10 Tips for Reading the Bible for the First Time

The Facebook moderator for the United Church of Christ posted an article, "10 Tips for Reading the Bible for the First Time."  I was really disappointed by the article (a little surprised that the author is a Ph.D. in religion and literature at Boston University), by other posters who counseled the easiest way to get through the Bible,  posters who conveyed a Fundamentalist/Evangelical slant for getting through the Bible, progressive Christians who just wanted the reader to keep your mind open with no real recommendations, progressive Christians who wanted the reader to look at another book before going at the Bible with no real understanding why, or just what I thought was a vapid perspective that did not take scholarship seriously, an interested reader seriously, or want the reader to explore the Bible with any depth.  

There.  Does that sound arrogant enough?  I know, I know.   

I do work hard at Bible.  I think it looms large enough in the tradition that even though a person may not use it in their own faith journey, faith leaders have to engage the Bible and take it seriously.  I think there is enough ancient wisdom within the Bible that working hard at it brings forward powerful tools for our relationship with God, with each other, and with the universe.  Darn straight it needs to be critiqued.  And darn straight, I believe, that one can walk faithfully without making it central or a focus.

But here's the thing.  How do we get any sense of who that Jesus guy was or the matrix/context into which he was born if we do not do Bible?  And Jesus was/is/always shall be a Jew.  Like all people of faith, Jesus distilled from his wide and broad tradition to suggest what was important.  So read in my "10 Tips" a distillation of a wide and broad tradition.  I want to allude to that breadth or scope.  I do not want to pretend one can get it all in 10 Tips.  That's when I write the article with 40 tips (Biblical language for interminably long).  

I want to write 10 tips with an overture toward not how easy it will be to get through the Bible but to develop a consciousness for meaning.  That means leaving out a ton I think is vitally important--like the two creation stories.  So here goes.  Once again, apologizing for arrogance.

Again, if the reader is ever going to understand Jesus, the reader has to know the big stories that defined his Jewish faith.  

1. Start with the Exodus story, Exodus chapter 1, and read through Exodus 20, the giving of the Ten Commandments.  The Exodus is the birth story of the Jewish people.  That story runs through Jesus' blood.  Understand how that story was the backdrop for how the Jewish people understood themselves within the context of empire.  The reader may want to read the Exodus story out of Jewish scholar, Everett Fox's interpretation, "The Five Books of Moses."  Pay particular attention to how he references God in Exodus 3.  It is masterful and powerful.  
2. The reader should get good commentaries for everything read in the Bible.  The Bible is written in a foreign language about a foreign people with a foreign culture in a foreign time.  For example, reading some good feminist commentary will help the reader understand how rife the patriarchy is in
   
   the Bible.  Song of Solomon is best read with the Renita Weems' commentary.  Jeremiah is best read with a commentary by Walter Brueggemann.  The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are best read with Bruce Malina's and Richard Rohrbaugh's commentary, Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels.
   
    Malina's and Rohrbaugh's commentary is basic, strong, and deep.  
3. After the Exodus, read some of the opening chapters of Isaiah and Jeremiah to learn about the judgment of the prophets over and against Israel and Judah.  The reader should always be aware how God takes sides and what the judgment is about.  The judgment may be against the nation as a whole, but who is being singled out?  Who is being defended?  Jeremiah 8 and 9 drive the point home.  
4. Then go back and read some of the iconic prophetic stories.  Read about Naboth's vineyard (I
   
   Kings 21) and David, Uriah, Bathsheba, and Nathan (2 Samuel 11).  Again, get a good commentary to learn what is
   
   going on mythically with things like the tribal league tradition and how it conflicts with the roles of kings within the Jewish faith tradition.  If your commentary does not remind you that David rapes Bathsheba and "romances" that relationship, the reader has a bad commentary.
5. Read 1 Samuel 8 to hear the dynamic of king and prophet and how it informed the Jewish people.  Pay close attention to how many times the verb "take" is used.  Go back and read Naboth's vineyard and David, Uriah, Bathsheba, and Nathan.
6. Begin reading the Psalms, starting with Psalm 1.  Take note of their honesty about complaint, lament, anger, grief, and praise.  Read them with an eye to how the Exodus, Law (10 Commandments expanded), and Exile inform them.  Continue and continue to read the Psalms.  Find a good devotional book to go along with
   
   them--one that takes their mythology and raw emotion seriously.  I recommend Sr. Joan Chittister.  
7. Read Ruth, Job, and Jonah to hear critique of the existing Jewish tradition.  Remember, have a good commentary handy.  Read them with an eye toward the whole story.  In other words, what is the whole story about?  What practices "save" Ruth and her mother-in-law?  How do these stories critique broader narratives?  What is wrong with the counsel of Job's friends?  Jesus says that the only sign he will give this generation is the sign of Jonah.  What does that mean?  (Hint:  It's not about being in the belly of the big fish for three days)
8. Read latter portions of Jeremiah (31-33) and Isaiah (40-66) recognizing that the Jewish people are trying to figure out who they were before Exile, during Exile, and now who they will be as they renew and reform.
9. Read the lesser prophets (Amos and Micah, in particular) to hear the funnel that begins to shape Jesus.  One Biblical scholar (John Dominic
   
   Crossan) references Jesus as Amos.  After reading the Amos text, figure out what that means.
10. Read the Gospel of Mark over and over again in one sitting.  It is the earliest canonical gospel we have and strongly anti-imperial.  Read a good commentary on Mark 5:1-20
    
    and its mythological meaning.  Reflect on what it means that the townspeople wanted Jesus to leave town.  
11. For bonus points!  Read I Corinthians 12-13, some of the earliest Christian literature (the gospels could be 20 to 30 years later).  I believe this is
    
    perhaps the most beautiful Christian prose in history.  Reflect on how the whole Jewish tradition informs this passage.  

There you have it!  My top 10 (11).  If it were the Big 10, I would have to include Maryland and Rutgers.  I'll tell you when the book comes out.  Until that time, just know that faith is hard work.  Nobody gets this right.  Regardless, we are loved and cherished by God.