The basic problem with basic Bible study is that the Bible must be read and understood in context, as a whole. We have come to understand this as when we are preaching on a text that we read the whole chapter. What it means really is that we have to interpret the verse in terms of the whole Bible, not just the chapter or the parts we have read, the whole Bible.
The other problem has to do with translation. Hebrew is a very small language and most translators pick the word that is traditionally chosen or at least closely related to it. So if the word tabernacle can also mean body, when God tells Moses to put together a tent so he can dwell among them in a tabernacle, we don’t often realize that this could also mean that God wishes He had a body so that he could live among His people The translation doesn’t always make this a possibility. The fact that the word used as a post to hold up the tabernacle is also used as the word for Adam’s rib is fascinating.
I would like in this blog to explore the Bible as a spiritual document, but also as one of the world’s most subtle and complex literary document. This may offend the religious because they feel that it somewhat diminishes the document’s religious value, and it pushes away the literary because they feel as if the mere possession of the book indicates a wild eyed religious fanaticism.
I will probably publish this introduction periodically so that there will be no misunderstanding of what I am doing.
My Bible Study Notebook 