This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 533: How to Read the Bible in Context with Sean Finnegan

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to Restitutio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. 

Today is the first of two episodes on how to understand and apply the. Bible one of. The greatest problems facing Bible readers today is the lifted verse. It's so common to see a verse or even half a verse posted on social media or on a sign somewhere. When most people read a random verse, they impose their own modern context and background information on it. As a result, it's easy to accidentally give a scripture new meaning that the original author never intended. How can we overcome this problem? Today you'll learn about the five major contexts that are important to keep in mind when reading the Bible 

Here now is episode 533. Read the Bible for yourself Part 3 how to read the Bible in context. 

We're going to really focus on the concept of exegesis, which is a careful explanation of a text. Synonyms for exegesis are explanation, exposition, elucidation to execute a text is to understand it. Correctly so that you can explain it to someone. That's the idea of exegesis and exegetical study is a study that goes verse by verse, explaining what each verse means in the Bible. It's kind of a technical term, but it's a good word for you to know. This is the first step in reading the Bible is understanding what you read yourself. 2nd we need to ask what it means. To us today. But before we look at that, I want to 1st emphasize the importance of prayer. We want to ask God to enlighten our. Eyes when we read script. Here, because I believe the text is alive, I don't think it's just dead words on a page. I think that these words are inspired by God and therefore can change your life. Something happened to me when I was coming to the Lord when I really turned to him, and that is I was. Given a hunger for scripture. And that's not something I can give you. I can make you curious. I can offend you, but I I cannot give you a hunger for scripture. That's something that God has to give you. And that's a prayer. I recommend that you pray. Honestly, is is. Even if you have been reading the Bible for a long time is is to say God. Make me hungry for scripture. I read in Psalm 119 that the psalmist says. Your words are. Sweeter than honey and and then the drips of the honeycomb. You know that mindset that. Says ohh I. Just just crave it. Just want it. You want to be hungry for Scripture, so ask God to do that for you. And it's funny too, because I don't read much poetry in general. I don't, really. Honestly, understand poetry? I keep thinking like, you know, maybe next year. I'll get it. But I love the Psalms. I love biblical poetry like I get it. It doesn't rhyme, but I know what's going on and and to me, it's satisfying. Like, I didn't like social studies in high school, but I love. Biblical historical narratives. I love learning about the Kings and the judges and the prophets. I didn't really have any interest in the letters of Emily Dickinson. But I can't get enough of the letters of Paul the Apostle. Just read them over and over, and I'm endlessly fascinated. And I learned each time. So I recommend you ask God to give you a taste for Scripture. I know people who could barely read. The English language. They could barely read, and because of their desire, their passion, their hunger for scripture, they learn to read so they could read the Bible. They learn to read, reading the Bible. And if you have hunger like that, you're you're gonna overcome the frustration that goes along with the process of understanding scripture. Because let me tell you. It's hard, it takes work. So if you're expecting it to be easy, you'll probably quit and my guess would be you'd quit about halfway through Exodus. I think that's like the standard place people quit. Because the grand, sweeping narrative of Genesis, just like so epic, you're like, wow, these are like, where all these other things come from that I've heard about? You get through the 10 plagues of exodus. You get to Mount Sinai. It's just incredible. God comes down and gives the 10 commandments. And then we go into law zone, the legal code. And we start counting the rings on the Tabernacle. And you're just like. I can't do it anymore, right? So we're going to give you some tools. Hopefully that will help you get through legal texts and understand them better. To understand, though, you gotta read, you just gotta read, read, read the best strategy for understanding any verse in the Bible or any paragraph in the Bible is to have. A larger context to have more reading that you've already done so for example, to understand the Psalms, especially the songs that David wrote, it really helps if you've read first and Second Samuel, because that's that's where it tells you all about the history of David. If you want to understand hag eye better, the prophet hag eye, not a super popular prophet. In the Bible I admit. But if you want to know him better, you really need to read Ezra and Nehemiah because that tells you the historical background that Haggai is working with. Or if you want to read the New Testament, you're like I just so want to understand the Gospels or the Epistles. Or the Book of Revelation. Everybody wants to understand the Book of Revelation. How? Do you do? It you really would be served well to have. Read the Old Testament. Because the New Testament refers back to the Old Testament all the time, especially the Book of Revelation quotes it non-stop and refers back to it in. Little subtle ways. That you just miss if you if you have read so read, read, read, read large chunks, pay attention to recurring words and themes. Write down. Questions that you can come back to later. Notice verses that are similar to each other across different books of the Bible and different sections of the Bible. And two questions you should ask yourself are what did it mean to the original audience then? That's your first question. A lot of people forget to ask this question and they go to question #2, which is what does it mean to me today, or what does it mean to you today? And we really want to answer both of those questions. And today and right now our focus is on question one and then in our next session, the. Question 2 will be our focus. We tend only to exegete difficult and confusing verses. What I mean by execute is go into some sort of explanation of what it means. We also happily read in our assumptions in verses that. We think are easy. That can be problematic. They call that isogenous. So you have exegesis. Is reading out from the text what it means, and then I suggest SIS is reading into the text which you want it to mean. Do not. Do that. That's bad. We want to do exegesis. We want the Bible to inform us we want to read out from Scripture what is telling us rather than reading into scripture what we want it to say or what we, our theology or whatever allow the Bible to be like a dog that can just devour your theology. Just let it mess with your theology. OK. Maybe your theology needed to be messed with like. Let's just not. Let's not, like, cut off all the the rough edges of scripture and be like, Oh well now it fits neatly into my theological boxes. Maybe your boxes aren't so great, OK. So let the Bible be first. Let it be primary. What was the authors original intent of a sentence, paragraph, chapter or book? That's really a good question. To ask you. Know what? What was this person trying to communicate here? And really, to get at and understand to exegete understand, interpret Scripture. Context, context, context are the three most important factors. If you understand the context, you will be much better at interpreting a particular verse. And context is bigger than just what the words are around the particular verse you're reading or sentence you're. Reading there are 5 contexts I want you to consider when you read a book of the Bible. One is the immediate context. Another is canonical context. 1/3 is historical context 1/4 geographical and then a fifth is cultural context. So I'm going to go. Through each one. Of these, with you, so you get. An understanding of what it is because. These things are going to illuminate your. Ability to understand Scripture accurately on your own. As you read. So the first one up there, the immediate context, this one doesn't need too much explanation, but let's just give an illustration. The Superman verse, right? Philippians 413 says I can do all things through him who strengthens me. That means that I at 45 years of age can become an NFL quarterback. I can do it right? No, no, I can't. I have a pain in my elbow. Even right this moment. Like to throw a football like I've never been that good at throwing a football. In all honesty, I could throw a Frisbee like you wouldn't believe. But if football is is kind of awkward for me, I can. Sometimes get a little spiral on there. But look, I don't care how many hours a day I worked at it, I would never be an NFL quarterback at this point in my life. So it's not true that I could take this verse and say I could do anything I want because he strengthens me. That's not what it means. I I can't hold my breath for an hour. Because Philippians 413's in the Bible, I I can't read your thoughts. Well, sometimes I can. If you're laughing, I maybe I understand your you think I'm being funny or something? But like, generally you can be thinking anything while you look at me and I have no idea. Mostly I'm more worried about what I'm trying. To say to be honest. So the problem is. You don't want to use divine authorization for your own personal agenda. And that's how they this verse gets used a lot of time. So what? What does Flippy as 413 mean? Well, it's easy. We just look at the words around it. We look at the the rest of the paragraph and we start in verse 10 and it says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me. But you had no opportunity. Not that I am Speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. Paul's talking about enduring hardship. He's in prison. He's right into a church that had sent him money, and he's saying to them, thank you. That's really all all there. Is to it. He's not trying to say he can leap a tall building in a single bound. That's not what he's saying. He's just saying, look, I I could deal with life because Christ is with me. He's strengthening me. I can get through hardship and and easy times. That that's. That's just the extent of it. So that's a good example of the immediate context. Filling in what it means. Most parts of the Bible work in large paragraphs. And I I think it's fine if you subscribe to. An app or. A social media feed or an e-mail list that gives you a verse of the day. OK, I'm not criticizing that. I think that's fine. OK, but. When you're reading the Bible. Don't just read a verse you want to read for distance. Most of the time I understand sometimes you really want to narrow down and study something that's a little different than what I'm talking about. And there's a certainly a good place for that. All right, let's look at #2 canonical context. The canonical context is where is this verse in? The lineup of scripture. There are 66 books in the Bible. We looked at how there's the Old Testament and there's the New Testament within the Old Testament. You have a historical section. Then you have a poetic section, and then you have. A prophetic section. History, poetry, prophecy. Same thing with the new test. We have the history. And then you have the epistles. And then you have the prophecy. Right. So, like, where are you reading in the Bible? Not everything is chronological, but overall, generally it is chronological. I can explain more about that later. I don't want to get too deep into that. But let's say you're reading Leviticus 11/4. You just cracked open your bottle. You just put your finger in, and this is where it landed, it says. But among those that chew the cud or have divided hoofs, you shall not eat the following the camel for, even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs. It is unclean for you. So there goes your camel BBQ you were planning for this summer, verse 7 the pig for even though it has divided hoofs, is cleft footed. It does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you so you say. Alright, well, the Bible says I can't eat bacon. I can't eat pork roast. I can't eat baby back ribs. It says it right there. Leviticus 11/7. Boom, that's just all there is to it. No ham, no pork chops, no sausage. So we were. Like ohh Sean, I didn't come here for this. Really ruining my day. So OK, if that's really true, if the Bible really teaches no pig and no camels, well, I don't think we have a camel issue here. Why are so many Christians eating pork products? Are they all stupid? Are they all clueless? Are they? Christians, billions of us have just never read Leviticus 11 is. That what's going? None. No, no, that's that's not the problem. Christians who read this understand that this part of the Bible is spoken to the people of Israel at that time under. What we call the. Old covenant and we get that from verse one. Where it says the Lord. Spoke to Moses and Aaron saying to them speak to the Israelites. From among all the land animals, these are the creatures that you may eat. So this these are words spoken to those people for that time in that nation and they are not universalizable to all people of all time. At least that's my belief. Some Christians disagree with me. But you know, the vast majority of Christians would read it this way. And that's what I mean by the canonical. Context. Where does it fit? In the K&N, the list of books that are in the Bible? Is the name Canon for? That right #3 the historical context. The most quoted verse in the Bible. The last time I. Looked it up. Was Jeremiah 2911? It says for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for your your. Welfare and not for harm. To give you a future with hope. That sounds just lovely. The typical interpretation of this verse is to say that God has plans for each and every different person, and those plans are to. Give you a wonderful life and to bless you and that no harm would come to you. OK, that's the. That's a typical reading of this verse. But this is not at all how you should read this verse. This verse is actually part of a letter that starts in verse one of Jeremiah 29, that Jeremiah the Prophet wrote to the Exiles in Babylon who had just suffered one of the most brutal and horrifying experiences of God's judgment carried out by the Babylonian nation. On Jerusalem and these people have been ruined. They've literally been traumatized. They've seen so many people die that they love, you know, they they're not reading this verse of thinking. Oh, yes, you know, it's God's never going to let any harm come to me. No, that's not. That's not the historical context. Of this verse. The historical context of this verse is now that you've been punished because of your terrible idolatry and your terrible injustice to the poor and the treatment of the people. Now that you've been punished, now God is going to seek to bless you. Now that you've received the punishment. Once you read the historical context, you're like ohh wow, this is not a verse that can just Willy nilly apply to all people in all situations. And you know what the the main thrust of this letter is of Jeremiah 29, it's you're gonna come back in 70 years. These people are all. Gonna be dead. You know, you know what I mean? Like you imagine getting a letter and you're like, I know the plans I have for you. But it's gonna be 70 years, you know, it's gonna be a while, but you. Know what God is faithful and he did bring them. Back but when you understand historical and political situation, Jeremiah 2911 takes on a whole new meaning. All right, #4 geographical context, John 213 says the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He. Must have been South. Of Jerusalem. Right. Because if you went up to Jerusalem, you went N. That's the way we look at our maps. Well, that's not at all the case, he. Was actually north of. Jerusalem when he said these words, because you have to understand the geographical context, geography of Jerusalem is on a hill, everyone always goes up to Jerusalem. I don't care if you approach from the east to the West, the north or the South. Nobody goes down to Jerusalem. Maybe if you're in a spaceship or something, OK? But you go. Up to Jerusalem, at least in the Bible, there are so many different aspects of the geography of the land of Israel that can help you in reading the Bible, and I would strongly recommend that if you are able in your lifetime. Go to the land now is not a good time. I understand that. But at some point in your life, if you can go to the land and if you could see the mountains and then you're like those aren't mountains at all. That's a hill. Now you're like, OK, now I see what's going. On and then you go. To the the river Jordan. And you're like. It's just a little Creek I could. I may be able to jump across it. And you see how dirty and brown the water is and and you read the story of name. And he says Ohh can I can I go home and take a bath in one of those rivers instead of this one. You know, things just start to make sense for you once you've seen the geographical features of the land and there's there's there's hardly any place on Earth as diverse as is. Still, they have a snow capped mountain range in the north and then then you have these, the Judean, they call the Judean Mountains, but they're small mountains. And it's a desert, rocky desert region in the South. And then you've got the Dead Sea. Such a weird place you can't sink in the Dead Sea. You could just sit there just like this. You want to sit down? And and you don't have to swim because there's so much salt in the Dead Sea, right. And it's such a weird. Place and then. You've got other places that have irrigation and lush vineyards and all kinds of other features of the land. Then you have the Mediterranean coast, so you have ocean for a big portion of Israel and this. All plays in to script. Because understanding the geography of the land is important to understand what's going on and not just Israel. A lot of the Bible talks about places East and north of Israel, like where Abraham came from or Paul's journeys where he went way West of Israel. Or what about the time they stayed in Egypt for. So you should go to. Egypt you go everywhere. Go to all these places if you can, right if you can and and you know it'll it'll probably never be absolutely safe. Just for the record. But you know, if you could go a relatively safe time, you know, go to these. Places and see. It will help your imaginative ability to synchronize with reality rather than just like making stuff up. Well, of course we have the Internet. You can look at pictures on the Internet, you can use Google Earth, you can take a look at videos that other people have taken and pictures and so forth. But geographical context matters. And then there's cultural context. For example, Abraham and Sarah lived in a very different time and place. Than Solomon. So I've got a little video here, so this is a middle Bronze Age city gates. They call it the Abraham Gate. It has nothing to do with Abraham, but it's from around his time period. This was found in in Israel. They built a modern roof over it to protect it. And then they excavated this mud brick gate. And what's? So incredible about it is well that it's. 4000 years old and still still standing, but also it shows you signs of civilization. You don't build an elaborate gate like this structure that has all these different compartments and protects a whole entire area. Basically a city from outsiders. Unless you have some sort of civilization. Once you have some sort of system of life, and so I think a lot of times we think of Abraham, we think ohh he was just a primitive. Bedouin who followed the sheep around right, but like his time, is actually a little more sophisticated than you might realize. Yes, they lived in tents, but it's not like the tents we live in. You know that if you lean up against it wrong, it tears right like and. And they're always like, so hard to put together. It's just a different kind of thing. So understanding what it's like or the time of Solomon Solomon lived in a time when the the nation of Israel was united. You had the north and the South with still all one nation and everything Jewish and and and Judaism is is supreme times are good. Everyone is so wealthy. And fabulously, you know, everything is wonderful. You know, they're. Bringing in gold. Peacocks and you know, all kinds of stuff, you know, apes from trade across the ocean into the Kingdom of Solomon. It's a very different kind of place than where Daniel was. He's living in Babylon. He's part of the court. He's part of the court of the the Kingdom of Babylon. But he's there as, as a captive. He's not there as a as a freeman. He's there as a captive in a very different. Place and then Jesus, we look at Jesus, he carries out his ministry during the Roman occupation of Galilee and Samaria and Judea. These are like the three main parts of Israel in the time of Jesus. And that's very different. How should we think about the Romans? How should we think? About the temple. How should we think about Torah? What's God going to do? These are the kinds of questions people are asking. At the time of Christ. And then we. Look at Paul. Paul is mostly focusing on huge Greco Roman cities. Significant cities, cities that anyone would know about, whereas you readed the life of Jesus, he goes to Capernaum. Well, if you travel like, I don't know, a little bit outside of of the land of Israel, no one's ever heard of Capernaum seriously, like, totally obscure. Maybe you would know. About Jerusalem, maybe like Sepphoris, but he. Never goes to. Sephoras, it's just a different ball game that you're playing. Once you get to Paul and you're in a metropolis like Ephesus and it's got this massive theater and it's got public toilets with running water and the rich people have heated floors in their houses. We're talking about a very different. Which brings me to the subject of chronological snobbery. Chronological snobbery, as you might guess, is looking down on ancient people because they're ancient. And thinking that we're better, we're smarter. We're more sophisticated because let's face it, they didn't have social media, so obviously they're backwards, primitive, disconnected, just hopelessly naive people because they didn't even have social media. They didn't have the Internet, they didn't have electricity, they didn't have factories, they didn't have printed. Looks they didn't have flushable toilets. Although they like in some of the cities, they would have running water. Underneath the toilet. So. It's kind of flushable. They didn't have cars, they didn't have planes. They didn't have plastic. Imagine a world. Without plastic, what would that even be? No antibiotics either, so that's scary. But they could travel. They could get places they wouldn't necessarily know the weather 10 days out like we do. Right. Not that it always is all. That accurate but like it gives us a sense of like, Oh yeah, this is going to be. A good week to go on. A on a. Boat to a foreign country because they would do that, and then they'd get stuck in a storm, right? It was just a very different kind of world. But that doesn't mean they were stupid. If you give them an IQ test. You'd find the same distribution more or less of what we have today. They're not smarter than we were. We are. They're not Dumber than we are. You know, you find smart and dumb people in the ancient world, just like in our world today. And then most people are average. Ancient people recorded histories. They had phenomenal. They had skills that we don't have, like memory. They could remember stories. They could remember, songs they knew farming and domesticated animals. They had clothing and fashion. The Israelites had one of the. The earliest if not the earliest, I'm not really sure who was the earliest, but what one of the earliest written languages. On the planet. Think about that. The invention of letters as opposed to hieroglyphs, to spell out words. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And there they are doing it. Thousands and thousands of years ago. Incredible. And then if you look at other things going on in their time, depending on what time we're. Talking about. It's actually fairly sophisticated, so the point is, don't think you're superior because you have superior technology. We do have superior technology. That's not a debate, but that doesn't mean that we're better than they were or that they were stupid. Ancient people, they had the time to think and they had. The the lack. Of distraction. It was more of an advantage for them than a disadvantage, so if anything I would say it's more reason to listen to them rather than not. Let's talk about literal versus figurative. This is something that comes up when reading the Bible. And if you're reading a historical narrative or a legal text or an epistle, you should assume a literal interpretation that should be your default assumption, unless the text itself gives you a reason to say, well, maybe this is figurative here. Maybe this is a metaphor. So for example. Isaiah 5512 says for you shall. Go out and enjoy. And be LED back in peace. The mountains and the hills, before you shall burst into song. OK, well, that's weird. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, huh? I've never heard of a mountain singing. I've never heard of a tree. Clapping his hands. Maybe it's a metaphor. Yes, it's a metaphor. It's not literal. It's an expression of anthropomorphism, where you where you're likening an object to a human being in order to show the joy that is being expressed, or how about Revelation 12/4? His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven. And threw them to the earth. Do you realize what kind of a problem we would have if? A single star hit the earth. Do you know? How much bigger? A star is even a little one than the planet Earth. You're interpreting it literally. You're not getting it. This is a vision. This is a vision. And then the vision. The stars come down of the Earth and it's OK because they're not huge. And the vision. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to deliver a child. So. That he might devour her. Child, as soon as it was born, yes, there must be Dragons somewhere on the planet. If we just look hard. Good enough. We we gotta look under the ocean and we look in the mountains and in the caves we'll find a dragon, cause the Bible says there's a dragon. No, no this. Is a vision like a dream that John had that God gave him so that he could understand important facts about what was happening and also about what would happen in the future. I did put in your notes a quote from Didymus the blind. He's a good. Example of an ancient person who was highly educated and highly intelligent, but at the same time he took a turn on this whole business of interpretation that I I want to read to you. The quote goes like this. Abraham entered then into Egypt allegorically by adapting himself as one of the perfect to the. Imperfect in order to do good to them, instead of holding on to virtue as a privilege, as has been said above, but in showing her to all as his sister in humility. Alright. So let me just stop right there. This is Dennis and blonde, who's kind of like a mainstream, very influential Christian in the 4th century. He's commenting on how Abraham and his wife Sarah went down to Egypt. And if you remember what happened, it's kind of a bear as I'm super embarrassed about it. Somebody in Egypt, I think, was Pharaoh said, man. This sister and and Abraham told them. It's. Oh, it's my sister. It's not my wife. It's my sister. And Pharaoh said ohh man your sister. Pretty nice, Abraham, pretty nice and and and so he just kind of like lets Pharaoh have his wife. And, you know, she starts living with Pharaoh. It's just a total disaster. You know, there's these promises about how Abraham and Sarah are going to have a promised child, and their descendants are going to be like the sand and now. She's living with Pharaoh. Everything's ruined, Abraham. Like assume in my opinion you maybe have a different interpretation, but in my opinion it's super embarrassing. Incident in a hero of faith life story and so Dennis is reading this and he's like this is really talking about virtue. And Sarah represents virtue and he brings virtue into Egypt and offers. Virtue to the the king in humility, so that by contemplating her they might come to love her, her who wisdom virtue personified by Sara. But observe how its IT is said that the officials saw her. There are in fact in the ranks of the allegorically viewed Egyptians, some men who are purer, who have a great capacity for perceiving virtue, and they have not only perceived her, but they introduced her to their superior, that is, to the reason that governs them. And they praised her. This is a good example of how not. To read the Bible. Don't make up stuff and say everything represents something else. When you're reading a historical narrative, if you're reading. A historical narrative. Just take it at face value as referring to historical people as opposed to finding a secondary or tertiary meeting on every single aspect of Scripture. Let's review exegesis is the process by which one studies understands and explains what a text means. The two questions you must ask when studying the Bible are one what did this mean to the original audience? And two, what does this mean to me? Today, we're going to look at Question 2 next time. Most errors in exegesis are the result of failing to read the immediate context. Getting a grip on the context of the original writing greatly improves exegesis, including immediate context, canonical context, historical context, geographical context, cultural context, and technological context. While reading historical narratives, law biographies, and epistles, you should privilege. Literal interpretation over figurative recognizing that exceptions happen. That's important to realize there's always exceptions. You could be reading a legal section of the Bible and somebody will throw a metaphor out. Yeah, that could happen. You could be reading a a Psalm and like Psalm 105106, both of those, you know, very historical. They're not metaphorical, really. You know, they're very regimented and like, chronological and just going through the. There you know. So there are plenty of exceptions, just as a. Rule of thumb I think with. The historical, the biographies, the law, the epistles, you want to stick with literal unless you have a good reason otherwise. As we'll see, once we get to like wisdom literature, we get to like the Book of job and stuff. It's more complicated than that, right? Because there's more going on in wisdom literature than just like, OK, this actually happened or this is a metaphor. Sometimes it's a little more complex and interesting. And then the last point on review is if you don't understand something, just keep going. Figuring out the big picture. To help immensely to understand the minutia. That's important because if you. Get stuck if you if you. Stop. You can short circuit yourself from really reading for distance and and getting that bigger scope. It's so going to help you down the line to interpret so many more things on your own so. Exegesis is hard work, but you can do it. These are some of the tips that I think can help you along the way. Next time we're going to look at understanding the content and application as we continue in our class. Read the Bible for yourself. Well, that brings this one to a close. What did you think? Come on over to restitutio.org and find episode 533. How to read the Bible in context and leave your feedback. There on last week's episode 532, what you need to know about your Bible, Suzanne wrote in it's so important to break it down. Most people don't know, though, that 70% of the Bible is poetry. So learning how Hebrew poetry works is crucial. A great book is the art of biblical poetry by Robert Alter. Well, Suzanne, I think probably that statistic refers to just the Old Testament, maybe just the Hebrew Bible, even. But even then 70%, I mean, there's so much historical narrative that I think it would. That seems a little high to me. Still, there are definitely huge chunks of the. Profits that are. Medic, certainly job the wisdom literature. The song, the song, the songs. So yeah, I don't know. I'm not entirely convinced of this number, even with reference to just the Old Testament, but maybe Robert Alter has a book. Apparently the art of biblical poetry. Thanks for that recommendation, Suzanne. I have. I have learned a lot from Robert Alter in his book on the art of translation, which I quite enjoyed. Even though his way of going about it is somewhat controversial by today's standards, he does prefer a transparency over a readability, which I also honestly prefer. But at the same time it can end you with a translation that is very difficult to understand for people that are not educated or familiar with how the Bible works, or how other languages work, so that it that can be problematic as well. So thanks for that recommendation. On another note, I wanted to take a moment. And thank those of you who wrote reviews for my book Kingdom Journey. A couple more have come in and I know to hassle to write, but I just wanted to say that I so appreciate it. Since I'm new to marketing a book, I wonder if any of you have any ideas or connections that can help me get this message out. I think those who are familiar with me already know about Kingdom journey and either they've gotten it or they haven't gotten it, but I'm interested in reaching new audiences. You see, I'm so convinced. The Kingdom message needs to get out. It's really important for Christians to understand the biblical gospel message and so many are still in the dark. I'm thinking that getting on some other people's podcasts or YouTube channels might help. If you have any ideas, shoot me an e-mail sean@restitutio.org and I would love to hear them. Thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to support us, you can do that at restitutio.org. That's it for this episode. See you next time. And remember, the truth has nothing to fear.