Experienced youth and schools worker Philip Eley looks at some of the difficulties involved in handling the Bible with young people, and explores key questions around interpretation, before offering practical ideas to get young people engaged.
I used to frequent a tea room called Badger’s Tea Room. One summer a sign appeared saying, ‘Due to staff shortages badgers will be serving tea between 1 and 2.’ I went back the next day and was disappointed to be served by a waitress. I’d been hoping to be served by a black and white creature clutching a tray and wearing a pinny.
This story highlights a problem with words – words are always open to interpretation. I spend a lot of time talking to young people about the Bible. Most of the non-Christians I work with have little or no interest in it, but even Christian young people find the Bible awkward at the best of times, and irrelevant and completely unfathomable at other times. Charles R Swindoll said this: ‘We honour the Bible as God’s holy Word, but we don’t read it. When perplexed with life’s problems, we are more likely to turn to other sources than to the Scriptures for help and comfort.’
I used to feel like that. But then I started to think about it differently, I started to enjoy the Bible for what it was - mysterious, complicated and strange. The change came about when I decided that the Bible is deliberately complicated. I believe that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible excites, inspires and guides me. ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’ 2 Timothy 3:16
The Bible is the number one guide for my character, my behaviour and my actions, but I don’t claim to have a definitive interpretation of it. I don’t even claim to understand it. I try to understand it, I really do. I’m sure I understand parts of it, and I can use prayer, the Holy Spirit, advice and common sense to understand other parts of it. But I can never claim to have it all sewn up.
There is an assumption in Christian youth work that part of the worker’s role is to explain the Bible and make it more accessible. The trouble is that this approach can tame the Bible, and in turn tame God’s character. It excites me that the Bible is complicated because I would expect nothing less. The Bible is the word of God – magnificent, omnipotent, eternal God. The nature of God is both knowable and unknowable, both intimate and transcendent. The Bible reflects this. Some days the Bible will guide, other times it will frustrate and annoy. The writers seemed to enjoy this apparent contradiction. David’s Psalms reflect numerous facets of God. This is the beauty of the Bible. It is complicated, mysterious, seemingly contradictory and yet magnificent. Just like its ultimate author. Few Christian youth workers seem comfortable with this fact. They try to simplify the Bible, to reveal its ‘true’ meaning.
An alternative approach would be to revel in its difficulty. Many young people’s favourite Bible books are two of the most obscure – Revelations and Ecclesiastes. Young people love mystery and they love the spirituality of the Bible. As soon as it becomes a simple text with accessible meanings it becomes dull. Young people need to learn to love the Bible because it is mysterious and unknowable. Many youth workers struggle with the Bible, but instead of seeing these struggles as inevitable and joyful, they see these struggles as shameful and hide them from young people. Yet these struggles are what makes the Christian life what it is. They are evidence of how great God is.
When we always try to explain the words, and stick to the ‘safe’ passages, we are only introducing young people to one side of God.
When young people start to read the Bible for themselves and it seems confusing and contradictory, they feel that they must be missing the point. But they’re not missing the point. The meanings actually are complicated and mysterious. As young people begin to accept that the Bible is complicated, they can begin to enjoy discovering the words of a mysterious and holy God.
Naturally, there are occasions when we need to boil the message of the Bible down to a few simple truths but we need to make it clear that this is only one approach. We also need to make it clear that our understanding of the Bible is only an approximation. When people try to explain the meaning of the Bible to people, they can only ever get close. ‘The Bible is the written word of God, and because it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities of ink and paper.’ AW Tozer.
The nature of words, the style of the Bible, the purpose of the writings and the genres used will always make the Bible impossible to pin down. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think that Christians are all the richer for having a Holy Book which is complicated, mysterious and beautiful. But I don’t always feel like this. Sometimes when I’m grappling with a meaning and finding that the harder I look, the harder it is to find, I don’t celebrate the complicated way the Bible is put together. So, just why is it all so difficult to understand?
Words are open to interpretation
There is no style of writing which isn’t open to interpretation. If I write a shopping list of: eggs, milk and washing powder and give it to three people, I’ll get back various things. One person might buy free range medium eggs, skimmed milk and own brand shopping powder, while another will give me large eggs, whole milk and ‘Baz’ shopping powder.
In one London Underground station there was a sign which said ‘dogs must be carried on the escalators,’ which was fine for people who understood the context of the sign, but not so great for people who tried to obey the sign by searching for a spare dog to carry.
Styles of writing
The Bible is a collection of writings, by various authors, who use a variety of styles to make their point. Sometimes their purpose will be to record something which happened, sometimes the writing will be poetic. Some parts of the Bible are songs, some are parables, some are letters. When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan he never suggested that it was a ‘real’ story about real people. This story has a clear indication in the text that it is ‘made-up,’ but there are parts of the Bible where we don’t have a clear indication. These parts will always be up for debate. Joining the debate doesn’t mean that one person is less holy than another. It simply means that they have begun to grapple with the Bible as it actually is, rather than as they want it to be.
It can help a person’s understanding of the Bible to consider the genres that the author uses, and many times this will shed light on things, but even this will not always be enough. The author’s meaning is not always clear. Sometimes the author is not even known and can only be ‘guessed’ at. We cannot sit down with the author and ask them whether the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den was meant as a historical fact. By looking at the context it is sometimes possible to make a good approximation, but even if we could actually talk to the authors themselves, this would still not make things clear.
Death of the author
In the essay ‘Death of the Author’ (1967) Roland Barthes argues that readers should ignore the intention of the author when trying to understand written words. He maintains that the words that the reader ‘hears’ are all that matters. Each reader will create their own meaning as they go along.
Tone
How often have you received an e-mail and felt that someone was being argumentative when they intended nothing of the sort? We are a lot more likely to misunderstand written words than we are spoken words. It is not always easy to understand the tone of the Bible, particularly because it’s not written in the language that most people read it in.
Lost in translation
Having lived recently in Wales I got used to the road signs being written in English and Welsh. But a story made the news last year when a road sign appeared which said ‘No entry for heavy goods vehicles’ in English and ‘Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw with i’w gyfieithu’ in Welsh. An e-mail had been sent out for a Welsh translation, so when the e-mail came back with some words of Welsh on it, these were printed and the sign put up. Unfortunately the Welsh on the sign translates as: ‘I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.’
The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. These languages have different sounds, different letters and different words. Any translation will always be a ‘best guess.’ ‘Translation is in itself a (necessary) form of interpretation. Translators are regularly called upon to make choices regarding meanings, and their choices are going to affect how you understand.’ Gordon D. Fee.
It was written for a people
Nowadays we in the West tend to have a very personal understanding of the Bible. We feel that God will speak to us. Of course, many times he will, but the Bible was not written for individuals. The Bible was written to guide various communities, first the Hebrews, then followers of Christ, and then young churches. The Bible is written to impact societies and nations, just as much, if not more, than it is written to impact individuals.
To find guidance from the Bible, Christian young people and Christian youth workers need to struggle with the Bible together. They need to expect it to speak to them as a group. A group with a specific job to do, a specific community to impact. When the youth worker is trying to simplify the meaning to be universal, or sees themselves as the expert, this important dynamic can be lost.
It reflects God’s nature
Although I have a day-to-day relationship with God I can never fully know God until I am in heaven. I expect, and want, God to be beyond my ken. The Bible is complicated because it reflects a God who is omnipotent and eternal. In my more philosophical moments I am glad that the Bible is complicated. But I also have moments when it drives me mad. The young people I work with are just the same. They have days when they love the mystery of the Bible and days when they hate it. Even if the Bible was one short book, in one style, by one author, it would still be complicated.
Peter says of Paul, ‘He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand…’ 2 Peter 3:16. People find comfort, enjoyment and help in the Bible. People reach for a Bible in times of need and God speaks to them through the words. The Bible is powerful. I do believe that God can speak to people through the Bible. The Bible is not separate from everyday life. For all its mystery, its history, and its various styles, it is still a day-to-day guide for millions of people. It has relevance to their everyday life. But it is not these occasions when people seek explanation of the words. It is when things become a struggle. It is when people want guidance or direction. It is these times when the temptation for the youth worker is to simplify things. If a definitive explanation of the words can’t be found than how can we help young people to understand the Bible?
Letting the Bible speak for itself
C Dennis McKinsey advises people to ‘Avoid Christian commentaries. Don’t be swayed as to what is being said or what commentators allege is intended. Just read it cold.’ The temptation for the youth worker is often to read a short passage and then summarise his or her understanding of the meaning. This approach will sometimes be appropriate, but not always. On other occasions why not let the Bible speak for itself. There is a temptation to stay away from some of the more obscure, shocking and strange Bible passages. But they are part of the Bible. They speak of God’s nature too.
Doing contextual Bible study
Contextual Bible Study is based on the belief that the Bible is both a historical book produced by particular people and also the Word of God for us here and now. To do contextual Bible study means accepting that each person in the group hears the words from a slightly different perspective, and that each has a unique contribution to add.
‘Every reader is at the same time an interpreter…we invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understanding of words and ideas.’ Gordon D. Fee.
The perspective of the group members will be different again to the way the first listeners heard the words. Contextual bible study celebrates the value of different perspectives on the words rather than trying to find a single right answer.
In contextual Bible study the usual format is to explore:
What did the words mean to THEM What do the words mean to US What do the words mean to YOU
Studying the Bible thematically
It can be illuminating to use skills of English literature to shed new understandings on the Bible. A starting point can be to look at the Bible thematically. What are the themes of the Bible? What can these themes tell us about the overall message?
It was when I started to research and study the themes of the bible that I came into a new appreciation of it. The themes are woven throughout the Bible. An understanding of the themes can shed new light on the whole message.
For each time the Bible guides or comforts individuals there are times when it frustrates and annoys people. For each time I meet a young person who says they enjoy reading the Bible, I meet ten who don’t. Even in our own lives, for every time the Bible is a help there are times when it is a hindrance. To have an on-going enjoyment of the Bible it pays to admit to ourselves and to young people that there are times when the Bible seems contradictory, obtuse and complicated. And that this is part of the joy of it.
A removal of the pressure to simplify the Bible can refresh Christian youth work. Groups of Christians, youth workers included, can be more open about the Bible, more open about their struggles with it, and in doing so find that it becomes important again.
Philip Eley is a Youth worker and Schools worker with Linx Christian Youth Trust in Torbay, Devon.
