This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible. Since I’m a biblical scholar and professor with over twenty years of teaching experience, I’ve made a career of this sort of thing. There’s a lot about the Bible that I think people should know. My own journey in Bible knowledge has convinced me there’s one fundamental insight that, if faithfully observed, will help tremendously. It’s the best piece of advice I can give you:
What do I mean? In simplest terms, I’m suggesting that the path to real biblical understanding requires that we don’t make the Bible conform to denominational preferences. Don’t filter the Bible through familiar traditions. Don’t make it sound modern. Don’t turn it into something it isn’t. Just let it be what it is.
The insights I offer in this book are informed by the fundamental idea of letting the Bible be what it is. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as its original readers did—and as its writers did. I’ve applied this idea to the Bible and the people of the biblical world. Each chapter aims to provide insights for helping you understand Scripture.
Some of what you read will sound unfamiliar. Thousands of years separate us from the world of the Bible and the culture of the people God used to produce it. They weren’t us; we aren’t them. What they wrote is still important today, even vital, but we can only accurately discern the message if we let them speak as they spoke.
As a help to taking the Bible on its own terms—understanding it in its own contexts—I hope readers will avail themselves to my book Brief Insights on Mastering Bible Study. That resource will introduce readers to tools for moving past English translations and surface readings of the Bible. Some of the ideas introduced in this book are addressed in detail in my book The Unseen World: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.
In my experience, letting the Bible be what it is has not only made it more comprehensible but has also made it an endless fascination. I hope this book puts you on the same path.