Three Ways Of Reading The Bible

5. The Biblical creation story applies to our lives at college. By studying his creation we grow to know God better and we learn to live Godly lives by looking at what he created us to do. Just like atheistic scientists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA by studying the creation not the Bible we can learn a lot about God and ourselves by not just reading the Bible, but also taking time to study the creation.

13) The Creation of the World; the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve; Original Sin; the Fall

Coming from a family that was fairly religious as well as going to Bible studies, the Bible was always read as somewhat literal. I always believed that these stories were factual, that all the characters in the book had magical powers that were bestowed upon them by the power of the Lord. At the time I would read the Bible in a literal sense then reflect upon it thinking that this passage made no sense, how could this even be possible? When entering this class I believed that we were going to read the Bible just as how I have been reading it my entire life. I was very surprised with this new idea of reading the Bible in a historical type of way, just like reading a history book. I was something different that I have never heard before, but I was willing to try to understand this new way of reading. Reading the Bible through a historical lens helps the reading understand what the author is trying to convey to the audience. My approach to reading the bible has changed by allowing to apply a more literal and critical approach to the stories. When it is looked at from a historical perspective then I feel that I have more of an understanding of what the meaning of the story actually is. Reading the Bible is not a way of just reading factual stories and trying to determine the theological meaning of the message to its audience. As we slowly reach the end of the semester I realize myself reading the Bible and other

Seized by Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture is written by Joel Green, a New Testament scholar, and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Prof. Green, has participated and contributed greatly on a wide range of topics related to both New Testament scholarship and theology.

When writing this captivating book the authors had a specific goal in mind, this was to convince their audience that the bible is more than Sixty-Six separate books, rather the bible is in depth piece of writing that can only be revealed from beginning to end. It goes through six acts and reviews each era of the bible beginning with creation and finally ending with the return of our one true king. Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen do a very good job at informing their readers that God is constantly at work in the individual lives of every human being as well as at work with the world. In my personal opinion this book goes far beyond telling those who read it that the bible is one whole story, it also all people whether you are a Christ follower or not a story to base their everyday life around. While reading you often come across different quotes that are used to emphasize a certain point such as “At the cross God delivers the death blow to human sin and rebellion and accomplishes the salvation of the world” (Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, 126). These quotes are perfect for keeping the reader interested and focused on the books purpose. Quotes aside there all also key questions at the end of the chapter to help the reader really grasp what the chapter was about. Whether you have known the lord for years or only a few weeks this book is the perfect read for any individual looking to strengthen their relationship with the lord.

The birth of my spiritual formation is sitting and talking with grandmother, Jessie Will Rogers, about God after Sunday dinner. Jessie felt that it was important for the grand children to attend West Union Missionary Baptist Sunday school and church and she had these summary books of bible stories in which we read after dinner and discuss. I can remember explaining Daniel in the Lion’s den as it relates to racism and oppression. This was transformative learning through experiences and community support.

He offers excellent advice on reading the New Testament. To understand the New Testament, one should read it the way people of the first century AD, who had no knowledge of the Trinity Doctrine, would have read it. If the Trinity Doctrine is true, then the writers of the New Testament

According to our text, the New Testament is comprised of four primary literary forms: Gospels, History, Letters and Apocalyptic (Harris, 2014). The Gospels was made up of four books written by four separate authors who tell of Jesus from four individual viewpoints based upon their understanding of who Jesus was, yet it does not cover the lifespan of Jesus, only certain accounts. Therefore, it is not considered historical or a biography but is defined as ‘sui generis’. The historical counts of the life of Christ is noted in the book of Acts. This book tells of the history of the early church but by all accounts doesn’t use traditional criteria most often noted in historical writings. The Epistles are known as letters. These letters were thought to be written by Paul and his followers. The letters were often written to the various churches rather than people or individuals. They were also written to address issues, concerns or to offer praise for specific acts or behaviors. Thus, letters or epistles addressing sin were more of the rebuking nature to bring correction and accountability in the effort to restore the parishioners to appropriate, God-fearing behaviors. Whereas, other letters may be to praise churches for exemplifying model behaviors that could be used for strong witnessing. The latter form is known as the apocalyptic writings. This form tends to deal with the End Times and was suspected to have been written during the time of church persecution. The book of Revelation in particular, was written around the 1st century when Christians were said to have been killed for their faith. It is during this time that the question was raised regarding God’s role and whether or not he would win. It was stated emphatically that God would win and would redeem his people.ReferenceHarris, S. L., (2014). The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction (8th ed.). Dubuque:McGraw-Hill Education.

When studying any piece of literature there are many different methods and techniques that can be used. The Bible, in specific, is often referred to as a source of moral code, hope, and answers to social, ethical, and political questions. However, this incredibly influential book can also be read as if it were any other novel. The events, settings, and characters can all be evaluated for what they are, forgetting the notion that they are from a religious text. This approach is called narrative criticism. When regarding to the Bible in this way, we do not need to know any historical information or focus on seeking a deeper theological meaning. Instead, the stories are evaluated in terms of how

The King James version of the Bible affected many things and had a major impact on society and the English language. It was created by King James to benefit and fill a request given by the puritans to King James. It took seven years to write and it became the English standard version of the Bible. The King James version includes a lot of formal and poetic language to describe stories and events in the other versions of the Bible. It taught the Bible in a different way making it easier for some people to understand and believe in the stories and truths of the Bible. This version is the most influential version of the Bible. It is also the most referred too and the most popular for many groups of people. Overall it is a descriptive and creative translation that combines truth with poetic art and beautiful language appealing to many different groups of people.

Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas K. Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

Ever since I was born I have been attending church. At this young age they teach you everything about the main stories or the main points of the Bible. At my church I learned stories from Noah’s ark to the story of Adam and Eve eating the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I learned about who was the narrator of the Bible and who created our earth. I never knew who were the people that printed out the pages or chose a specific font for the Bible. I didn’t have the background knowledge of what country or if it were the Romans that actually created the Bible. In this world there has been several theories that the Romans were the ones that wrote it or it was the English that wrote it and printed it out. After reading the book “How we got the Bible” by Neil R. Lightfoot, it gave me the right knowledge and understanding of who wrote the wonderful collection of books. Understanding how we got the Bible means that we have to know how it was written, on what it was written and who wrote it.

One of the most important books in the history of design is The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the Mazarin Bible and the 42-Line Bible. It is often considered one of the first notable books to have been printed because unlike early books, this book was printed with movable type. Invented by Johann Gutenberg, his invention changed the course of technology and the way people gained knowledge forever.

Biblical Interpretation is important and necessary so that we can understand what the text is saying, what the intended theological message is, and how to personally apply and teach these Scriptural truths to carry forward the Gospel in rescuing others from despair and death to hope and life, thus displaying His glory and growing His Kingdom. It is about finding what God is revealing about Himself and His Son Jesus Christ. Moreover, it is for us to know that God desires to have a relationship with us and for us to be set apart in a covenant relationship with Him to display holy lives that bring Him glory. Interpretation, using hermeneutical principles, help guide us in proper boundaries for interpreting Scripture so that we can reveal the intended meaning of the text. Without this, we run the risk of imposing our own ideas on the text, therefore misinterpreting. Misinterpreting can cause us to miss theological truths, administer the wrong application, and neglect or overlook the meaning of the text which weakens the impact of God’s truth in our personal lives as well as others we are teaching.