I am a pastor-theologian and author creating resources to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus. My goal is to make Christian theology comprehensible so that it will build up the church. I write and publish books through Peniel Press.
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Hello Reader,
What is the Bible?
Christians spend a lot of time reading and studying the Bible, but it can be helpful for interpreting Scripture to step back and consider just what it is.
The Bible is the very word of God, the means by which God reveals himself. Drilling down a bit deeper, we can identify and defend specific properties of the Bible that shape how we read and understand it. Every theologian has a slightly different list of properties and may use slightly different terms, but they largely fall into four categories.
Open Bible
First, there is the truth, certainty, and infallibility of Scripture. Scripture reveals God truly and reliably. The seventeenth century Dutch theologian, Petrus van Mastricht, sums up our position nicely: “This general truth [about Scripture] implies certain specifics: its doctrinal and historical statements are most accurately consistent with the matter and the facts; its practical statements with the will of God; its prophecies, promises, and threats with the future event - no differently and no less than if they had been eyewitness testimonies. And that is the case because it has the God of truth as its author; Christ as the very truth it contains, and as its faithful witness; and the Holy Spirit, truth’s infallible inspirer, as its guide" (Theoretical-Practical Theology, Volume 1: Prolegomena, p.127). In van Mastricht’s time and ours, there are differences about how to handle more thorny issues in the Bible, but the initial assumption should always be that the Bible is a true and reliable witness.
Second, there is the purity, holiness, perfection, and sufficiency of Scripture. The Belgic Confession, Article 7 says that “We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it.” We can know true things about God in Creation (known as the ‘Book of Nature’), but it is only through the Book of Scripture that we come to know salvation in Jesus Christ. When it comes to knowing who God is, what he has done, and who God has made us to be, God’s Word is a sufficient source of that knowledge. Anywhere else we look will be insufficient for true knowledge of God. If the first property says the Bible is reliable, this one says the Bible is enough. It is holy and lacks nothing that we need for life and salvation. As John Calvin says, “it is better to limp along this path than to dash with all speed outside it" (Institutes, 1.VI.3). The ‘enough’-ness of the Bible does not mean we do not engage with tradition, or logic, or experience. But we never consider these as separate or independent sources of knowledge of God. Reason, tradition, and experience can, at times, be helpful guides, but it is never Scripture & Reason, Scripture & Tradition, or Scripture & Experience that forms our basis of knowledge of God and ourselves. This is what was meant by the Reformation slogan, sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”). Scripture alone is sufficient for knowing God and his salvation.
Third, there is the perspicuity or efficacy of Scripture. A less used, but perhaps better term is clarity. I like what Herman Bavinck says here, “Scripture speaks in the language of life, of the heart, of immediacy, of inspiration, and is thus understandable for every man, going forth into every generation, never growing old in its time, and therefore classic in the highest sense, in an utterly unique sense of the word" (On Preaching & Preachers, 37-38). Scripture is effective in accomplishing God’s purposes for it. The Lord says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11, italics for emphasis). Scripture is effective and clear; that is, it is able to be understood.
Understanding Scripture is not limited to the educated and the elite. One way people can read the genealogies profitably is to work to understand the meaning of the names and even make connections to the archaeological record. There is much to gain from that method (and I have personally been enriched by doing so), but when our methods of reading Scripture, particularly the hard passages, depend too much upon specialized linguistic knowledge, we undermine the confidence of Christians to be able to read the Bible. This is not a critique of expertise at all. Instead, we should occasionally set aside this valuable discipline in order to ask “What would help my mother’s bible study to read these biblical numbers profitably?” How can we read the Bible well in such a way that demonstrates our trust in its clarity?
The Bible is not a labyrinth that can only be navigated by specialists, but the clear thread that leads us out of the confusing labyrinths of our (mis)understandings of God. This image of Scripture as the thread leading us out of the labyrinth comes from John Calvin: “For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine countenance, which even the apostle calls ‘unapproachable’ is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path than to dash with all speed outside it" (Institutes, 1.VI.3). Here, Calvin is drawing the picture from the story of Theseus in Greek Mythology. The hero Theseus was placed in a labyrinth with a Minotaur. The labyrinth was dark and complicated and created so that no one should be able to get out. However, the princess Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of red thread that he unrolled as he walked through the labyrinth. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus was able to follow the thread back and find his way out.
For Calvin, left to ourselves, our knowledge of God is like a labyrinth. It is full of twists and turns, truth and error, and something we can never escape on our own. By our own wit or wisdom, we cannot come to truly know God. God’s “countenance” (or face) is “unapproachable.” In our sin we will constantly twist any truth about God into something else. It is only if we are given a thread, the Word of God, that we will be led out of the labyrinth into true knowledge of God.
In addition to the labyrinth, Calvin also talks about a man limping and running, writing that it is better to limp along according to God’s word than the run apart from it. It is not about the speed at which you move, but whether you are moving according to God’s Word, according to the only means provided for you to come to God. Why is Scripture the only means? Because it holds forth Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Even if you are limping in the Word, that is much better than running with all your might anywhere else.
While we value education and the use of original languages and grammar in studying the Bible, we also believe that the truth of Scripture is fundamentally clear and not hidden. The Bible’s message is simple and clear enough for a child to understand, but deep enough that scholars can spend a lifetime studying it. This property guards against the Bible being metaphorically taken out of the hands of the people and kept only in the hands of pastors and professors.
Fourth, there is the authority of Scripture. We see this in Belgic Confession, Article 5, where the books of the Bible are received “for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith.”8 The content of our faith and shape of our lives as disciples are ruled by the Word of God. It is the norm, the standard, for our faith and life as Christians. We are governed, not by the whims of culture or by our feelings or by our desires, but by God’s Word. For Christians, Scripture is also the final authority, the final court of appeals, so to speak, in any controversy on what we believe or how we live. In practical terms, if I read God’s Word and, through study, am confident that I understand it correctly, but still don’t like what it says, the problem is with me and not with the Word of God. That’s one way that this authority of Scripture can function.
The first question that shapes how we interpret the Bible is “What is it?” We typically identify certain properties of Scripture that make a difference in how we read the Bible. I have grouped them in four categories: the reliability of Scripture, the sufficiency of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, and the authority of Scripture. Only after we know what the Bible is, and what it is for (a topic for another post), are we able to answer, "How do we read the Bible well?"
Reflection Questions
Do you agree with this list of properties of the Bible? What might you add? What might you change? Which property do you believe is most important?
What is your normal practice of reading the Bible? How does what you believe about the Bible impact the way that you read it?
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I am a pastor-theologian and author creating resources to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus. My goal is to make Christian theology comprehensible so that it will build up the church. I write and publish books through Peniel Press.
