Know the Bible? (Part 3)
What if we didn’t have a choice?
What if none of our Bibles had chapters and verses?
What would we do?
Imagine if “the people of the Book” knew their Bibles well enough to find passages based on their knowledge of whole books. This doesn’t mean knowing every word. This means knowing the general outline or “flow” of the content of individual books of the Bible.
“Bible memorization” is commonly used to refer to committing a series of Bible “verses” to memory. Our focus has been on getting word for word accuracy of little bits of the Bible. And that’s fine as far as it goes. But what about “knowing” the Bible a different way? What about having the kind of familiarity with the Bible that would allow us to talk about it by referring to the internal structure of its books. This is not just vagueness and imprecision. This is the kind of knowledge that comes from giving something that is worthy the attention it deserves over time.
Impossible?
Why?
Why, if we can learn the arcane statistics of our favorite sports celebrity, if we can learn the intricacies of our computer’s software, if we can go on and on about the details of all our special interests, hobbies, businesses, etc., then why can’t we come to be intimately familiar with this collection of sacred writings?
The fact is, we can do this. We can learn the seven major sections of the first half of John’s gospel. The general whereabouts of the Jacob and Esau stories in Genesis. The church’s issues Paul responds to in I Corinthians. The order of the collection of Ezekiel’s prophecies to Israel, to the nations, and then his promise of hope and restoration. Etc. Then when it comes time to ponder the smaller sections of the Bible, or taking in our pastor’s sermon on one passage, we will have the ability to reflect on it based on that little piece’s place in the whole. We will know its context.
And when we hear somebody else versejacking (somebody else, because we don’t do it anymore, right?), we will at least have a chance to evaluate whether or not the meaning they are assigning that smattering of words is appropriate to what’s really happening in that section of the Bible.
Want to really know the Bible?
Forget chapters and verses, and re-discover the real beauty behind the mask.
-Glenn
What if none of our Bibles had chapters and verses?
What would we do?
Imagine if “the people of the Book” knew their Bibles well enough to find passages based on their knowledge of whole books. This doesn’t mean knowing every word. This means knowing the general outline or “flow” of the content of individual books of the Bible.
“Bible memorization” is commonly used to refer to committing a series of Bible “verses” to memory. Our focus has been on getting word for word accuracy of little bits of the Bible. And that’s fine as far as it goes. But what about “knowing” the Bible a different way? What about having the kind of familiarity with the Bible that would allow us to talk about it by referring to the internal structure of its books. This is not just vagueness and imprecision. This is the kind of knowledge that comes from giving something that is worthy the attention it deserves over time.
Impossible?
Why?
Why, if we can learn the arcane statistics of our favorite sports celebrity, if we can learn the intricacies of our computer’s software, if we can go on and on about the details of all our special interests, hobbies, businesses, etc., then why can’t we come to be intimately familiar with this collection of sacred writings?
The fact is, we can do this. We can learn the seven major sections of the first half of John’s gospel. The general whereabouts of the Jacob and Esau stories in Genesis. The church’s issues Paul responds to in I Corinthians. The order of the collection of Ezekiel’s prophecies to Israel, to the nations, and then his promise of hope and restoration. Etc. Then when it comes time to ponder the smaller sections of the Bible, or taking in our pastor’s sermon on one passage, we will have the ability to reflect on it based on that little piece’s place in the whole. We will know its context.
And when we hear somebody else versejacking (somebody else, because we don’t do it anymore, right?), we will at least have a chance to evaluate whether or not the meaning they are assigning that smattering of words is appropriate to what’s really happening in that section of the Bible.
Want to really know the Bible?
Forget chapters and verses, and re-discover the real beauty behind the mask.
-Glenn
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