Reading the Bible: The Three C's
Reading the Bible: The Three C's
Connor Jones
“When it comes to reading the Bible there are three C’s: Context, Context, and Context”
-John Mark Comer
Growing up I viewed the Bible as a powerful book: Scripture, the Word of God, Truth. The kind of book where you may be able to read a single verse, and it had the ability to change your life. Don’t throw it away, don’t rip a page. This is God’s book.
When I got back into faith in my early twenties, I remember reading it and being frustrated. I wanted to read it and have a revelation, but instead I found myself confused….I saw contradictions. I came across entire books that felt…dare I say… irrelevant? Don’t tell God, but I didn’t enjoy reading his book….
Over time my perspective changed, and I’m glad it did. I realized the problem wasn’t the Bible, it was how I was reading the Bible. I was reading every part the same way, instead of asking what each part was trying to do.
I’ve spent a lot of time reading the Bible, reading about the Bible, listening to sermons and podcasts about it and I’d like to share some points to consider when your read your Bible.
1. Understanding how we got the Bible is just as important as what’s in the Bible
The Christian faith exists because of an event: The resurrection of Jesus. Without this event, there would be no Christianity. There would be no Bible as we know it today.
My faith is tethered to, and argues from an event and a movement. Not just a book.
My personal faith is built on a claim that:
- Something happened
- A movement started
- It was documented
- The documents were assembled (New Testament)
- Those documents were paired with the Old Testament
- The Bible was created in the fourth century AD
It’s important to note that the word “Bible” comes from the word “Biblia” which means “Books”, or “Scrolls”. The Bible is a collection of books, rather than a book. I like to think of it as a Library of Scripture.
It’s also important to note that the Bible as we know it wasn’t formally assembled until the fourth century. The documents preserved and contained within the Bible existed and were circulated long before that.
Think about this: Christianity arguably made it’s greatest strides before there ever was a “Bible”.
2. The books of the Bible were written by individuals, to a specific audience, at a specific time
Each book was written by someone, or sometimes even someone(s). These books were written at a specific time, in a specific place and to a certain group of people. It’s likely that the author of many of the books didn’t think that their writing would ever end up in our Bibles.
A few examples:
Genesis:
The traditional view is that Moses wrote the book of Genesis and it was written in the 15th century BC as the nation of Israel was forming its identity after escaping slavery in Egypt.
Imagine being an Israelite at that time. You’re probably wondering how did we get here? Where am I? What is the meaning of all this? Can someone give me some background? Some history?
When I first read Genesis in its entirety, I noticed a theme. The book isn’t just trying to tell stories, it’s trying to tell history. The book contains the story of God creating the world, stories of miracles, but it’s not written like fiction. It’s written like history. The history of a group of people, more specifically a nation.
I find this demonstrated throughout the book where the author often explains where groups of people came from, and how they got their names.
One example comes from Genesis 19: 36-38:
“The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab;
he is the father of the Moabites of today.
The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi;
he is the father of the Ammonites of today.”
If you’re living at that time you would read this (or have it read to you because not many people could read/write), and you would think Oh that’s where they came from.
Genesis is scripture, and it’s history. History of a nation. History of a religion (Judaism)
1 Corinthians
The traditional view, as well as the scholarly view is that the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around 55 AD. This is the first of two letters to the Corinthian Church that were preserved and are in our Bibles. It’s likely that Paul wrote 3-4 of these letters, but only two of them made it into the library of scripture.
This means that we’re reading someone else’s mail, written to real people, dealing with real problems.
Paul writes this letter to try and correct problems in the church. There were divisions, there were serious moral issues, disorder in church gatherings, misunderstandings of the resurrection.
Side Note: This church is in existence around 25 years after the Resurrection. A “church” at that time was typically in the range of 75 people or so. Also, Corinth is 800 miles straight distance from Jerusalem, it’s 3,400 miles if you drove it today. Christianity spread far and wide, rather quickly.
3. The books of the Bible are written in different Genres.
The Bible contains different genres and different genres have different purposes. Not everything is meant to be read the same way.
Some books are telling history, some are telling prophecy. Some are biographical, some are just Poetic.
Here’s some examples:
History: Genesis, Exodus, Kings, Chronicles
Poetry: Psalms, Song of Solomons, Lamentations
Wisdom: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
Prophecy: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
Biographies: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
Letters: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Ephesians
Apocalyptic: Revelation, Daniel
Among these, you will even have sub-genres. Genres within Genres.
My favorite example of a sub-genre is the creation & subsequent fall narrative found in the first chapter of Genesis. I personally believe this is a genre called “Mytho-History”
Mytho-history is a way of telling real origins through story by combining history with symbolic language to communicate deeper meaning. In other words, it’s less about explaining the mechanics of creation, and more about explaining what creation means.
C.S. Lewis describes the creation narrative as something that is a myth but is also a fact. This means it’s a story filled with meaning that intersects with real history. In a way, the creation narrative in Genesis can be understood as telling truth through story. It speaks in symbolic language, yet aims at something real: who we are, where we came from, and why the world is the way it is.
I’ll share this commentary by CS Lewis on the creation & fall narrative in Genesis.
C.S Lewis writes in his book “The problem of Pain”:
“For long centuries, God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of himself. He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated. The creature may have existed in this state for ages before it became man: it may have even have been clever enough to make things in which a modern archaeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all its physical and psychical processes were directed to purely material and natural ends.
Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say “I” and “me”, which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgements of truth, beauty, and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past…we do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state. But sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as Gods….they wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, “this is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were and eternally must be mere adjectives. We have no idea in what particular act, or series of acts, the self-contradictory, impossible wish found expression. For all I can see, it might have concerned the literal eating of a fruit, but the question is of no consequence.”
Final Thoughts...
If the Bible is truly a library of writings, then how we read it matters just as much as what we read. Some passages are meant to be history, others poetry, others letters written to specific people. And in some cases, like Genesis, we may be reading something deeper- a story that conveys truth about reality itself.
The more we understand the context, the clearer the message becomes.