{"id":236,"date":"2026-03-23T08:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/?p=236"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:51:34","slug":"reading-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/?p=236","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When reading the Bible, as with any other book, it is important to know what kind of thing you are reading, i.e., the genre. You don’t read a novel as if it were history. You don’t read even a historical novel to find out the facts. You don’t read a play as if it were a novel \u2013 though, as with a novel, it’s best to read it straight through from beginning to end. This isn’t necessary with an anthology of poetry: you can just dip into it and read any bit you fancy. Some books, like dictionaries or telephone directories, you don’t really read<\/em> at all: you just use them to find the one bit of information you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible contains different genres. Older Bibles are in small print and narrow columns, and divided into numbered verses so that everything looks the same. Most modern translations are a bit more helpful, setting out the poetic passages in lines so that we can tell they are poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even then the genre is not always obvious, but we can find hints. If you pick up a scrap of paper off the street, you can usually tell at a glance what kind of thing it is. It could be a page torn out of a book, part of a newspaper, a business letter, an advertising brochure, or a religious tract. If it’s handwritten it could be part of a love letter, a message, or a shopping list. Similarly with the Bible: if you read a passage carefully, you can usually guess what kind of thing you are reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Old Testament, from Genesis to Nehemiah, is mostly historical literature. However, we must be aware that these books come from a different culture. They are not history as we know it, but stories told with a purpose \u2013 in a sense sermons with models from history. The New Testament starts with five histories, the four Gospels and Acts. But these too are not history in the modern sense: they are stories with a particular purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The books of the prophets are more like anthologies of poetry. As with all poetry, you don’t read it for information but for inspiration. The biblical prophets were not predictors of the future like Nostradamus or Old Moore’s Almanack. They were poets expressing their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, and their imaginative visions for a future world. Because they were inspired by the same God we believe in, what they saw and felt in their time can inspire us in our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let’s not be too solemn about the Bible. Just dip in, find parts that resonate with you, and read them with an open mind and an open heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ray Vincent is an Associate Chaplain at the University of South Wales<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reading the Bible, as with any other book, it is important to know what kind of thing you are reading, i.e., the genre. You don’t read a novel as if it were history. You don’t read even a historical novel to find out the facts. You don’t read a play as if it were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaplaincy360.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}