No. The Bible Isn’t Written TO You
The Bible is not written TO you. BUT. The Bible it is written FOR you.
Hear me out. There is an important distinction here.
However we view the Bible is the lens in which we will read and interpret it. If we think of it as a personal letter from God to us, then we will read it as such. But when we do that we are missing out what the Bible is actually about.
The authors of the Bible were not thinking of you when they penned their respective books. They were, however, thinking of someone. Their words weren’t written to a 21st century culture. Rather they were written to an ancient culture with drastically different norms.
Again, the Bible is not written TO you. BUT. The Bible it is written FOR you. That might seem like we are just splitting hairs. But it’s this lack of understanding of who the Bible is written to that has lead many to misuse and misunderstand the Bible.
So let’s start from the beginning…
So, Who is the Bible Written To?
If the Bible isn’t written to me, then who is it written to?
Here’s the first problem with answering that question. The Bible wasn’t written to any single person or people group. Rather it is a the collection of books written by different authors, to different cultures, at different times.
Here’s just a few:
- Luke and Acts are written to one person, Theophilus.
- The Epistles (Paul’s letters) were written to specific churches or people.
- Genesis was written to the Nation of Israel.
- The other books of Law were also written to Israel.
- Psalms is a collections of more or less private poetry not written to anyone.
- Matthew, Mark, and John were directed at a different cultural audience.
The point is, the Bible was not written to you. But it was written to someone. Not a singular person. Rather multiple people. Each book has an audience that it was written to. Each audience lived in a specific time and had their own culture surrounding them. And you need to understand who those person(s) are before applying it to your life. If you don’t you will likely not fully understand, or possibly even misunderstand what the Bible is telling us today.
The Bible isn’t only written to specific people. It’s also written in different ways.
Understanding the Genre
We already know that the Bible is written to a specific people and in a specific culture, but each book is also written in a specific way.
Part of the beauty of the Bible is that it doesn’t just tell you truth in one way. Rather it takes advantage of multiple genres to show the complexity of God and the spectrum of human experience.
Think of it this way. You don’t read a history book the same way you read poetry. And you aren’t going to read a book of law the same way you read a letter from a friend. You read each of those in a different manner.
In the same way you shouldn’t read Acts the same way you read Psalms. They are different genres. You can read more on that here: How to Read the Bible (better)
Each book of the Bible is written to a specific person or people group in a specific culture and in a specific way.
What Happens When We Ignore The Who
One example I like that shows how we often miss the point when reading like this is Genesis 1-3, the Creation Story. Many read this story with a 21st century mindset; it’s a story about how God literally created the world. However, this book wasn’t written to a science-minded people. Rather an ancient group that lost their identity. They didn’t care about the science behind it, and it wasn’t written with that in mind. They saw their identity in the story.
At this point I know some of you are thinking, he just said Genesis isn’t literally true! That proves my point. The point isn’t is Genesis literal or not. What I’m getting at is because we are so ingrained in reading the Bible with our 21st Century eyes we missed the point of many stories in the Bible. Genesis 1-3 is an incredible story with rich applications. But we’ve boiled it down to God creating the world in a literal 7 days. That’s not the point of this story! Our modern reading has caused us to miss the point.
I’ve written a whole article on this, you can read it here: We’ve Missed the Point of the Creation Story
When we ignore who the Bible was written to and the way it was written it can cause us to miss what’s really going on. Many of the crazy ideas out there today stem from someone doing this.
After You Understand Who, You Can Apply It To You
I impressed myself by accidentally rhyming.
Remember, the Bible isn’t written TO you, but it is written FOR you. In other words, the Bible contains truth and we should read it and apply it to our lives. The Bible tells us about God, his plan for redemption, and our role in his story. It’s certainly for us today. But we must understand the original context before applying it to ourselves.
I know this makes many uncomfortable. But what I’m NOT saying is that the Bible isn’t for us. It’s of no use to us. Or that it doesn’t contain truth. Rather what I’m saying is that we have to understand the culture, the people, and the way it was written in order to fully understand what it means to us.
The Bible is written FOR us. And we should read it, study it, and apply it to our lives. But many have gotten the wrong idea because they have ignored the original meaning and the original audience. Once we understand the original meaning we can understand and apply the truth of the Bible to our lives.
Don’t forget to share your thoughts! Leave a comment below!
I disagree. The Bible has one author and He absolutely was writing to me. His love is so great that He would never make it a mystery whether it applied to me, and now, or not.
Right! When we apply to us, that by default takes it way out of context. But I think it’s a simple misunderstanding because we believe that Yahweh knows the end from the beginning, knew me before I was born, and knew I needed to read these words one day, and wrote them for me. The only problem is that, while all that is true, it assumes God would make the truth EASY for me to grab off the shelf and put in my pocket. Jesus told parables to deliberately get them to think. Why is effort important? It’s one way to exercise our faith in him. A boyfriend spends money to give his girl a nice date to show that he cares about their relationship. He listens to her, learns about her, asks questions, makes himself vulnerable. But when we read scripture, we think there can be a relationship outside of active love: risk, effort, journey, vulnerability, investment. We can both believe that it was written for our benefit as well as keep it in context. Because God never changes his character. He was merciful then, he is still merciful now. He was faithful then, he is faithful now. Scripture wasn’t written in English. It doesn’t directly apply to western Culture. It’s not even “white”–it’s middle eastern Jewish. But that’s okay. God’s still exactly the same no matter where you’re from. And that’s what we really need to lean on as we read it.
Friend, I think that this is an honest attempt on your part to discuss the depths of the Bible. Thank you for that.
However, a few things:
The name “Theophilus” means “Beloved of God.” So “Theophilus” is every person. Luke is intentionally reaching out to all people.
You’re right, the human authors of the Bible did not know that the words they helped to write would be read so much later. But the Holy Spirit did. The Bible is a message specifically for Jeffery Poor. And for all other individuals.
(An ancient midrash (Scripture commentary) reports a rabbi who said that if a person knows how to read the Torah well, they will find the entirety of their life, in specific detail, hidden therein.)
While we can’t be sure if Theophilus was a real person or a title most theologians hold the view he was a real person. The way in which Luke rights before of his books seem to point to that as well. Like I said, we can’t know. But if I’m betting, I’m going to better on him being a real person.
I agree with you that the Bible has something for me(and you). But I disagree that it was written specifically for me. Luke was not written to me. But it does have truth for me.
Excellent points!
Jeffrey, I believe you are spot on. Consider the 23rd Psalm. If you don’t understand a shepherd’s relationship with his sheep, you will not understand the depth of caring our Lord has for us. If you don’t know how afraid sheep are in a deep valley, you won’t understand the “valley of death” comment. Thanks for this writing.
That’s an excellent point! Shepherding is a foreign concept in the Western world. Without some study the depth of that, and other, passages would be lost.