InREVIEW: Book Look
By Michael J. Breznau | November 2021
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth (Zondervan, 1981; 2014 reprint)
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart present a massive rewrite to the previous three editions of their trademark book How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (pg. 11-12). The old adage still floats around our society, “People can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say.” Even among less cynical churchgoers who profess a high view of Scripture, many seem lost when it comes to accurately interpreting and applying God’s Word. Conservative evangelical churches are ripe with classes, small groups, and even sermons that ignorantly contort the scriptures and rip them out of context. Every election cycle in America is met with Christians publicly (yet unknowingly?) claiming promises for their “homeland” that were only intended for national Israel (e.g. 2 Chron. 7:14). Worse yet, a young crop of progressive-liberal Christians ready themselves to defend various deviant sexual activities with novel interpretations of the Bible. These hermeneutical challenges have created “urgent problems in the church today” (pg. 18).
Therefore, Fee and Stuart’s bestselling book is needed now more than ever. Their main purpose is to equip readers to understand the Bible in its various genre types (pg. 16). God’s Word contains poetic, apocalyptic, narrative, wisdom/proverbial, letters, parables and other types of literature that must be read and processed in the way the original author intended. But how does one tell the difference between these literature types? The answer to that question is the centerpiece of this book.
Fee and Stuart are undoubtedly experts – scholars in their own right. Yet they are also faithful churchmen who regularly preach and teach the scriptures (pg. 17). They are devout believers and approach the Word of God with reverence. With this combination of scholarship, practical experience, and strong faith, they offer a trustworthy toolbox by everyone. Yes, everyone. They claim, everybody can do exegesis well – we just need “to ask the right questions of the text” (pg. 19, 28). Key to their method is viewing exegesis and hermeneutics as two complementary yet separate actions in the process (pg. 18). They define exegesis as the work of arriving at the “then and there” original intent of a passage (see pg. 27, 34), whereas hermeneutics is the task of ascertaining the “here and now” meaning (pg. 33-34).[1] Both of these steps are employed throughout the book as the authors guide the reader through an in-depth study of ten different literature collections, in this order: The Epistles, Old Testament narratives, Acts, the Gospels, The Parables, The Law, The Prophets, The Psalms, Wisdom books, and Revelation. No stone is left unturned!
Strong Points
Fee and Stuart are adept at sending “cannonballs over the bow,” per se. Sacred cows of biblical misinterpretation are routinely smashed and pet-doctrines with flimsy biblical support are carefully shot down throughout the book. Each chapter begins with a bold demonstration of the need we face for leaning into sound exegesis and they do so by unearthing the ways in which so many have mishandled the text (see pg. 132). One may disagree with some of their conclusions (and there are many included throughout). But you cannot dismiss their tenacious integrity to the Word. Examples of the hot-button topics and conclusions they offer: lawsuits among Christians (pg. 79, moralizing (pg. 96-7), mode of baptism (pg. 128-31), tongues (pg. 130), drinking wine (pg. 76), women in leadership (pg. 86), and knowing God’s will (pg. 250).
They offer good, essential discussion on textual criticism (pg. 39-43) and an extensive explanation on old and new translations (pg. 44-56). Humorously, they comment, “the NKJV revisers eliminated the best feature of the KJV (its marvelous expression of the English language) and kept the worst (its flawed Greek text)” (pg. 43). They land on the NIV 2011 but also recommend several other modern translations.
Time-saving pastors will also be thankful for the Scripture reference index included in the back of the book. They also grant the reader numerous recommendations for further study (see for example pg. 136).
Weak Points
The book is titled as a popular-level work and cast to a broad audience. But it lacks a creative layout and healthy illustrative material. At times, the discussions quickly turn academic, which is appealing to me as a seminary-trained pastor, but such that I could not readily recommend the book to the average member of my middle-class church. As an example, they should have started out with smaller portions of Scripture in their instruction (see pg. 63-65).
Interestingly, the authors argue against paragraphs blocks and verse numerations in Bible translations (pg. 32). But they appear self-contradictory when they later go on to say we must “THINK [in] PARAGRAPHS” (they wrote in all-caps for emphasis) (see here: pg. 67, 140, 268).
As mentioned above, they provide a significant discussion on translations, but they do not include interaction with the NET, TNIV, or the updated NLT, all of which were available in 2014 when this revision was printed.
Reflection and Interaction
Over all, their desire is to echo the well-known words recorded by Augustine, “Take up and read” (“Tolle, lege”) (pg. 19). We need not attempt to “discover what no one else has ever seen before” (pg. 21) in the scriptures, but rather pick up the Word, read it well and carefully work toward the intended meaning and accurate application. Yet as Fee and Stuart point out, we bring our own lenses and contexts to the scriptures. Herein lies the danger (pg. 22-23). We are all prone to make the Bible say what [we] see as the plain sense, but that “plain sense” might not even make sense to the original author (pg. 24). So they exhort us, “The antidote to bad interpretation is not no interpretation but good interpretation, based on commonsense guidelines.” (pg. 25)
First, we must read well (pg. 30). In our reading we must gain understanding of the historical and literary context, as well as the actual content of the passage (pg. 62). We cannot merely seek to “get around” verses that are challenging to our theological presuppositions or traditions, but instead get into the text for all it is worth (pg. 76-77). Simply put, the most important question we will ever ask is: “what’s the point? (pg. 31-32, 67, 120). This strikes at authorial intent or the development of a book’s overall argument (pg. 265). Fee and Stuart providing numerous examples of developing such an argument in both Old Testament and New Testament passages.
Second, they continue with great tools for interpreting and accurately applying challenging genres like Old Testament prophecy, Christ’s parables (pg. 157, 160), and the apocalyptic vision of Revelation. I have currently found handling the narratives of Acts a significant homiletical challenge, so I am thankful for their particularly helpful tools for interpreting and accurately applying the Acts of the Apostles (pg. 112, 119).
We are all prone to a me-centered meaning of the text, therefore, Fee and Stuart remind us of this central key: “In any biblical narrative, God is the ultimate character, the supreme hero of the story” (Pg. 103 – case in point, the life of Joseph). It’s not about you. It’s not about me. The Word of God is for the glory of God and the joy of God’s people as they follow His Word as their guide for all life, faith, and practice. Sola Scriptura!
FOOTNOTES
[1] They admit this is a new meaning of the term hermeneutics, which traditionally is used to denote the entire process of biblical study and interpretation (pg. 33-34).
