JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,776
- 2,220
I have studied various versions of the Bible for 60 years (starting from the time I was around 12) and find the Book to be confusing. Christians, using the same Book as their guideline, cannot agree on what it says. On the several forums I have visited, the most heated arguments are not between Christians and non-Christians, but between Christians.
To understand the Bible you have to do the following:
1. Try to interpret the text with respect to the literary form it is. Dont interpret a book of poetry the same way you would interpret a book of secular law or a personal letter to friends in a distant church.
2. Try to take existing interpretations as food for thought, but do not restrict yourself to them. You may find something new and also True from your own experience.
3. Recognize that all Christians (pretty much) start with inherited concepts that they read into the Bible and no denomination is innocent of this.
4. Almost all understanding of the Bible that goes beyond fairly direct statements, that any complexity to them beyond 'Dont do that.' is plausibly a misunderstanding, so one should always bear inmind that one might be wrong and so try to remain open minded on the topic if it is not central to Judaism or Chrisitanity as systems of faith.
5. Whatever system of theology you think the Bible best fits to, write it down now, seal it in an envelope and put it away, and in twenty years take it out and read it again. If you are not shocked at your ignorance when you wrote it then you havent been taking the subject seriously enough.
The Bible has so many layers of understanding and communication that people have spent their entire lives doing nothing but reading it and studying it and still find new wisdom and moral truths in it till the day they die.
So I hope you dont expect to find a final meaning in it.
Last edited: