What Is the Bible? summary

Anyone who has ever seen the book knows that the Bible is a rather dense tome – and its writing is no less epic. This book is full of stories, poems, letters, accounts and Gospels, all of which were written down, collected and edited by some 40 people over a period of 1,500 years.

However, while the Bible, which is essentially a library of other books, may be complex, it also has a clear common thread: it describes a historical shift in the way people considered both the world and the divine.

Since real people wrote the Bible in response to real situations, the book is a compelling reflection of humanity. But within this humanity, readers can also find a much more believable picture of the divine.

In fact, the Bible is so human that it can be of service even to non-Christians. Just take one famous biblical parable in which the older of two brothers works hard to earn his father’s praise, while the other squanders the money he inherits from his father’s estate.

Lots of people consider the Bible a violent and barbaric tale. They may be right, but such an assessment has to be put into context. For instance, the Old Testament was first compiled in Babylon around the year 500 BC, at a time when the Babylonians were forcibly removing the Israelites from Jerusalem and sending them into exile.

This implies that the authors of the Bible suffered atrocious acts of violence, which played a central role in shaping their view of the world, both present and future.

People commonly complain that the Bible contradicts itself – and they’re right. In fact, that’s the point.

To take in such complexity, the Bible must be approached as a perpetually developing narrative. For instance, in 2 Samuel 24, God tells David to take a “census.” But, in Chronicles, which was written hundreds of years later, Satan is said to have told David to take the census.

Many people view the Bible with cynicism; they wonder how people can believe such myths and fairy-tales. It’s also quite common for people to assume that one discredited biblical story invalidates all others in the book, mythical or otherwise.

The problem with such stances is that they ignore the way these stories have been told. As a result, they cause people to read the Bible in an intensely literal manner, missing the entire point of the book.

When people approached Jesus, asking him about the Old Testament, he responded by asking them a question of his own: he wanted to know how they interpreted it.

Similarly, we can ask ourselves questions about the Bible that lead us to more substantial understandings. For instance, rather than asking, “why would God. . . ,” we can ask why the authors thought this story was important enough to write down.

By now, you know a great deal about the Bible. But how else can its teachings be utilized today?

Well, this holy book clearly has the power to change human perceptions of the world, and its teachings can just as easily be applied to contemporary life.