Why Read the Bible?

Influence on Western civilization

The Bible helped shape law, art, literature, and ethics across Europe and the Americas for over two thousand years. 

Many Western ideas of human rights and justice come from biblical teachings.

The Ten Commandments set basic rules for behavior

Literature and Language: Famous writers quote the Bible often. Phrases like "good Samaritan" or "eye for an eye" are part of everyday speech.

Art and Music: Great painters and composers made works based on Bible stories. Think of Michelangelo or Bach.

Education: Early schools and universities in the West started to train people to read the Bible.

Few books have influenced religion, history, literature, art, politics, language, and culture as extensively as the Bible. Its stories and ideas have shaped communities and traditions for centuries and continue to appear throughout contemporary life.

Cultural references

Biblical language and images appear throughout everyday culture, sometimes without people recognizing their source.

A forbidden fruit, a Good Samaritan, a David and Goliath contest, the writing on the wall, feet of clay, and a thorn in the flesh all come from biblical stories or passages.

Biblical subjects also appear throughout art, music, and literature. Michelangelo painted scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Rembrandt repeatedly painted biblical subjects. Handel's Messiah draws its text from the Bible. Writers from Dante and Milton to Dostoevsky and Toni Morrison have used biblical stories, images, and language.

Biblical language also appears in public speeches. Abraham Lincoln drew on it in his Second Inaugural Address. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently used the language and imagery of the biblical prophets when speaking about justice.

Recognizing such references does not require sharing the religious beliefs associated with them. It simply provides background that can clarify what later writers, artists, musicians, and speakers were communicating.

Ancient world insights

The Bible also provides a window into ancient societies.

Its stories take place among families, tribes, kingdoms, empires, villages, and cities very different from our own. Ideas about marriage, family, slavery, warfare, sacrifice, kingship, land, inheritance, law, religion, and social obligation were often unlike modern ideas.

Understanding those differences can change the way a story appears.

Hospitality, for example, could carry serious social obligations. Genealogies could establish identity, ancestry, inheritance, and social standing. Exile could threaten not only a person's home but the continuity of an entire people's political, religious, and cultural life.

Many historical questions remain debated, including when some biblical books reached their final form and how particular narratives relate to events or people known from other ancient evidence.

OBG includes historical and cultural information when it materially helps explain a story, while treating uncertain matters as uncertain.

Iconic characters

The people in biblical stories are rarely simple.

Jacob deceives his father and brother, is later deceived himself, wrestles through the night with a mysterious figure, and leaves the encounter with a new name and a limp.

David defeats Goliath and becomes a celebrated king, but later arranges the death of Uriah after sleeping with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba.

Jonah tries to escape a mission he does not want, survives inside a great fish, finally carries out the mission, and then becomes angry when Nineveh is spared.

Peter promises to remain loyal to Jesus but later denies knowing him.

Biblical characters may be courageous, selfish, faithful, jealous, generous, violent, compassionate, or afraid. Some display several of these qualities within the same story.

Understanding those complexities is often important to understanding the narratives themselves.

Iconic stories

Many readers first encounter biblical stories through sermons, paintings, movies, children's books, religious instruction, or familiar expressions.

The biblical accounts themselves are often more complicated than those later versions suggest.

Noah's flood involves more than animals entering an ark. David and Goliath belongs to a larger story about Saul, David, kingship, loyalty, and political power. Jonah concerns far more than a man and a fish. The Good Samaritan begins with a discussion about the command to love one's neighbor.

Context can change what a reader notices.

A story viewed by itself may look different when its immediate setting, related passages, historical background, and later interpretations are taken into account.

Providing that context is one of the purposes of this book.

Difficult questions

The Bible addresses questions people have continued to ask across cultures and centuries.

Why do people suffer? What does justice require? What do people owe one another? What makes a good leader? Can people change? What does forgiveness require? How do people respond to failure, loss, injustice, and death?

Different biblical writings approach these questions in different ways.

Job protests suffering he believes he does not deserve. Ecclesiastes questions the lasting value of human achievement. The prophets condemn injustice. The Psalms express confidence, anger, fear, gratitude, grief, and despair. Jesus repeatedly addresses wealth, power, enemies, mercy, status, forgiveness, and responsibility.

Religious traditions have interpreted these writings in many different ways. Readers outside those traditions may encounter the same questions through history, philosophy, literature, or personal experience.

OBG describe these questions when they are important to understanding a particular story but do not attempt to settle them for you.

Journey of faith for some

For many people in the world the Bible is the inspired word of God. For many others, reading the Bible inspires that belief. To reach as many people as possible and serve their various needs, OBG remains neutral on matters of faith.

Your own reasons

A reader may approach the Bible because of religious faith or because of an interest in literature, history, art, ancient cultures, philosophy, or language. Someone may want to understand a familiar expression or cultural reference. Someone else may simply want to know what a particular biblical story actually says.

There is no single reason people read the Bible. The one that matters is yours.