`How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth' by New Testament professor, Gordon D. Fee and Old Testament professor, Douglas Stuart is a book everyone should read, if their intention in reading the Bible is understanding both the original inspirations and contemporary applications these scriptures. I suggest this book with trepidation, because there are a number of other recent books on the subject which I have not yet read. However, I bring to this my own experiences in teaching adult Bible study classes to the book, and I find great agreement with my own discoveries.
The authors are modest in their thumbnail biographies. Dr. Fee, for one, is not only a well-known professor and author on New Testament studies; he is also the general editor for `The New International Commentary on the New Testament' series, one of the better series of Bible Commentaries, especially for the lay student.
One thing I must point out for the Bible readers who profess one of the more conservative Christian confessions is that `critical' Bible study is not at all antagonistic to one's faith. The authors themselves are superb exemplars of this fact, since both are devout Christians, and have approach the Bible with reverence, accepting it as writings inspired by the Holy Spirit. What one must deal with is the fact that the inspired authors lived in a world 2000 years ago, dealing with many problems which are totally alien to our day, writing in languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) with markedly different ways of saying things than modern English (or modern German, French, Spanish, and Latin for that matter). On top of this, we not only don't have the original writings, what we have is based on a jigsaw puzzle of (by some estimates) over 300,000 documents in Greek, Coptic, Syriac, and Latin, and that's just the New Testament.
Of course, the first subject is on the matter of English translations of the Bible. There may be some surprises here. There were for me. For example, we read here that the venerable King James Version was based only on late medieval texts. These sources were inaccurate and misleading in many places. And, it is not at all surprising that there is no single modern translation the authors recommend. Rather, they recommend that when doing serious study, you consult at least two different translations. Fortunately, there are at least two or three very good modern `functionally equivalent' translations, where the English is crafted to say, as closely as possible, exactly what is `meant' by the source language. This is the translation we typically use. `Formally equivalent' translations such as those you find in interlinear texts, intend to translate literally, word for word. These do not work well for lay study, as there is no effort whatsoever to accommodate the translation of idioms and unusual tenses which have no correlation in natural English. On the other hand, `interpreted' or `free' translations build interpretation into the translation, so we are giving up much of the very task we seek to accomplish by studying the scriptures. Basically, a good translation hides the details of archeological and lexical research which went into creating the modern texts. This leaves two intellectual activities for us.
The first is `exegesis', or determining what it was the scriptural authors were saying to their readers (or, more likely, listeners) of 2000 to 2800 years ago. This requires just a bit of research into historical contexts and the objectives of the authors. For example, Paul's letter to the Romans becomes a bit more understandable if we know when it was written and the fact that the Jews of Rome had been expelled a few years before by the emperor Claudius. For this task, the authors recommend using Bible dictionaries or Encyclopedias, of which there are many.
The second task is hermeneutics, or deciding how to apply the lessons for the ancients to modern problems. For example, in Luke and in other synoptic gospels, there is the pericope of the slave who remains vigilant through the night awaiting his master. Slavery was a fact of life in the ancient world, and Jesus' seeming to condone the practice is simply a reflection of his living as a human in these times. The lesson remains, even when one removes the immoral institution of slavery.
The authors assist us in both tasks by providing separate chapters for each major type of writing in the scriptures. These general types are the NT Epistles, the Gospels, OT narratives, Acts, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Pentateuch, the wisdom writings, and Revelations. There is also a special chapter on New Testament parables, which are often not as straightforward as one may think on first reading. My favorite example here is the parable of the good Samaritan, which works on at least three different levels, two of which are hidden by historical facts about both Samaria and teachings in the Torah. Each author has written the chapters which fall into their specialty, but both authors have contributed to all chapters. And, each chapter ends with general study questions. Since the questions are not about one specific book (except for Acts and Revelations), they are great sources of Bible study direction for a whole year spend on, for example, the Wisdom books, the Psalms, or Paul's letters.
One of the best resources in this book is its critical bibliography. My only complaint about this is that there are so many good commentaries; some will invariably be missed, as with their missing Joseph Fitzmyer's authoritative commentary on Luke. Another minor critical observation is that the book does not give quite enough attention to good study Bibles, especially the HarperCollins Study Bible and the New Oxford Study Bible. And, it may be worth noting that a good second translation by be a literal interlinear translation, with a third being the translation done by the author of the commentary you use. In fact, I would suggest you seek out commentaries with independent translations.
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- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2015
A classic introduction, written with humility.
