Who Was The Bible Written TO?

I have a question. Now, be careful before you answer. It’s sort of a trick question. Was the Bible written to us, today? The answer is no. It’s proper to say that the Bible was written FOR us, but it was written TO the original, ancient audience.

That’s not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot give us individual insight into a passage. We count on that. But, we must not forget that Scripture was first written to those early recipients. It may sound like I’m nit-picking, but it’s actually an important point. When we study a passage of Scripture and try to understand what the writer is saying, we must first ask: “How did the original readers understand this passage?”

We are blessed with the riches of enormous amounts of Bible study material, today. We have thousands of books dedicated to helping us understand God’s Word. We have resources such as internet, television, radio, DVD’s that offer a wealth of Bible teaching. We benefit from two thousand years of scholarship from Godly men and women. But, we do have one major handicap in our Bible study. We, in 21st century America, are far removed from the original language, customs, and culture of those ancient times. We have extra work to do when we try to understand Scripture that those original readers never needed to worry about.

Let’s take a phrase in Romans 12, for example: Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. (Rom 12:20) What in the world does it mean to heap burning coals on his head? That sounds violent…or is it that we’re sending him into Hell’s fire? No, Paul was simply saying that by showing kindness to our enemy, we may lead him to repent and get right with God. The key to understanding the passages is an understanding of ancient culture and customs. In those days, when a man wanted to show the world that he had repented from a previous wrong, he would walk through the streets with a pan of hot coals on his head. That signified his guilt and change of heart.

The Bible is filled with many such phrases that totally escape us today, yet were common concepts in the minds of the original readers. In order to get a proper understanding of such expressions, it falls upon us to do a little extra research. Fortunately, we do have all of those aforementioned resources available to us.

So, as you study the Scriptures, try to get a feel for how the original recipients understood it. Next time, well take a step further in the process and discuss “extracting the timeless principles” from the text.