Whose Mail?

Reading Someone Else’s Mail

Green (2007) states, “The twenty-first-century reader in the United States, then, is cast in the unenviable position of reading someone else’s mail” (51).  Schenck (2009) adds, “The literal meaning of Deuteronomy or Romans or 1 Thessalonians requires us to recognize that none of the books of the Bible were strictly written to us” (p. 3).  We are reading someone else’s mail when we read the books of the Bible because each book of the Bible had an original audience, an audience different from us.  We are not being true to the scriptures if do not recognize this truth. 

Fee and Douglas (2003) assert, “To make this text mean something God did not intend is to abuse the text, not use it” (p. 25).  Determining the world of the original audience and the meaning that the scripture had for them is a necessary step to reading the Bible as Christian Scripture, because it prevents us from abusing the Scriptures.  This discovery cannot, however, be the end of the process. 

                                                          Reading Our Own Mail                 

The various books of the bible were written to someone other than us, and yet, “Because the Bible is God’s Word, it has eternal relevance” (Fee & Stuart, 2003, p. 21).  After we have determined who the original audience of scripture was and what God’s original message was for them we can, and indeed should, seek to determine what God is saying to us through the scripture.  Mulholland (2000) posits, “The Word of God that encountered the writers and to which they wrote, also addresses us” (43).  We must realize that scripture is for us, even if it was not originally to us. 

God’s revelation is alive and well.  The same scriptures that transformed the lives of its original readers and hearers still seeks to transform Christ’s followers today.  We must recognize that the books of the bible had an original intended audience, but we must also recognize that the Word of God is intended to speak to us, to transform us, today.

Fee, G.D and Stuart, D. (2003).  How to read the Bible for all its worth (3^rd Ed).  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.   

Green, J.B. (2007).  Seized by truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 

Mulholland Jr., M.R. (2000). Shaped by the Word: The power of Scripture in spiritual formation (2^nd ed.). Nashville. TN: Upper Room Books.

Schenck, K. (2009). Brief guide to Biblical interpretation. (2^nd ed.). Marion, IN: Triangle Publishing

Some Theological Guidelines for Reading Scripture

Green (2003) states, “A reading of the Bible as Christian Scripture can never be satisfied with anything less than interpretive practices oriented toward shaping and nurturing the faith and life of God’s people (p. 79).  Green (2003) goes on to focus on three implications of this understanding: “(1) the import of the Old Testament, (2) the reading of scripture as a ‘ruled reading,’ and (3) the significance of locating one’s community within its theological tradition” (p. 79).

The Import of the Old Testament

Green (2003) rightly asserts, “It is essential that Christian Study of the Old Testament interpret these writings specifically as Christian Scripture and that the New Testament be firmly situated within the grand narrative of God’s purpose that is incomprehensible apart from the Old Testament” (p. 79).    The story of redemption came to its fruition in the cross of Christ, but it was born long ago.  We see God pursuing his children, in the animal skins made for Adam and Eve, in the story of Noah and the Ark, in God’s calling of Abraham, the exodus, the life of King David, and throughout the stories of the prophets.  The story of God’s redemptive work is incomplete without the inclusion of the great many level one stories of the Old Testament.   

The Reading of Scripture as a “Ruled” Reading

Green (2003) states, “The church’s doctrine provides, as it were, the rules of engagement in a reading of Scripture…Biblical texts, taken on their own terms and without recourse to a history or community of interpretations…sola Scriptura can never guarantee that one is Christian” (p. 80-81).  There is mutual dependency between Scripture and church doctrine.  Scripture holds doctrine accountable, and doctrine helps individuals interpret scripture.  Specifically, doctrine helps to view specific scriptures in lieu of the totality of scripture (the nature of God as expressed in the totality of scripture impacts our understanding of specific texts).  

The Significance of Locating One’s Community Within its Theological Tradition

Green (2003) concludes, “As Christians, we read out of our tradition…all of us are reared, to some degree or another, within a particular ecclesial or theological tradition” (85).   Individuals from different ecclesial traditions can interpret a specific and to some extent, the bible as a whole quite differently.  A Calvinist vs Arminian understanding of salvation and the issue of female leadership in the church are clear examples.  Individuals on different ends of these theological issues faithfully approach the sacred text yet come to very different conclusions because of their theological traditions. 

Green, J.B. (2007).  Seized by truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.