The Bible from which it all began to read. How to read the Bible correctly. What language to read the Bible in
Some believers, even Orthodox Christians, attend church services, observe fasts, but do not study the Bible, Holy Scripture. How can you know a person if you do not communicate with him? How can you know the will of God in your life if you do not read the Creator's writings?
The reason for this is sometimes simply laziness or neglect, but more often people are stopped by the fear of not understanding what is written.
Christian Library of God's Messages
There are 77 books in the Orthodox Bible, each of them tells about a certain period in the history of mankind and the formation of faith in the Creator. How to read the Bible correctly in order not only to be filled with historical information, but also to understand the meaning of God's revelations?
Orthodox Bible
To approach the concept of God, to know His plan is possible only from the Holy Scriptures.
How to read the Bible and see its value
For believers who are beginning to learn the Bible for the first time, it is advisable to receive the blessing of a spiritual mentor, carefully listen to his advice. Before you start reading the Holy Scriptures or Holy Traditions, you should pray, ask the Almighty to bless and give wisdom to understand everything that is written.
Prayer to Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ, open my heart's eyes so that when I hear Your Word, I understand it and do Your will. Hide not Thy commandments from me, but open my eyes, that I may understand wonders from Thy law. Tell me the unknown and secret of your wisdom! I trust in You, my God, and I believe that You will enlighten my mind and meaning with the light of Your mind, and that then I will not only read what is written, but also fulfill it. Make sure that I do not read the Lives of the Saints and Your Word as a sin, but for renewal and enlightenment, and for holiness, and for the salvation of the soul, and for the inheritance of eternal life. For You, O Lord, are the enlightenment of those who lie in darkness, and from You is every good gift and every perfect gift. Amen.
New Testament Reading Sequence
- It is best to study the Holy Scriptures, or rather the New Testament, the Gospels with the Good News transmitted by the Apostle Luke, who was a doctor by profession and lived in the time of the Apostle Paul. The Gospel of Luke gives the most detailed earthly biography of Jesus Christ, from the genealogy to the ascension.
- Some priests advise reading Mark first. This message is the shortest and most readable.
- Do not rush to explore the other three gospels. Continue to enjoy Luke's revelations in the Acts of the Apostles, which describe the life of Jesus' disciples after His ascension to the Father.
- The Apostle John left his gospel as a legacy to his descendants. Being beloved and the youngest disciple of Christ, John was able to convey to Christians the meaning of the main mission of Jesus - to save the world in the name of God's glory.
- The Gospels of Mark and Matthew supplement the information about the earthly ministry of Christ.
- In the letters to the churches written by the four apostles: Peter, Paul, James and Jude, one is surprised and delighted by their correspondence to the problems of modern churches.
- To feel truly under the protection of God, to know your rights as the heir of the Living God, the revelations recorded in Ephesians will help.
- The Epistle to the Philippians will help restore the joy of communion with the Lord, give a new awareness of churching.
- The most difficult to read is the Apocalypse, written by the apostle John during his exile on the island of Patmos. This revelation is encrypted and open to the elect.
bible reading
How to read the Old Testament
After studying the New Testament, you can go to the Old Testament, which contains the laws that, according to Jesus himself, are the tutor for Christians.
- You don't have to read everything. For example, having started your acquaintance with the Old Testament, after reading Genesis, Exodus, do not rush to learn Numbers and Leviticus, this requires a special understanding. Such books are best explored with the help of a spiritual guide.
- Notice Deuteronomy 28 gives the principles of blessing and cursing.
- The book of Judges and Kings will reveal the historical aspect of the life of the Jews and the work of God there.
- After reading historical books about the life of kings, you can begin to get acquainted with the psalms. The reading of Psalms, such as 50, 90, 22 and others, is included in the prayer order of Orthodox Christians, while not everyone knows that these texts are taken from the Psalter, part of the Old Testament, which consists of 150 songs.
About the psalms:
Experienced Christians have a whole list of psalms, divided into groups, which are read in various life situations:
- illness;
- on the road;
- despondency;
- depression;
- loneliness;
- anxiety and others.
Discover Proverbs. You know that there is a saying among Christians that reading one parable a day drives away the devil. The Bible contains 31 parables, just one for each day of the month. Reading for the first time these epistles, received by King Solomon and written down under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, one marvels at their wisdom.
Wisdom, it was Solomon who asked God when He asked about the desires of the king, made King Solomon the richest and wisest ruler in all the days of people's lives on earth.
Wise Solomon
When reading Proverbs, sometimes you forget that they were written several thousand years ago, they are so relevant now.
Getting acquainted with the Holy Scriptures for the first time, many former communists will see in it the principles of the Communist Manifesto, so there is nothing new under the sun. The great Russian writer Kuprin wrote "Shulamith" based on the Song of Songs and the life of King Solomon, using entire paragraphs from the Bible.
After reading an incomprehensible text, "do not throw" it aside, write it down in a notebook and turn to experienced Christians. Sunday school teachers, who, as a rule, are available at every church, will be good helpers in this matter.
What language to read the Bible in
The original texts of the books of Holy Scripture are written in various languages:
- Hebrew;
- Aramaic;
- Greek
- Latin.
Nobody argues that reading books from the original source gives the truest idea of what the author of the letter wanted to convey to the reader. There are practically no primary sources in modern libraries, only translations. The Holy Scriptures have been translated for almost all peoples of the world, so it is better to start reading it in your native language.
About Bible texts:
Sometimes, in order to understand some incomprehensible place in Holy Scripture, it is necessary to have several Bibles of various translators, and it is better if someone speaks several languages, then in a foreign one. If Jesus spoke in Aramaic, only the words "love, the word" have many meanings there.
Advice! Do not rush to read the Bible in Church Slavonic, start with the Holy Scripture translated into your native, understandable language. The Church recommends that novice readers of messages from the Creator begin with the Synodal Translation of the Bible, which has been tested by time and has had a great influence on the development of Russian culture.
Bible. Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
According to the priests, spiritual food should be served to people in the language in which it will be better absorbed and benefit. The Sacred Traditions, the Epistles of John the Theologian and the Apostolic Conversations will help to better understand the Holy Scriptures.
Why should Christians read the Bible
Holy Scripture is the revelation of God to people, in order to understand it, one should prepare for reading the Bible. Even in monasteries, young novices are recommended before studying the Holy Scriptures to first read the traditions of the Church Fathers, the letters of the apostles, in order to delve into the essence of the matter.
The Bible is a mirror of human nature, and sometimes not everything that it says is pleasant to people. In this case, you should think about what is wrong in our life, maybe the Creator wants to change the character in this way, awaken the conscience, reduce pride, and all this only in order to bring closer to Himself, to fill the Kingdom of God.
The Church does not require biblical passages to be memorized, but by regularly reading this or that text, examining revelations on certain issues, such as love, obedience, fidelity, healing, and others, writing out favorite passages, and there will certainly be such, people begin to quote them by heart. This does not require special training.
Regular reading of the Holy Epistles will eventually become a necessity and fill you with spiritual strength. This process can be compared to the hard training of athletes who dream of becoming winners. There is no need to strive to embrace the immensity, you can read 1-2 chapters every day, preferably in the morning after prayer, in order to “drink” living water, having received God's knowledge for the whole day.
Modern Christians should thank God for the grace given to have their own Bible, to read the Holy Scriptures freely every day, to go to church, under the Soviet regime, one could go to prison for this. Verily, we have and do not appreciate.
Daily reading of Holy Scripture in obedience will make it possible to find in it God Himself and Jesus Christ, whose existence runs like a red thread through the Old and New Testaments.
Knowing the Creator, Christians merge with Him into one whole, being filled with the Creator's love. According to one priest, reading the Bible is like sailing in a small boat on a vast ocean.
Bible in Church Slavonic
What psalms to read in different life situations
These lines will help when:
- Are you in trouble:
- John. 14:1-4
- Heb. 7:25
- Are you grateful:
- 1 Thess. 5:18
- Heb. 13:15
- You are scared:
- Matt. 10:28
- 2 Tim. 1:7
- Heb. 13:5-6
- You need God's protection:
- Phil. 4:19
- Are you sick:
- Matt. 26:39
- Rome. 5:3-5
- 2 Cor. 12:9-10
- 1 Pet. 4:12-13.19
- Psalm 90
- 1 Cor. 10:13
- You are tempted:
- Matt. 26:41
- 1 Cor. 10:12-14
- Phil. 4:8
- Jacob. 4:7
- 2 Pet. 2:9
- 2 Pet. 3:17
- Crisis in life
- Matt. 6:25-34
- Heb. 4:16
- You are deprived of loved ones:
- Matt. 5:4
- 2 Cor. 1:3-4
- You need life guidance:
- Rome. 12
- You are alone:
- Heb. 13:5-6
- Are you preoccupied with vanity, anxiety:
- Matt. 6:19-34
- 1 Pet. 5:6-7
- You are in danger:
- Onion. 8:22-25
- You condemn others:
- 1 Cor. thirteen
- You are sad:
- Matt. 5
- John. fourteen
- 2 Cor. 1:3-4
- 1 Thess. 4:13-18
- You are defeated:
- Rome. 8:31-39
- Friends let you down:
- Onion. 17:3-4
- Rome. 12:14,17,19,21
- 2 Tim. 4:16-18
- You leave home:
- Matt. 10:16-20
- You need rest:
- John. 14:1-4
- John. 16:33
- Rome. 5:1-5
- Phil. 4:6-7
- Do you need guidance in prayer:
- Luke 11:1-13
- John 17
- 1 John 5:14-15
- Faith weakens:
- Heb. eleven
- Do you doubt:
- Matt. 8:26
- Heb. eleven
- Are you worried:
- Matt. 6:19-34
- Phil. 4:6
- 1 Pet. 5:6-7
- You're tired:
- Matt. 11:28-30
- 1 Cor. 15:58
- Gal. 6:9
- Afraid and sick:
- Deut. 7
- Psalm 90
- Psalm 22
- 1 Cor. 10:13
- Isaiah 40:31
- Isaiah 41:10-13
- John. 10:27-29
- 2 Tim. 1:7
- Heb. 13:5-6
- John. 14:1
- 1 Pet. 5:6-11
- Phil. 4:6-7
- Sick and tired
- Rome. 8:31-39
- Rome. 5:1-5
- 1 Pet. 4:12-13
- Luke 8:22-25
- 1 John 1:4-9
- 1 Cor. 10:13
- Rome. 8:11
Feb 3, 2019 13:22 Administrator
We regularly write about the meaning of certain difficult places in the Bible, we refute established misconceptions. But too often one has to deal with a more general problem - with the inability to adequately perceive the text in general, and even more so the text of Holy Scripture. Why is this happening? Is it a lack of education or some peculiarities of thinking? Will a “techie” and a “humanist” read the same text in the same way? And what can help someone who wants to understand the biblical text? We are talking about this with a doctor of philological sciences, a biblical scholar Andrey Desnitsky.
Kill all the bad ones
— Andrey Sergeevich, let's first understand what the problem is. What is "misunderstanding of the text"? Is this understanding exactly the opposite, or some particular errors?
I'll give you a comparison. Recently, another film based on the Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, The Dawn Treader, was released. It is clear that cinema and literature have different artistic languages and that it is impossible to make a perfect film adaptation. But here, in the film, we see a slightly different story than in the book. Lewis has a story about a journey. Prince Caspian became king and remembered that there were seven lords who disappeared during his father's reign. A boy who grew up without a father naturally wants to find those who were close to his father and can tell something about him. That is why the young king goes on a journey. And each participant of the journey, faced with different events, in fact, meets himself.
What happened in the film? Another story of the struggle between Good and Evil. For Good to win, you need to collect seven artifacts, swords, and put them on Aslan's table. Lords themselves are of no interest to anyone, they are carriers of artifacts. The logic of the film is quite consistent with the logic of a computer game in which two groups fight, complete quests, and in order to complete them, you need to recruit stronger supporters.
At the same time, if we talk about the plot of the film, then it has not changed much compared to the book. The episodes are the same, the characters are the same, and they even look (especially the Reepicheep mice) about the way you imagine them to be. That is, it cannot be said that the filmmakers obviously misrepresented something. No, everything is pretty close to the text. At the same time, it's a completely different story.
Now, when people read the Bible, the same thing often happens. I do not take cases when a person is clearly inadequate or when he deliberately misrepresents. No, we are talking about a sane and conscientious reader. But when he reads the text, he seems to understand all the ideas correctly, remembers the plot correctly, does not confuse the characters ... and at the same time, his story turns into something completely different. Sometimes misunderstanding is tragic.
- For example?
- When the Europeans landed in America, the more pious they were, the more evil they did. Some rude conquistador was looking for gold and women, and shed blood only for this purpose. And the pious puritan saw the situation only in the context of the Old Testament book of Joshua, where God's chosen people must destroy the pagans. He, a pious puritan, did not need gold and women, but he needed to seize this land, destroying the indigenous peoples. Therefore, where the conquistadors went, there are still a lot of Indians, and where the Puritans went, there are practically none left. Precisely because the Puritan read the Bible and took it very seriously. In the story of Joshua, he saw not only permission, but also a prescription. If a believing people came to the land where unbelievers live, then they must kill all these bad people, and then they will live well and happily. Looking at modern America, we do not fully understand how much such a paradigm is still present in the minds of Americans - even not very religious ones.
Or let's take the same pseudo-Christian sects. None of them arises from the fact that a person comes and says: "Throw away the Bible, everything is a lie, and I will tell you how it really happened." Usually he will say: "Open the Bible, read what is written there, and I will explain to you what it really means." And then anything can begin, up to the most savage things. Why are there sects - take the same "Penza hermits" or "young old people" who substantiate any of their savagery with sacred texts.
Not everything that comes to mind...
- What is the reason? The fact that the biblical text is difficult to understand correctly without a special philological and theological education? Maybe the medieval Catholics were right in forbidding the laymen to read the Bible?
- It is difficult to say unequivocally how clear the biblical text is. More precisely, it is necessary to clarify what level of understanding and what specific places are being discussed. The biblical text is written in ancient languages, Hebrew and Greek, and there are such dark places that no one fully understands - there are only guesses, hypotheses. But this most often concerns things of secondary, poetic shades. It happens, however, that certain words and expressions become the subject of theological discussions. For example, the apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans has the phrase Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all have sinned in it. or (Rom. 5:12). How are we to understand the words “in him all have sinned”? Some theologians say that the fall of Adam and Eve made the entire human race guilty of sin. Others believe that everyone sinned in the same way as Adam, and there is not a single person who would not repeat his sin - except Christ, of course. Exactly what Paul meant here is not very clear from the original text. From it you can deduce this and that.
But it does not follow from this example that everything that comes into your head can be subtracted from the Bible. Of course, there are absolutely clear boundaries, there are basic biblical ideas, and in order to understand them, it is not at all necessary to graduate from the philological faculty of Moscow State University or the Theological Academy. Simply, when reading the text, one should not immediately make global generalizations from it. Take the same example with the book of Joshua. She tells about one episode - about how, at the command of God, the Israelites came to the promised land and exterminated a significant part of the people who inhabited it. It is possible to discuss and explain how and why it was said, but it is impossible to generalize and draw conclusions in the spirit of "if it was possible for the Israelis, then it is possible for us." No, you can't - because it was said to a specific people in a specific situation.
— But after all, many people are sure that everything said in the Bible is a direct appeal to us, its readers, that the events described there are not just some ancient history, but an example for us...
“Such people understand the inspiration of the biblical text too primitively. They perceive the Holy Scripture as a manual, as a user manual. Pressed this button - and there will be such and such a result, pressed that - another. And it will always be, in all cases. But such an approach to the Bible is wrong in principle.
Wrong because the Bible is primarily sacred history. The Old Testament is the history of the people of Israel, the New Testament is the history of Jesus and His first disciples. Everything that is in both the Old and New Testaments is placed in a historical context. The law was not given to anyone at all, but to the people of Israel. Christ did not come anywhere at all, but was born in Bethlehem, lived most of his life in Nazareth, went to serve in Jerusalem, went to other cities of the promised land, spoke with specific people in specific situations.
On the other hand, it is not just about history, but about sacred history. Therefore, we read the text of the Bible not just as a source of information about life in first century Palestine, but as a source of eternal truths and eternal values. People inevitably absolutize what they read in the Bible. But it can also be absolutized in different ways. You can do this without forgetting historical reality, or you can, on the contrary, pay no attention to reality, pulling out quotations from the Bible to confirm your own thoughts, thereby losing all connection with reality.
The very first heretics in the history of Christianity are the Gnostics. They had great respect for both the gospel and Christ. He simply occupied some modest place in the complex system of their own constructions. There are almost no Gnostics left now, but some theologians are getting something very similar. Of course, they quote the Bible, of course, they refer to the words of Christ, but these words occupy a rather modest place in their complex and in their own way beautiful theological schemes.
Physicists and lyricists
- Maybe the fact is that some people's brains are simply “sharpened” for building such beautiful schemes out of everything and everything? Including from the text of the Bible?
— It really is. To put it simply, people are divided into "physicists" and "lyricists", in other words, people with a technical and humanitarian mindset. And they perceive the biblical text differently. There are exceptions, but quite rarely - for example, when a person who received a technical or natural science education, in parallel with this, was very seriously engaged in reading humanitarian literature.
The point is this: the "techie", ideally, speaks the language of mathematics, that is, operates with some intangible concepts. The integral, the logarithm - these are speculative constructions, they do not exist in the world around us. The habit of such constructions leads to the fact that in general everything around begins to be perceived through the prism of abstractions. The brightest example is the talented, according to colleagues, mathematician Fomenko, who came up with a “new chronology”. He, looking at history, does not see any events in it, but sees only a series of figures in which he discovers a certain regularity and elevates it to the absolute. He is interested in how to arrange this sequence of numbers in the most logical and rational way. And then, based on such constructions, he already judges what happened in history.
Of course, this is the most grotesque example. But, albeit not to the same extent, many people take a similar approach to the perception of history. They take some separate quotes, some separate facts, build causal relationships between them, that is, they use a methodology that is more appropriate in natural science than in history.
In the 19th century, positivist historians tried to describe "what really happened." Today, this approach has been abandoned, because we do not know all the details and will never know. As one historian put it, "The adequate description of the Hundred Years' War is the Hundred Years' War itself." Any other description will inevitably miss essential details.
But what then does the historian do? He finds, as it is called, a certain metalanguage for describing reality, describes a certain part of the events that took place, actualizing it for contemporaries, shows the interconnection of these events, says: “apparently, this and this happened, for such and such reasons” - that is, he builds theoretical model. But this model is probabilistic. It may or may not be accepted. The main thing is that events are described not as some absolute truths that do not depend on the observer, but as possible versions that are important specifically for modern man. Looking at them, a person begins to understand some patterns of the world in which he lives, discovers something for himself.
Since the Bible is sacred history, it can be adequately understood in this historical paradigm.
How are the differences in humanitarian and technical thinking related to reading the text of the Bible?
“It's just that the same approaches applied to the Bible as a story apply to it as a text. Here we are already moving on to philology, which Sergei Averintsev called "the service of understanding." Here we have a text in an ancient language. Our task is to understand it. Of course, we need a dictionary, we need a grammar of this language, but most importantly, we need a translator. A translator is always an interpreter. Sometimes how is it? A person takes a dictionary, writes out all the possible meanings of each word, selects the ones he likes the most, then combines these meanings in an arbitrary order. The result is a translation that has nothing to do with any reasonable interpretation of this text. But he seemed to have translated from a dictionary, offered his own interpretation ... while fundamentally ignoring the laws of the structure of the text. When this happens to single words, it's easy to recognize. And when is the same done with rhetorical constructions?
I will again cite as an example the epistles of the Apostle Paul, on which Christian theology is built to a large extent. After all, Paul did not read a course of lectures on systematic theology, did not write a catechism with questions and answers. He wrote letters to specific Christian communities facing specific difficulties. Letters rich in rhetoric, where Paul passionately, passionately argues with his opponents. He refutes some argument, citing everything that can be said against it. But this does not mean that he would not have found any arguments in favor of this argument if his audience had gone to the opposite extreme and had to be dissuaded into a completely different error. For example, Paul objects to those who believe that a person is saved only by the works of the law. Approaching Paul's argument formally, one might think that he completely rejects the law in general, and to support such an understanding with a cut of quotations. But in another situation, arguing with other people, refuting other delusions, Paul speaks of the law in a different way, speaks of it as a “tutor to Christ,” says that the law has its own value.
So, the “technical approach” consists in the fact that some rhetorical phrases are snatched from the text of the Holy Scripture and then some theological constructions are built from them, like bricks. Why is this happening? Most often, not out of malice, but out of a sincere conviction that every word has an absolutely exact meaning, that there are terms that absolutely describe reality.
This problem, by the way, was well seen by the holy fathers. At one time, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa had a polemic with the Eunomians. Eunomians - this was such a trend in Arianism, which affirmed the terminology of theology. They said: "If Christ is the Son of God, then He was born of God, and therefore He came into existence later than God." The Eunomians believed that the word "birth" absolutely understandably and exhaustively describes the relationship between son and father, they saw it as a synonym for the word "creation". And Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa proved to them that this is not so, that any word is just a way to describe the sacrament for us, and the way is far from the only one. These saints, one might say, long before modern literary criticism created the theory of biblical metaphors. Metaphor is a description of reality through an image. Not through a term, but through an image that affects not so much logical thinking as imagination.
So, the Bible is very often tried to be broken down into bricks-terms, while there are many more metaphors in it. For example, nowhere in the Gospel is there a definition of the "kingdom of God." Nowhere does Christ say: “write down the definition of the kingdom of God, then hand over the notes to Me.” No, instead He tells stories about fishermen, grapes, mustard seeds, leaven... Why? Yes, because much more comes to a person through an image than through dry facts.
Another feature of "techie" thinking in relation to reading the Bible is the inability to perceive a specific place in a broader context. Some word, some phrase, some episode is snatched out, and global conclusions are drawn from this. Humanitarian thinking is characterized by the desire to perceive the text as a whole, to understand the particular in the context of the general.
- You outlined the dangers of the "technical approach." Does this mean that the "humanitarian approach" is a priori better and does not have its own dangers?
— Of course, the humanitarian approach is fraught with its own dangers. He often degenerates into chatter about "beautiful", about his personal perception. You can say an infinite amount of things and still say nothing. Instead of posing a specific problem or showing something in the text that is not obvious to the reader (which is the meaning of humanitarian research), reflections begin on the topic “it seems to me”, “it seems to me”. Moreover, such thoughts can have a clear structure, but they are far from always related to the text under discussion. By the way, here humanitarian thinking can generate the same mistake as technarian thinking - when only one detail falls into the field of view, and some global mental constructions are built from this detail.
Read Pushkin
— Well, what can you advise people not to make such mistakes when reading the Bible?
- I think those who had a good literature teacher at school were lucky, who did not engage in chatter or pushing through some ideas, but showed how the text works, how it differs from a set of phrases.
But this is rare luck. What can be done here and now? My answer may seem strange. Try reading Pushkin. For example, to re-read Belkin's Tales, to understand how they are arranged, why they are combined into a collection, what these stories about different people have in common, what the author's intention was, why they were written this way and not otherwise. That is, to do in relation to themselves, adults, the work of a teacher of literature.
And I can also recall the advice of Bishop Anthony of Surozh, who said that when you read the Gospel, you should not rush to varnish everything. On the contrary, it is necessary to note everything that causes your disagreement, bewilderment, misunderstanding - this can become an incentive for further growth, for inner spiritual work. No need to rush to find the nearest simple answer and plug a hole in it.
Peace be with you pastor! I am deaf and dumb. I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, but I am weak in reading the Bible. Please help me gain the strength to read the Bible with zeal, because I want to know Him with all my heart. Whatever I do, I love the Lord JESUS CHRIST very much. My problem is that I am weak in my reading. May the Lord richly bless you, pastor!
Dear sister, I am glad that you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart and received the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life by believing in Him. I also rejoice in the desire of your heart that you expressed in this message, since your condition is what the Lord Jesus had in mind when he said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
And to this state belongs the bliss that says:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)
Here you also have the promise that you will be fed and that God will satisfy this thirst of yours to know the Word of God deeply.
The letter of James says:
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For he who hears the word and does not fulfill it is like a man examining the natural features of his face in a mirror: he looked at himself, walked away and immediately forgot what he was like. But whoever penetrates into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides in it, he, being not a forgetful listener, but a doer of work, will be blessed in his action. (James 1:22–25)
This text speaks of two types of Christians, with two different attitudes towards the Holy Scriptures. The first one comes and listens, but does not act. This listening can be compared to just reading the Bible, because when someone just reads the Scriptures, he does not pursue anything special, no specific goal, and then this reading brings the same result as listening - this person leaves and immediately forgets, what is he. And if he forgets, he can no longer apply in his life.
The second Christian from the mentioned verse is one who is not content with just listening or reading, without a specific goal, but this believer or believer enters into the perfect law, that is, the Bible, and abides in it, being not a listener (or reader) forgetful, but an executor. To delve means to study deeply. You should begin to study the Bible deeply. Once you start researching, the Bible will become very interesting and you won't be able to get enough of what you're studying. I read the entire Bible before I made the decision to become a Christian. Then, after I was reconciled to Christ and , I spent another 2 weeks reading the Bible in its entirety along with the Bible Encyclopedia to make sure I understood every word and expression. And then there came a time when I didn't know how to study the Bible and no one could show me how to do it. I assume that you are in the same state now. When I went to someone and asked them to teach me how to study the Bible, I was told to read each verse and meditate... What should I meditate on if I couldn't see more in a given verse than I could see in simple reading? Others advised me to read the commentaries so that I could understand the Bible better. I started, and I read half of William Barclay's comments, but I still wasn't satisfied. What was my joy when I saw the book How to Study the Bible at the home of the deacon of the church? written by Kay Arthur. Along with this book, I received from the deacon the course "Lord, I want to know You" by the same author, a course on the character of God, intended to be studied within 42 days, but I was so thirsty that it took me 2 days to study it and 2 a.m. Since then, reading the Bible has never been difficult or boring for me. Since then, I have been studying the Bible with great pleasure, and have been studying daily for 26 years using these exceptional inductive Bible study materials.
Translation: Elena Stoler.
Have you ever asked yourself the question: How do I read the Bible? Or maybe you thought: How do I start reading the Bible? Have you ever just opened and read a random Bible verse, hoping it was for you?
And then they got to “And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he went out, went and strangled himself.” And they thought: No, not that. And tried again.
And then you came across “Go and do the same.”
Okay, this may not have happened to you, but I think I've illustrated well enough how intimidating reading the Bible can be at times. Especially if you are a new Christian or are just starting to consistently read the Bible.
The Bible is so big and there are so many books in it. The message of the Bible is vast and deep, and it's almost like a middle school student trying to read a medical journal. The enormity of what is in front of us is so overwhelming that many give up before they even begin to read.
What if I told you that you don't need to be scared and afraid while reading the Bible?
This is how we read the Bible.
One piece at a time.
Here are 4 ways you can successfully and confidently read the Bible.
1. Read until you understand three things. Everything. When three things become clear to you, stop. Why three? Because usually that's all we can digest at one time.
Reading the Bible is not a sprint, it's a marathon. I remember a lot of bloggers participating in the “Read the Bible in 6 Months” challenge in January, but reading the Bible is not a race from Genesis to Revelation. It's novel. It's about building your relationship with God one date at a time.
And you can't rush romance. So why are you in a hurry while reading the Bible?
2. As you read, underline and highlight with colors. I prefer to highlight in my Bible and draw boxes and bubbles around the words. My Bible is full of notes. And I do this because it helps me better absorb what I read. I love grammar, so I often mark key words and prepositions that point to the main idea. I love words like “therefore” that make me ask: And why is this "therefore" here?(This is a question my father taught me to ask.)
You can also paint your entire Bible with special colors. Courtney from the blog Women Living Well came up with a great color coding system that she uses (see note at the end of the article).
Using these methods will help you get in closer contact with the Bible. You are no longer a passive reader, you are involved, drawn into it through words.
3. Once you have finished reading, write down what you have learned. James warns of the Christian who looked in the mirror, turned away, walked away, and completely forgot what he saw. This is a great danger for us.
How often have we read a certain verse in the Bible that captured our heart, but during our day we completely forgot about this verse, and days or months passed before we remembered these words again?
Notes help these words to go deeper into our heart and take root there. You see, if you write down every day what you read in the Bible, every time you open your notes, you will remember what you have read before. You may even be tempted to go back a few pages and read what you have written. This is an amazing way to gradually build up your time in a personal relationship with God.
4. Read each book of the Bible as a whole, not just random verses every day. I can't even express how dangerous I find the practice of randomly selecting verses as my daily Bible reading plan.
I'm not against situational Bible study (such as learning what the Bible says about worship), or even choosing one verse a day on a specific topic in addition to daily reading.
What I consider dangerous is what I described at the beginning of this article - just opening the Bible at random and reading that passage. The reason I consider it dangerous is the following:
- We do not read this verse in the context of a chapter or a book. Heretical doctrines have grown out of this practice, where well-meaning people have chosen a particular verse to support their beliefs without understanding the context and the fact that this verse has nothing to do with the doctrine they created.
- We do not grow as Christians. Spiritual maturity teaches us to use the fundamental elements of Scripture. The only way to find them is to read entire books of the Bible daily and allow the message contained in a given book or series of books, such as Paul's, to challenge our weaknesses.
Reading the Bible a whole book at a time will help put the Scriptures in the right context. Scripture must be read in the right context, and we will talk about this in one of the following articles.
If you read the Bible until you understand three things, if you get closer to your Bible by underlining or coloring it, take notes on what you have read and read a whole book at a time , you will soon discover that the Bible is not as irresistible as you first thought.
Note: color coding for bible text ()
- Violet: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Savior, Messiah
- Pink Key words: women in the Bible, family, marriage, parenthood, friendship, relationships
- Red: love, kindness, mercy, compassion, peace, grace
- Green: faith, obedience, growth, fruits, salvation, brotherhood, repentance
- Yellow: worship, prayer, praise, doctrines, angels, miracles, God's power, blessings
- Blue: wisdom, teaching, instructions, commandments
- Orange: prophecies, history, times, places, kings, genealogy, people, numbers, covenants, oaths, visions, future
- Brown/Grey: Satan, sin, death, hell, evil, idols, false teachers, hypocrisy, temptation
Author - Rosilynd Djukic/ rosilindjukic.com
Translation - Anna Ivashchenko for
Hieromonk Ephraim (Shishkin), Dean of the Trinity Selenginsky Monastery, answers the question:
How to read Holy Scripture correctly? This question, of course, is very complicated, complicated primarily by virtue of the fact that Holy Scripture is a God-inspired Book. That is, these are not some human inventions, but the voice of God Himself sounds in the Bible. Of course, the attitude of a person who begins to read the Scriptures must be extremely reverent and responsible. And this will already be a good start for the fact that we will receive spiritual benefits from reading the Bible.
It must be understood that the impact of the Holy Scriptures on the soul of a person cannot be measured only by the impact on our minds - no. This impact is primarily on our heart, on the whole person as a whole. Due to its special divine origin, this Book has an amazing property: you can (and should) read it all your life, and at the same time always discover something new for yourself. That is, it is bottomless in its content, in its deep meaning. The context for understanding Sacred Scripture is given by Sacred Tradition, one can even say that Sacred Scripture is a part of Sacred Tradition. Therefore, for a deeper and more accurate understanding of the Scriptures, we need to turn to those interpretations of the Holy Scriptures that the Church offers us. First of all, here you can name the creations of St. John Chrysostom. Holy Scripture is Christ-centered; it has as its main subject God Himself, God incarnate, crucified and risen. Therefore, of course, when referring to the Bible, we should give priority to the books of the New Testament: the Gospel and the Apostle.
It is better to read the Holy Scriptures while standing, in a calm, balanced state of mind. It is very good to precede the reading with a small prayer asking for the gift of understanding of Divine Revelation. Orthodox Christians usually read one chapter of any (one of the four) Gospels and one chapter of the Apostle a day.
