the word

I was recently taken to task regarding my knowledge of scripture, which is a useful experience from time to time, if a bit disconcerting. The two sticking points seemed to be the order in which I have read the books of the Bible, and the facility with which I can turn the page to a particular Scripture and read it in context. Context here includes the larger context of the whole Bible, not just the chapters surrounding the reference verses. I was reminded of how much easier it is to find something in the Bible if you have referenced it often. I started marking in my Bibles early in life, and the three I have consistently owned and carted around (New King James, New International, and finally, happily, my New American Standard Version) bear evidence of use in their precarious bindings, inked and dog-eared pages with leaflets and inserts tucked between them.

I remember when I stopped committing Scriptures to memory with the reference numbers attached: I would still include them, written on a 3x5 card on my mirror with the text I was working on, but would not hold myself accountable for the chapter and verse if it did not come readily to memory. My rationale was that it always sounded pretentious and mildly obsessive to hear anyone other than a pastor or lay leader during a Bible lesson actually quote the scripture verse. I didn’t want to be in the habit of spewing that information out at the beginning or end of any mention of the Bible, especially around the uninitiated. I would rather, I decided, refer to the writer or the book and simply begin the quotation, conveying relationship with the text and not some kind of gross or blunt appropriation. To quote the reference, it seemed, was to lay claim to it as someone who does not know what is really at stake; someone who aims to possess and master a text rather than to be possessed and mastered by it.

I began at that point illuminating my favorite passages with metallic ink, underlining, highlighting, and enhancing the first letters and numbers of chapters. These markings became luminaries that helped me navigate the passages where I had already been, and explore unfamiliar passages. Layers of markings emerged: where one visit had yielded certain findings in pink, another focused on others in yellow. Through this system I became so familiar with my Bible that I knew I could find “a word aptly spoken” in a matter of moments. If I did not have the Scripture at the tip of my tongue, I reasoned, then I could paraphrase, being clear that it was only a paraphrase, and follow up with someone later after having looked it up. In some cases, I would simply refrain from using Scripture, telling someone that a verse had come to mind for our conversation, but that I would check and if it was still applicable, I would send it to them the next day. Rarely did I ever feel unprepared to engage in discussion about my faith using this method, and in fact it felt more honest to simply tell someone I couldn’t remember something and that I would get back to them. When I swapped my large, high-school NIV with its adventurous canvas cover for a discreet, hand-bag-sized black leather NASB in college, I took pains to transfer many of the old markings to the new bible, not wanting to lose ground in my study of scripture.

I confess, my routine discipline of studying scripture has suffered in recent years (the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak…and sometimes also the spirit is not quite willing, due to crises of faith, fear, or doubt). Yet it is amazing how quickly—like riding a bike—my bible navigation returns when I just pick it up. Although I have read every book in the Bible at least once, I have never read the Bible from cover to cover, in order. I have tried (and failed) many times, usually losing total interest somewhere in the “begats.” This is significant, because I am not a person on whom the value of history and lineage is usually lost. I can and do exhort myself to take interest in these things for specific purposes: for example, when examining the personalities in the lineage of Christ. I have a shelf full of commentaries and an internet full of interpretive aids which have helped me get further than I would have on my own. I sometimes think that, in order to read the Bible from cover to cover, in order, I would have to be in a group that offered the moral support to persist beyond the “begats.” In much the same way that I would have never completed Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, or any of Shakespeare’s plays, without the impetus of coming to class ready to discuss the text with others. The language can be too cumbersome, even as it is beautiful, to sit and read from start to finish, especially since I am constantly plagued by the need to get up and do something, no matter how much I may enjoy a particular book.

The real question for me at this juncture--with a child on the way who will undoubtedly alter my use of time, energy, and resources forever--is to find a method of Bible study that works in this new phase of life. The idea that, in order to truly understand Scripture I have to read it from start to finish, in order, is an interesting one. I am inclined to reject it, since for centuries faithful Christians have been reading Scripture selections aloud and in varied order in corporate settings, and the idea of personal, daily bible study was only possible for most of us in the last 200 years. However, what could be gleaned from reading the Bible cover-to-cover, or even chronologically, is probably worth investigating.