Review: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

Thesis Statement1

Summary1

Analysis3

Conclusion7

Endnotes9

Review: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

Thesis Statement

The following book review will study the usefulness of the book for the readers along with the themes discussed by the authors.

Summary

Fee, being the member of the Committee on Bible Translation and Sutart with his expertise in the Old Testament, come up with the book which identifies their high level of intellect. A very informative and easily available book, “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Fee and Stuart, is preliminary text on biblical understanding. This is the age of science and technology where everybody wants reasons and logic behind every phenomenon. In this situation, Fee and Stuart provide the scholars and an unordinary person with the easiest interpretation of God's message. Both the authors are of the view that the Bible is not at all an ambiguous and incomprehensible book if one studies it properly and with interest.

The book throws immense light on the nature of Scripture. The Bible is the message by God. Its every word must be clearly read and understood. The audience of the Bible is all mankind and its teachings are applicable to every culture and every age. The authors very well understand the tension that subsists between the everlasting relevance and its historical idiosyncrasy.

The authors present the introduction of the book in a very impressive way. It further helps them to discuss the coming chapters in a more elaborate way. They provide readers with two levels of understanding: Hermeneutics and Exegesis. Hermeneutics is helps the readers to understand the relationship of the modern world with the text sent for humanity centuries ago. Hermeneutics is a science to interpret Bible correctly. It is the application of linguistics and meanings. On the other hand, exegesis is used to ascertain the original contextual meaning of the God's words.

Coming to the content of the book, chapter number two gives a detailed discussion on the translation in the Bible. They also help the readers by providing a table which shows the translation on a gamut from the ceremonial uniformity to the practical uniformity. In their analysis, NASB was not correct in describing Hebrew and Greek making them indistinguishable. The authors endow with the broader perspective of possibilities for interpretation.

The authors present the main purpose of the work from chapter three to thirteen. These chapters skillfully shed light on the importance of the Bible and how a Christian can study the book devotedly. Fee and Stuart, in each chapter, scrutinize the genres of sacred writing. They use tools of exegesis and hermeneutics to explain the text; hence make it easier for the readers to read, comprehend, interpret and obey the message by God. Chapter number three and four give details of epistles. Though, they are the easiest genre of translation to understand but the hermeneutical approach makes them difficult.

Chapter five enlightens the readers with the description of the Old ...