How to Read the Bible with New Eyes   A Review of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart (©2003, Zondervan, ISBN: 0310246040) review based on 2nd edition

 

Rarely do I purchase a book that I have access to in my public library, but How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart is an exception. When I discovered it while browsing the religion section, I expected it to be another exhortation on how to apply the authors’ interpretations of the Scriptures to my life. Not so. Fee and Stuart do exhort application, but it could just as well be said that it is about how not to apply the Bible where it should not be applied. This book closes the awareness gap that causes Christians to misinterpret and misapply the Bible. It is this misinterpretation and misapplication by well-meaning Christians that influences non-Christians to reject it.

The title may be misunderstood in two ways. First, the word “its”, while at the top of misspelled words in the English language, is intended to be a play on words as a possessive, instead of the contraction “it’s.” Second, the title appeals more to the layperson as a “how to” book, instead of a scholarly tome for the intellectual. Remarkably, Fee and Stuart have managed to provide both: a scholarly “how to” book that is vital and valuable for all, scholar and layperson alike.

The authors begin by explaining that this is not a book to convince the reader of a particular theology. Rather, it informs the reader about inherent issues within each genre in the Bible which influence interpretation. In the end, the reader’s theology may be altered, not by any one-sided exhortation, but rather by understanding more fully the background and nature of the Scriptures. The authors do this by example using exegesis and hermeneutics.

Interestingly, the first issue in understanding hermeneutics concerns Bible translation. The authors explain that even translators are forced into interpretation, and that pitfalls exist in too literal a translation (mostly because word order and word choice, etc. can shift the meanings of literary techniques) as well as with a free translation. They advocate a “dynamic equivalence” approach, something fundamentalists shy away from for fear of changing the “plain meaning” of the text. Fee and Stuart  insist that the better route is to study more than one translation. (One detail I found interesting is that the phrase “and it came to pass” from the KJV is a translation of a Hebrew narrative verb form. This carries  implications for the internal evidence test for the Book of Mormon, which uses that phrase excessively supposedly translated from “Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics.”)

In exploring the different genres of the Bible, the authors explain, for example, the difference between the epistles and the letters in the New Testament and how this can influence interpretation. “In contrast to the letter, the epistle was an artistic literary form or a species of literature that was intended for the public” (46).  The point is, some letters were written for specific issues and not intended for all particulars to apply universally. The authors clarify why thinking in paragraphs is critical for the epistles/letters, but not as valuable when reading the Gospels, and why thinking in oracles is vital to reading the prophets. They discuss why narrative in Acts holds distinct concerns that the narratives in the Old Testament do not have.

The authors also show how parables are often twisted into allegory. They discuss the issues of selectivity, arrangement, and adaptation in the writing of the four Gospels and how that can cause problems for modern readers. They expound the distinction between primary and secondary doctrinal statements within the Scriptures. They distinguish between direct commands and applications of broad principles. Issues of cultural relativity--comparing particulars in that culture to the particulars in our modern culture-are explained. Fee and Stuart demonstrate how Old Testament law was paradigmatic, not all encompassing, and they clarify that proverbs are not promises. This is only some of the wealth in this book which can open a new paradigm for struggling fundamentalists who want to maintain a high regard for Scripture. It may, in fact, prevent some from chucking it all after they have tried and failed to understand the “plain meaning.”

What happens when reading How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is that the reader begins a sorting process. While evangelicalism has been rightfully concerned with not dismissing parts of the Bible, here is a valid means to sort what applies when and why. This is not for the purpose of dismissing, but to fully understand the intended message. Fee and Stuart help dislodge the wooden, surface reading tendencies which sidetrack Christians and is the source of many skeptics’ complaints. Unfortunately, this book is probably not in many public libraries, but is worthy of our private libraries.

 

by Rachel Ramer