Katie Haldane
C3 College lecturer & founder of Trash Your Bible (TYB).
What if I said to you, prove that the Bible is true, without using the Bible as your source? What would you use? As students of the Biblical text a great way to expand your understanding of the Bible is to read beyond the pages of the Bible. Now before you stop reading, or strike me off as a heretic, let me explain. As lovers of the Bible, we are assured of the truth of our text. As students and teachers of the Bible, we need to go beyond our one-line statement of “because the Bible says” and cultivate a depth of knowledge and evidence that is rooted and grounded in the history, culture and geographical knowledge of the text. The seemingly taboo topics of culture, politics, social context, geography and archaeological evidence are a great way to unlock your Bible.
Discovering that Mount Carmal is a fertile mountain range that is the first to get rain in the region, makes 1 Kings 18 come alive. Finding out that the place where the atrocity of Dinah in Genesis 34 happened is the very place that Jesus redeems the woman in John 4 brings tears to your eyes. Reinforcing the life of Christ, by studying Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian and what he said about Jesus is an adventure.
Studying the Bible can go beyond the study of ‘theology’ or even just studying the books of the Bible (I shudder as I type that!). For those of us who adore history, archaeology, geography and literature – studying the Bible from these aspects might be more your thing! Not all Christian theologians, study theology. Some of us are more historians or archaeologists like Dr Kyle Keimer from Macquarie University who just discovered the city of Ziklag.
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-town-of-ziklag-may-have-been-discovered/
The Bible at times doesn’t explain culture, geographical traits, historical knowledge as it is assumed within the text. But for us 2000-4000 years later it takes some digging and research to unearth the incredible gems within (archaeological pun intended!) Begin today!
Here are some first steps to begin your journey:
The New Testament In Its World: NT Wright and Michael Bird
Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Jonathan S Greer, John W Hilber and John H Walton