How Not to Interpret the Bible– Part Three. What Subjects Does the Bible Teach Us About

Last updated on: August 5, 2022 at 1:35 am by Ben Witherington

How Not to Interpret the Bible– Part Three. What Subjects Does the Bible Teach Us About 2022-07-12T10:59:23-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of the perennial problems of Biblical Interpretation is figuring out what exactly the Bible is trying to teach us. NOT, what are all the subjects mentioned in passing, but what subjects does the Bible teach us about. The list of what it doesn’t teach us about is much longer than what it does, for example the Bible is not a scientific textbook of any sort. It does not teach cosmology, it does not teach evolution, it does not teach the theory of gravity, it does not teach us human anatomy and I could go on. There is nothing in the Bible which would tell us the age of the universe, or cause us to look at the recent telescope shots from deep space of all the other stars, galaxies, the light of which has travelled for many light years to get here, and say ‘no that’s a bunch of nonsense’. The subject matter of the Bible is history, more particularly salvation history, theology, and ethics. Period. All kinds of things go wrong when you try to squeeze out of the Bible various kinds of information it does not intend to teach us.

For example, consider the following true story that happened to me the very year, and right after, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. My friend Doug Harris and I were riding in the mountains of N.C. on a nice August day on the Blue Ridge Parkway when the clutch blew out, and as the Bible says– my countenance fell. There are no gas stations on the Parkway so we had to be pushed off an exit ramp down into a Texaco station where the mechanic had no clue how to replace a clutch on a 1955 Chevy Belair. So we had to hitchhike back to High Point in the middle of the state, and we were immediately picked up by two very ancient persons in an old black Plymouth, dressed in black. Doug, who later became quite the loquacious lawyer asked the driver once we got going what he thought of the moon landing and all those beautiful pictures of that blue ball called the earth revolving round and round. The drivers response was memorable ‘That’s all fake. Just a Hollywood stunt.’ Doug not recognizing invincible ignorance when he saw it was prone to argue. ‘Why’ he asked, ‘don’t you think it happened?’ The driver said ‘Says in the book of Revelations (beware of people who call the last book of the Bible that. That is not the name of that book, its Revelation singular) that the angels will stand on the four corners of the earth the earth can’t be round if it’s got four corners can it?’ At that point I said to Doug, ‘Just hush. We need this ride.’

Now what was wrong with the man’s logic? He assumed that the book of Revelation was teaching him geography and cosmology, when in fact it was simply teaching theology in particular eschatology– namely that the angels will come from all points on the compass to gather the saved. Period. Yes things go terribly wrong when we try to extra info from the Bible which it was not intended to teach.

Another good example would be anthropology and human biology. Most of the ancients, including the most advanced culture in Egypt believed the heart was the control center of the human person– the center of thoughts, feelings will. Today we know it is simply a pump. The brain is the control center of the human person. So when the Psalmist says ‘cleanse the thoughts of my heart by the inspiration of your Spirit’ he is simply reflecting the cultural assumptions of his age and is not trying to teach us anything about human biology. What he’s trying to teach us is theology— all of us need internal cleansing of our thoughts by the Holy Spirit. Period. One has to be able to distinguish between what the Bible is intending to teach us, and what it it merely touches on. Another good example would be the numerous uses of the phrase the sun rose, the sun set, phrases we also use. This is just the use of phenomenological language because the sun appears to rise and set from our limited point of view on earth. Today we know the earth revolves around our sun.

Equally orthodox Christian can disagree on which subjects the Bible teaches us on and which it doesn’t and what to do with statements that fall into the second pile, but these sorts of distinctions are key to understanding how to read the Bible.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 4, 2022

Guns and Lilies--- What does the 2nd Amendment Really Say?

Next Post

August 6, 2022 How Not to Interpret the Bible. Part Four-- Interpreting Everything Literally

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz