Takeaways from Bible Reading

In reading the Bible cover to cover, my personal judgment is that one can read the Bible as literature first, history second and religious philosophy a distant third.  Many authors owe a debt to the Bible as their inspiration for their own stories; writers and poets such as Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, the Brontes, Dickens as well as contemporary writers such as Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman (to name a few).  Our literature is strewn with biblical allusions but this is not news to any literate person.  The Bible itself as literature is worth reading as a good story with an intricate plot and many beautiful passages that read as poetry.

The Bible as history may surprise less religious people but in fact archeological finds have confirmed many of the biblical figures are in fact historical figures.  The books of Kings and Chronicles are accurate in many respects and both Pilate and Jesus are documented historical persons outside of religious writings.

Now for the crux of the Bible as religious, spiritual and moral teachings.  My personal takeaway did not change substantially from before my “Bible in one year” reading.  The most valuable lessons are Jesus’s Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and no one can go very wrong if they live by the Ten Commandments. 

All the other teachings are not essential to morality (in my opinion).  Rather there are guidelines to behaviour, stories with moral lessons (Job, Esther, Judges), outcomes on loyalty (Ruth), parables with many different life lessons (the Gospels).   Leviticus is a book of rules on hygiene, incest, leprosy (oh yes, leprosy seems to be stressed frequently in the Pentatuch), money lending and so forth.  Yet if one refers back to the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule then all the other lessons are (for me) either obsolete or in simply illustrations that prove that the commandments are the rules to live by. 

Overall I do recommend reading the Bible with an open mind as literature, history and morality stories.  For the religious person the Bible is a very complex string of moral stories and that’s all I will say about that (for now).