Don't Believe Everything You Hear: The Privilege (and Burden) of Reading

What Jesus expects of those who can read.

Johannes Krupinski

If you were a Jewish person living in the first century, there's a good chance you wouldn't know how to read.

Or at least not know how to read well.

It's hard to say for sure, but literacy estimates I've encountered range from 3 to 30 percent. Catherine Hezser, professor of Jewish studies at the University of London, concludes that only 10 percent of Jewish people in first century Israel could do more than write his or her own name.[1] Jewish culture valued reading and writing, perhaps more than any ancient culture, but it reserved such tasks for the scribes and other elites like the Sanhedrin.

With this context in mind, it is interesting to examine some of Jesus's own words when teaching or rebuking his fellow countrymen.

Why Isn't the Book of Enoch in the Bible?

If Jude quoted from it, shouldn't it be included?

Eunice Lituañas

Did you know I write a monthly article just for email subscribers? It's true!

This month we're discussing the mythical Book of Enoch and its exclusion from the canon of Scripture. Is said exclusion valid or unwarranted?

Here's how the article begins:

You may have heard some scuttlebutt regarding a certain Book of Enoch and its exclusion from the Bible. 

Enoch apologists claim the work should be included in the canon of Scripture for various reasons, most notably because the apostle Jude quotes the work in his eponymous book of the New Testament. If Jude the brother of Jesus quotes from the work, then why shouldn't it be a part of Bible?

There's lots to unpack here, but the central question is actually quite easy to answer.

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5 Ways to Enjoy God's Word (Even If You Hate Reading)

Trust me, I know how it feels to be lacking in time.

At the Gilmore household, many days we're lucky just to have time to eat dinner. Were it not a biological necessity, we'd probably skip it (despite my love of food). But after work, school activities, homework, and all the other things we have to do when is there possibly time to read the Bible?

And even if time presents itself, if you don't understand what you're reading or why it's important how are you going to enjoy the process? 

CollegeDegrees360 (CC)

So too often we skip Bible time either because it's not urgent or because the process is boring and frustrating.

But what happens if you stay on such a course? What if you continue allowing your Bible to collect dust on the bookshelf?

Perhaps the Most Misquoted Verse in All of Scripture

People misquote scripture all the time, but there’s one verse that seems to rise above the rest in its errant rendering, and the misrepresentation goes multiple layers deep.

Kevin Dooley (CC)

The verse is 1 Timothy 6:10a. It’s actually half of a verse because most people only reference the first sentence. See if you can recite it. It has the words “money,” “root,” and “evil.”

Let’s see how you did. Here’s the verse in the New International Version:

The Best Bible I Ever Read

Sitting in that dark sanctuary four years ago, I felt a fire rising in my belly. On any other Sunday, I might have attributed it to bad pizza. But not that day.

What Happens When We Steal from God

Sam Wolff (CC)

If you’ve been in church more than a couple of weeks, you’re familiar with Malachi 3:10. It’s probably one of the most quoted verses, the equivalent of Biblical candy.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

Sounds awesome, right? What a great promise we have from God.

I can say with certainty that there has never been a time in my life when I regretted giving money (or anything else) to God. And I will testify that I've been blessed so much I'm bursting at the seams.

But there’s a dark side to the passage you may not be so familiar with:

How Reading the Bible Can Make You Spiritually Sick

I have a son who won't eat anything.

He'll only eat four things consistently: pancakes, pepperoni pizza, eggs (scrambled), and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Darwin Bell (CC)

He doesn't like ice cream (even though he thinks he does). He doesn't like french fries. What he will eat one day, he may turn his nose up at the next.

Sometimes our approach to the Word is just like a 6-year-old’s eating habits.

3 Pieces of Hard Evidence for the Existence of God

God exists outside of our finite universe.

We are bound by time. He created time.

We are bound by fatigue. God does not tire (Isa. 40:28).

We must eat to survive. God is life itself.

Patrick Feller (CC)

But God gave us three pieces of hard evidence as ways to reveal himself to us.

Yet Another Good Reason to Study God's Word

As if you needed another excuse to study God's word, here's one.

Steve Snodgrass (CC)

King David, known as a man after God's heart, wrote:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psa. 119:11)

The more I study scripture, the more I realize how true this verse is. When I get tired, irritated, or tempted I find increasingly that a verse finds its way into my head.