Do a Word Study

In Bible Study circles, there are books with names like "Study Bible" (these have a particular teacher's notes in the margins), and "interlinear" (translations and notes laced into the text), and "parallel" (side-by-side translations). There are Bibles with different colors for different sorts of things (one teacher made a multicolored prophecy Bible so his studious followers could tell which era of history particular parts of sentences were referring to). And most people know about the "red letter editions," in which the "words of Jesus" are in red letters. Then there are commentaries, handbooks, and dictionaries of all sorts. There are at least as many problems as there are benefits to be gained with approaching any book, much less any sacred text, in this way. But there it is.

Mostly, in my experience anyway, such a shelf of books ends up being laden with text-based tools with which to convince yourself that the text says what you already think it says. Or what the teachers at your church say it says. Or what you're telling yourself God says it says. But, in the end, the Bible is a book, and books contain narratives, and narratives cannot be read and also understood without interpretation of some sort, and interpretation never comes solely from the book itself. It can't. Books don't work that way, and anyone who believes every thought that occurs while reading a Bible is a thought that's coming from God is delusional.

And some stuff in there is metaphor. Some of it is poetry. Some of it is page after page of simple lists and historical records. Some of it is one person telling a teaching story to other people. Jesus's parables are that last kind. A sower went out to sow. Or a younger son wasted all his inheritance on riotous living. That sort of thing.

But some of "the Bible," whatever canon you accept those words as encompassing, is plain speaking of plain truths. And if you call yourself a person who accepts any version whatsoever of "the Bible," please do not try to convince me that God supports Donald Trump. Or, at least, don't do that unless you're saying it to mean the same thing as God "supported" invading hoards of Babylonians or Syrians, allowed to cart his disobedient people off to foreign lands as punishment for their despising of the poor.

Because that reason -- the despising of the poor -- that's one thing that keeps coming up as proof that the people of God were not obedient to God. The poor were despised. The rich had too much power. The stranger was not welcomed. The poor were despised. The poor were despised. If this is news to you, that will either be because you're not one of the people who uses a Strong's Concordance on a regular basis, or because you have not been paying attention.

Don't believe me? Do a word study.