One (or 66) Amazing Book(s)
I was born into a Seventh-day Adventist family and grew up attending Adventist schools and, for the most part, attending Sabbath School and Church Services. One of the many consistencies throughout this very consistent upbringing was, and still is, the Bible.
However, while it was always there, I never really understood the importance of this book. Sure, I had been told that it was God’s Word, I was to treat it with respect and it provided a great source of test material for many of my teachers’ who delighted in forcing my fellow classmates and I to learn ‘memory verses’. This was the extent to which I interacted
with the Bible until the age of about 15.
Then, due to my attendance at an Adventist secondary school I had to study the subject ‘Texts and Traditions’. Sometime during the remainder of my time at Secondary School I studied The Gospel of John.
My mind was blown, my eyes were opened somewhat wider and my life was changed.
Now, I think that most Christian related life changing experiences seem to have to do with accepting Christ as a personal saviour, for me that came later. Until this point people had told me that the Bible was amazing ‘because it spanned hundreds of years and yet remained consistent and that many of the authors we poorly educated but had somehow (most likely divine intervention) managed to write coherent stories, poetry or sermons.’
But in studying the Gospel of John I realised that the Bible was more amazing than I had ever imagined. I had no idea that one book, indeed even one passage, could be read into on so many different levels. I mean on the surface, the Gospel of John tells a story but if you break it down, the very first verse is amazing in itself. It obviously links back to the book of Genesis referencing ‘the beginning’ and then says some strange things about ‘The Word’.
I remember our first assignment when studying John – Our teacher told us that the key term of the Gospel of John was “Word” or in the Greek “Logos” and we were to investigate what was meant by “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) As this is not a Bible study I won’t go into a dissertation of my findings but I was, from this point on, hooked on John.
My study took me deep into Jewish traditions and festivals, parallel imagery of light and dark, birth and death, significant numbers, metaphors about water and bread and, most importantly, forced into decisions about who this man Jesus actually is. And that’s still only scratching the surface! So impressed was I by the masterful use of linguistic structures in this text that I wanted to know if other books offered the same kind of depth. I got hold of some bible commentaries, concordances and interlinear translations of the Bible and was not disappointed.
The consistency of the Bible as a whole, the links between the books and the complex structuring yet in many cases simple prose and beautiful poetry leaves me in awe. I literally can’t find the words (even with a thesaurus) to express how amazing this collection of books really is! I’m not sure that those who told me that the Bible was amazing ‘because it spanned hundreds of years and yet remained consistent and that many of the authors were poorly educated but had somehow (most likely divine intervention) managed to write coherent stories, poetry or sermons’ actually understood how they were completely underselling the Word of God to me.
Now, I used to love to pore over my commentaries, concordances and interlinear translations but somehow life as a working adult has become busier than I was as a studying student and I find myself either time or energy poor. However, resources are so readily available now days – you don’t need to buy a several volume commentary, concordance and interlinear Bible – you can find them all on the internet.
I would also highly recommend checking out The Bible Project as a fantastic starting point to studying The Word. It lays out in simple terms how to read the Bible while giving each book historical context and alluding to topics and themes for further study.
In closing I am reminded of one of my favourite texts in John “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) and what I found when I studied into what it means to be a ‘follower of the way’.
