What are your questions and misconceptions about the Bible? How did the Bible come into existence? Why is it considered so important? What does it mean that its authors were inspired to write it?
Bible Gateway interviewed Michael F. Bird (@mbird12) about his book, Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible (Zondervan, 2021).
You mention that you’ve spent 20 years “wrestling with Scripture.” What do you mean?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: Well, I’ve been a Christian for nearly 30 years and I’ve been doing serious academic study and pastoral reflection on the Bible for 20 years. In that time, I’ve come across, I think, nearly every question, doubt, conundrum, and conspiracy theory about the Bible you can imagine. Ranging from “How could Moses write about his own death?” to “Did Paul write Hebrews?” to “Does the Bible endorse genocide and slavery?”
There’s some stuff I have a quick answer for, but there’s other stuff that requires years of reflection and study to come up with a credible response to. For example, how do we responsibly use the Old Testament for Christian ethics? In what senses is the Bible true or not untrue? This book, Seven Things, is where I show my work from what I’ve learned in wrestling with these questions over 20-plus years.
What is your objective in writing this book?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: I want Christians to better understand seven important things about the Bible:
- How the Bible was put together
- What “inspiration” means
- How the Bible is true
- Why the Bible needs to be rooted in history
- Why literal interpretation is not always the best interpretation
- How the Bible gives us knowledge, faith, love, and hope
- How Jesus Christ is the center of the Bible.
If you know these things, you won’t get stuck if someone tries to tell you that the Bible was invented by Constantine in the fourth century; you’ll have a better grasp of debates about biblical inerrancy; you’ll have some good tips for wise and responsible biblical interpretation; and you’ll start thinking about how to read the Old Testament as a Christian, but without cheesily Jesus-a-fying everything in cringy ways.
How did the Bible originate?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: The answer is different for the Old Testament and New Testament.
For the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible), we have basically received it via Jewish communities who themselves came to a process whereby they recognized certain books as authoritative, including the Torah/Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy), the prophets (for example, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc.), and writings (for example, Job, Psalms, Daniel, etc.). Of course, for the first few centuries, Christians largely used the Old Testament in a Greek translation we call the Septuagint, which had a few textual differences here and there, and also had a few extra books that were Greek compositions (for example, Wisdom of Solomon) or Greek translation of a Hebrew original (Sirach). Those extra books in the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible became part of the Apocrypha.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Exploring the Apocrypha at Bible Gateway]
For the New Testament, by the end of the second century, there’s a broad agreement that the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s letters plus Hebrews, and 1 John and 1 Peter were part of the Christian corpus of sacred literature. Around the edge of the canon there were questions about 2 Peter and Revelation, and some people really liked other writings such as the Shepherd of Hermas and Apocalypse of Peter. However, the eventual consensus that crystallized in the fourth-century, was that the 27 books that make up our New Testament meet the criteria of embodying the message of the apostles, they were written by or in association with an apostle, they were used widely in the churches of east and west, and they taught right doctrine.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Bible Table of Contents]
Briefly explain how the Bible is divinely given and humanly composed.
Dr. Michael F. Bird: Here we’re looking at a topic called “inspiration.” In sum, how is it the case that God’s message is conveyed to and through human authors and makes it’s way onto the pages of a text, into our very Bibles?
You could say that God dictated stuff to Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Luke, and Paul. Every once in a while you find something like this happening, but it certainly is not the norm. In fact, you get the distinct impression that things were not dictated; rather, the Pentateuch is a composite collection of narrative and legal traditions, the Chronicles are post-exilic account of Israel’s history, Paul writes his letters in prison almost off-the-cuff, Luke researches things closely, and John of Patmos tries to explain the meaning of visions he has received.
The important thing about “inspiration” is to make sure the Bible is not so divine that it’s no longer human, or so human that it’s no longer divine. I tend to think God uses the experience, personality, and vocabulary of authors to instill into their minds at the conceptual level the kinds of things he wants them to say and emphasize. God does not overpower the mind of the author as much as energize it through the Spirit’s guidance, so that what’s written, then edited, collected, and copied, is the message he wanted for God’s people at any one time.
What is the purpose of the Bible?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: People have different ideas about what the Bible is for or how the Bible should function in the church, my state, or even in my life.
For some people, the Old Testament is about how to run a righteousness nation, and the New Testament is how to get saved – which is not my view.
I think the Bible has four key purposes. Yes, I’m sure you could think of others, but here are the top four in my mind.
First, for knowledge, the Bible is revelation. It’s meant to reveal, teach, and instruct. The Bible teaches us about God, his mysterious nature and immense being, his purposes, and plan. We read the Bible to know God better.
Second, for faith. The Bible calls us to believe and trust in God. Faith can mean many things, but above all, it means entrusting ourselves to the faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ. The Bible is an invitation to faith in the God who made us and who first loved us when we were far away.
Third, for love. The Bible has two main ethical commands: love of God and love of neighbor. According to the great Latin theologian Augustine, you can measure any interpretation of the Bible on the criterion that it builds up love for God and love for neighbor. The Bible calls us to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself.
Fourth, for hope. The Bible gives us hope that God is for us, with us, and will never abandon us. I’ll never forget the first time I really read and reflected on Paul’s words in Romans 15:4: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (NIV). The Bible is not rules and regulations, it’s for our hope for a hurting world, a world that can be as brutal as it is dark. But in the darkest of places, the light of Jesus Christ shines and tells us, “I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33).
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, 5 Books to Help You Understand the Bible Better]
What do you mean when you write, “There is a real danger that we become overly familiar with the Bible in the sense that we read our own experiences into it”?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: The danger is that we read our own experiences, culture, and norms into the Bible. We just assume that when the Bible says X, that X means the same thing in my world.
For example, take “hospitality.” The Bible tells us to show hospitality to people (for example, 1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2, etc.). However, whereas we think hospitality just means entertain church friends at your house, in the ancient world, hospitality meant providing lodgings and sustenance for strangers, or people you might know of but don’t know personally.
Or else, think about “fellowship.” This is not a Christian version of friendship, something you do over coffee. It’s more like “partnership,” and applies to something you do with missionaries that you pray for, aid, and financially support.
There’s a sense in which we need to de-familiarize the Bible in order to properly understand it. In other words, recognize that the biblical world and our world are different places and words can mean different things in those respective places.
Why do you love the Bible?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: I love the Bible because I love God and the Bible is God’s Word to us. It’s the words that also tell us about the word of the gospel and the Word made flesh.
Where should a person who is new to the Bible begin reading it?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: If you’re coming to the Bible for the first time, I’d start with the Gospel of Luke, because that’s a great entry into the story of Jesus, the centerpiece of Scripture, who is fulfilment of Israel’s Scriptures and the basis for the rest of the New Testament.
[Read Bible Gateway Blog posts introducing you to the Bible]
What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: For me, it has to Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (New International Version).
Christian life is also about cruciformity, dying with Christ and being crucified to the world.
What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App and Bible Audio App?
Dr. Michael F. Bird: My students and I frequently use Bible Gateway. It’s is a great, accessible, free and easy resource to get lots of different Bible translations and other great resources to help with Bible study.
Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Bio: Michael F. Bird is academic dean and lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Romans: The Story of God Bible Commentary Series, Evangelical Theology, Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission, The Saving Righteousness of God, The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus, co-author with N.T. Wight of The New Testament in Its World and The New Testament You Never Knew, and editor of Four Views on the Apostle Paul. He also runs the popular theological studies blog called Euangelion and can be followed on Twitter @mbird12.
Get to know the Bible in a new way by becoming a member of Bible Gateway Plus. Try it right now!
Loading ...