How To Read The Bible

        Many people when opening The Bible find its readings problematic. They have many questions including, “Why are there two creation stories? How can anyone believe the genocidal God of the Old Testament is loving?”

        While the stories of the Bible do hold some historical and cultural truths, it is not meant to be read and studied like a textbook.

 If it is not meant to be read and studied like a textbook, how are we supposed to read and study the Bible to find what is true?

        You must look for the intended spiritual message of the author.

For instance, why two creation stories? Did God create everything twice? And why do these stories seem to conflict with one another? Let’s take a look:

In the first chapter of Genesis when God creates the earth, he seems mighty, omnipotent, and distant. When he speaks, his words materialize into creation:

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light… Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters…” Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered…”

                                                        (Ge. 1:3, 6, 9, NAB)

        In the second creation story, God is not distant at all. In fact, he is very intimate with his creation:

…the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden… Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees…

                                                        (Ge. 2: 7-9, NAB)

The first story of God’s word coming into creation, a sign of his powerful omnipotence, seems to conflict with the intimacy of the second creation story where God is literally molding his creation into being and breathing life into his nostrils.

What does this mean? Why the contradiction?

While it can mean many things, the main message of the creation stories is that while God is all mighty, all powerful, and can seem to be distant, he desires an intimate relationship with us.

The message is not that God spoke and we existed or that God molded us out of clay, breathed into our nostrils and we existed. No. We must look at these two stories together as a whole. When we do this, we see the message is that God, our creator, who is all powerful and all mighty, desires an intimate friendship and relationship with us.

What about the other question? How can a genocidal God be loving?

Let us look at the well-known story of Noah’s Ark:

When the Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on earth, and his heart was grieved. So the Lord said: “I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them. But Noah found favor with the Lord.”

                                                        (Ge. 6:5-8, NAB)

        As we read on, we find that God asks Noah to build an ark and in the ark Noah and those with him will be saved from drowning in a flood that God will bring upon the earth.  Everything that is not in the ark drowns. When the flood dries up, Noah and those with him leave the ark and find that creation has been restored.

If we read this scripture as if everything in it is a literal truth, it does seem that this Old Testament God is cruel and destructive.

        But if we remove our lens of taking everything literally, we find this scripture to have a vastly different, less harsh meaning.

        It seems to me that the spiritual message is metaphorical. The message is that God can wash away the sin around us and within us. In him and through him, our corruption is washed away, and we are made new.

When we listen to God and stay in His grace, like Noah in the ark, we are protected from the evil around us. But should we be drowning in our evil, like those destroyed in the flood, God will wash us clean, make us new, and restore the world around us. I must admit it is difficult to read and understand the bible stories on a spiritual level. It was written long ago by people who were immersed in a culture quite different from ours. Thankfully, we are not alone. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and by looking to Bible scholars and Theologians who have dedicated their lives to studying historical and cultural aspects of the Bible Stories and its authors, we can come to a better understanding of God’s love and will for us.