Read the Bible Smarter, Not Harder: Exploring the Stories Behind the Books

Remove the Frustration out of Bible Reading!

There is an increasing recognition that we need to engage the Bible as a collection of books. But we haven t been taught to read or study the Bible on the book level. Almost all of our approaches to the Bible are based on chapters, verses, or sections, so how do we change this?

The units of meaning in the Bible are not chapters, or verses, or topical sections, but the literary compositions that God inspired to create the Scriptures. If we want to know the meaning of God s word, we need to engage these compositions on their own terms. This means understanding why they were written, what kind of writing they are, how they are put together, and what major themes and ideas they develop and pursue. This book answers these questions for each of the books in the Bible by presenting expanded versions of the book introductions included in The Books of The Bible, an edition of the Scriptures from Biblica that presents the biblical books in their natural literary form, without chapters and verses.

During my time as a pastor of a local church near a college, a group of students asked me if I would lead a weekly Bible study for them. "Sure," I said.  Then I asked myself, "How would I do that?" I decided, as a result of my studies in literature as an undergraduate at Harvard, and in light of the seminary degree and doctorate I'd recently completed in theology and Bible, that we should study whole biblical books at once. In this case we began with Daniel. I also decided that we should begin by asking about the book's circumstances of composition, literary genre, literary structure, and thematic development.  Shortly afterwards I came for the first time upon Mortimer Adler's marvelous volume How to Read a Book. He said we should always begin by looking for the answers to those same questions, which he put this way: When and why was this book written? What kind of writing is it? How is it put together, on its own terms? And what are the main ideas that run all through it? This was marvelous confirmation of the approach I wanted to take and it became the grid through which I approached all biblical books from then on.

Fast forward several years to when I was a member of the design group that was helping the International Bible Society (now Biblica) develop a new format that would eventually become The Books of the Bible. I was asked to write the first drafts of the book and section introductions. Instinctively I crafted each one with the four key questions in mind.

Space limitations did not permit the full introductions to be included in The Books of the Bible. But Biblica thought it would be valuable to make them available in a separate volume, and I'm grateful to them for doing this, for the sake of those who want even more depth and detail. InterVarsity Press has now picked up this volume and I hope it helps answer many questions, and raise others for further exploration, for those who will be reading the Bible the same way they would, well, read a book.