Forget the chapters/verses: Look at the STORY of the Bible.

Recently,  we had a guy named Brandon (forgive me for forgetting the last name) who led several lessons in our Bible class at church. His teaching really made me re-examine the way that I read the Bible. 

He made the comment that so often, we Westerners read the Bible and analyze the Bible through our 21st Century glasses. For example, I am an English teacher who has studied the history of the English language and find nerdy joy in breaking down words into roots and understanding the etymology of the word (what the words originally meant versus what they mean today). However, when it comes to the Bible, I often find myself only looking for a current application. How does this apply to me today? I very rarely actually take the time to dig to find out what specific passages meant to the people of Jesus' time on earth and the first church. 

For example, we have all heard the story of the woman with the issue of blood.  She believed that if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. I have heard several sermons on this in my lifetime, and all except for one gave me this reason for the passage: 

The crowd was so large that day, and she had so much faith. 

She believed that just the hem of his garment would heal her.

Due to the crowd, that is all she could manage to push through
and reach, anyways. And her faith proved true in her healing.

Now, I am not completely neglecting that idea. In fact, the Bible tells us that there was a large crowd pressing in on Jesus, so I do think the large crowd idea mentioned above holds some merit.

However, we are also missing SO MUCH by not digging deeper. We get so caught up in our Western analysis of scripture and memorizing chapter and verse numbers that we fail to see the big picture. The Eastern view of the Bible is to see it as a STORY! When we begin to read the Bible in this light and dig to see what story the scriptures are telling, we learn so much more than we could ever learn by pulling a few verses out of context and analyzing them. 

Below is a presentation that I put together based off Brandon's lesson. I also gathered some more information of my own from http://www.therefinersfire.org/tallit.htm. I am sharing this lesson with my Colts for Christ group at school tomorrow to hopefully show students the amazing stories that are right in front of us in our Bible that we so often miss. 

Look at the story of the woman with the issue of blood in a whole new light! 

I don't know about you, but learning about these stories in a way that I have never heard before makes me really want to dig deeper into my studies. I hope you'll join me. If you know the background to a story like this, I would love to hear from you. As a literature teacher, I have to say that the Bible is by far the richest, most-layered text I have ever studied - and I LOVE it!! 

I also have some suggested reading materials to help you dig deeper - as recommended by Brandon:

Jewish New Testament Commentary  - by David Stern

That the World May Know Series

Until next time....