5 People Who Changed the Way I Read the Bible
It is common for Christians to experience a reinvigoration for reading the Bible at the turn of the New Year. Let’s not stop this. Let’s keep the fire hot, stoke it throughout the year, and add another gallon of gasoline next January.
Yet Bible reading is under-served when our aim is simply the rote intake of words.
The Bible is a living art form that God intends for our spiritual dependence and development as disciples.
Bible reading is maximized when we strengthen our reading strategies. In this post, I’ve charted five people who have helped shape the way I read the Bible.
If you’re looking to grow as a Bible reader, …
Step 1: Pick up the good book and read.
Step 2: Read alongside helpful voices like these.
1. Danny Akin
I was fortunate to have President Akin as my Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics professor in seminary—albeit as a distance learning student. Someone once told me that when Dr. Akin came to SEBTS, he asked to teach several sections of hermeneutics because he regarded it so highly as a core discipline in Christian ministry and a believer’s faith.
Dr. Akin has undoubtedly shaped a generation of students serving the kingdom in many ways. As I think about what he instilled in me and my classmates in Clemson, I’m warmed by his likely impact on countless others.
Among the many principles Dr. Akin taught us, one seems to rise to the forefront of my memory. He repeated it so much that I took it to be a foundational concept for him.
Here it is: Authorial intent is the anchor for interpreting a passage well.
For Dr. Akin, we’ve got to be aware of how we engage with the biblical text. All of us will interact with a given passage based on our life circumstances and history of experiences. Still, we must interpret passages according to how God intended to use them—with each text existing as a real-life transmission event from an author to an audience.
After scouring and studying to discern the nature of this transmission event (its meaning), we can then wrestle with the significance of the passage for our lives moving forward.
2. Tim Mackie
Tim Mackie is one of the Bible Project’s co-founders and the lead scholar for that ministry. He and Jon Collins have created something special—almost lightning in a bottle. They are cataloging a mountain of resources for Christians who are intent on growing their understanding of the Bible but their material is also winsome for curious non-Christians.
Mackie’s greatest contribution, in my estimation, is his framing of “Design Patterns” across the biblical narrative.
For him, the Bible is a literary masterpiece that develops with a compounding of themes and images. Whether it’s water, or fire, or the concept of the first-born, Mackie traces themes to show how God has woven the Bible like a tapestry of thread patterns to tell a beautiful story, unified and pointing to Jesus.
Regularly, Bible Project consumers will submit queries to Tim and Jon as they’ve had time to process their videos and podcast episodes—asking deep and gritty, real-life questions. Listen to the Bible Project podcast with any frequency. You’ll hear him referring to “pages 1 and 2” of the Bible as the literary and theological foundation for everything to follow. The launch of Genesis is ground zero for Mackie.
3. Christopher Wright
I was first introduced to Christopher Wright’s book The Mission of God in 2013. I can remember it so vividly. I was sitting on the floor, late at night, in our first townhouse after being married.
The first half of The Mission of God is a guide for reading the Bible with a Great Commission lens. This approach captivated me, and I haven’t been able to unsee it since then.
Genesis 12:1-3 serves as a landmark moment in the Bible’s narrative, where God promises to bless Abram’s family, and through that blessing, God would likewise bless the nations. This early vision of one people group being the instrument for God’s blessing of the whole world begins to blossom as the Bible develops and then explodes onto the page in the New Testament.
With this central theme in mind, I’m now convinced every passage deserves a “missional reading.” Not only does every text link to redemption, but I also believe they all link to the “original Great Commission” in Genesis 12:1-3 and God’s heartbeat to redeem every nation, tongue, and tribe. Reading the Bible with this lens keeps evangelism, multiplication, and missionary advancement at the forefront of Christian obedience.
An Old Testament scholar, Wright has also written helpful volumes on seeing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit distinctly in the Hebrew Bible. These are worth checking out as well.
4. Jim Hamilton
Jim Hamilton is quickly becoming one of the most published thinkers of our day. Hamilton, who teaches at Southern Seminary, is a master of the ancient languages and literary structures employed in the biblical texts.
In particular, he has a keen eye for the literary device called chiasm. I’ve written about chiasms before, but suffice it to say that Hamilton is a chiasm fanatic. I joke in my classes that the Hamilton motto ought to be, “If at first, you don’t see a chiasm, try, try, and try again.”
I’ve been blessed by Hamilton’s contributions on the Bible Talk podcast, his various biblical commentaries (Daniel and Psalms, at the top for me), and his more recent book Typology.
In Typology, Hamilton takes about 30 pages to explain how biblical typology works and then gives us 300 pages demonstrating it—showing us where it occurs and when it is most significant in the Bible. It’s a masterfully helpful resource.
5. Abraham Kuruvilla
Finally, Abraham Kuruvilla, another professor at Southern Seminary, has distilled the best of several other thinkers before him into a single resource. In his book Privilege the Text, I see shades of Kevin Vanhoozer and Graeme Goldsworthy, in particular.
Vanhoozer has argued that a biblical passage exists not merely as a lifeless set of words but that every text is doing something. Each passage is a propulsive force that expects a particular response from the reader. Kuruvilla picks up on this theme and carries it forward.
He then pairs the “doing” concept to a concept originally illustrated by Goldsworthy: the “plain glass vs. stain glass” paradigm.
Instead of reading a biblical passage like plain glass through which we might look at a historical event to study and discern something about it, the text is a Spirit-inspired stained glass depiction of an event. In the artistic retelling of the event, the stained glass communicates the Spirit’s true message to His audience.
Postscript
This post has been about people who have helped shape my mind as I approach reading and understanding the Bible.
However, I would be remiss if I did not also celebrate those who have helped me live the Bible—those who have more directly helped my hands and heart.
So many pastors, teachers, mentors, and friends have demonstrated lives of obedience and have pushed me toward the pattern and purposes of Jesus. I’m so indebted to them.
I’d encourage you to look up these widely published voices listed above. But don’t neglect the gifts to the body in your local church. Daily, in-person discipleship ... that’s the way of the kingdom.
Happy New Year. Tolle Lege.