BI103 – Response
I have only read some of Keener’s commentaries but never heard him teach and I am very impressed. Not only is it obvious he knows a lot about the cultural background to the Bible, he also has a genuine heart for the Lord. This was actually my biggest impression from the course. Often we either take it for granted that we
fear the Lord or we don’t talk about it because we want to get right into the teaching. Keener puts first things first by beginning talking about the fear of the Lord and also ending by emphasizing the fear of the Lord. By doing this he shows what kind of man he is, and he is a man I from now on truly admire. To balance the love for Christ and a desire for deeper Scriptural knowledge is one of my constant prayers, and I am so glad to have seen a man who succeeds in balancing those two things!
The next thing I am impressed by is Keener’s knowledge. So many “difficult” passages doesn’t seem difficult anymore after listening to his teaching about background of the Bible. it was a joy listening to his thoughts about Luke 2, Jesus’ parables of lost things, and the Book of Revelation. Cultural background really gives deeper meaning to the text!
Though all of this was very interesting I must confess I’ve heard that before. Personally, other than the two things mentioned above, the one thing I will remember from this course is the value and necessity of whole—book context. This is something I think we need to stress even more today than ever. Often we read Scriptures in a very fragmented way (I know I do), and sometimes problems and questions arise because of this. A passage might seem strange or difficult to interpret. We also end up interpreting it in a personally way (probably still in a biblical way, but unfortunately not so close to how it is meant in it’s original context). By reading the whole book the verse is situated in, hopefully we will not only find answer to our questions, but our problems with the verse will never arise
in the first place. It’s just not enough to read the verse before and after, we have to follow the flow of the author by reading the whole book he wrote. This leads to some practical questions:
Today we’re not trained to read the Bible for long periods. With today’s technology and fast paced society we sort of expect quick solution and one-liners. We read “today’s verse” or our favorite verses and feel satisfied and don’t read anything more. Or we do the opposite and read as much as possible as quickly as possible. But to read the Bible is not only measured in time, but also in quality. I think we
have to come back to a slow and long reading of the Scriptures again. Not only will this address the whole-book context-issue, it will also deepen our
understanding of the Bible and ultimately shape our hearts after God’s heart. I can see some practical ways this is possible:
First of all I think we have to give Scripture reading it’s proper time in our meetings.
In Sunday services or other meetings I think we should give the Scripture reading more time. Instead of reading a few verses and reference or paraphrase the rest, read the whole context. Even if it means you’ll end up with 15 minutes of Scripture reading. Not only will this cause the people to get used to longer Scripture readings, I think it also will affect how people read their Bibles on their own. If we constantly shorten the time we read Scripture publicly (and more often even don’t read from a physical Bible), it should be no surprise that people don’t spend much time reading their Bible on their own.
The next thing practical thing I think we can do is to more deliberately set aside time to just read the Bible together. For example: I have a friend who has started a
bible reading group. They do nothing else than read the Bible together. When they
have read the chapter they might have something to share, but the emphasize is not to discuss but simply to read. (In post-corona times they do this through video-chat, making it even more accessible than ever.) If we both in publicly and smaller settings start to emphasize whole-book reading of the Bible, I think we will eventually read whole-book in private. This will lead to less of reading a verse out of context.
Kind regards
/ Henrik