3 Ways Jesus Read the Bible That Evangelicals Are Told Not to Do

Last updated on: September 30, 2014 at 6:26 pm by Guest Contributor

3 Ways Jesus Read the Bible That Evangelicals Are Told Not to Do 2014-09-30T18:26:00-05:00 Guest Contributor

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For Evangelicals–and I’m among them–Jesus and the Bible are high on the priority list. Not just evangelicals but all Christians believe Jesus is the Savior, and that the Bible tells us about him.

But watching how these two priorities come together–watching how Jesus read his Bible (the Christian Old Testament)–can create some awkward moments, because Jesus read his Bible in ways evangelicals are taught over and over again not to read it.

1. Jesus didn’t stick to what “the Bible says,” but read it with a creative flare that had little if any connection to what the biblical writer actually meant to say.
Evangelicals are told to respect the Bible by “sticking to the text” and not go beyond it. Jesus did the opposite.

For example, in the book of Exodus (chapter 3), God speaks to Moses from a burning bush. This being the first encounter, God introduces himself (verse 6): “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” In other words, “The one speaking to you, Moses, is none other than the God of your ancestors, and I’ve got a very big job for you: go down to Egypt and bring my people out of slavery.”

Enter Jesus. We find him in Luke’s Gospel (chapter 20) debating a religious party known as the Sadducees. One of their beliefs is that after you die, you’re worm food. Other Jews, including Jesus, were of the Pharisee party. They believed that God will one day raise the dead.

So to prove his point–that the Sadducees were wrong and God does indeed raise the dead–Jesus recites the verse from Exodus above, where God introduces himself to Moses.

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