Understanding the Bible

Have you ever been reading the Bible and stumbled across a difficult verse or passage—where something seems odd or perhaps what is written of God seems out of character?

Or perhaps have you encountered someone of a different persuasion and they think the Bible says one thing and you know it doesn’t mean what they think it means? You throw countering verses at them and they counter with verses to your countering versus.

Eventually all of us will encounter such events.

But what can we do?

How can we understand and interpret the scriptures, and better yet know we understand them?

God intends His Word to be understandable and He wants us to know Him, so be sure that if we want to understand His Word, He wants that too. Both we and God want the same thing! And that’s great!

Right out the chute, there’s some things to bring with us when we study the Bible:

  • our Bible
  • a desire to know God
  • a desire to understand His Word
  • a willingness to be diligent
  • a recognition that we don’t know everything, possibly including those things we think we know
  • an expectation that God will reveal truth

Here’s some considerations to ponder that I’ve found along my journey.

The Bible

  • Only the text of the 66 books in the Bible is God-inspired and God-breathed.
  • The chapter and verse markings are inserted by men, primarily as means to locate text. They are valuable for this purpose but we should not assume anything in regards to them and ignore them otherwise.
  • The passage titles are also inserted by men and may be accurate, misleading or even wrong. Don’t assume anything from the passage titles. The passage titles, by their presence, suggest the primary point or points of passages. I find commonly that they are misplaced. Don’t place much emphasis on the passage titles or what portions of scripture they mark.
  • Study Bible notes, which are present in many Bibles, are written by men, and often notable men. But they are men and some men have misunderstood scripture and their study notes can have the unfortunate effect of misleading the reader. Much false doctrine is spread in these study notes. I apologize if this scares you. I recommend completely ignoring the notes entirely. If you must look at them, do so with great caution and consider what is written below concerning “Men.”

Bible Translations

  • The Bible’s original text is written primarily in Hebrew and Greek. Men have translated the Bible into many languages and there are many translations in the same language. Some are better than others—some individuals have strong opinions on this subject and a few have very strong opinions.
    • The New American Standard Bible (NASB) provides as much as is possible a near word-for-word translation ensuring that the meaning is retained, accounting for the context when translating words. This version is held in very high regard among scholars.
    • The New King James Version (NKJV) provides a near word-for-word translation, which some describe as “complete equivalence”. This version is closer to a raw translation. I like this version a lot because I don’t want men changing the text for any reason. In practice, I find it necessary to occasionally refer to the NASB when the translation is difficult to understand. If I could only have one Bible translation I would use the NASB. That said, I use the NKJV as my primary because I want to read the “raw translation”.
    • The English Stand Version (ESV) is often proclaimed a fine translation. I have a small number of verses I look at to determine the trustworthiness of the translation. I look at John 3:16 first. If I don’t see “begotten” there I see a problem. Some challenge this saying “only” or “one and only” is fine. I don’t see that as fine because we as Christians are children of God (John 1:12). Christ is the only one that is begotten (in human terms, direct lineage, of the same blood, not adopted) of God. The rest of us are adopted.
  • There are some minor issues with some translations. Having two available makes sense, but understand that there are not volumes of issues—just a small number, so you need not fear.
  • There are some that believe that you cannot trust the translations. If you believe this, you will take on few unnecessary impediments/penalties:
    • First, since you believe you cannot trust the translations, you must set aside several years to study to learn the Hebrew and Greek languages so that you can learn to read the original manuscripts. This will be quite an undertaking.
    • Second, you undoubtedly will not be able to accept the words of any translation completely while learning the original languages. Your growth will very possibly be stunted.

Words

  • Words have meaning. Some words are indeed spiritual in nature, but the vast majority mean exactly what they mean in regular language. Keep a trustworthy dictionary nearby and look up any unclear words. Ask yourself if a word might have a different meaning than you readily know.
  • Similarly, we can inadvertently add meaning to words. One that comes to mind is “harden”. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 7, and elsewhere). What does “harden” mean but to firm-up what is already present? The reality is that Pharaoh and the Egyptian people were already under judgement for their wretched treatment of the children of Israel and God was going to show His power to all the world through this judgement as well as to help the Egyptians and all others know that God is the Lord. Some inadvertently ignore the meaning of words and thus misunderstand what is written. The thought that God has formed Pharaoh’s stance, essentially overriding his will and giving him something different, is adding meaning to an otherwise easy to understand word. In fact, as one reads through Exodus 14, one can see that in most cases Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Referenced Scripture

  • Whenever scripture (usually the Old Testament) is referenced, we need to understand why it was referenced. Often only a single sentence is referenced. Why it was referenced isn’t always clear but when one reads the referenced scripture the meaning usually becomes clear. An example of this is Romans 9:15, where there is a reference to Exodus 33 that says “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” Read in context, the reader will understand that Moses is trying hard to get God to affirm that the Israelites are His people and He should take them as His inheritance. Moses didn’t yet understand that God was intending to use Israel to carry the oracles of God and show Himself through them to the rest of the world (ultimately to make salvation available to all men, as mentioned in Romans 3:2). Exodus 34:10 reads “…and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” Taking this understanding back to Romans 9 provides great clarification that is very much needed.

Men

  • Men are fallible and cannot be trusted in entirety. We cannot blindly trust men, but we can grow in our trust of certain men. Here’s some examples I have in my life:
    • I very much respect a certain previous pastor of mine, and my beliefs happen to align greatly with his, but I have definite disagreements with some of his earlier writings. He was honest and said of some of his earlier preaching that not all of it was right. I have great respect for his transparency. What I know of him is that he is worthy of being read but I understand, as I should, that he is a man and even he has had his moments.
    • I have great trust in my current pastor. In ten years I have not yet heard him speak anything I know to be wrong. I readily listen to his teaching.
  • Some men teach false doctrines within the Christian church, but honestly I believe they have the best of intentions. Do understand I choke as I write that. I occasionally read their writings to understand how they struggled and considered certain passages. I have mostly done this for reproof so do not generally recommend this for regular study of the Bible.
  • Some men are deceitful. Do not continue to listen to the deceitful.

Churches

  • Few Christians align 100.0% in their beliefs and understanding of the scripture. Division for simple disagreements must be avoided. Some churches do teach false doctrine. It is best to find a church that has a pastor preaching the truth. Spending perpetual effort trying to sort out what is true and what is not can be an interesting exercise but taking in large amounts of false doctrine doesn’t do anyone good. I spent a few years in a church where I found the pastor constantly said things that weren’t quite right. I didn’t grow much during these years. Every week while leaving Sunday service I would complain to my wife, “How can a man of God not know these things?” I gave him a lot of grace—too much unfortunately. We left after it became clear he didn’t believe the Bible to be inerrant. I won’t get into the details but it explained why he seemed to get a lot of his preaching wrong.

Ourselves

  • Some are in a hurry to understand everything about God. It’s good to know the Bible. Know what God says straight from Him. Avoid reading books and man’s thoughts. Read the Bible. The entire Bible can be read in about 70 hours. What men think is far less important than what God says.
  • We need seek the truth, not seek to prove something is true. When we lock in our “truth” we lock out the actual truth. This doesn’t mean that we are to be swayed by every whim. If you indeed know that you know the truth and why, you can stand on it.

God

  • God wants you to understand the scriptures.
  • How will God help me understand the scriptures?
    • Jesus says in John 6:45, “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”
    • There are some clues in Scripture as to the mindset of a strong believer, King David:
      • Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
      • Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.”
  • Dare to believe that God will teach you. Ask Him to explain specific scripture to you. You may be surprised to find that He may answer immediately, the next day, maybe a month or more. Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

In closing, recall what Paul said of the Bereans in Acts 17:11, “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

Version History
1.00 – October 7, 2018
1.01 – September 2, 2019
1.02 – June 16, 2023