The Scripture and Authority of God The Scripture and Authority of God: How to read the Bible is a book written by N.T Wright also known as Tom Wright. It was published in the year 2011. N.T Wright is an acclaimed theologian who has studied the bible and tries to explain how the word should be handled by the people and its important impact to the lives of the people if only it is understood as it should be. He has done much research in New Testament and early church. In the book, he tries to give meaning to the old scriptures and outdo the confusion that comes with it. He uses different chapters of the Bible to make the people.
Wright tries to explain how the bible as a gospel book containing the authorities of God can be authoritative to the Christians who read it. He points that some laws were broken by Jesus yet the followers are supposed to adhere to the laws by God through his prophets, this is to bring out how the word of God should be authoritative to the people. Wright says through his book that Jesus was a saving plan by God to the people through the scripture if understood correctly. He bring out the relationship between the contemporary cultures view of the scripturesIn his chapters, Wright dismisses the Bible as being the authority of God but rather as a tool that passes the authority of God to the people thus God being the overall authority. Though the Bible has rules that guide the human race, the commandments, it should not be viewed as having the supreme authority over the people but having the right authority from God to its people. Wright uses the bible as a book full of stories that try to guide the Christians through the narratives rather than a rule book that dictates to them what should and should not be done. It, therefore, is up to the Christian to keenly study the book and gauge ways on what is right and wrong as told by the scriptures. The scriptures should not be misinterpreted because of shallow studies but should be understood fully and not judged because it is authority from God.
Wright uses Israel to explain how the Bible is a book that tries to explain Gods judgment to the people for their wrong. In the book, Wright points out how the Prophets were sent with the good word of salvation to save the people of Israel but were rejected. This is used to reinforce obedience by the contemporary cultures to the word of God. Wright views the bible as a tool to guide the church and not to order it. He believes its Gods way of guiding the people through Christ back to Him (Wright 42).
Wright brings the comparison between Jesus acts and the Old Testament writings. For example the story of the Sabbath, Jesus performed miracles on a Sabbath while the Old Testament scriptures required the Christians to rest on the Sabbath. He continues to explain why this scripture shows Jesus fulfilling the scriptures in the Old Testament though the Christians find contradictions in His doings. Wright tries to explain the understanding of the word by the different Christian in the modern setting and the early church. The word in the early church as depicted by Wright meant the Story of Jesus and the stories of the Hebrews while today Christians view the word as a the Bible. Wright sets this as the scriptural authority. Which is “Plan firmly in the soil of missionary community, confronting the powers of the world with the news of the kingdom of God, refreshed and invigorated by the spirit growing particularly through the preaching and teaching of the apostles and bearing fruit in the transformation of human lives as part of Gods project to put the Whole creation to rights.”
Wright tries to explain why the people try to quote the bible in situations to try and explain things, and he says such people are those that do not read the bible attentively. He describes the four sense of interpretation. He describes the four sense of interpretation as the literal, the allegorical, the analogical and the moral. The allegorical talks about discovery of the Christian elements in non-Christian verse, the moral sense where the Christians learn to behave hidden in the scripture, the analogical as a way of trying to understand the future in the hidden text.
Wright explains that by reading the Bible, one gains knowledge about the past, gains knowledge about the happenings of the present and the same scriptures help in unraveling what the Christian truths hold. He tries to prove that the bible can be used to explain almost everything if it is only understood well. Wright identifies misreading of the scriptures and dismisses some of the scriptures about the rapture, prosperity gospel, death penalty. He challenges objectivity and cultural relativity. He holds that academic methods can also be used to explain some scriptures and to judge some readings as ancient to others at present. He goes ahead to give the requirements needed in the reading of the scripture in order to understand the word. He puts it that tradition should be respected while reading the scripture even though some of the things are seen as old and not applicable they still do have their meaning and significance in the life of the present and the future. Respect for reason is another requirement in that the Christians using the Bible should not judge the Scriptures beyond the reason it was meant for. This is by being self-aware of the interpretative context. The five-step recommendations try to highlight the use of both the academic and devotional approaches in studying the scriptures of the book(Wright 43)
In his book, Wright tries to explain the importance of understanding the devotional way of understanding the bible and the academic way as two different ways of viewing the scriptures and that both the means have a different approach and a different conclusion to it depending on how the person analyzed the scriptures. More importance though should be placed in acknowledging both as means of interpreting the book (Wright).
He believes a reader who is a Christian should be able to be impacted by the reading not only through the stories but the word in it. He relates different stories of the bible in the time of Jesus to bring out points that should matter to the people who read the word. He states that the book should be read frequently and thoroughly. Conservatives who take offense with his political views and liberals who reject his traditional views on the way of analyzing the word should try the interpretive steps in his guideline
He insists on the rule “Remember you are reading the whole thing, but you are focusing on this little bit”. Wrights book does bring the true meaning of understanding the word as it should be and not using the word to judge the happenings. It does apply strongly to the current Christian ways and should be followed as stated.
Work Cited
N.T Wright Scriptures and Authority of God."How to read the bible today."
