There was an article that made the rounds the last few weeks, talking about the importance of preachers carrying a traditionally-bound Bible into the pulpit instead of using an electronic version. Several of the arguments centered around the need for people to study out of a “normal” Bible.
I tend to disagree. I think we face some problems in the church because we’ve come to see the Bible in this format as normal. We kind of picture Paul whipping out his Leather study Bible and saying to the people in Troas, “Let’s turn to Romans chapter 8.”
The Mormons believe that Joseph Smith received the complete book of Mormon (and other works) and had divine guidance in translating the material. It’s a book written as a book and designed to be read as a book.
The Bible isn’t like that. It wasn’t written as one book; it was written as dozens of books. It wasn’t written to be read per se; it was written to be heard. The presupposition wasn’t that each church member would have his own copy to study from; it was assumed that the church would gather, hear Scripture read aloud, and discuss the meaning of the text.
What happens when we assume that the Bible has always been around in the form that it’s been in?
- We assume that we can interpret Matthew based on Acts and Ephesians (to choose some books at random). We’re much safer in using Old Testament books to help us understand Matthew. We can’t assume that Matthew expected his readers to have access to other New Testament writings nor did he necessarily think they had received all the teachings contained in those books.
- We let chapter and verse numbering get in the way, as well as headings that have been included in most printed Bibles. These study aids can be a great help, but they can get in the way at times, interrupting the natural flow of a biblical writer’s arguments.
- We make individual Bible study the norm rather than group Bible study. I’m definitely in favor of personal Bible study; I do a radio program in Spanish called “Read The Bible,” seeking to help people read and study the Word of God. But I think we’ve forgotten that the Bible was designed to be a community book, shared and interpreted by the body of Christ.
- We forget to hear the Word. Reading leads us to nitpick over jots and tittles; we need to be sure that we hear the Bible in a broader way.
What do you think?
“We let chapter and verse numbering get in the way, as well as headings that have been included in most printed Bibles.”
Amen – to the whole piece but I especially like that sentence. I used to think there were only a couple of egregious chapter breaks, but the longer I look at the text the longer my list of egregious chapter breaks becomes. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, “The Message” was first printed without versification – and people later demanded those numbers be put back in. Funny how innovation slowly becomes hard-as-concrete law.
Tim, have you read Christopher R. Smith’s “After Chapters & Verses?” If you haven’t I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it. You might also like his blog http://understandingbooksbible.wordpress.com/ I just finished reading his book. He is part of a project (The Books of the Bible) which printed the TNIV without chapters, verses, headlines, or tradition titles. They encourage Bible reading like we read a novel. They also encourage community or group Bible studies. I hope this trend catches hold but so far it is a minor one at best. Still if enough of us nudge our people then who knows what might happen. I would just like to have a Bible with just the text and nothing more.
Bob, that’s one thing that I like about electronic Bibles. It’s easy to turn off the verse numbering and chapter divisions. Sometimes when I’m studying a book, I print out a copy without any reference numbers.
Tim, you must tell me what app you’re using and how to do this! Please!
Many churches would be better served if they did away with preaching and simply would read extensively from the Scriptures, preferably from a modern language translation.
At the very least, we should restore the public reading of the Scriptures – and I mean much more than the few verses the preacher will use as his point of departure for his sermon. This past summer as one in a special Wednesday p.m. series on the Minor Prophets, I chose Amos. My presentation was, in large part, a dramatic reading of selections from Amos. People were most enthusiastic about the presentation.
Why can’t more of our “preaching” be like that?
Tim, what electronic version allows you to print without the chapters and verses?
I use Accordance. I assume other programs do the same, but I could be wrong.
I forgot you are a Mac user. I will check but I don’t know of any others at this point.
Tim, do you think it would be alright if we at least used page numbers, or are we supposed to stay up all night Saturday, marking lesson references with little cards.? If we have to start counting from the beginning we might not get around to much studying. ” ok everybody count to page 900 about halfway down”
No, Laymond, using any sort of numbers is a mortal sin. Thanks for asking.
Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
I guess you are right :)
Tim, I discovered that I can copy the biblical text into Word and then tell Word to find all the superscripts (verse numbers) and replace them with nothing. Problem solved and not too much time invested. I hope to eventually get all the biblical text into Word and create my own without chapters, verses, and headlines.