Dive In: Resources I

Your bookshelf is now going to be front and center in our discussion. You may wonder what my delay has been.

In diving deeper in the Bible, the first text you have to use is the Bible. You have to read it, ask questions, see patterns, look for the context and big picture. You have to begin to identify the design of the pericope. Several translations are very helpful.

The second thing you should open, after a Bible, is not a commentary. Commentaries are written by scholars with bias. They can’t help it, any more than you can help your bias. Commentaries are often helpful but never the final word. There is no commentary that can replace thoughtful reading of the biblical text. (We'll discuss them more later because I have some specific advice for them.)

In fact, the first extra-biblical text I’d suggest for your bookshelf is a good Bible dictionary. Don’t buy the two-nine-five paperback at the grocery store. Save up some money, ask for it as a birthday gift, have a yard sale. Do what it takes (short of breaking the law or selling a child) to get a good dictionary

Here are my suggestions for a helpful Bible dictionary:

Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Edited by Leland Ryken, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney and Daniel G. Reid. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1998.

Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. Edited by John H. Hayes. 2 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers and Astrid B. Beck. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. Edited by Paul J. Achtemeier. Rev. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.

Holman Bible Dictionary. Edited by Trent C. Butler. Nashville: Holman, 1991.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. (ISBE)

Remember: always always always read a reference book like you eat a fish: keep the meat and spit out the bones. There are no perfect reference materials. You may be biased or the author may be biased, but the final word comes from the Bible. What does the Bible say about a particular topic?

Dictionaries are helpful in showing us cultural background and context, reminding us of locales and genealogies, identifying people and history. I like to keep one close when I’m reading.

My favorite book in the above list is the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, although I use it together with the ISBE.

Here’s an example of the help I get from the DBI.

I’ve been puzzling over the Sodom and Gomorrah account. Here’s something I read that gave me a toehold on meaning:

The contrasting of Lot and Sodom with Abraham is highlighted by parallels in the hospitality extended toward the divine messengers (Gen 18:1-8, 19:1-3). But the story in Genesis 19 quickly degenerates into a spiral of sin. The attempt at sexual violation by the entire male population, the offer of Lot’s daughters in the messengers' stead, the mocking of his future sons-in-laws, Lot’s hesitation to leave Sodom and his plea not to have to flee far away, and the fateful backward glance of his wife fill out this portrait of rejection of God’s ways (Gen 19:4-26). All Abraham sees afterward is the smoke of the judgment (Gen 19:27-28).

—Dictionary of Biblical Imagery

Suddenly I was comparing Gen 18 and Gen 19, looking for parallels and for contrasts. The dictionary didn’t give me the meaning, but helped provide information to pry loose the intent of the author. It’s a resource that helps me see comparisons across time and history when I might otherwise miss them.

Another entry tells me that salt is a sign of barrenness or sterility. Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt, although she had earlier had children, while Abraham’s wife, who earlier was without child, became the mother of the nation. That certainly gives traction to some ideas in the text.

Would you tell me what dictionary you like and use? Or what other resources you’d like me to discuss in coming weeks?

Keep reading and diving in.

Dive In: Questions

If I gave you two tools for deeper Bible study, they would be to read the Bible regularly and to ask good questions.

Questions are important. Scriptures are not diminished by our hard question.

I’ve been puzzling over Terah lately. Join me on a journey in Genesis 11. Take a moment to read Gen 11:26-32.

We see a pattern in the last half of Genesis 11, with each descendant of Shem getting two verses. You can almost cut and paste the names into the template. But the pattern is broken when we get to Terah? Why?

We meet three of Terah’s sons as well as a nephew and two daughters-in-law. Why? I know that Abram occupies several chapters in Genesis, but why are Haran and Nahor mentioned? Why do we need to know the wives’ names?

Why are we told that Terah intended to move to Canaan? Did he leave Ur because he grieved over his son? Why did he stop at Haran? Did he name Haran after his deceased son?

Why did Nahor stay behind? Why did Lot go with Terah?

Is Terah mentioned anywhere else in scripture? What can we learn from those passages?

As you ask questions and notice details, you’ll form a theory. Hold theories loosely because as more information from the Bible is revealed, the theory may need to be tweaked or even tossed aside.

Here’s a theory I have regarding Terah. I think he left Ur because he grieved his son’s death and established the town that he named after his son. He intended to go to Canaan but did not.

Take a look at a reference to Abraham (formerly named Abram) in Isaiah:

look to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was but one,
and I blessed him and made him many.

Isaiah 51:2

Notice the words “when I called him...” Abram was called to Canaan; Terah was not.

Why not?

Joshua 24:2 tells us that Terah worshipped other gods, as did Abram and Nahor at that time, while they lived across the Euphrates. Abram had a spiritual awakening. God spoke to him, inviting him to go. But God prevented Terah from going into Canaan.

Terah may have longed for Canaan – perhaps to flee memories of a lost son -but could not complete the trip. God kept him out, for God intended for Abraham to go there, as the faithful son of God, not as the idolatrous son of Terah. Notice that God called Abram to leave his country, people and father’s household to go to the land. (Gen 12:1) God separated Abraham from Terah. The death of one son, Haran, foreshadowed the separation of a second son, Abram.

By spending several verses on Terah, we are torn from the cadence of a lineage to the beginning of God’s family. Our attention moves from a formal list to a family torn by grief and idolatry. We see the eventual separation of Terah and Abraham. Genesis 12 begins a new story, one focused on Abram and his family rather than all mankind.

And it began with Terah, who was separated from his son in God’s plan.

Questions are vital to our understanding of a pericope. Choose a passage and ask many questions, looking carefully for details and inquire why.

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord, Selah
to him who rides the ancient skies above,
who thunders with mighty voice.

Psalms 68:32-33

The first-born

I’ve been puzzling over the story of Cain and Abel for a few days with this question in mind: Why did God allow Cain to live?

There are plenty of historical instances where God responded to rebellion with death. Why not this time?

Cain was the first-born, the first-ever born and Eve rejoiced that God had given her this son. Did she hope he was the anticipated savior, the seed who would crush evil?

We might credit Cain with offering the first sacrifice, but we see that he did not please God. The rhythm of the written account pulses: we go from Cain to Abel, from Abel to Cain. One farmed the ground; one tended the sheep. Abel’s sacrifice pleased God; Cain’s did not. The heartbeat of the story screeches to a halt when God confronts Cain: don’t let sin overtake you.

We see why Cain’s sacrifice was inadequate: his heart is selfish. In jealousy, he kills Abel. He sneers at God: am I my brother’s keeper?

Where Adam and Eve regretted their sin, Cain does not. He doesn't hesitate to kill as a solution. God banishes him. The farmer is sent away from the land. It is only in that judgment that Cain finally cries out to God for help.

God reveals how he values life. The promise of fruitfulness, given to Adam and Eve, trumped a need for vengeance. God may have also stemmed a bloodbath as other family members rushed to avenge Abel’s murder. He quarantines Cain – even from his own presence. Cain becomes a wanderer, sent far from Eden and away from God.

It’s a picture of hell, that separation. Yet God in his mercy gave Cain time to be restored.

I know many who have let sin overtake them. I know how God treasures life. And I have seen the two intertwine in joyous reconciliation.

The first-born of man failed; sin crushed him. But the first-born of God won; he crushed sin. God’s mercy extended to Cain – and well beyond.

But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.

2 Sam 14:14

“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” declares the Sovereign LORD. “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”

Ezek 18:23

Yearning for order

Chaos just repels. Whether it’s my son’s jumbled bedroom floor or the drug addict’s shattered life, my heart cries for harmony. Maybe yours, too?

I think it’s been that way since the beginning. Literally.

Eugene Peterson’s translation of Genesis 1:2 calls the beginning “a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.” Other versions describe it as “formless and void” or “formless and empty.”

That’s chaos. But there was hope, for the spirit of God was hovering, about to act.

To the ancient Hebrew, this account showed how God shattered chaos, bringing order where there had been none. Even the days of creation illustrate the structure of God’s hand. He formed time from nothing, order from disarray.

There’s no other way. The soup of nothingness doesn’t coagulate into gardens and rivers by itself. God’s Word was the catalyst, for he spoke harmony into being. From chaos came order.

That concord only lasted until Eve took the fruit in the garden, but it was God’s plan and we still yearn for his order. The story of the Bible is the account of God's plan to restore order to our lives, plucking us out of our chaos.

From turmoil can come harmony, as God’s Word works. That’s good news for my son’s bedroom but even better news for the addict and the mourning and the captive.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Gen 1:2