Quotes about Reading

Beginning with sin instead of creation is like trying to read a book by opening it in the middle: You don't know the characters and can't make sense of the plot.

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?

We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them.

When we open the Bible and read it, we are eavesdropping on an ancient spiritual journey.

The need to explain Jesus as both surprise ending and deeply connected to Israel's story drove the Gospel writers to do some creative reading. Sticking to what the Bible says wasn't their goal. Talking about Jesus was.

They were writing and reading these stories to understand their own relationship with God.

Literalism is a hermeneutical decision (often implicit) stemming from the belief that God's Word requires a literal reading.

a literal reading of Genesis is not the firmly settled default position of true faith to which one can "hold firm" or from which one "strays." Literalism is a hermeneutical decision (often implicit) stemming from the belief that God's Word requires a literal reading.

Rulebook Bible reading" shortchanges the depth and raw reality of Israel's own journey of faith in God.

In reading the Bible we are watching the spiritual journeys of people long ago.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.