Know the Bible?

Next week we’ll begin a brief series of blogs on the topic of what it means to know the Scriptures.

I’ll start with a little story I picked up on another Bible blog. The author was making a point about the impracticality of a Bible without the chapter and verse numbers. He imagined a conversation that went something like this:

“I read this amazing passage today in John’s gospel. It changed my whole perspective.”
“Oh really? Where? I’d love to look that up and read it.”
“Oh, someplace in the middle somewhere.”

Real helpful.

So the idea here seems to be that “someplace in the middle somewhere” is all we have if we delete chapter and verse numbers, and obviously that’s not helpful.

What I hope to show over the next couple weeks is that this perspective on the only reasonable way to navigate the Bible is superficial, and in fact assumes that the Bible can’t really be known, or referenced, apart from the c&v system. But for now, here’s something to start pondering:

You have heard that it was said: “If you know the Bible, you’ll know the chapter and verse references.”

But I am proposing something new:

Know chapter & verse, no know the Bible.
No know chapter & verse, know the Bible.

Whoever has ears, let them hear.

-Glenn