How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Review

Introduction: The Complexity of the Bible

For a book that many people think should be self-explanatory, the Bible can be an incredibly complex work. First, as a historical record, it contains an enormous amount of information, which can make it a useful tool for historians. However, because the Bible is a religious book, many people dismiss its historical usefulness and suggest that those using it in a historical fashion must take extraordinary steps to verify its contents — steps that would not be required of a secular text.

Second, as a piece of lasting literature, the Bible contains so many repeated themes and characterizations that it is difficult to digest, much less synthesize, the various stories. Even for those who do not believe a single story presented in the Bible, it offers hundreds of allegorical tales. It would be easy to reduce these stories to the role of morality tale, except that in the Bible, the victors are often not those who have displayed the most moral behavior, but rather those who have demonstrated the greatest faith. In other instances, it is through displays of moral behavior that people demonstrate their faith.

Finally, as a religious text, the Bible can be baffling. It is an immense work with a variety of different authors, and the various subgroups of Christians have not even been able to agree upon which books should be included in the Christian biblical canon. Moral lessons in the Bible can directly contradict one another. Moreover, behavior that was acceptable in the historical context in which the Bible was written — such as slavery and the virtual ownership of wives — is no longer considered humane, which complicates understanding for the modern reader. Therefore, many people need guidance in how they should approach the Bible.

Authors' Intentions and Target Audience

In How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Douglas Stuart and Gordon D. Fee attempt to provide readers with the tools necessary to become active readers of the Bible. While their tips and guidance would be useful for any biblical scholar, it is clear that they are gearing their book toward Christians who are reading the Bible with the goal of better understanding Christian history, religious tradition, and religious requirements. Stuart and Fee acknowledge that the Bible is not an obscure text and that part of its beauty is that it is accessible to most men and women.

In fact, they stress that the goal of biblical interpretation is not to find something new or unique, but to better understand the text. However, they do not agree with those who dismiss the need for interpretation. Instead, they acknowledge that there are several barriers to a complete understanding of the Bible for someone who simply sits down and begins reading. They believe that the challenges come from the innate nature of the reader, which are exacerbated by the nature of Scripture itself.

The reader is going to interpret — because that is what people do when they receive and process information. Interpretation is not something a person can consciously or unconsciously avoid when encountering new information. People use their own experiences to fill in the connotation and denotation of words, and they draw upon their knowledge of centuries of art and culture that have interpreted the Bible — much of it erroneously — when approaching the text. In order to understand the Bible, people must first perform an exegesis, which is "the careful, systematic study of the Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning." They must then perform hermeneutics, which is to seek the "contemporary relevance of ancient texts." One cannot engage in hermeneutics without exegesis, which demands a historical understanding of the text. Stuart and Fee aim to provide their readers with the tools necessary to do both.

Summary and Analysis of Key Arguments

Stuart and Fee begin their guide by telling people that biblical interpretation requires a good translation. This cautionary statement is critically important, because many modern Christians seem to ignore the fact that the Bible was not written in English. The original books were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, and have been extensively translated. As the authors point out, one need only look through several of the available editions of the Bible to understand that different versions say different things. In some instances, focusing on word choice can appear overly pedantic, but when one considers that the Bible has been translated so many times, seeing the differences that appear within a single generation of translations makes it clear that translation inevitably invites interpretive differences.

The authors give the example of 1 Corinthians 7:36, and how different translations of that passage lead to very different conclusions. In one translation, the virgin in question is a man's daughter; in another, she is his fiancée. One would expect very different behavior toward a daughter than toward a fiancée. Therefore, Stuart and Fee suggest that people should read more than a single translation of the Bible in order to truly be able to interpret it.

Next, the authors tackle the issue of contextual thinking by examining the Epistles. They state that their reason for beginning with the Epistles is that they are deceptively simple: while they seem easy to interpret, in a modern context they are not as straightforward as they first appear. What the authors attempt to do is provide readers with a means of determining what information in the Epistles is relevant for the modern Christian. They suggest looking for matters of indifference — those elements that are based on culture, including religious aspects of culture, rather than on morality.

They do acknowledge that some people may not consider these issues matters of indifference, and they caution that "the free person is not to flaunt his or her freedom; the person for whom such matters are a deep personal conviction is not to condemn someone else."

Conclusion and Overall Assessment

Stuart and Fee do a very good job of helping guide people on how one should approach the Bible. In fact, their book would be helpful for novices as well as for people who have a history of biblical scholarship. In addition, while Stuart and Fee encourage the reader to find a good commentary on the different books of the Bible, much of what they have written about different parts of the Bible itself serves as a mini-commentary. For example, they come to extratextual conclusions about Luke's purpose in writing Acts — conclusions that can only be viewed as commentary. Therefore, this book provides a good jumping-off point for the reader, not only with directions on how to critically examine the Bible, but also with the authors' own commentary on what conclusions they have reached after critical examination.

However, there are people who will take issue with Stuart and Fee's suggestions. Many modern Christians insist that the Bible is a stand-alone book that should be read without any outside assistance. Some even go so far as to suggest that outside assistance somehow taints one's experience of the Bible. This point of view, which Stuart and Fee dismiss, seems difficult to sustain when one considers that most people being introduced to the Bible have no working knowledge of the history of biblical times. How can one begin to understand the different stories in the Bible without a working knowledge of the surrounding socio-political climate?

The reality is that people who are convinced they need no extratextual assistance in reading the Bible are unlikely to pick up a book entitled How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. For readers who acknowledge that the Bible can be a contradictory and confusing book — as well as an illuminating one — this guide provides sound and practical guidelines for interpretation.