Well, because the Bible is the single most important book we’ll ever read. It is more than just a compilation of rules, the Bible contains firsthand documentation of Israel’s history, the direct narration of our God, the progressive unfolding of recorded prophecy over thousands of years, and dozens of testimonies to the will, nature, and majesty of the Lord. Consequently, the Bible is also the single most complex book we’ll ever read. The world often grievously underestimates how intelligent, cohesive, and nuanced the Scriptures are. Look at this graphic from Open Bible:
Mere men are not intelligent enough to compose works that cohesive. The Bible has well over 30 writers whose backgrounds are sourced from a pool of incredible variance. Kings, priests, scribes, fishermen, physicians, and warriors over literal millennia put together a book with 340,000 references, both prophetic and referential. That cohesion is only possible because of God, who sees the whole picture. For us to approach His book with reason, we must strive to see the whole picture, too.
The Bible, broken down into topical preaching and cherry-picked verses, is a formless and abusable tool. Every day we can see ignorant or malicious people hunt for contextually removed verses that affirm their pre-decided beliefs. Used in this way, the Bible becomes a yes-man instead of a teacher.
But, when read all the way through and taken as a whole, the true, singular, and divine narrative of the Bible is revealed. Once this greater context of the Scripture is applied, doctrines have their meanings and purpose aligned under God’s objective truth. The Bible then becomes a sword that eviscerates heresy and cuts loose people ensnared by deceit and perversions in religion.
If the Bible is so Cohesive, why is it so Complicated?
The complexity of the Bible is not so much of a question of its reliability as it is an acknowledgment of our human limitations. While admittedly a bit of a reductivist take, the complexity of the Bible can broken down into three foundational points:
{1} God orchestrated the Scriptures and His thoughts are much higher than ours.
For us, interpreting the Bible is like a toddler analyzing a graduate’s thesis paper. We are attempting to understand the product of a mind that far outpaces us in cognition, wisdom, and complexity. Unlike us, God sees and orchestrates history over the span of millennia. God sets plans in motion in Genesis that are still unfolding by the time of Revelation. Entire systems of government are raised up and destroyed over centuries throughout the past, just to set examples for us in the present. The Levitical Priesthood, the Judges, Israel’s Kings, and the later prophets were not prototypes for Christianity, they were intentional signs pointing to the New Covenant by demonstrating the insufficiency of man and sovereignty of God.
{2} The Bible is written for us, but it is not written by “us” or to “us”.
The human writers of the Scriptures and their original audiences are very separate from us in background, culture, and era. Thus, we are at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the nuanced contexts of their writings. Matthew wrote a Gospel tailored to the 1st century Jews and Luke wrote a Gospel tailored to the 1st century Gentiles. Nobody has written a Gospel specifically tailored to the 21st century Christians. Our God is fond of figurative language, enduring symbology, and practical parables, all of these tailored to people with very different cultures than us.
It’s not even a matter of just missing out culturally; grammar and syntax alone are massively removed from our modern understandings. English, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek are not wholly interchangeable and compromises had to be made when translating Scripture to modern languages. This is why all of the most prominent Bible translations today have bustling markets for annotated study guides and commentaries.
{3} We have a solid two millennia of church infighting on the meanings and application of Scripture.
Not only that, but many denominations have introduced “extra-biblical” writings that distort or supplant scripture. You’ll find that extra-biblical doctrines from different denominations are usually completely irreconcilable with each other. Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons all believe that Jesus had paid some degree of propitiation for our sins, and they all carry “Bibles” amongst their Holy Books. However, they all disagree on practically every relevant doctrine, especially those anchored on God and Jesus.
The purpose of acknowledging these barriers is not to discourage reading the Bible, but to cultivate a respect for the amount of work we have before us. Sometimes reading the Bible is too passive; there are many nuanced truths within that we must actively contemplate before we can understand them.
Our Advantages in Scriptural Interpretation
Now that we understand the challenge, we can rejoice in the many ways that God has stacked the deck in our favor:
{1} In spite of having many writers, there is only one “Author” of Scripture.
If we break the Bible down into its individual parts, we’ll find that the vast majority of the “books” were written by God’s anointed. Be they prophets, spiritual leaders, kings, or apostles, the majority of the Bible was written by men who had specifically received a special calling from God to relay His message to the common people.
Underneath all of the very human writings in the Bible, we can still neatly ascertain one narrative, one truth, and one moral system. David and Paul sound nothing like each other as writers, but their description of God and His values are incredibly similar. By acknowledging that the true foundation of the Bible is God, we can quickly uncover the cohesive narrative that connects all of its writers and audiences (including us!) together.
{2} The Bible is self-referential, both in prophecy (discussing the future) and in reflection (reconciling the past).
Many verses that seemingly don’t make sense in a vacuum (or even within the context of their respective book) have a wealth of contextualizing verses in the rest of the Bible. For example, Isaiah accurately writes specific details about an unknown savior in 7th-8th century B.C., Jesus fulfills them all in 33 A.D., and Paul uses Isaiah’s account in court to testify of Jesus’ messianic work in 55 AD. (Exact dates may differ by one-three years depending on source).
Hosea testifies that God instructed him to marry a prostitute, he was forbidden to divorce the prostitute even when she cheated on him repeatedly, and when she is sold into slavery God commands him to buy her back and forgive her. It makes little sense from the perspective of legalistic Judaism, which allows for divorce in the event of marital infidelity. However, in the context of books like Isaiah, Ephesians, and Revelation, we clearly see the church being described as a Bride, who was once unfaithful, but then forgiven, reconciled, and purified to Jesus. Consequently, Scripture is highly competent at clarifying itself if read intentionally and comprehensively.
{3} We, as members of the spiritual church of God, have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was specifically provided to us to bring us closer to God by progressively aligning our values, knowledge, and conduct with His. This specifically includes scriptural interpretation. If a perceived doctrine feels wrong, or is unclear, it is an indication that we either don’t sufficiently understand it, or that it is incorrect. Jesus’s apostles were very involved in this and it is a common subject in their epistles.
For example, Peter chastens people for being ignorant of Paul’s epistles and reinforces that they are correct (2 Pet. 3). Paul chastens the people for believing proto-Gnostic doctrines, and redirects them to read the Scriptures (1 Tim. 4). These people lacked understanding originally, but they were called in both instances to reread Scripture until they understood.
{4} The Bible is one of the most well-preserved documents in all of history.
No other book has so many available source documents, including transcripts, manuscripts, and even entire codices throughout such an extensive period of history . We have literal millennia of excerpts and manuscripts of Scripture that provide unique and comprehensive insight on its history and veracity. We can pinpoint practically every significant period where Scripture was translated, changed, audited, and corrected. Many of these resources are widely available to everyone with a discerning mind and stable internet connection. We’ll actually be using quite a few of them here.
Succinctly put, the truth is complex, but it is not nebulous. This is why even a cursory reading of the Bible produces faith and wisdom in God’s people. But, with structured learning and intentional analysis, we can uncover a far greater degree of cohesion in God’s values, commandments, and nature, all of which directly affect our relationship with God.