In one of our lighter moments we toyed with the idea of calling this book Not Just Another Book on How to Understand the Bible. Wisdom prevailed, and the “title” lost out. But such a title would in fact describe the kind of urgency that caused this book to be written.
How-to-understand-the-Bible books abound. Some are good; others are not so good. Few are written by biblical scholars. Some of these books approach the subject from the variety of methods one can use in studying Scripture; others try to be basic primers in hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) for the layperson. The latter usually give a long section of general rules (rules that apply to all biblical texts) and another section of specific rules (rules that govern special types of problems: prophecy, typology, figures of speech, etc.).
Of the “basic primer” type books we recommend especially Knowing Scripture by R. C. Sproul (InterVarsity Press). For a heavier and less readable, but very helpful, dose of the same, one should see A. Berkeley Mickelson’s Interpreting the Bible (Eerdmans). The closest comparison to the kind of book we have written is Better Bible Study by Berkeley and Alvera Mickelson (Regal).
But this is “not just another book” — we hope. The uniqueness of what we have tried to do has several facets:
1. As one may note from a glance at the table of contents, the basic concern of this book is with the understanding of the different types of literature (the genres) that make up the Bible. Although we do speak to other issues, this generic approach has controlled all that has been done. We affirm that there is a real difference between a psalm, on the one hand, and an epistle on the other. Our concern is to help the reader to read and study the Psalms as poems, and the Epistles as letters. We hope to show that these differences are vital and should affect both the way one reads them and how one is to understand their message for today.
2. Even though throughout the book we have repeatedly given guidelines for studying each genre of Scripture, we are equally concerned with the intelligent reading of Scripture — since that is what most of us do the most. Anyone who has tried, for example, to read through Leviticus, Jeremiah, or Proverbs, as over against 1 Samuel or Acts, knows full well that there are many differences. One can get bogged down in Leviticus, and who has not felt the frustration of completing the reading of Isaiah or Jeremiah and then wondering what the “plot” was? In contrast, 1 Samuel and Acts are especially readable. We hope to help the reader appreciate these differences so that he or she can read intelligently and profitably the nonnarrative parts of the Bible.
3. This book was written by two seminary professors, those sometimes dry and stodgy people that other books are written to get around. It has often been said that one does not have to have a seminary education in order to understand the Bible. This is true, and we believe it with all our hearts. But we are also concerned about the (sometimes) hidden agenda that suggests that a seminary education or seminary professors are thereby a hindrance to understanding the Bible. We are so bold as to think that even the “experts” may have something to say.
Furthermore, these two seminary professors also happen to be believers, who think we should obey the biblical texts, not merely read or study them. It is precisely this concern that led us to become scholars in the first place. We had a great desire to understand as carefully and as fully as possible what it is that we are to know about God and his will in the twentieth (and now the twenty-first) century.
These two seminary professors also regularly preach and teach the Word in a variety of church settings. Thus we are regularly called upon not simply to be scholars but to wrestle with how the Bible applies, and this leads to our fourth item.
4. The great urgency that gave birth to this book is hermeneutics; we wrote especially to help believers wrestle with the questions of application. Many of the urgent problems in the church today are basically struggles with bridging the hermeneutical gap — with moving from the “then and there” of the original text to the “here and now” of our own life settings. But this also means bridging the gap between the scholar and layperson. The concern of the scholar is primarily with what the text meant; the concern of the layperson is usually with what it means. The believing scholar insists that we must have both. Reading the Bible with an eye only to its meaning for us can lead to a great deal of nonsense as well as to every imaginable kind of error — because it lacks controls. Fortunately, most believers are blessed with at least a measure of that most important of all hermeneutical skills — common sense.
On the other hand, nothing can be so dry and lifeless for the church as making biblical study purely an academic exercise in historical investigation. Even though the Word was originally given in a concrete historical context, its uniqueness centers in the fact that, though historically given and conditioned, this Word is ever a living Word.
Our concern, therefore, must be with both dimensions. The believing scholar insists that the biblical texts first of all mean what they meant. That is, we believe that God’s Word for us today is first of all precisely what his Word was to them. Thus we have two tasks: First, our task is to find out what the text originally meant; this is called exegesis. Second, we must learn to hear that same meaning in the variety of new or different contexts of our own day; we call this second task hermeneutics. In its classical usage, the term “hermeneutics” covers both tasks, but in this book we consistently use it only in this narrower sense. To do both tasks well should be the goal of Bible study.
Thus in chapters 3 through 13, which deal in turn with ten different kinds of literary genres, we have given attention to both needs. Since exegesis is always the first task, we have spent much of our time emphasizing the uniqueness of each of the genres. What is a biblical psalm? What are their different kinds? What is the nature of Hebrew poetry? How does all this affect our understanding? But we are also concerned with how the various psalms function as the Word of God. What is God trying to say? What are we to learn, or how are we to obey? Here we have avoided giving rules. What we have offered are guidelines, suggestions, helps.
We recognize that the first task — exegesis — is often considered to be a matter for the expert. At times this is true. But one does not have to be an expert to learn to do the basic tasks of exegesis well. The secret lies in learning to ask the right questions of the text. We hope, therefore, to guide the reader in learning to ask the right questions of each biblical genre. There will be times when one will finally want to consult the experts as well. We shall also give some practical guidelines in this matter.
Each author is responsible for those chapters that fall within his area of specialty. Thus, Professor Fee wrote chapters 1 to 4, 6 to 8, and 13, and Professor Stuart wrote chapters 5 and 9 to 12. Although each author had considerable input into the other’s chapters, and although we consider the book to be a truly joint effort, the careful reader will also observe that each author has his own style and manner of presentation. Special thanks go to some friends and family who have read several of the chapters and offered helpful advice: Frank DeRemer, Bill Jackson, Judy Peace, and Maudine, Cherith, Craig, and Brian Fee. Special thanks also to our secretaries, Carrie Powell and Holly Greening, for typing both the rough drafts and the final copy.
In the words of the child that moved Augustine to read a passage from Romans at his conversion experience, we say, “Tolle, lege” — “Take up and read.” The Bible is God’s eternal word. Read it, understand it, obey it.1
1. Permission has been granted by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, to use material in chapters 3, 4, and 6 that appeared earlier in different form as “Hermeneutics and Common Sense: An Exploratory Essay on the Hermeneutics of the Epistles,” in Inerrancy and Common Sense (ed. J. R. Michaels and R. R. Nicole, 1980), pages 161 – 86; and “Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent — A Major Problem in Pentecostal Hermeneutics,” in Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism (ed. R. P. Spittler, 1976), pages 118 – 32.