How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
by Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart
Preface
1. Basic concern of this book: what controls all the authors write is the desire to understand the different
types of literature (genres) that make up the Bible (e.g., psalms, prophecies, epistles), which will
affect both how one reads the Bible and how one is to understand better what its message is for today.
2. The authors are concerned that we read the Bible intelligently and accurately, and that we learn to
study the Scripture as we read it.
3. The two tasks they assign to us are to understand what the text meant and what it means today.
1.) Exegesis (“knowledge out”)—the first task is explanation—what the text originally meant.
2.) Hermeneutics (meaning for today)—we must hear what the Bible means within the new or
different contexts of our day.
Chapter One: Introduction
1. Readily admit: the major problem we face today is not that we do not understand the Bible at all, but
that we understand it all too well, and yet fail to put it into practice in everyday life!
2. The aim of good interpretation is not to come up with an unique interpretation that no one ever thought
of, but to get at the “plain meaning of the text.” As a matter of fact, be very wary of anyone who
introduces a new meaning that no one ever applied to that text before!
3. So, why don’t we just go “read the Bible”? That argument is naïve and unrealistic, because:
1.) The reader is always an interpreter also! We tend to think we understand the text as we read it,
and we tend to think our understanding is the same as the Holy Spirit’s or human author’s intent.
(1.) However, we invariably bring to the text all that we are, our experiences, culture, and prior
understandings of the world around us. We see the church of the New Testament as we see
our church: sitting in pews following an order of service with a piano! Or Romans 13:14,
where Paul refers to the “flesh”—we tend to see that as “body” or “bodily appetites,” while
Paul really intends to portray our “sinful nature.”
(2.) A simple look at the contemporary church illustrates that “not all “plain meanings” are
equally plain to all” (p. 19). Baptists say the Bible “plainly teaches” believers’ baptism by
immersion, while others believe they can make a biblical case for infant baptism.
(3.) The authors warn that the cults often have an additional authority besides the Bible—but not
all of them. In every case, though, “they bend the truth by the way they select texts from the
Bible itself” (Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, snake handlers, health and wealth gospel) (p. 20).
(4.) The antidote to bad interpretation is not failing to interpret the Bible, but good interpretation
based on commonsense guidelines (p. 21).
2.) The nature of Scripture itself. The Bible is both human and divine, and this dual nature of the
Bible demands that we interpret the Bible faithfully and accurately.
(1.) The Bible is God’s Word, so it has eternal relevance—it speaks to all people at all times in
every culture. Because God chose to speak his Word through human words in history, every
book of the Bible is conditioned by the language, time, and culture in which it was originally
written (historical particularity, p. 21). Also, the Bible is more than a set of propositions and
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imperatives—although it is that. It also is eternal truths within particular circumstances
and events of human history—God chose to speak in the context of real human history.
(2.) The human side of Scripture is our encouragement and our challenge to interpret:
a. To communicate his Word God chose to utilize all types of human communication:
narrative history, genealogies, chronicles, laws of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, proverbs,
riddles, drama, biographical sketches, parables, letters, sermons, and apocalypses. To
interpret them in the “then and there,” we must know general rules that apply to all the
words of the Bible, and also special rules that apply to all the types of literary forms or
genres (p. 23).
b. Over the 1,500 year span that the texts of the Bible were written, God chose to speak
through real persons in vocabulary and thought patterns of those people who were
conditioned by the culture of those times and circumstances. “God’s Word to us was first
of all his Word to them” (p. 23). The language and events had to be that which they could
understand then in their situation. We are far removed from their time and situation, so
there is the need to interpret the Bible carefully and accurately.
c. So, the interpreter has a task at two levels: first, one has to hear the Word they heard, and
second, one must learn to hear that same Word in the here and now.
4. The First Task: Exegesis (p. 23ff)
1.) Exegesis is the careful, systematic study of Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning,
and it is basically a historical task. What was the original intent of the words of the Bible to the
original audience or recipients? Our challenge here is that often our exegesis is too selective, and
often the sources consulted are not written by true “experts” (24).
(1.) The first step in reading EVERY text is exegesis (not just when there is an obvious problem
between the biblical texts and our modern culture). Our challenge will be to avoid being
“selective,” reading one’s own, completely foreign ideas into the text and thereby making
God’s Word something other than what God really said (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 5:22).
(2.) This is the first step—don’t begin by consulting the supposed experts unless necessary, and
then select only the very best! Mark 10:24 and the “camel through the eye of the needle” is
a great example. There never was or has been a “Camel Gate” or “Needle’s Eye” gate in
Jerusalem!
2.) Learning to do exegesis.
(1.) Learn first what you can do with your own skills. You might not know the original biblical
languages, or how to determine the original text, or have access to extensive kinds of primary
resources and tools. You can, though, learn to do good exegesis, and then consult others.
(2.) Learn to read the text carefully and to ask the right questions of the text. Two basic questions
every exegete should ask of the text are those questions related to context, and those related to
content. Also, there are two kinds of questions concerning context: historical and literary.
a. Historical Context: has to do with the time and culture of the author and his readers, i.e., the
geographical, topographical, and political factors relevant to the author’s setting; also the
occasion of the book, letter, psalm, prophetic oracle, or other genre matters (p. 26).
(a.) Differences matter as we look at the personal background of the prophetic authors, or
the messianic expectations in Israel. Differences between cities such as Corinth,
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Philippi, and Ephesus matter, as does the amount of pay signified in the term denarius.
(b.) The more important question of historical context, though, has to do with occasion
and purpose of each biblical book (or its parts). What was happening in Israel or Judah
or the church in a particular city? What situation caused the author to speak or write?
b. Literary Context-the words of the text only have meaning in their structural unit
(sentence, phrase, line, etc.). You don't necessarily have to consult the expert to ask the
question here, "What's the point?"--what was the author's train of thought? The goal of
exegesis is to discover what the original author intended. To do this, use a good translation
that is structured around sentences, paragraphs, lines of poetry, etc. (yes, translations are
always also interpretations!).
(a.) The Questions of Content-you must ask what was the author's actual content--the
meaning of words, grammatical relationships in sentences, original text in face of
differing manuscripts, and also (again) questions of meaning--like a denarius, a
Sabbath day's walk, "high places." The author's example was 2 Corinthians 5:16,
"according to the flesh"—“Christ in the body”, or “we considering him from a worldly
point of view”? This is the place where you will finally want to consult outside help,
such as a high quality commentary.
(b.) The tools you will need to assist you at this point will be a great translation (or
several), a good Bible dictionary, and a superb one volume Bible commentary.
5. The Second Task: Hermeneutics (usually 'the science of interpretation')
1.). The authors use the term in the narrower sense to mean "seeking the contemporary relevance of
ancient texts." In other words, what the Bible means for the here and now.
2.). Why not start here? Because the only proper control for hermeneutics is to be found in the original
intent of the biblical text. Hermeneutics can become total subjectivity, so we must insist that the
author's original meaning of the text provide the objective point of control or else we devolve into
something like the Mormons and baptizing the dead (1 Cor. 15:29), or the snake handlers and
Mark 16:18!
3.) Well then, can't we just read with common sense here? According to the authors, common sense is
not all that common! We cannot make the text mean whatever suits us and then attribute it to the
Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the One who inspired the original, and He will not alter its original
meaning (we're not talking about an appropriate application to my life!). We must agree on this: A
text cannot mean what it never meant! The true meaning is what God originally meant it to mean
when it was first spoken. Second or deeper meanings could be possible, but be exceedingly
careful: this is the manner in which heresies and cults are born!