0. Why I’m interested
In some ways this is revealed preference; I’m obviously interested because I’ve got a place called “BibleProject” on my resume. One reason for that is I believe the Bible is worth reading for everyone “even” in the 21st century.
1. Just about everyone should read the Bible
The ideas in the Bible are central to modern western civilization. For better and for worse, the Bible is has been an undercurrent of the west’s moral worldview. David Perell writes that “many of the most trivial and seemingly self-evident ideas come from Christianity.” For example, the US Declaration of Independence says “we hold theses truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” But human equality isn’t self-evident at all; the Declaration itself shows the claim comes from the Bible. Tom Holland’s book Dominion gives a historical perspective and Timothy Keller’s lecture series “Questioning Christianity” a theological one.
Reading the Bible gives some shared context to understand religious thinkers. It’s possible many non-religious people dismiss religious thinkers/writers out of hand. But there are many recent and currently influential people who are religious or writing about religion (e.g., Ross Douthat, Peter Thiel, Rene Girard). For that and other reasons Tyler Cowen writes that the most important thinkers of the future will be religious ones.
To resist chronological snobbery. There’s an easy tendency to dismiss the intellectual contributions of almost everyone prior to the last ~200 years — or at least to apply a heavy discount rate. At least I’m tempted to. While it’s true that living conditions are extraordinarily better and there’s some evidence that IQ is increasing over time, it’s also true that intelligence is not 1:1 with wisdom. The Bible represents in part the collective wisdom of a couple thousand years of smart, thoughtful people speaking, writing, and meditating on important questions. For that it’s worth reading (this is also applicable other foundational religious texts).
2. Ways to read the Bible thoughtfully
Reading a poem is different from reading a recipe, which is different from reading Wikipedia, which is different from reading Dr. Seuss or John Steinbeck or Twitter. Humans have figured out so many different ways to use written (and spoken) language. What you think you’re reading influences how you read it. So to read the Bible you should consider some broader questions too, about what kind of text it is and what the authors may have wanted to communicate with it.
Watch for repeated words and themes. In many places the biblical authors seem to emphasize key ideas through repetition of key words. For example, try listening to Genesis 1 in Hebrew and you can hear the rhythm of repeated words throughout.
Read multiple translations and peek at the original language. This is extra helpful for English readers since there are so many translations. If the English varies a lot then that’s often a good reason to checko out the Hebrew or Greek. A concordance is also a great tool to look up how a word is (a) used throughout the text, and (b) translated in different ways. One of my favorite concordance searches is nephesh .
Read and re-read. Psalm 1 encourages the reader to meditate on the text over and over, “day and night.” It’s old enough and confusing enough that no one should really expect to “get it” on the first try (if ever!) Also the Bible is pretty long, so there’s lots to read and re-read over a lifetime.
3. Reading thoughtfully can feel of new for many
I think most people’s introduction to reading the Bible — from being brought to church as a kid on Christmas, to overhearing a street preacher — doesn’t include a “how.” There has to be some “how to read” behind but it’s rarely explicit.
So for many people, reading more intentionally is a new practice. That means there is a lot of value in helping people think through “how” they are reading. And I actually think that makes it an underrated problem area, even by people who think hard about that kind of thing.