a text has, as opposed to reading into it one’s own ideas.

Background

For most of church history, many people could not read. Scripture reached them by hearing it in worship, by sermons, pictures and songs. When printing and translation made Bibles widely available, especially after the sixteenth century, the question of how ordinary readers should understand them became pressing. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, and William Tyndale into English at great personal cost. Catholic and Orthodox churches also encouraged Scripture reading, and have continued to publish and teach from it.

A person who studies alone is in effect a private reader. This is nothing new. In Acts, the Bereans “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11), and Paul commends them. But Acts also shows the Ethiopian official reading Isaiah and saying to Philip, when asked if he understood, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:31). Both stories belong to the picture. A good reader reads for himself and is willing to be guided.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Why read for yourself

Scripture is meant to be heard and read. Jesus often asks, “Have ye not read?” (for example Matthew 12:3). Paul tells Timothy that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The psalmist delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night (Psalm 1:2).

Personal reading gives a believer first-hand contact with the text. It builds familiarity, so that one notices when a speaker misquotes it. It also builds responsibility: you cannot hand off your understanding wholly to someone else.

Step 2: How the traditions frame it

The Reformers taught the priesthood of all believers (see 1 Peter 2:9) and the clarity of Scripture. The Westminster Confession says that not everything in Scripture is equally plain, but that what is necessary for salvation is so clearly set forth that the learned and the unlearned may attain a sufficient understanding (chapter 1, section 7). Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 appealed to Scripture and plain reason. Protestants nevertheless have creeds and confessions, and most value the teaching of pastors.

The Catholic Church, in the Second Vatican Council’s constitution Dei Verbum, urges all the faithful to read Scripture often, and holds that the authoritative interpretation of it belongs to the Magisterium, the teaching office of the pope and bishops. Orthodox Christians read Scripture in the light of the Fathers and of the liturgy, which is full of biblical language, and see the church as the place where the Bible was formed and is rightly understood. In all three, reading is encouraged. They differ on how much weight the church’s interpretation should have against one’s own.

Step 3: Five habits of careful reading

First, read the context. Read the paragraph before and after, and know which book you are in. Second, ask what kind of writing it is. A proverb is not a promise, a psalm is not a law code, and an apocalyptic vision is not a news report. Third, compare translations. Reading two or three good ones will show you where the text is difficult. Fourth, cross-reference. Let clearer passages help with harder ones, and note when other texts seem to point the other way. Fifth, hold your reading humbly. Ask what readers in other centuries and traditions have said.

A simple additional habit: ask what the passage meant for its first readers before asking what it means for you. That keeps you from reading yourself into it.

Step 4: A notebook method

Choose a passage of a few verses. Write it in your notebook or note its reference. Then answer in order: What does it say? (restate it in your own words.) What did it mean for its first hearers? What does it tell me about God? What does it ask of me? What questions do I have? What do the footnotes or a trusted study Bible say? Leave a margin for later corrections. Date each entry.

Keep the “questions” section honest. Hard questions are a sign of attention. Resolve them later with a reliable commentary, a teacher or the tradition, not by deciding at once what the passage must mean.

Step 5: Read with the church

Whatever your tradition, read in a way that stays in conversation with believers before you. Read the early Fathers, a modern commentary and a lectionary, which is a schedule of readings used by many churches. You will meet readings of your passage that you would not have thought of. This does not remove your responsibility to think. It improves your thinking.

1. Am I reading to learn what the text says, or to find support for what I think?
2. What kind of writing is this passage, and have I treated it accordingly?
3. What did these words mean to their first hearers?
4. Which translation am I using, and what do others do with the same verse?
5. Who, among readers before me, has understood this passage differently?
6. What would change my mind about my reading of this passage?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

All the faithful are encouraged to read Scripture, because, as Vatican II repeats from Jerome, ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. The Church teaches that Scripture and Tradition together form one deposit of the word of God, and that authentic interpretation belongs to the teaching office of the church.

Orthodox

Scripture is read in the church, in the liturgy and with the Fathers. Orthodox writers do not set Scripture against Tradition. They say Scripture is the central part of Tradition, and that a reader should join the Church’s way of reading.

Protestant

Scripture is the supreme authority, readable by ordinary believers in what concerns salvation, and to be read with prayer and with help from the church’s teachers. Protestants differ on how much weight to give creeds, confessions and the history of interpretation.

Scholarly

Biblical scholars use historical, literary and linguistic methods that are open to any careful reader. They stress context, genre and the original languages. They also remind readers that every interpreter has a standpoint, and that a lone reader may miss what the community of readers has seen.

Why it matters

Reading Scripture for yourself is both a privilege and a responsibility. It is the basis of the solitary Christian’s life. This lesson sets out good habits so that the privilege is used well. The next lessons deal with what can go wrong, and how to guard against it.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. When have you been sure of a Bible passage and later changed your mind?
2. Whose reading of Scripture do you trust most, and why?
3. Which of the five habits do you most often skip?
4. How would your reading change if you assumed that someone from another tradition might be right about this passage?

Independent assignment

A passage studied three ways

Choose a passage of six to twelve verses from a Gospel or a letter. In your own notebook, write 400 to 550 words. First write what you think it means after reading it alone in one translation. Then read it in a second translation and a study Bible or commentary, and note what changed. Finally, note one question that remains open and one person or book you could ask.

Further study

• Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth A widely used guide to reading each genre of Scripture.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Hermeneutics An academic introduction to the study of interpretation.
• Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith Read chapter 1, on Scripture.
• Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the sections on Scripture and Tradition.
• Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read Book 3, chapters 1 to 4, on Scripture and the apostolic tradition.
• Acts 17:11 The Bereans search the Scriptures.
• Acts 8:30 Philip asks if the official understands what he reads.
• 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is profitable.