Bible Reading for Geniuses

We all do stupid things sometimes. I, for one, left the lights on in the bus not too long ago (luckily my boss caught my mistake before the battery died). Yet, we shouldn’t let these momentary lapses of judgment get us down. The truth is, the fact that you can read this sentence is proof positive that you are a genius. Have you ever considered how complicated reading actually is? If not, allow me to impress you with your own skills.

When we write, we choose letters that represent certain sounds. These sounds are described by linguists as phonemes. If we organize those phonemes correctly, we get a morpheme – the smallest unit of meaning. Consider the following two words as an example: dog and hog. Dog and hog are both morphemes because they represent units of meaning that cannot be broken down any further. The words are differentiated by the phonemes “d” and “h.” The two phoneme’s don’t carry any meaning on their own, but when added to “og,” they create words that we can understand. The amazing thing is that we are so smart that you don’t even have to stop to consider what phonemes are being combined – we immediately recognize the morpheme.

More than that, we are so smart that you can handle multiple morphemes at a time. For instance, I could add a prefix such as “un” and a suffix such as “ly” to a morpheme, and you know what it means. When I say “undogly” you don’t stop to consider how all three morphemes work, and, unless you have a mean streak, you aren’t even troubled by the fact that “undogly” is not a “real word.” You simply recognize that these three morphemes create a new word with a new meaning – and you know what that meaning is.

This process, where we analyze the phonemes and morphemes, brings us to what is known as the “lexical meaning” of a word. Most of the time you can do this without any help. If you find a word particularly tricky, you have the skills to open a dictionary and figure out the word’s meaning. When you stop to think about it, you are a bit of an expert with lexical meaning. My guess, is that you were able to handle the 398 words you have read so far without even breaking a sweat.

But what happens when we put words together? What happens when we create a sentence? When we read a sentence we move from lexical meaning to structural meaning. We aren’t just concerned with what the words mean, but what they mean when they are together. This is a big deal and it takes a considerable amount of expertise. Consider for instance the following words: genius, I, read, a, can, I because, am. We know the lexical meaning of each of these words. Yet, because they lack structure, they are nothing more than words. Yet, with a little bit of structure, a whole new level of meaning emerges: “I am a genius because I can read.” Now we are not only analyzing the lexical meaning of the words, but we are analyzing the structural meaning as well. And again, we did this without even breaking a sweat.

The entire process was summed up by a graphic in Dr. Blacks, “Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek.” I have borrowed it, and slightly altered it.

This picture shows the basic process we go through every time we read anything – including the Bible. The only step that isn’t included is simply an extension of syntax where we ask how sentences are related to each other in a paragraph, and how paragraphs are related to each other in a book. While the words describing the process may sound daunting, we go through this processes automatically every time we read. If this seems like work for a genius to you, don’t worry, you are one!

To become a better Bible reader we need to do two things. First, we simply need to read the Bible. We have the tools we need. We know how to find the lexical meaning of words and we know how to determine their structural meaning. We really are experts experts at reading, we simply need to apply our expertise to the Bible.

Second, we need to slow down. Great Bible readers not only read the Bible, they study it. They take the time to dwell on the things that they do naturally. They look up words that the think they know the meaning of to help them explore its nuances. They dwell on sentences that seem fairly clear so they can understand it with more precision and more clarity. Great Bible readers take the skills they have already mastered and apply them regularly and thoughtfully to reading the Bible.
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If you find this interesting, you should get a copy of Dr. David Alan Black’s, “Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek“. Most of this post comes from what I learned reading that book.

Advice to a Student: How to become a better Bible reader

My first semester of teaching hermeneutics is almost over, I have three papers left to grade. However I was pleasantly interrupted by an email from one student. He asked for advice regarding how to continue to develop his skills as a Bible reader. His attempts to find the “Main Idea of the Text” were often close, but not quite where he wanted them. He was hoping I could point him to some class, or book, or something that could help him to continue to develop.

Emails like that make me so excited. I love to see guys long to read the Bible better. I love that he is taking his education seriously. I love that he is willing to put in the work it takes to understand God’s Word better and to communicate it more clearly. Emails like that make teaching an exciting profession.

I responded to this student like any good preacher would, with three points. I will include them below. I would love to hear if you have any other advice.

• It is important to remember that reading this way takes practice. Most of us were not trained to look for the author’s main point when we read the Bible. Many preachers seem to work from model of reading the text that we would not accept. Rather than first asking, “what is this text saying,” many pastors start with “what does my congregation need to hear?” Then they pick and choose what parts of the text to emphasize based on what they think will most powerfully or effectively address their audience.

  What we are asking you to do this semester is vastly different and can seem foreign to many students. However, if you are convinced, as I am, that meaning should come from the author, then you will have to retrain yourself to read with the author’s main point in front of your mind at all times. Just like any training that is worth doing, it will take time and practice. So, be patient and keep pressing toward a better way.

• Another important thing to do is to practice your own writing skills. Do as much writing as you can. Try to keep your arguments succinct. As you become a more proficient writer you will begin to find it easier to get in the mind of the Biblical writers. It’s true that they use genres that will be different from your own. However, as you write you will begin to identify with the struggle over what sentence should go where, and how to order your paragraphs. These types of questions are common to almost all writers.

  Also, you can begin to read books on writing style and sentence construction. I am personally hoping to begin reading Stanley Fish’s book, How to Write a Sentence, in order to continue to train myself in this area. Howard Hendricks suggested a similar strategy, recommending Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book.

• Regarding classes to take, you should be aware that there is no single class you can take that will make you a good Bible reader or help you correctly find the main idea every time. However, you will find certain classes more helpful than others. Bible reading is, at its heart, simply reading. Therefore you are well served by taking as many English and literature classes as possible. Pay special attention to teachers who discuss issues like grammar and genre as these issues translate exceptionally well to Bible reading. College students at Southeastern should take classes with Dr. Michael Travers whenever possible. He is well known for his work in various genres, especially poetry. If you get to take his class, beg him to teach you how author’s use their genre to communicate their points, not only to our minds but to our hearts.

  In my own experience, my Greek classes contributed to my understanding of Bible reading more than any others. The first two semesters are hard work, and the main payoff is really just a little bit of grammar. However, if you are willing to push through, the 3rd, and especially the 4th semester are much more helpful. Plus, once you finish the third semester you are qualified to begin taking book studies in the original language. I don’t mean to suggest that “practical” classes, or even theology classes, can’t be helpful, however, I decided, when I started seminary, to spend almost all of my electives in Greek. I have never regretted that decision. Learning to read the Bible well was worth all the work.

  Perhaps no single class was more influencial that Dr. David Black’s 4th semester Greek class. The opportunity to work through the entire book of Philippians with Dr. Black was an invaluable experience. Additionally, that semester he introduced me to a book that profoundly influenced the way I read the Bible. Dr. Black’s, Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek, provides a clear guide for analyzing the authors words, sentences, and style in order to locate the main idea. Even if you haven’t had a single Greek class, it would be worth buying, however it will obviously be much easier for students who have taken some Greek. Regardless, you should not miss out on his chapters on syntax, semantics, and discourse analysis.

If you have any other advice, I’d love to hear it!

The Bible as Literature

While browsing some blogs today I ran across two separate posts that are too good not share. The first comes from David Black, the Greek professor I studied under in seminary.

Media philosopher Marshall McLuhan turned 100 yesterday. In absentia, of course. It was McLuhan who uttered the famous line, “The medium is the message.” Of course, it isn’t. But McLuhan was almost right. The media is indeed a big part of the message. That’s why I study and teach rhetoric to my Greek students. I am a firm believer that how something is said is almost as important as what is said. I am convinced that the rhetorical level of language is a significant level for receptors. That’s why I asked my esteemed colleague Michael Travers (an expert in English poetry) to lecture in my New Testament class last week.

His lecture emphasized several points, not least that the text is an object of study in and of itself, as a whole. Nor is the aesthetic level to be overlooked. Of course, many people object to this way of thinking. Denotation — not connotation! they cry. It seems to me futile to waste one’s energy trying to refute the obvious: the New Testament is as much literature as any other writing from the ancient past. For a profession already suffering from being atomistic and fragmented, it seems incongruous for New Testament scholarship to overlook the rhetorical nature of the text. The best protection against eisegesis is not suppression of tools but elimination of fallacies.

The second comes from an interview with Russel Moore by Tim Challies. Moore was asked to defend fiction reading against those Christians who claim that anything that isn’t true is a waste of time. He explains,

I’ve found that most people who tell me that fiction is a waste of time are folks who seem to hold to a kind of sola cerebra vision of the Christian life that just doesn’t square with the Bible. The Bible doesn’t simply address man as a cognitive process but as a complex image-bearer who recognizes truth not only through categorizing syllogisms but through imagination, beauty, wonder, awe. Fiction helps to shape and hone what Russell Kirk called the moral imagination. My friend David Mills, now executive editor at First Things, wrote a brilliant article in Touchstone several years ago about the role of stories in shaping the moral imagination of children. As he pointed out, moral instruction is not simply about knowing factually what’s right and wrong (though that’s part of it); it’s about learning to feel affection toward certain virtues and revulsion toward others. A child learns to sympathize with the heroism of Jack the Giant Killer, to be repelled by the cruelty of Cinderella’s sisters and so on.

On the surface, these two comments seem unrelated. One professor is discussing the importance of rhetorical analysis when reading the Greek New Testament, the other is promoting fanciful stories. However, both of them make their arguments based on the same foundational truth – God is not only concerned with what we know, but with how that knowledge affects our hearts.

Allow me to ask you a question; how do you read the Bible? Is the Bible more than a collection of facts? Even a collection of the most important facts is not enough. The Bible is a grand narrative, full of poetry and wisdom. It uses stories and letters, and even wild apocalyptic literature in an effort not only to teach us truths, but to stir our hearts as well.

There is much to learn in our study of the Bible. However, we must recognize that the literature of the Bible is pushing us to kind of comprehension that not only engages our minds, but captures our souls. Consider Paul’s stirring prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This type of comprehension can be allusive when we simply read the Bible for content. Instead, we must be careful to slow down to appreciate the beauty of the Bible. We must allow ourselves to get lost in its grand narrative and captivated by its beautiful poetry. We must studiously attend to the arguments of Romans and sit in fanciful wonder as we approach the apocalyptic revelation of John. If we want the Bible to stir our hearts, we must read it as literature.

Unfounded Fear and the NC Marriage Amendment

Two weeks ago our local newspaper printed an article that featured a homosexual couple and their adopted son who in Wake Forest. The article was written in light of the Marriage Amendment to the NC Constitution that will be voted on tomorrow. The general sentiment of the article was that this couple and their child, along with many others, will lose vital privileges such as health care if the amendment is passed. Others, have argued similar concerns, including one facebook comment which stated that “at least 911,186 children will lose health care coverage if the amendment is passed.” That means at least 10% of the states population would lose their health insurance.

These fears, which I believe to be unfounded, seem to have gained a lot of traction in our area. For this reason I thought it might be helpful to submit an article to the local paper. I originally wrote a 500 word letter, but trimmed it down to 300 words per the paper’s request. I will include the 500 word essay below. If you prefer the 300 word essay, you will have to buy a copy of the Wake Weekly.
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Fear of change is something that almost everyone can relate to. Sometimes it is a legitimate fear, other times it’s not. In the case of Shawn Long, the subject of last week’s article concerning the marriage amendment (4/26, Faces of Opposition), we may be happy to learn that many of his fears are unfounded.

The article explained that he was concerned that if the marriage amendment passes, much of the life that he, his partner, and their adopted son take for granted may be hampered. For instance, he expressed concern that he might lose the ability to secure medical benefits for his partner or his son. Further, he worries that if the amendment is passed, it may deter companies from coming to North Carolina to do business. Carrie Causey, the article’s author concludes, “no one knows for sure what will happen and who will be affected.”

Fortunately, the future is not nearly as murky as the article suggests. In fact, the same basic law has been on the book in North Carolina since 1996. The law, known as “General Statute 51-1.2” states,

Marriages, whether created by common law, contracted, or performed outside of North Carolina, between individuals of the same gender are not valid in North Carolina.

If the amendment is passed, the law will read,

Marriage between one man and one women is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.

Thus, the only substantial change is that the right for anyone, including homosexual couples, to enter into private contracts is more expressly defended.

An amendment to the NC constitution defining marriage will not change any of the rights that Shawn Long and his family currently enjoy. Last week’s article states that “the fact that they are a homosexual couple hasn’t made a big difference.” This amendment won’t change that in any way.

While the actual law would not be substantially changed, the ease in which that law could be overturned would be. By moving the law from the general statutes to the NC constitution, it effectively takes the law out of the hands of local and state judges. For instance, voteformarriagenc.com explains,

…without a marriage amendment in our constitution, activist judges can substitute their values for those of the people of North Carolina. This is exactly what happened in Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California. Similarly, legislators can redefine marriage without permission of the people, as was done in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The marriage amendment ensures that if activists want to redefine marriage in the future, they must receive the approval of the voters to do so.

It seems that fear of the future is, in many ways, driving both sides of this debate. Some of those fears may be legitimate, however it is helpful to realize that many are not.

Boring Bible Study and its Great Reward

I have just started reading a book titled Perspectives on Family Ministry by Timothy Paul Jones. I am only 9 pages into the book and I have already come across a very compelling question. Jones asks, “what if boredom isn’t always bad?”

The founder of Young Life once commented, “It’s a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.” Is this statement true? How has this statement been applied in youth and children’s ministries? How have these attitudes affected ministries to children and youth? After considering your own response to these questions, read what Mark DeVries has to say in response to the Young Life attitude: “It might be more of a sin to suggest to young people that the Christian life is always fun and never boring. Keeping teenagers from ever being bored in their faith can actually deprive them of opportunities to develop the discipline and perseverance needed to live the Christian life. It is precisely in those experiences that teenagers might describe as boring that Christian character is often formed.” (Mark DeVries, Family-Based Youth Ministry, 1994)

If it is a sin to bore people with the gospel, then I wonder how Moses plans on explaining books like Leviticus and Numbers. Let’s face it, the Bible isn’t always a page-turner. At times we have to wade through mind-numbing lists of laws and tedious genealogies. I have never met someone who honestly considers those parts to be exciting literature. Yet, it is God’s word, and it is purposeful. In fact, if you are willing to endure a little boredom, you may realize these boring sections are exactly what prepare us to understand and love the whole message of the Bible.

While Christians may be afraid of boring their children, and even themselves, not everyone in our society shares this fear. Kanon started a new job as a writer for the local newspaper. One of her assignments allowed her to interview William Henry Curry, the resident conductor of the North Carolina Symphony. Maestro Curry was visiting a local elementary school’s music performance, which gave Kanon the opportunity to ask the conductor what advice he would offer these young, aspiring musicians.

Maestro Curry explained to Kanon, and to the children, that he recommends listening to difficult music and reading difficult books. He admitted that his first encounters with Shakespeare were less than enthralling. Yet, as he continued to plow through the dense reading he began to recognize the beauty and brilliance of Shakespeare’s work. He insisted that classical music is much the same. That while it may seem boring to a novice, as you train your ears and your mind, you begin to realize and enjoy a depth and beauty that no pop song could ever hope to emulate.

I believe Maestro Curry’s advice is also true of Biblical study. Our fear of boring Bible study prevents us from ever gaining the ability to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the Bible. Because we are unwilling to suffer through serious study, we forfeit a great reward.

So is it a sin to bore a kid with the gospel? My response is a resounding no. In fact, at times it may be the most loving thing we could do. If we love our children we must teach them that just because something isn’t fun, doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. Instead, as my dad used to say, “if it’s not worth working for, it’s not worth having.”