Mining the Meaning of the Bible

 

Mining the Meaning of the Bible. Beyond the literal word
By Sallie Latkovich, CSJ
Liguori Publications
Missouri, 2011

“A few years ago, my niece, Nancy, was about to celebrate her birthday. I wanted to get her a gift, maybe a book. Her dad asked me, ‘Do you know about any books that would help Nancy understand the Bible? She is full of questions about it.’ (...) There were lots of Bibles for kids, but no books that would help Nancy understand the Bible. So, I decided to write a book for Nancy—and for you— so we could go mining for the treasures of the Bible.” From the Foreword.

Some people read the Bible as if they were reading a local newspaper or a book written several years ago. But the Bible was written thousands of years ago. Try this: go to a library and pick up a book that was written only a hundred years ago. You will probably find that it is not easy to read, and that sometimes you don’t understand the stories and ideas, even though you may recognize the words.

The Bible was not written a hundred years ago but much, much earlier. As a matter of fact, the Bible is not one book but many books —72 books from the Book of Genesis through The Book of Revelation— written between two and three thousand years ago, although some of the stories are still older.

The Bible tells us the Word of God through the stories, traditions, laws, sufferings, dreams, proverbs, wisdom, battles, exiles, etc. of His people. Thus, it is important to know their culture, language, symbols, values, beliefs and so on in order to be able to understand the Word of God. Otherwise, we may think that God is talking when, actually, we haven’t gone beyond the stories and beliefs of the people.

The same words, symbols, numbers, stories and parables may not mean the same today as they did two thousand years ago. This doesn’t mean that the Word of God is less powerful today than when it was written. But it is important to understand why and how the Word of God was proclaimed to the people if we want to understand what the Bible tells us today.

Mining the Meaning of the Bible, a short book —63 pages in small format— written by Sister Sallie Latkovich is a simple and insightful introduction to the Bible that any person thirsty for the Word of God should read. I recommend it to candidates for confirmation, parents, sponsors, and all readers of the Bible.