Why is the Bible so difficult?
From the course notes for Bull’s Bible School.
The Bible is the most loved and the most hated book in the world. Its basic messages are so simple that a child can understand them, but in its intricate details, complex design, and profound depths the book seems impossible to pin down. And for most people, even Christians, parts of it seem boring, brutal, frustrating, unnecessary, and exceedingly strange.
If the Bible is the Word of God, and it was given to us as a revelation of truth, why does it have to be so much trouble? If it was indeed written to help us, why does it have to be so difficult to master?
This is a good question, and it has five basic answers.
1 The Bible was designed to train us.
a) The Scriptures make us think.
They were written to reveal important things to us, but they were also written to cause us to ask questions and search out the answers. In this way, the Bible is difficult for the same reason a crossword puzzle or a riddle is difficult. It increases our capacity to reason and understand. God is our Father and He wants to educate us. This requires more than the mere memorisation of facts. It also requires deep meditation that we ourselves might make the connections between the pieces of information that He has given to us. We must remember that even Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, needed to be educated. Like all human beings, He not only grew up physically, but also intellectually (Luke 2:52). Joseph trained Jesus in his trade, and from Jesus’ teachings we know that He studied the Scriptures. Even as a child, He reached the point where He could discuss them at a high level with the teachers of Israel (Luke 2:46-47); and as an adult He far surpassed them (John 3:9).
b) The Scriptures change the way we think.
This next step goes beyond simply figuring things out. Everything that God says and does follows a common pattern, from beginning to end. As we read the Bible, that pattern becomes familiar to us in the same way that we remember a tune. As this pattern is being written into our minds and stamped upon our hearts, it trains us to order our lives in the same way. The primary example is how the seven-day Creation Week governs every seven-day week as a time cycle imposed upon nature for human activity. Similarly, as we read the Bible, the way in which God works reforms our nature—both our thinking and our behavior.
c) The Scriptures reveal to us the mind of God.
Servants are called to obey their masters—to simply follow instructions. And the masters are not obliged to explain why any of the commands are necessary. That is none of the servants’ business.
An example would be the tasks given to servants to prepare a feast for the master of a great house. They are not necessarily privy to the purpose of the event or the reasons behind its guest list. In contrast, those invited to the feast are of a higher class. As guests of the master, they are included in his life in various ways. They must still follow certain protocols (such as responding to the invitation, arriving on time, and wearing appropriate attire); but, unlike servants who are interchangeable because of what they are, guests are part of the event because of who they are.
When the Lord prohibited the Tree of Knowledge, Adam was not yet “in on the plan.” He was simply to obey. In contrast, after numerous preparatory trials of faith, God included Abraham and Moses in His plans, speaking to them as His friends.
The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?” (Genesis 18:17).
Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? (2 Chronicles 20:7)
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. (Exodus 33:11)
And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord.” (Numbers 12:6-8)
A shift from servanthood to friendship with God is also observed in the history of Israel.
The word “priest” simply means “servant.” As the servants in God’s house, the priests were not called to make decisions, only to obey God’s instructions to the letter. As the sons of Aaron discovered, there could be dire consequences if they did not (Leviticus 10:1-2).
When the era of priesthood finally led to the era of the kings, the result was the Bible’s collection of wisdom literature, which includes the Psalms and the Proverbs. Although these are still inspired texts, they are the responses of men to the words of God. David, Solomon and others meditated upon the Law, it transformed their thinking and bore literary “fruit.” The rulers of Israel had graduated to a greater degree of fellowship with God in the same way that Jesus grew to the point where He could discuss God’s Word with the teachers of the Law. This was part of God’s plan, and because He valued their thoughts as sons of their Heavenly Father, these were preserved for our edification and use.
The next great shift came with the writings of the prophets. The God who had previously revealed His plans only on a “need-to-know” basis was increasingly publicising his intentions. Not only was He calling a greater number of prophets, but those prophets were informing God’s wayward people. Not only were the rebellious rulers of Israel and Judah informed of His judgments, but also the rulers of all the surrounding nations. Nebuchadnezzar was well aware of the ministry and counsel of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39:11). By the time Jerusalem was finally destroyed, the prophet Daniel was the king of Babylon’s chief advisor.
The Lord’s initial list of nations to be judged appears in Amos. In Isaiah, He not only expands on this strategy, but also shares His whole heart concerning this need for this renovation of the world. For this reason, the first of the Major Prophets is the turning point of the whole Bible: Its contents describe a change of direction that will affect all subsequent history.
However, the reason for this change in the amount of information that God was willing to share wasn’t due to a change in God’s attitude but a change in Man’s level of access. Just as the Lord had called Adam to judge himself in the first Sanctuary, He also now called the rulers of His people into His courtroom and presented His case that they might judge themselves in its light and reason with Him as His pupils.
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20)
When the Lord announced His plan to judge Judah for its sins, He called its people to judge whether or not such an intention was righteous.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? (Isaiah 5:3-4)
God’s desire is to train His people to discern between good and evil, and the Bible serves the same purpose as His first commands to Adam, which were designed to bring wisdom to Man. Adam was given an order to obey as a priestly servant that he might later be exalted as a faithful ruler. Just as Adam was to trust in God despite not being given the reason for the prohibition, so also we are to trust that God will reveal more to us as we progress in our faith.
When Jesus had finished training His disciples, He said that He no longer regarded them as servants but as His friends. They were still under His authority, but they were increasingly informed of and included in His plans.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (john 15:14-15)
The disciples’ training was completed on the Day of Pentecost, when Jesus sent His Spirit to dwell in them, to guide them, and to fully reveal His will. It is clear in their preaching and writings that they were also given His gift of interpretation of the Old Testament.
This process of growth from obedience to wisdom, from childhood to adulthood, from priesthood to kingdom, is preparation for service and also for rule. Christ obeyed everything that the Father commanded and was enthroned in heaven. Not only does He rule the nations, but His people are now spiritually enthroned with Him, both in heaven and on earth (Matthew 19:28; Ephesians 2:6; Revelation 20:4).
2 The Bible was designed to be explored.
Just as the revelation of God in His Creation is there for us to explore, so also is the revelation of God’s nature and His ways in the written Word.
Our Father requires that we grow in wisdom together as we explore what He has made as well as what He has written. For this reason, the work of theology has continued throughout history from the very beginning, and still continues today.
a) Human beings love a challenge.
Just as we benefit from the work of the pioneers of the past, so also we benefit from the work of those to whom God has given the challenge of exploring, mapping, and ministering His Word to feed His people.
King Solomon wrote, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” (Proverbs 25:2). Children enjoy solving puzzles and adults must solve all sorts of problems. Whether or not the task itself is a joy, we all enjoy the success of figuring something out. If it were easy, not only would it leave us without any new skills, but the lack of effort would rob us of the satisfaction of achievement.
This principle applies to every sphere of human endeavor, whether it be the natural sciences, construction, medicine, technology, or the arts. Those whose life’s work has benefited us in these ways were motivated not only by the need of the day, but also by the thrill of discovery. Answering tough questions and solving difficult problems is a form of exploration. So the Word of God, like the world He made, was given to us to explore.
b) Exploration is an act of faith.
The Bible teaches us that our wise and sensible God not only made a universe that makes sense, but also put it there for us to explore, understand, subdue, and civilise. It was the Bible that gave us a solid reason to work things out in the confidence that we would find the answers, and, in our own limited way, “do the impossible.”
When you read a mystery novel, watch a puzzling movie, do a cryptic crossword, or even work your way through a video game, you spend the time because you are confident that, as in a garden maze, somebody has been there before you and planned it all out for your benefit. The work of understanding the Bible is the same.
In one of the earliest Christian commentaries on the Psalms, Origen (AD185–254) shared a comparison that he heard from his Hebrew teacher: The Bible is like one big house with many rooms. The doors to the rooms are locked, but at each door there is a key. However, the key at each door is not the key to that particular door. It is the key to one of the other doors! The only way to open a door is to try various keys, and we trust that God has supplied a key for every door.
c) The Bible is filled with buried treasure.
Why did God hide so many glorious truths beneath layers of enigmatic symbols and riddles? For the same reason He put gold, silver, and precious stones in the earth. The most beautiful things in the world are made even more valuable to us when their acquisition requires hard work. That includes the work of finding a wife (Proverbs 18:22). Indeed, like the Bible, the book of Proverbs itself begins with the folly of man who listens to a woman who sells herself instead of choosing wisdom (Genesis 3:6; Proverbs 2:16-19; 3:13-18), and, like the Bible, it ends with a bejewelled woman whose price no man could afford (Proverbs 31:10, 26)—the city of precious stones which is the New Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 3:11-12; Revelation 21:9-21). The bride of Christ could only be purchased with the precious blood of Christ. Even meditating upon this profound truth, one that was hidden all along in plain sight, is like gazing upon a shining treasure. But only by the work of “digging” do we truly make such truths our own.
3 The Bible was designed to reveal truth gradually.
The Bible is often mysterious but it is not one big riddle. Its detractors often use its “dark sayings” as an excuse to ignore the truths within it that are as plain as noonday. Mark Twain is claimed to have said: “Some people are troubled by the things in the Bible they can’t understand. The things that trouble me are the things I can understand.”
Much of the Bible is simple. While there is plenty to chew on over time, there are also plenty of basic truths to sustain us as we continue on the journey of becoming familiar with it. Nobody can honestly claim that the Scriptures are too difficult to begin the task of reading and contemplation.
Accordingly, the Bible itself limits and guides our understanding of it, a) so that we are not overwhelmed, and b) so that we receive the maximum benefit. Its apparent difficulty is like a veil or curtain that initially obscures our view but is slowly drawn open until all is revealed.
This gradual increase in illumination occurs in three ways: the Bible’s internal development, the believer’s individual development, and the Church’s historical development.
a) The Bible’s internal development.
Many of the Bible’s teachings “grow” in scope and complexity as we read through the book. Critics see this as evidence that the contents of the book were just made up as time went along, with the later writers exaggerating and elaborating on elements from the earlier ones. But the truth is that the Bible itself, as a revelation from God, opens slowly like a flower until it is at full bloom, or rises like the sun from the break of dawn to the brightness of noonday. The increasing depth of its doctrines is not the result of human invention but of God’s gracious accommodation to Man.
The Bible itself was a course of study for mankind. The people of God were given what they needed for their particular time in history. God would speak the Word as spiritual “seed,” then He would remain silent for a time until that seed had had time to grow in the hearts of men. Only then would He visit again to assess the results in Man’s progress, and deliver the next stage of revelation.
The first instance of this was the Lord’s apparent absence from the Garden after He had spoken to Adam. Much longer examples are the 400 years between Abraham and Moses, and the 400 years between the last of the Old Testament prophets and the ministry of John the Baptist. In this latter case, the centuries of silent growth were the reason why the field was now white for harvest in the time of Jesus (John 4:35). Similarly, Christ will not appear again until the Gospel has transformed all nations and the final harvest is ready.
If we keep this principle of the Bible’s internal development in mind, the Bible itself trains us how to read it. As with any other book, the Bible is a cumulative story. This means that everything that happens in it builds upon, and refers to, what has gone before. The information given to us in Genesis is necessary for the understanding of Exodus, and so on.
But there is more to this than just the story of sacred history. As we continue through the Scriptures, they slowly teach us the spiritual “language” we need in order to keep reading.
When it comes to symbolic language, God uses the elements and patterns of the natural world to educate us in the realities of the spiritual world. For instance, when John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), we know what he means because we have read all about the necessity for the substitutionary sacrifice of the best of the flock, beginning with Abel’s offering in Genesis 4.
In many cases, the meaning of the events, symbols and sequences in earlier texts was not revealed until later in the Bible, giving its hearers much time to puzzle over and consider their meaning. For this reason, the Book of Revelation, the finale of the Scriptures, is only a revelation to us if we have been paying close attention to everything that has gone before.
A striking example is Jesus’ detailed explanation—and interpretation—of the Old Testament to the disciples He met on the road to Emmaus.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)
But this event also shows us that the Bible’s internal revelation is not enough. We need the Lord Himself to “open our eyes” to the full meaning of the text (Genesis 3: 5-7; Luke 24:31).
b) The believer’s individual development.
As with our education concerning the natural world, our understanding of spiritual truth is a process of growth. We must begin with the roots of basic principles if we wish to attain the fruits of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. As Adam was called to do, and as Israel did, we move from submission to the text to mastery of the text. We cannot master it until we are mastered by it.
As we build a foundation of familiarity with the Scriptures, reading the texts as obedient “priests,” we will start to make connections between the things it contains as wise “kings.” David and Solomon wrote wonderful psalms and proverbs because they knew the Law of Moses like the backs of their hands. They both obeyed Moses’ command that every king of Israel was not only to read the Word but also to personally write out a copy of it (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). God knew that this practice would not only educate a king and keep his heart holy, but it would also keep him humble in the knowledge that there was a greater Ruler in heaven above him, one to whom all the kings of earth are subject and must obey.
The construction of any house, no matter how glorious, starts with humble foundations in the dust. We too must start with the basics if we wish to grow in our knowledge of the Bible. As in any trade or field of study, we begin with what is simple and build upon the basics as we move on to subjects of greater depth and complexity.
One of the wonders of God’s book is the fact that, no matter how many times you read it, there is always more to see. That is why many older believers who have studied it for many decades are still studying it. And that is part of the reason why the work of understanding the Bible is not only ongoing, but is also a group project.
c) The Church’s historical development.
The Lord used the Babylonian captivity to cure His people of idolatry. Instead of ignoring the Law of Moses, they now obeyed it and taught it to their children as He had commanded. Instead of persecuting the prophets, whose warnings of judgment had all been vindicated, they set about studying their works and made great progress.
Yet this progress was limited. While the Jewish teachers of Israel during the era of the second Temple knew the Bible well, they misunderstood a lot of it. This was not their fault, since the words of the prophets require interpretation, and these teachers were given only limited light by God. They not only awaited the Messiah, but also a greater revelation of God’s plans for His people.
However, while they waited, their rabbis not only offered some wise observations, but also concocted many erroneous opinions, fantastical theories, and outright fabrications. Paul refers to these uninspired teachings as “Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth” (Titus 1:14). By Jesus’ day, the Word of God had been greatly subverted and displaced by the teachings and traditions of men.
These failures of the otherwise faithful Jewish teachers were the reason why many marvelled when Jesus taught from the Scriptures (Matthew 7:29; Mark 1:22; Luke 4:22; 20:26). He taught with certainty and authority, and His observations were never guesswork. His teachings were not only unique, but they also made perfect sense of the Scriptures. Unlike the rabbis, He obviously understood the spirit of the text, not just the words of the text. This was evidence that, like Moses, He had an intimate knowledge of, and insight into, the very mind of the Bible’s Author.
After His ascension, by His Spirit, Jesus shared this divine gift of interpretation with the apostles. Paul in particular was given a deep understanding of how the Old Testament Scriptures were being fulfilled as the Old Covenant age came to an end.
But with the end of the apostolic era in AD70, there were no longer any inspired prophets. The New Covenant deposit had been completed, and now it was time to study it. It was also time to study all the previous Scriptures in the light of this new revelation. All believers now have the Spirit of God in great measure, and therefore have something to contribute to the work. So, as with science in the physical realm, the task of understanding the Bible still continues today. And, as with science, this is not the work of only one or a few, but the combined work of many.
However, because all humans, including believers, are still vulnerable to being led astray, our ever-watchful Father in heaven has placed some safeguards upon this process of theological discovery and development.
As with the endeavors of empirical science, our interpretive work rests upon, and is permanently tethered to, what has gone before. Yet, like science, it is not a static body of doctrine but a dynamic one—a living tree of knowledge that requires pruning for continued growth.
This “Edenic” tree is guarded from a return to old errors by the wisdom of the creeds, the decisions of the ancient councils, and the rich theological commentaries of the past. However, it is also the case that the tree must not be constrained by these ancient furrows and stakes from bearing fresh discoveries in the fertility and illumination of God’s Word. There are always those who claim that the work of theology is complete and nothing more can be added. They are not only cautious of new developments, but also highly suspicious. This was the case with the Jewish teachers who opposed Christ, and with those who opposed the Reformers. There are many today who are similarly closed-minded.
Whenever there is a claim of a new development in our understanding of the Bible, it must certainly be tested and judged by the Church in general. It is unlikely that there will be immediate consensus, since this has never been the case. But God calls us to this task of development and discernment in order to increase the wisdom and understanding of His people through the ages.
As always, a tree is known by its fruits. Like the true Church, the branches of the authentic theological “succession” are identified by their ability to identify bad developments—mistaken interpretations and outright false teaching—and their willingness to “cut off” these developmental “dead ends” and throw them into the fire. But on the positive side, which is just as important, they are also identified by their ability to produce good and lasting spiritual fruit. Even a cursory study of Church history shows this to be the case.
In these ways, the Church Fathers of the early centuries demonstrated that they were the true heirs of the Apostles, and the Reformers demonstrated that they were the true heirs of both the Fathers and the Apostles. And it is worth noting that the astounding theological fertility of each of these remarkable epochs was necessarily associated with a severe “cutting off” of errors. A greater revelation of the truths of the Bible always results in a corresponding, and often unpopular, rejection of accumulated errors.
While our doctrine as a whole is not beyond question, neither is it in constant flux. Development necessitates a degree of liberty for exploration and discussion, but always upon a solid and certain foundation of core truths, and within a fellowship of accountability. With great freedom comes great responsibility. Each Bible “explorer” answers to the theologians of the past and present, and all answer to the inerrant Word of God as Man’s ultimate authority.
4 The Bible was designed to be taught.
Another reason the Bible is not an easy read is that it was designed to be taught, to be passed from father to son, from teacher to student. This characteristic of the Bible stems from the nature of God as a Trinity—the Father who speaks, the Son who responds, and the Spirit by whom Word becomes image.
Just as we need each other in the ongoing work of theology, so also the Bible was designed in a way that ensures collaboration across the generations. The Scriptures have to be taught not only to our children, but also to adults as children of God.
This facet of the Scriptures has four main aspects.
a) The transmission of the text.
The Bible was designed to be handed down from generation to generation. Consequently, it contains much that is related to this purpose, including the detailed genealogies and the recounting of histories. The people of God needed to be constantly reminded who they were, and to act accordingly. This stems from the fact that Man was made in the image of God, and is called to act accordingly: “like Father, like sons.”
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16)
Even though literacy was not universal in ancient times, texts were not only taught by literate teachers, but also memorised by the common people. Even among the tribes across the world that, due to their isolation, lost the faculty of written language, both children and adults were able to recite their histories and genealogies. These were taught by rote to the children and regularly recited as a people.
The mix of genealogy and history in the Book of Genesis indicates that the text was recorded by a succession of men whom God called and inspired (likely beginning with Noah, the first priest-king), and transmitted over the millennia, finally being passed down to Moses. And it was under Moses that God not only codified a just system of law, but also established guidelines for the further preservation and transmission of the Scriptures. As usual, this practice was not completely successful at first, but only by a gradual process of failure and perseverance, a growth to maturity.
After the initial giving of the Law, which the Israelites promised to keep, they immediately broke the covenant by worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 24, 32). Then, after Israel failed to enter the Land, and worshiped idols in the wilderness, the Lord justly dispossessed the old generation (Numbers 14:20-38; 25:1-9). The Law and the history had to be taught by Moses to the next generation, and this teaching is recorded for us in Deuteronomy, the book whose very name means “second law.” This time, the Lord also gave His people various ways to keep in mind and memorise His commands that they might avoid disobedience and a resulting judgment.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
Not only this, but they were commanded to teach their children why these commandments were necessary (Deuteronomy 6:20-25). Before his death, Moses even gave them a song so that they and their children would remember the Lord.
But this song would also be a testimony against them if they disobeyed (Deuteronomy 31:19-22, 30; 32:1-47). And they did disobey. They ignored the Law and broke its commandments, firstly during the era of the judges, but especially in the era of the kings. And part of the reason they fell into idolatry was their failure to regularly hear the Word. When the scroll of the Law was discovered in the Temple and read to King Josiah, he was not only surprised by what was in it, but also terrified that his nation was facing judgment by God (2 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34:8-33). Under his faithful guidance, the people were reminded who they were and great reforms took place.
Yet under the rule unfaithful kings, the Word of God continued to be ignored. This resulted in God sending faithful men to warn them. It was the job of these prophets to remind the kings and their people of what was actually in the covenant—both the promises to Abraham and the blessings and curses given via Moses.
Jeremiah lived through the beginning of the captivity. He had not only warned Judah of this judgment, but also promised a time when the covenant would be renewed and the people would finally honour and teach the Scriptures as God had originally commanded through Moses.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
In Hebrews 8:7-12, the author quotes these words of Jeremiah to remind Jewish Christians of their obligation to continue the study of the Scriptures, especially now that the Spirit of God had been poured out in an even better covenant.
Finally, Paul commissioned Timothy to continue this work of transmission. But in this age, with the guidance of the Spirit, God delegates the choice of faithful men to faithful men.
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2)
b) The shape of the text.
After the exile, the study of the Scriptures by the Jews led to a gradual increase in literacy among the common people, but for most it was still a matter of hearing and memorising the texts.
One of the reasons the organisation of the Bible is a little strange to modern readers is the fact that it was not written to be read silently, as we often do today, but to be read out loud and heard by people in a group setting. To serve that purpose, the authors of the texts arranged their content in a way that it might be more easily memorised.
The Bible’s use of symmetry and repetition seem merely ornamental to us, but to the ancients it was intensely practical. These and other devices were not only artistic features, but also a means of delivering the Word in a way that would resound in the ears, take root in the mind, and remain in the heart. Some Christian traditions chant the Scriptures together for this reason.
Modern readers have the benefit of widespread literacy, typography, and the easy transmission of printed and digital texts, and little need of such literary and poetic devices in our writings. But the Bible cannot be properly understood without a sensitivity to these factors in its text. They are a channel of communication from God that we have failed to tune into, and thus much of the meaning of His Word remains hidden from us, even from those who are well-educated.
Fortunately, the study of this subject has seen great revival and further development in recent times, and the ability to discern it in the text can be quickly learned, even by children.
c) The community of the text.
It is common knowledge that the transmission of the text of the Scriptures resulted in the development of a tradition that was established to continue the task. This tradition became a community around a succession of masters and apprentices who passed on the job of the scribes like fathers to sons. This Jewish tradition was continued in the Christian monasteries as scribal communities that not only preserved and copied the inspired Scriptures, but also curated and preserved many important texts from the antiquity of Greece and Rome.
What is less well-known is the role played by the school of the prophets as a “community of the book” in the time of Israel’s disobedient kings. While it obvious that the biblical prophets not only refer to each other, but sometimes also directly quote each other at length, the reason for this is rarely discussed: they worked together.
The prophets formed a scribal “guild” to preserve, teach, and proclaim the Word while their entire culture was rebelling against God. These men not only worked together, but also they trained the next generation for the continuation of the work. The “sons of the prophets” were schooled in the Torah by this “monastic” guild (1 Samuel 19:20; 1 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 4:1; 6:1) as a response to the increasing ignorance of the Law.
While only the inspired texts are included for us in the Bible, we can have no doubt that their general ministry of teaching and preaching was the seed of the revival of the study of the Word among the Jews after the exile. The school of the prophets was like the ark of Noah, protecting a remnant while God swept the world clean of the dynasties of corrupt, bloodthirsty, and idolatrous kings.
The other important aspect of this prophetic guild is the delegation of greater authority and skill by God to the authors of the Bible. The earlier texts had a greater component of dictation, with its organisation and structure established by God, but there was a gradual process of handing the decisions over to faithful men.
We see this in the redactions of the text into its final form under Moses and others; but in the kings, and especially in the prophets, the authors are self-consciously using the patterns and structures established in the Books of Moses in their work. They were mimicking their master, and using His blueprints to write further Scriptures, just as Joseph trained Jesus and delegated his business to him, and the Father trained the Son and gave Him all authority.
John said that if everything Jesus did was written down, the world would probably not be big enough to contain the books (John 21:25). And so it is that in the Christian era, the amount of religious writings multiplied. This occurred first in the era of the Church Fathers, which was the next “growth ring” in the history of the Church, a time that culminated in the very important Council of Nicea in AD325. The next growth ring, the Reformation, resulted from a return to the ultimate authority of Scripture over the traditions of men. This time, the new abundance of fresh Christian thought was facilitated by the invention of the printing press. Just as Roman roads made possible the quick spread of the Gospel across the empire, so also transmission of information via radio, television, and the internet, like the printing of books, is a gift from God for the extension of the kingdom of heaven.
Moses desired that all the Lord’s people might be prophets (Numbers 11:29), and while this occurred to some degree after the exile, and to a great degree in the first century, it was only during the Reformation that the concept of a “priesthood of all believers” really took root.
At the core of Protestantism was the idea that all believers are “saints,” that is, holy ones, and must live accordingly; that all believers have the obligation and privilege to hear, read, study, and understand the Word of God; and that all believers live with the attention to justice and charity which had for centuries been demanded only of those under special vows.
The core truth here is that, when it comes to theology, we need each other. The household of faith is comprised of spiritual fathers and sons, and spiritual mothers and daughters. The young need the wisdom and guidance of the old, and the old need the vigour and fire of the young.
The aim is not merely our own education and edification, but also that we might learn to be a “prophetic” blessing and encouragement to others, whatever their age or status in the Church.
In the same way that the synagogues exhorted (preaching) and trained (teaching) the common people in the Scriptures (Nehemiah 8:8), the Church itself, and not just its seminaries, is to be a “school of the prophets” for all the saints.
d) The beauty of the text.
Animals require only food and water to survive, but human beings also require a steady diet of truth (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). However, as we grow to adulthood and beyond, our physical needs and tastes gradually change. Likewise, our spiritual diet also matures over time.
Only God could write a book that is both milk for the smallest of children and wine for the wisest of kings. The Bible is ridiculously simple, but also fascinatingly complex. In this way, it provides us with spiritual bread for sustenance as a Tree of Life (what we need), but it also calls us to leave “childhood” behind and partake of its spiritual meat as a Tree of Knowledge (what we desire).
…for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14).
This theme itself is reprised throughout the Word, taking us from the fruit of trees in the peaceful spiritual “kindergarten” of Eden at the beginning of the Bible to the rowdy marriage feast of Christ and His bride after the bloody defeat of their draconian enemies at its end.
The tastes of childhood are not the tastes of adulthood. Like fine wine, fine music, and fine art, we must be taught how to appreciate the more subtle, complex, and even bitter aspects of the Word of God. As our literary palates are trained and refined, the things that were distasteful to us as spiritual children are found to be brimming with captivating delicacies. As we meditate on the text as a divine masterpiece, we learn to savor its complex flavors, thrill to its charming musical brilliance, and wonder at its visual depth.
But this appreciation, as an overcoming of difficulty, cannot occur without a the prior familiarity with the text and the spiritual mentors that we have discussed.
Truth, goodness, and beauty are elements of the world that take time to understand, and only as we grow to understand them are we enabled to really enjoy them. When it comes to the Bible, the parts of it that frustrate or bore us as beginners will become its most fascinating and exquisite features as our taste is matured by education. Only through training and meditation can we be transformed from spiritual primitives to civilised citizens of heaven who are prepared by study of the Word for the unimaginable inheritance our God has in store for us (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
5 The Bible was designed to confound the wisdom of the wise.
God will only reveal the deep things to those who are teachable. Jesus requires us to maintain the humility of child when it comes to the Word of God. If something puzzles or offends us, the problem is not the Bible. We must continue in faith, in confidence that God will eventually enable us to understand it.
In this way, the complexities and ambiguities of the Bible are a deliberate test for the state of a human heart. Because of their pride, God will not reveal the meaning of the text to those who are wise in human terms. They will wrestle with it to no avail, and eventually conclude that the Bible is inconsistent, corrupted, or outright foolish nonsense. As Charles Spurgeon quipped, “The worst sort of clever men are those who know better than the Bible.”
This divine strategy is concentrated when it comes to the parables of Jesus. We are often taught that He used parables to explain truths and make them clear, but the Bible tells us that the opposite was the case. He used them to hide the truth from the hard-hearted (Matthew 13:10-11; Mark 4:10-13; John 10:6).
Jesus deliberately designed His parables to be provocative. Although He plucked raw materials from mundane life and spun them into golden threads of eternal significance, the humble sources of his object lessons did not guarantee their easy comprehension.
Since Jesus almost never explained His parables, their frequent ambiguities meant that His audiences were left to interpret them. Even after two millennia, we continue to wrangle with many of them today.
Like much of the Bible, and indeed the created order, the parables were beams of light wrapped in cloud. But they were also delivered in a very concentrated form, often requiring some serious work to digest. Some hearers would chew; others would choke. And there is our answer. Along with the overt moral challenges in Jesus’ sayings and stories, the puzzling aspects were intended to sort the sheep from the goats in matters of faith. Like all words from God, they were a goad that simultaneously provoked the natural man to confusion and wrath, and the spiritual man to greater heights in his understanding of God.
For the earthy “Esaus” among the Jews, heavenly wisdom made no sense in the light of their worldling sensibilities. It was an offense to the way in which the business of life demonstrably works. Its irritating impracticality was plain for all to see; it warranted no further investigation and was eventually dismissed.
But the “Jacobs” received the Word as if it were an exotic puzzle box gifted to them from the very court of heaven. Those who were humble before God would store the Word, however perplexing, in their hearts, and meditate upon it in order to search out its secrets (Genesis 37:11; Luke 2:19). Only priestly hearts obtain true kingly wisdom.
The means of salvation itself was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Corinthians 1:23). Likewise, the Word of God and its humble ministers are calculated offenses to human pride. God chose the foolish and weak things of the world as His tools in order to shame the wisdom and the strength of mortal men (1 Corinthians 1:27).
But even if we have been humble learners of the Word in the past, it is human nature to allow even our knowledge of the Bible to puff us up with pride (1 Corinthians 8:1). When that happens, we too are prone to become those who “know better than the Bible,” and God will discipline us. As it is with the actual Kingdom of God, Jesus is no respecter of persons: He will take the “kingdom” of theological endeavor from those who use it for their own purposes, and give it to those who are faithfully bearing its fruits, whatever their cultural or ecclesial pedigree. He blesses humble obedience with the gift of growth, and curses presumption with a withering wind. We must not boast lest we be cut off. Whether we are Bible teachers or Bible students, all our roles require continued humble submission to the Bible.
Conclusion
Be encouraged. However impossible the Bible might seem, it was designed for you—for your salvation, your instruction, your growth, your comfort, your wisdom, your enjoyment, and your satisfaction. And the Spirit of Christ Himself desires to serve as your illuminating guide into all truth (John 16:13).
See also Union with Christ.
