by Joe Cady
When was the last time you read the Bible? Not just heard some of the Bible during mass, but intentionally grabbed your Bible and sat down for a little while reading? Maybe this is something you do regularly… good. Maybe you haven’t cracked open a Bible in years… either way, my hope is that this article will provide you with some resources to effectively read the Bible and encourage you to continue, resume, or maybe even begin to read the Bible regularly as part of your ongoing spiritual growth.
The Bible is a great gift to us. Through all of history God has been at work within and among his creation, guiding and drawing it to himself and directing it toward his purpose. But in the Bible, we get a divinely inspired, interpretive narration of God’s saving activity throughout history. In it we see God’s plan to redeem and restore creation unfold through the history of a particular people. This plan, while taking a number of twists and turns, is progressively realized and revealed throughout the Old Testament, and then brought to its fulfillment in the life and mission of Jesus and the formation of the Church in the New Testament. In order to really know “what God’s up to” in the world, we need to spend time reflecting upon what God has done in the past. Reading the Bible gives us this privileged access to God’s saving purposes, which is why St. Jerome famously said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of God.”
You see, all of this starts with a basic and beautiful truth, that “it pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and make known the mystery of his will” (CCC 51). “God, who dwells in unapproachable light, wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity” (CCC 52). When we read scripture, we are tapping into not only history but the heart and will of the Father, who “in the sacred books… comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them” (CCC 104).
All that being said, it can be difficult and intimidating at times reading the Bible. Therefore, in order to help you overcome some of these challenges, I offer the following suggestions:
(1) Find the right Bible.
There is no “right” Bible in the truest sense (unless you’re able to go back and read the original Hebrew and Greek). But among the various options, here are some things to look for. Try to find a Catholic Bible. Not because non-Catholic Bibles are bad, but they’re going to be missing seven books that are included in our Old Testament. When it comes to translations, there are a lot of options. Some of the most common Catholic Bibles are: the NAB(RE) (this is closest to what you hear at mass – not exact, but close); the NRSV (which is a pretty universally accepted scholarly translation); the RSV or the New Jerusalem Bible are also very common among Catholics. But, at the end of the day, when it comes to picking a Bible, don’t get too hung up on which translation you have, as Karl Keating (founder of Catholic Answers) once said, the best translation is the one you will read!
(2) Figure out what you’re going to read.
Once you’ve got your Bible, you need to start reading somewhere. While you could just start at the beginning, or flip open to any random page and start reading, these may not be the best
options, especially if you’re just starting out. So, here are some suggestions: (1) Pick one book of the Bible and read through it a little at a time, from start to finish. The advantage here is that you will be reading everything in context and will be able to understand how what you are reading relates to what you’ve already read. (2) Start with the New Testament. If reading the Bible is a bit new to you, stick to the New Testament, because you will find events and sayings that will be most familiar to you and so may be easier to understand. (3) Start with one of the Gospels, perhaps Matthew or John. (4) Try some of Paul’s Letters. If you’ve read the Gospels, try one of St. Paul’s letters, such as 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, etc. (5) Don’t be scared of the Old Testament. Genesis is a good place to start, followed by Exodus. After that, maybe jump to Judges and Joshua, or 1 and 2 Samuel. You could also check out some of the Wisdom literature (like Psalms and Proverbs), or a few of the prophets (like Isaiah or Jeremiah). There’s really no wrong place to start, but some might be better then others as you begin building the habit of reading the Bible regularly.
(3) Tips for interpreting the Bible.
Once you’ve found a Bible and you know what you’re going to read, the next thing you need to do is figure out what it means, what it’s saying. How? Well, the Church actually gives us some really good guidelines in interpreting the Bible:
I. Pay attention to the unity of the whole of the Bible. While each book of the Bible is unique, they are not detached from one another. While there are many different people and stories in the Bible, collectively, it tells one unified story – the story of salvation. “Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ is the center and heart” (CCC 112). To understand Scripture we need to constantly take a “big picture” approach, to see how everything we read reflects God’s plan of redemption and new life for his creation. This will help us know how the parts of the story fit into the whole story.
II. Read the scripture within the living Tradition of the whole Church. What does this mean? Read the Bible in a way that is connected to the full spectrum of the Church’s faith and history. “Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records” (CCC 113). Meaning, the truth of the Bible is preserved most fully in the lived experience of the Church over time. The scriptures were composed and compiled from within the Church. Therefore, its interpretation must take place within the context of the living, teaching office of the Church that produced it. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “an authentic interpretation of the Bible must always be in harmony with the faith of the Catholic Church” (Verbum Domini, 30). In addition to this, the Bible can only really be understood from the perspective of a lived faith. Because the Bible was formed from within a living, believing community of faith, it can only be rightly understood when read from the perspective of a lived faith. Pope Benedict XVI put it this way, “The Bible was written by the People of God for the People of God…Only in this communion with the People of God can we truly enter as a ‘we’ into the heart of the truth that God himself wishes to convey to us…the Book is the very voice of the pilgrim people of God, and only within the faith of this People are we, so to speak, attuned to understanding sacred scripture” (Verbum Domini, 30).
III. Know what kind of text you are reading. While today we experience the Bible as one book, the reality is that the Bible is a collection of books, it’s essentially a library, composed of writings of various styles from different historical settings. Therefore, how we read each book will depend upon which part of the “library” we are in. For example, you wouldn’t interpret poetry the same way you interpret history, or read a sci-fi thriller the same way you read a biography. In the same way, the Bible contains different types of writings: epic/myth, history, law, poetry, personal letters, etc. This means you aren’t going to read every book of the Bible in the same way. In order to know what type of literature you’re dealing with (as well as the historical/cultural context for each book), I recommend reading the introduction to each particular book prior to diving in. These introductions weren’t written by the Biblical authors themselves, they were added later by scholars. But they can be helpful is setting the stage for each book.
IV. Pay attention to the different senses of scripture: literal & spiritual. The literal sense is “the meaning conveyed by the words of scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: ‘All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal’” (CCC 115). But here’s the difficulty... The literal meaning is not just what the text says but what the writer intended to communicate through the text. How do we find out what the author intended to communicate? (1) Through knowing the author and the audience. (2) Through knowing the cultural/historical setting. (3) Through paying attention to the type of writing (which we mentioned above). Finding the literal meaning of the Bible isn’t as easy as “What do the words say?” To find the literal meaning we have to ask, “What was the author trying to communicate through what he said?” In addition to the literal sense (which is always primary) there is the spiritual sense, which is further divided into 3 subcategories: the allegorical sense (how this points to Christ), the moral sense (how this directs us in Christian living), and the anagogical sense (how does this point to our eternal destiny in Christ).
V. Use the footnotes, other translations, and some good commentaries. Like the introductions, the footnotes were not written by the authors themselves, so they don’t carry the same weight as the Bible itself, but they can be very helpful in connecting dots and explaining things that we might not understand. In addition to this, it can be helpful to consult other translations. No translation is perfect, so, when you’re having difficulty with a particular verse, take a look at how that verse is translated in other versions of the Bible. Finally, there are a number of different commentaries that can be helpful in unpacking the meaning of different parts of the Bible. Like footnotes, commentaries are not “divinely inspired” or infallible, they are the work of theologians and scripture scholars. But, they can be very helpful. They come in different sizes and styles, but it can be useful to have one or two around as you read the Bible. It’s worth knowing who wrote the commentary and maybe, in the beginning, sticking with Catholic sources. But… keep in mind, just because something was written by a Catholic doesn’t automatically mean it’s good, and just because something was written by a Protestant doesn’t mean it’s bad. In the end, test everything you read against everything else the Church teaches.
VI. Pray your way through the Bible. Prayer should always accompany the study of Scripture. We must keep in mind that in the Bible, God (who is alive) wishes to speak to us. Therefore, reading the Bible is unlike reading any other book. In the Bible we aren’t just encountering words, but the WORD itself, who is Jesus Christ. As the Catechism says, “Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely” (CCC 102). Through praying our way through the Bible we are opening ourselves up to a conversation with the God who lives.
These are just a few suggestions to (hopefully) help you read the Bible more fruitfully. Be prepared for parts that are confusing or times when reading the Bible seems dry and fruitless.
Don’t get discouraged. Like any habit, it takes time to grow in both comfort and confidence in reading the Bible. Stick with it! And know that I am available to help and support you in your study of sacred scripture.