Eat This Book

If you struggle reading the Bible, I have the book for you. It might be because you are no longer enamored with the stories. You might find the language difficult. The bridge between "then" (a.k.a. "In biblical times) and "now" might be too long a journey.

Eugene Peterson (author of The Message, superb translator, theologian and a "pastor’s pastor") has written a provocative, easy-to-read (I read it in a plane ride) guide. The book has an unusual title, Eat This Book.

Here are a few excerpts.

On exegesis (wrestling with the meaning of Scripture):

“..exegesis is an act of love. It loves the one who speaks the words enough to want to get words right. It respects the words enough to use every means we have to get the words right. Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what he says. It follows that we bring the leisure and attention of lovers to this text, cherishing every comma and semicolon, relishing the oddness of this preposition, delighting in the surprising placement of this noun. Lovers don’t take a quick look, get a ‘message’ or a ‘meaning,’ and then run off and talk endlessly with their friends about how they feel.”

On the paradox of Scripture:

“We are fond of saying that the Bible has all the answers. And that is certainly correct. The text of the Bible sets us in a reality that is congruent with who we are as created beings in God’s image and what we are destined for in the purposes of Christ. But the Bible also has all the questions, many of them that we would just as soon were never asked of us, and some of which we will spend the rest of our lives doing our best to dodge. The Bible is a most comforting book; it is also a most discomforting book. Eat this book; it will be sweet as honey in your mouth; but it will also be bitter to your stomach. You can’t reduce this book to what you can handle; you can’t domesticate this book to what you are comfortable with. You can’t make it your toy poodle, trained to respond to your commands.”

From lectio divina, to background information regarding the formation of the canon—this book is one of the better introductions for the all-too-often-ignored task of reading the Bible. Or...as Peterson would say, the task of allowing Scripture to read me.