A suggestion for Christmas

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. 2 Timothy 4:13

Last time I invited us to think about the sheer humanness of the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:9-16) – he was no super-apostle, but a man of flesh and blood. This comes across in various clues, such as the touching little request to Timothy to bring a cloak that he had left at Troas. He was feeling the chill! And it’s worth noticing that he also asks Timothy to “bring my scrolls, especially the parchments”. Even while in prison he wanted to keep up his study, especially, presumably, of the scriptures.

The Jewish and Christian faiths have always laid great emphasis on the word of God, whether it’s what we now call the Old Testament or the New. We are very much “people of the book”.

But the Bible is a big book, or, to be strictly correct, a big collection of books, and it’s a life-time’s work to get anything like a firm grip on it. Many “ordinary” Christians (whoever such a person may be) never get familiar with more than a few favourite passages – some special psalms, perhaps, or particular passages from the gospels or letters. That’s in no way a criticism of them; they just don’t have the time and energy in their hectic lives to do much more.

But this means that they are very dependent on the deeper and more expert knowledge of trained pastors and teachers. Happy is that congregation whose leaders take the Bible seriously and who aim to anchor their teaching fairly and squarely on scripture!

But even then it’s an impossible task: preaching opportunities on a Sunday are limited, and covering the whole Bible even with the addition of various mid-week gatherings still leaves much that can never be covered. So can anything more be done by Christians who want to go deeper but who have very limited time?

An answer lies in a simple word: books. Paul obviously treasured his, though we have no clear idea what they consisted of (remember that, at the time he wrote, the New Testament didn’t exist, for he and various other people were still busy writing it!), and even though the mysterious author of Ecclesiastes warns his readers that too much study can be wearisome, he obviously believed in its value as well (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

We live in a world awash with books and other forms of written communication, and the good news is that there is a wide range of Christian books available. It struck me that, especially with Christmas approaching, it couldn’t be a better time to buy such a book as a gift, or even perhaps to treat ourselves. The problem is that the range is so wide that we don’t really know where to start – plus, of course, that we need a little guidance in order to avoid literature that might not be reliable.

So I thought I would take an unusual step and simply recommend one particular book which has stood the test of time (first published in 1973, and now on its fifth edition). It falls fairly and squarely into the “evangelical” camp, is written by a galaxy of people who are experts in their fields, is readable for the non-expert, and is beautifully produced, with coloured maps, charts and diagrams galore, plus an (admittedly very condensed) commentary on the whole Bible. It can be used both for sustained study and as a dipping-in book. It’s published by Lion Publishing and is called “The Lion Handbook to the Bible”. (And no, I’m not on commission from Lion, just in case you were wondering!)

So if ever you have wondered, say, just how the Bible actually became the Bible, it would be a perfect gift for yourself or for a friend. After all, the Bible didn’t come to us floating down from heaven, like the manna in the wilderness, beautifully bound in leather covers! No, it’s an assortment of books that was slowly, gradually gathered into one book over many centuries. As well as being divinely inspired, it was also humanly written, and we can learn a lot from discovering who these people were, and what, humanly speaking, motivated them to write.

Why are there four Gospels and not just one? Why not a compendium of all four? - wouldn’t that be perfectly simple? Who was “Jude” who wrote that tiny letter near the end of the New Testament? What can we discover about Amos the herdsman of Tekoa? Or Daniel? Or Habakkuk? Who wrote 1 and 2 Samuel, or Chronicles? What are we to make of “The Song of Songs”? or “Revelation” (and not “Revelations”, please!).

Just throwing out these random questions makes me aware that a warning is needed: not all of them have clear-cut, certain answers! But that’s hardly surprising – we are talking, after all, of documents that belong to a world long gone, and which are written in languages most of us can’t read. But that, I think, just adds to the fascination.

A book like The Lion Handbook can only give us greater clarity regarding the written word of God – and, what ultimately matters even more, can only lead us closer to its chief figure, the Living Word of God, Jesus himself.

Happy Christmas!

Father, thank you for your written word in scripture. Help me to value it as the inspired word of God and to give what time and attention I can to absorbing its teaching. And thank you for those you have gifted with the necessary expertise to help explain its origin, its main characteristics and its message. Help me to gratefully take advantage of their knowledge, and so to grow in maturity and understanding. Amen.