Ship of Fools: Just pick it up and read it

Thread: Just pick it up and read it Board: Kerygmania / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Unum Solum (# 18904) on :

Is the Bible a ‘book’ you ever just pick up and read when you have the time? Is that something you would recommend as worthwhile (or safe)? Or by its very nature does it require much more attention and study/thought being altogether a much ‘more’ something work?

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

If I am familiar with the book I will just read it. The Gospels, Acts, Revelation, Amos, Hosea, Job, Jonah, Song of Songs are all readable for me.

I conduct a "How to Read the Bible" study series at my church and I am about to take a sort of book club approach to the Gospel of Mark. Next Sunday I will be making available copies without chapters or verses, and especially not headings and cross references for people to take, read and discuss at a book club style session in a month.
Because of our cultural distance from 1C Palestine and Rome I am providing separately just a little background information such as the situation in Rome, a map of Palestine showing the places Mark says Jesus travelled to, and an ordered list of Jesus' visits to these places as Mark presents them. As much as possible I will ask them to take this as a fresh read and avoid comparison and especially avoid supplementation from the other Gospels.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

That sounds really good! Are you using something like 'The Message' or a more ... hmmm ... less ... hmmm ... OK, a traditional English translation? (I like The Message, but then I am also a 'Good News Bible' simple kind of man)

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

I have read The Message translation only in parts, and while it can be very illuminatiog, ISTM that puts its own slant on how to understand Mark. So I am using the NRSV. If people want to try reading the Bible without the notes, chapters and verses, or headings, then the Oremus site allows you to do this.

What I am doing in my study series is to ask people to have a three worlds (or three cultures) perspective. These are the world of the people in the narratives, the world of the intended audience of the narratives, and the world of our community. For the whole Bible there are multiple worlds of each type but for each book/section and there is one of each for the first two, and modern readers can restrict the consideration to their own culture.
This three worlds view is the approach presented by the scholarship of Sandra Sneider.

[ 29. January 2018, 17:52: Message edited by: Latchkey Kid ]

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

It is possible, and rewarding, to just "pick it up and read" though I'd recommend starting with one of the Gospels, probably Mark or Luke. I did this with no background whatsoever and it was very good. IMHO most trouble starts with people telling you what's in there, so you read it through someone else's lens.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

Sure just pick it up and read. That is how I started out my independent relationship with the Bible. I read everything I could as a teenager, one Christian camp holiday there was very little reading material available apart from the Bible. So I read that. I think including after lights out but I was not caught.

Jengie

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
It is possible, and rewarding, to just "pick it up and read" though I'd recommend starting with one of the Gospels, probably Mark or Luke. I did this with no background whatsoever and it was very good. IMHO most trouble starts with people telling you what's in there, so you read it through someone else's lens.

But you are always going to read it through some lens. The translaters bring their own lenses. So the NET Bible is clear on homosexulaity where the source is unclear. The Jerusalem Bible has its slant towards a Catholic interpretation. And the others will have their own biases. We also bring our own lenses, and the lenses I had as a teenager are not the lenses I have now.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

You are; but there's something to be said for reading it through your own lens to start with as opposed to immediately turning it into an object of study-re-what-other-people-are-saying.

Posted by Martin60 (# 368) on :

I'd never have the time. But I've cycled through the gospels many times and need to do so again. Regularly. And Acts. I don't see the point of browsing or cycling through the whole text. Why would one?

Posted by Gamaliel (# 812) on :

It's odd, because although I used to read whopping big chunks, these days I rarely do outside of the daily lectionary readings.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

quote:
I don't see the point of browsing or cycling through the whole text. Why would one?

Things jump out, surprising things. On Sunday night, cathedral evensong:

quote:
See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle

It made me laugh [Smile]

(I'm a bit disappointed by our new hymn book, which at least gives me some impetus to go up the cathedral - one of the only surviving evening services around here - some Sundays).

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

I'm afraid that so far, the Bible study guides I've come across haven't been very interesting. And neither have the Bible study groups at the churches I've been connected with (in the cases where there were Bible study groups).

Therefore, what I decided to do several years ago was largely to read the whole Bible from beginning to end. I've done this several times now. The obvious downside with it is that you don't spend a lot of time with the NT. The upside is that you get to reflect on parts of the Bible you'd otherwise avoid, and perhaps get a greater sense of the whole narrative. There's also a sense of achievement when you come to the end!

What I'd really appreciate is a suitable book (or series of books, probably) to accompany my Bible reading. Not a Bible commentary - I'm just not gripped by those - but something that explores the ongoing cultural and psychological, etc., significance of each book (or broader section) of the Bible, as well as its contextual and theological importance.

The Bible-study stuff I've seen in Christian bookshops isn't what I'm after, unfortunately.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

This is an interesting article from a Nottingham scholar/minister Reading Scripture with our past, with others and with God.

I go along with most of what he says, especially about the problems/dangers/limitations of just picking it up and reading it.

Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
This is an interesting article from a Nottingham scholar/minister Reading Scripture with our past, with others and with God.

I go along with most of what he says, especially about the problems/dangers/limitations of just picking it up and reading it.

Thanks for the link, I found this helpful. Bookmarked.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:

What I'd really appreciate is a suitable book (or series of books, probably) to accompany my Bible reading. Not a Bible commentary - I'm just not gripped by those - but something that explores the ongoing cultural and psychological, etc., significance of each book (or broader section) of the Bible, as well as its contextual and theological importance.

The Bible-study stuff I've seen in Christian bookshops isn't what I'm after, unfortunately.

You mean something like The Oxford Companion to the Bible which is a bit dated now but still contains some interesting articles.

Jengie

Posted by Unum Solum (# 18904) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
This is an interesting article from a Nottingham scholar/minister Reading Scripture with our past, with others and with God.

I go along with most of what he says, especially about the problems/dangers/limitations of just picking it up and reading it.

I thank you also for the link.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:

What I'd really appreciate is a suitable book (or series of books, probably) to accompany my Bible reading. Not a Bible commentary - I'm just not gripped by those - but something that explores the ongoing cultural and psychological, etc., significance of each book (or broader section) of the Bible, as well as its contextual and theological importance.

The Bible-study stuff I've seen in Christian bookshops isn't what I'm after, unfortunately.
You mean something like The Oxford Companion to the Bible which is a bit dated now but still contains some interesting articles.

Jengie

It looks interesting, although it seems to be a reference book rather than something that one would read alongside the Bible.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

It doesn't exist any more, and I don't like the replacement, but I read most of the Bible with IBRA's Words for Today. That covered several books of the Bible each year with notes from range of different people leading a week or several weeks. Some OT books were commented on by Jewish writers or rabbis, Deuteronomy discussed by a Chinese pastor making comparisons between marginalised cultures and his experiences in a banned house church in China still sticks in my mind. There were priests from the Philippines, Africa, a catholic monk, Baptist pastors, contributors with Roman Catholic and orthodox backgrounds, Jan Sutch Pickard, Sheila Cassidy, Joseph G Donders, so many authors I sampled there and then went on to read (or not, in some cases).

The replacement from 2013 is Fresh from the Word which combined both Words for Today (established 1909) and Light for our Path (1954), which was a basic Bible reader following the lectionary and some books. I don't find the new version as challenging or interesting.

The CofE does its own version, Reflections for Daily Prayer, but their authors only come from the CofE, so not as broad.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

Thanks for these suggestions.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

Back in the 1980s IBRA did a short series of annual reading notes that took you through all the books in the Bible. I got through the first two, I think my sister did all three. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of them.

Oh I have just thought, heavily dated but still one of the best preached commentaries on the Bible is John Calvin's. These are multiple volume and pretty hefty. Doesn't Wesley's Sermons do something similar?

Jengie

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