Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part Three

(Excerpt #3 - Conclusion)

 I am saying that we mustn’t belittle scripture by bringing the world’s models of authority into it.  We must let scripture be itself, and that is a hard task.  Scripture contains many things that I don’t know, and that you don’t know; many things we are waiting to discover; passages which are lying dormant waiting for us to dig them out.  Awaken them.  We must then make sure that the church, armed in this way, is challenging the world’s view of authority. 

It seems to me that evangelical tradition has often become in bondage to a sort of lip-service scripture principle even while debating in fact how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.... Instead, I suggest that our task is to seize this privilege with both hands, and use it to the glory of God and the redemption of the world.

Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part Two

Excerpt #2...

"If we really engage with the Bible in this serious way we will find, I believe, that we will be set free from (among other things) some of the small-scale evangelical paranoia which goes on about scripture....Of course the Bible is inspired, and if you’re using it like this [reading large portions] there won’t be any question in your mind that the Bible is inspired..." 

Of course you will discover that the Bible will not let you down.  You will be paying attention to it; you won’t be sitting in judgement over it.  But you won’t come with a preconceived notion of what this or that passage has to mean if it is to be true.  You will discover that God is speaking new truth through it."

Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part One

The following is taken from a lecture by N.T. Wright concerning the "Authority of Scripture." He is encouraging Christians to read larger portions of scriptures so that Christians better understand the authority of the God's Holy Word. Hence, reading the Bible in a new manner not necessarily with different meaning. 


"In private reading, and in informal group meetings, we need again to experiment with new ways of reading scripture.  Anyone who has heard an entire biblical book read... will realize that such things as chapter-divisions, or almost any divisions at all, can be simply unhelpful.  

We need to recapture a sense of scripture as a whole, telling and retelling stories as wholes.  Only when you read Exodus as a whole (for example) do you realize the awful irony whereby the making of the golden calf is a parody of what God wanted the people to do with their gold and jewels . . . and only by reading Mark as a whole might you realize that, when the disciples ask to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand, they are indeed asking for something they do not understand."