Tag Archives: Biblical interpretation

Johannes Gutenberg and the Bible

15 Replies

When we think about people throughout history who have affected the way we view the Bible, who do we think about? There are the obvious choices, of course, which include the authors of the Bible themselves and the people that appear in it. There are the great theologians, both modern and ancient. There are the major philosophers, both religious and secular. There are preachers and teachers, laymen and clergy. Lots of people come to mind.

One man that may not immediately come to mind is Johannes Gutenberg, yet I would put him high on a list of people who have influenced our view of the Bible. I’d like to spend a few days thinking about Mr. Gutenberg and my Bible.

Gutenberg, of course, invented the moveable type printing press. A goldsmith by trade, Gutenberg refined the printing process to make possible the mass production of books. His hand mold allowed for the creation of metal type in large quantities, bringing profitability to the printing process. Within a few decades of Gutenberg’s invention, there were over 200 printing presses in a dozen European cities. The information revolution had begun.

One of the earliest major works printed by Gutenberg was the so-called “Gutenberg Bible,” a copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible. It seems fitting that Gutenberg would have printed a Bible, for his work would forever change the way Christians looked at God’s Word.

Before moving on to discuss how the printing press changed our views of Scripture, think about other developments and other historical figures that have influenced how we see the Bible. Besides the biblical authors and characters, who and what would you say have most influenced our outlook on God’s Word?

{photo copyright Willi Heidelbach, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

B&B Friday: Books that have impacted my life

7 Replies

booksRather than review a book or a blog this week, I want to write about some of the books that impacted my life. Most of them are several decades old, but here goes…

• He Loves Forever by Tom Olbricht. OK, it wasn’t just this book; it was also the fact that I had Dr. Olbricht in class at that time. He taught me to let the Bible itself define which subjects are most important. That may sound obvious, but it was a concept that had a major effect on my understanding of the Bible.

• How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth by Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee. Again, a book that taught me about how to interpret the Bible. The idea of discerning the different genres within Scripture had a major impact on how I read the Bible.

• Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I received this as a gift from the first couple for whom I performed a wedding ceremony. I didn’t grow up studying spiritual disciplines like fasting, meditation, etc. Foster’s book opened my eyes to these practices. The chapter on simplicity was also important in my development.

• Language Acquisition Made Practical by Thomas and Elizabeth Brewster. This book not only discussed non-traditional language learning but also introduced the concept of bonding to me. This had a major role in helping me decide to skip going to a language school before going to Argentina. I’ve never regretted that decision.

• Friendship Factor by Alan Loy McGinnis. While I’m still basically a shy person, this book came along at a time when I was learning to interact with others more effectively. It’s a book I read several times during my college years.

These are by no means all of the books that influenced my development over the years. But I think they are books that have had a place of significance in leading me to where I am today.

Feel free to share some of the books that have impacted you.

Exegesis a la Encyclopedia Brown (explained by John Dobbs)

Leave a reply

I know, I know… I already posted this week. But a lot of people were confused at just what I was getting at in last week’s post. John Dobbs just posted on the same subject and explained it so well.

Give it a read:
Ruminations on the Pattern

Exegesis a la Encyclopedia Brown

4 Replies


Sophomore English, Central High School. Above grade level, I might add. I sat near the back on the right, with “the guys.” Not the nerds (they were at the front). The guys. Football players, basketball players, swimmers… We weren’t the coolest at school, but we were on the fringe.

And we liked Encyclopedia Brown. Every week our teacher gave us some sort of Weekly Reader, and it always had a case from the files of Encyclopedia Brown. We would read them carefully, trying to see who could pick up the hidden clues that would lead us to the right answer. It was never obvious; you had to piece together different sets of facts to solve the case. Sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t, but it was always fun. My feeling was that the author wrote in a way to make them difficult, but not impossible, to understand.

Did the author of Encyclopedia Brown write the New Testament? Is it intended to be some sort of mystery that must be pieced together, uniting half a verse here with the Greek definition of a word from here in order to come up with what isn’t obvious? My belief is that it isn’t and that it can’t be. Partly for some of the reasons I’ve discussed in my last several posts. If people didn’t have their own personal copy of the Bible, if they depended on hearing the Word rather than reading it, then the message could not be based on nuances, inferences and word studies.

Look at the Old Testament Law. God goes to great lengths to explain exactly what He wants. More than 600 commands, explicitly stated. Some would argue that God replaced this inferior law with a superior one, one which is not always directly stated but is sometimes taught through “necessary inference” and “approved examples.” In other words, God went from being a God who spoke clearly to one who spoke in the genre of Encyclopedia Brown. “You missed the fact that John 13 says the Last Supper wasn’t on the Passover, therefore we shouldn’t use unleavened bread. And Paul says we all eat of one loaf, so we can’t use those individual matzah crackers anyway. And that grape juice had better be non-alcoholic because the Greek word actually means…” Folks, I just don’t buy it.

I believe that God speaks clearly. If something is truly necessary, it will be specified in the New Testament. I don’t have to piece verses together. I don’t have to fill in the gaps nor connect the dots. If the New Testaments plainly teaches something, I will teach it. If God has bound something, I will teach it as bound.

I still enjoy Encyclopedia Brown stories (I was pleasantly surprised just now to find out they’re still being published). But that’s now how I’m going to read God’s Word.

Within Understanding Distance

Leave a reply

I’m going to leave the discussion on principal themes of the Bible, not because I feel that I’ve exhausted the subject but mainly because the subject has exhausted me! Well, actually, I think that at some point such a discussion can be counterproductive. If you lay out too many rules, passages that don’t fit under any of them suddenly become “unimportant.” As was pointed out by several along the way, we are to look to the weightier matters without neglecting the others.

I also think that we can become too scientific in our Bible study, too logic bound, too mathematical. We want to apply formulas and matrices to the text in order to systematize our beliefs. While we can find guidelines to help us, I think that, in the end, Bible study is a spiritual activity. That may be a bit “touchy-feely” for some, but I honestly think that a scientific approach to Scripture can sometimes get in our way.

I’m not often inclined to quote Alexander Campbell or other leaders from the past, but Mr. Campbell said something very interesting about Bible study (yeah, I know… he said a lot of interesting things). In his Christian System, Brother Campbell wrote:

RULE 7. For the salutary and sanctifying intelligence of the Oracles of God, the following rule is indispensable: We must come within the understanding distance.
There is a distance which is properly called the speaking distance, or the hearing distance; beyond which the voice reaches not, and the ears hear not. To hear another, we must come within that circle which the voice audibly fills.
Now we may with propriety say, that as it respects God, there is an understanding distance. All beyond that distance can not understand God; all within it can easily understand him in all matters of piety and morality. God himself is the center of that circle, and humility is its circumference.

Within understanding distance. Campbell goes on to describe the need for spirituality in Bible study. He says “the philological principles and rules of interpretation enable many men to be skilful in biblical criticism, and in the interpretation of words and sentences, who neither perceive nor admire the things represented by those words.” Put another way… rules alone won’t get you there. It takes humility, it takes prayer, it takes spiritual discernment.

Scientific Bible study can only take you so far. Without a pious spirit, all the rules in the world are inadequate. You’ve got to be close to God to be able to really hear His voice. We’ve got to draw near to Him if we want to understand His Word.