On Reading the Bible, a Reminder from Hans Boersma, and Meeting God in the Text
A Note from Me
When I was younger, the Bible was presented to me as a book to master. I needed to study it like a textbook. I needed to know the context, the language, the cultural details if I was going to unlock the author’s meaning … and God’s meaning too.
If I could explain what an author “meant,” then I was doing it right—I was actually doing discipleship. While all of this has its place, I’ve come to see it differently now.
Biblical languages, context, and culture are valuable—they can open doors and deepen understanding—but they’re best treated like a course you take and then move on from. Or maybe like a season you enter from time to time. They help you get your bearings, but they’re not the way I want to approach the Bible day after day.
Why? Because the Bible is not a subject to conquer; it’s a record of people trying to live their lives with God. It’s Abraham hearing a call and then responding. It’s David stumbling and starting over. It’s Mary saying yes. It’s Peter failing and returning. These aren’t abstract lessons; they are stories of actual people trying to pay attention to God and then respond in a way that makes sense. In other words, when I open my Bible, I see a mirror. Their struggles look like mine. Their questions sound familiar.
That’s why I’ve begun to treat my Bible less like a text book and more like an altar—a place to meet God, to kneel, to listen, to hear, and hopefully to obey. Context and study matter, but I no longer make them my aim. I don’t want to get lost in word studies or background notes and miss the encounter itself.
These days my questions are less “what does this passage mean?” and more “What is God asking of me?” Abraham and David and Mary had their time to live with God; now it’s my time. When I read this way, I’m getting in on the action. I’m getting involved with God.
A Voice from the Christian Tradition
The primary task of theology is not to explain the historical meaning of the text but to use the Scriptures as a means of grace in drawing the reader to Jesus Christ. In other words, biblical interpretation is not a historical discipline.
To use a patristic expression, it is mystagogical in character: biblical interpretation leads the reader into the mystery of God in Christ. The theologian’s terminus does not lie in the history behind the text or even in the text itself. The theologian attends to Scripture as a sacramental means of entering into the mystery of God.
Theology (and Scripture as a means) aims at nothing less than the divine life itself.
—Hans Boersma, Five Things Theologians Wish Biblical Scholars Knew
A Question to Carry
How might it change your reading to see the Bible as an altar instead of a textbook?
Until next week,
—Jon
"Abraham and David and Mary had their time to live with God; now it’s my time." This is a thrilling thought! Thank you, Jon.