Difficult
Questions?
Question:
Why is the Bible so hard to understand?
I've
tried looking into the Bible but it doesn't seem to make sense and is
so hard to understand. Why should this be?
Answer:
The
Bible, to the newcomer, isn't always easy to read for a variety of reasons.
Let's look at them and see if we can help you.
1.
Sixty Six Books
The
first thing to note is that the Bible isn't just one book but a compilation
of 66 different documents. Perhaps some of them should not be called
'books' because they are really only letters, some of them quite short
letters.
Because
there are 66 documents (some of them very long!), you may struggle with
the variety of writers using a variety of styles.
To
understand the passage, chapter or book that you are trying to
read, it is important to recognise the nature of what you are reading.
It
may be that it is historical narrative (i.e. story). If may be
that it is poetry or prophecy that is written using allegories, or personification
or other grammatical tools, and if it is that, it is not asking
you to interpret it literally. It may also be straight forward
teaching.
Different
writers and different styles mean you need to be alert.
2.
Different Languages, Different Cultures
The
Bible books were written in either Ancient Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic,
which means for us to be able to understand them, they have had to be
translated into English. Sometimes the English does not very clearly
convey the sense of the culture or the customs that were around at the
time of writing.
The
Bible is a book of what today we might call the Middle East, and
therefore custom and thought patterns are Middle Eastern, which at times
are very different from ours in the West.
Therefore,
sometimes you will come across practices that are quite different from
anything we might know today.
To
make it even worse, the various documents were probably written between
2000 and 4000 years ago.
You
might think that events of 4000 years ago have little relevance to events
of today, but actually the opposite is true. Studying the Bible
helps you realise that little changes in history. People are just
the same today, in essence, as they were 2000 or 4000 years ago!
And God is certainly the same.
3.
Developing History, a Developing Book
A
fact of the Bible's makeup is that the Old Testament largely developed
over a probable fifteen hundred year period, built around the
nation of Israel and God's relationship with them.
When
God established them as a nation at Mount Sinai (Exodus
19) their understanding of Him was limited to the knowledge they
had of Him as passed down from the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob (Israel).
At
that point then, He gave them the Law, and that increased their understanding
of Him a hundred fold. Later on through history and through the words
that came from God through the prophets, the understanding of God increased
even more.
When
Jesus Christ came, revealing divinity in the flesh, our understanding
of God increased a great deal more.
There
is no doubt, that with the development of the nation of Israel, and
the development of their understanding, and the subsequent development
of the Church, God changed His directives to His people.
An
example of this would be the subject of animal sacrifices. (For a fuller
explanation of such sacrifices, see the question in this series to do
with animals being sacrificed.)
Animal
sacrifices were instructed by the Law at Sinai but are no longer necessary
because the New Testament teaches that such sacrifices simply pointed
forward to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, (see Hebrews
9:26-28) who has now dealt with all sins, past, present and future,
by his sacrificial death on the Cross.
Another
example of this would be the two covenants that God initiated. The former
covenant was an agreement with His people, Israel, at Sinai. Centuries
later, through the prophets, we find God speaking of a new covenant
that He is going to initiate in the years to come. (e.g. Jer
31:31-34, Isa
55:3, Isa
61:8,9) The latter covenant was all to do with Jesus.
Something
else that we should note is that many of the Laws given at Sinai were
given to Israel as a nation under
God's direction, and today there are no other nations
that can make that claim.
Although
we may see the sense of those laws and the wisdom or reasoning behind
them, we cannot expect a modern nation to enact them in the same way.
From
just these few illustrations we can see the understanding that is necessary
when reading and then subsequently seeking to apply the Bible to modern
life.
In
summary here, we need to realise that the formation of the Bible was
progressive and so some things in the Old Testament have been superceded
by the New Testament, and some things in the Old Testament were specific
to the nation of Israel and cannot be applied generally today.
None
of these things should stop you reading the Bible!
4.
A Spiritual Book from a Spirit God to Spirit People 
The
reality is that the Bible is inspired by God and is all about spiritual
realities.
To
say this, we mean two things:
a)
The book speaks about spiritual realities
e.g. heaven, hell, angels, demons, which do not equate with material
reality.
b)
The principles in the book may run counter to principles in the material
world.
e.g. in the world, pride is often seen to be the driving force of successful
people. In God's kingdom and in God's eyes, successful people
are humble people.
To
understand these realities we need to come with an open heart and we
need to come looking for God's help in understanding what we are reading.
In
other words, if you come full of pride and self-centred critical arrogance,
you will find the Bible impossible to cope with. If you come with
an open, seeking, submissive heart, seeking God, you will begin to see
all the wonder of what is there between the covers.
For
much more detail about the makeup of the Bible and why it is trustworthy
and worth reading, go to the Main Resources Contents Page and then go
the section on "The Trustworthiness of
the Bible".
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We hope these things have been helpful to you. If you wish to
discuss this question further, or ask similar questions, please feel
free to e-mail
tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
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