Learning To Read The Bible

A wonderful event is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

"An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, the deacon, saying, 'Arise and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' (This road is desert.) And he arose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who was in charge of all her treasures, had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, sitting in his carriage and reading the prophet Isaias.

"And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go near and keep close to this carriage.' And Philip, running up, heard him reading the prophet Isaias, and he said, 'Dost thou then understand what thou art reading?' But he said, 'Why, how can I, unless someone shows me?' And he asked Philip to get up and sit with him.

"Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: 'He was led like a sheep to slaughter; and just as a lamb dumb before its shearer, so did he not open his mouth. In humiliation his judgment was denied him; who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.'

"And the eunuch answered Philip and said, 'I pray thee, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?' Then Philip opened his mouth, and, beginning from this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.

"As they went along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, 'See, here is water; what is there to prevent my being baptized?' and Philip said, 'If thou dost believe with all thy heart, thou mayest.' And he answered and said, 'I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.' And he ordered the carriage to stop; and both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, and he baptized him. But when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:26-40).

There are two reasons why I have quoted this passage. It teaches us first that we ought to read our Bibles, and secondly, that we must try to understand what we are reading. Imagine that you are the queen's minister, and I the deacon Philip. I am sitting next to you in your carriage and teaching you, and the subject of our lesson is: Learning to Read the Bible.

Take up your Bible and read what it says on the cover: The Holy Bible, or, perhaps, The Holy Scriptures. The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblion, which means book. That is significant. Obviously, this must be a very special book to merit the plain title: The Book. The words, The Holy Scriptures, tell us that this is a holy book, a divine book, authored by God Himself. It is a book that we must always revere.

There are all kinds of things in it, but the whole book is divided into two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before and the New Testament after, Christ's coming. In all there are 72 books in the Bible, 45 of them in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New. But you must not imagine that they are all of equal length. Some of them are extremely short.

Take a quick look through the New Testament. First we have the four Gospels, or accounts of the life of Jesus Christ. These are followed by the Acts of the Apostles, which give a history of the primitive Church, showing how it was established and governed by the Apostles. Next we have the Epistles, or letters of some of the Apostles: 14 Epistles of the Apostle Paul, of which the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Hebrews are the longest: then seven Epistles of the other Apostles: two of St. Peter, three of St. John, and one of the Apostle Judas (Thaddaeus).

These seven books are called the Catholic Epistles, because, with the exception of the two last Epistles of St. John, they are addressed to all Christians, unlike the Epistles of St. Paul, which are addressed to communities or individuals. (The word catholic means universal.) Finally, we have the Apocalypse, or Revelations, of St. John, which is the only prophetic book of the New Testament.

The Bible is different from every other book because it has two distinct authors: one human, the other divine. The human author is the person who wrote or dictated the book: an Evangelist, or one of the Apostles, Paul, James, Peter, John, or Jude. The divine Author is the Holy Spirit. But you must not think that the human author was quite passive, and only wrote down what the Holy Spirit dictated. Far from it: the two authors worked according to their own respective natures, although the human author was not aware of being under divine influence.

The human author is conditioned by the time and circumstances in which he writes. He is thinking merely of his Church. But God sees further. In this letter He speaks to all men everywhere and in every age. The Holy Spirit preserves the Apostle's letter from every kind of error, He Himself was going to speak in this letter to the entire human race in every age.

In Holy Scripture the great, almighty God speaks to us in human fashion. The Scriptures are His letter, a Father's letter to His children who are living far from home in a land that is not their own.

Do you realize what that means? Imagine yourself living away from home in some far distant country, and every now and again a letter reaches you from home. Would you not treasure it? You would carry it about with you, and read it over and over again. It would have a tremendous influence upon your life. We should put ourselves in that position when we read the Bible, and say to God, "Speak, Father, for your child is listening."

The Scriptures are also the word of Christ, the Son of God, our elder Brother. In the Gospels we have a great many of Christ's actual words, but, quite apart from that, the whole of Scripture is a kind of Incarnation. Jesus Christ comes to us in his word. As the Son of God He is the very Word, the Logos, of the Father. Every word of Holy Scripture is, as it were, an image of this Word of God.

Hence, when we read the Bible we are in a certain sense like the Mother of God, who bore "the Son of the eternal Father" in her womb. That is why our Saviour puts the hearer of God's word on a par with his own Mother. When the woman in the Gospel praised Christ's Mother, saying, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that nursed Thee," Jesus replied, "Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it."

As often, therefore, as we Christians open the Sacred Scriptures, we are united with Christ, and like his holy Mother bear the Word of God within us. Think how carefully Mary wrapped her divine Child in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger! Think how tenderly she nursed her Babe and looked after Him! We must do the same thing with every word of Scripture, as though it were the divine Child Himself. It is with a mother's care and love that we must read the Sacred Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit, the third divine Person, is also intimately connected with the Bible. He, as we know, is its Author. He inspired it, shed the light of his divine radiance upon it, and kept it from error. He, too, is our teacher. It is He who teaches us to understand the Sacred Scriptures.

Before you begin to read the Bible, always remember to say a prayer to the Holy Spirit. There is a beautiful prayer which reads, "Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten my heart and my understanding. Help me to recognize the eternal truth as I read it, to love God more fervently, to serve Him more loyally; through Christ our Lord. Amen."

The Bible, as we know, is true and free from all error, but that does not mean that it cannot possible be interpreted in a wrong sense. Indeed, almost every false teacher appeals to the Scripture to prove his errors. That is why the Church the custodian of the Scriptures, guards them so jealously, lest they be falsely interpreted. The Holy Spirit will see to it that they are always kept free from error and interpreted aright.

When you first open the Bible it may have very little appeal. You will find yourself saying, "I know all that already," "I have no idea what that means," or again, "That does not seem very interesting." You will then be tempted to put the Bible away and forget about it. But don't.

The Bible is not like a newspaper, to be read through once and then tossed aside. We must read it again and again. We can never exhaust its riches. The deeper we penetrate, the more mysterious and inscrutable they become.

It is this impression of newness which is characteristic of the Bible; and that is what I want you to experience for yourself.

I can assure you from my own experience. It was just those passages which at first seemed most difficult and unintelligible which later gave me the greatest insight into the meaning of Scripture, and caused me the greatest spiritual joy.

And I can give you another assurance. It is characteristic of the Bible that it somehow adapts itself to the readers' powers of understanding. It has a childlike message for the child; it speaks in simple language to the uneducated; to the wise it reveals it's deepest treasures.

I have known simple serving maids, farm laborers, and ordinary country folk to read the Bible with great edification and insight. It is we Christians who are the truly wise men of this world, as St. Paul assured us.

The Bible is a book for all ages and for all men. There are passages which apply to some and not so readily to others. But that is easily remedied. No one is obliged to read everything in the Bible.

It has been the Church's policy from the beginning to make a wise selection of passages from the Gospels and Epistles which she directs to be read out at Mass on Sundays. So you, too, are entitled to do the same, and skip those passages which do not interest you. Use a pencil when you are reading a book of the Holy Scriptures to bracket off the verses you find difficult and uninteresting.

Later on, when you have penetrated deeper into the meaning of the Scriptures, you may find that even these passages will delight you.

There is one principle which should be your practical guide throughout life. Never worry about the negative aspect of things. Always look at the positive, the joyful side. That applies equally well to the Holy Scriptures. Draw your nourishment and your joy from the passages which appeal to you, and you will find as time goes on that there will be more and more such passages to delight in.