The Bible is like a newspaper in many ways:
- Generally speaking, the reading of newspapers is in decline—many people today prefer to get their information from the internet rather than read a newspaper.
- Newspapers are printed on their own particular kind of paper, and have their own distinctive layout.
- Oppressive regimes tend to tightly control the distribution of newspapers.
- There was a time when people read the newspaper daily, but these days those people who do open a newspaper tend only to do so on the weekends.
- Purveyors of newspapers use increasingly bizarre marketing gimmicks to try to get people to buy them.
Each of these statements can easily be applied to the Bible. You can probably think of others. And you can also probably think of numerous ways in which the Bible is not like a newspaper (e.g. it’s not that good for wrapping fish-heads in). But I want to focus on three quite serious ways in which comparing the Bible to a newspaper helps us.
1. Like a newspaper, the Bible is read—not interpreted.
No-one would ever talk about ‘interpreting’ a news story, or an opinion piece, or a letter to the editor. You just read them, using the normal skills of reading. That is, you notice what sort of thing you’re reading (a front-page news story, an in-depth feature article, a travel piece, an editorial), and mentally adjust your expectations accordingly. You start at the beginning and read through to the end. Along the way, you notice the main points the author is making, and you start to form a judgement about what is being said. If the argument is complex or contains ideas you’re not familiar with, you might read it again. After you’ve read the piece, you ponder how it relates to other news about the same subject (e.g. on television). And you file away what you’ve learned in your brain for possible future action (which might be anything from “Well, I certainly won’t vote for him at the next election” to “I’d better take an umbrella to work today”).
We read the Bible using the same skills and approaches—except that the Bible is not trivial and ephemeral (like most newspaper stories). It is of profound and eternal importance, and so we read it more carefully, more thoroughly, and with great attentiveness.
2. Like a newspaper, the Bible is an interpretation of reality.
Newspaper reporters pretend to be objective, like transparent ‘windows on the world’ that simply show you what is happening. But of course they are not. In the selection of which events to write about, the assumptions and biases the reporter brings to the story, and the choice of headlines and photographs, the newspaper article explains not just what happened but also the meaning and significance of what happened. This is what ‘interpretation’ means, and this is what newspaper reporters do all the time, even though they pretend not to and even though we are often unaware that they are doing so.
The Bible, likewise, is an interpretation of the world—an explanation of the nature of things, of what the really significant events and ideas are, and what they mean. Like a newspaper, the Bible shapes our understanding of reality, with the ‘minor’ difference that it does so truly and infallibly because its author is the God who made the world.
3. Like a newspaper, the Bible can set the daily agenda.
Newspaper reading might be in decline in general, but the major daily papers still set the agenda for discussion in our society. They are avidly read not only by the politicians and opinion-shapers, but also by all the other sections of the media; what is in the newspaper in the morning shapes the media conversation for the rest of the day.
Because the Bible interprets reality for us, it should also shape our daily agenda. This is why reading the Bible every morning is such a wise and fruitful habit. It’s not because we get a little nugget of teaching that tells us ‘what we must do today’—as if every time we read the Bible we must come away with an item to put on our spiritual to-do list. It’s because every time we read the Bible and drink in its explanation of who God is, who we are, what the world is like and what our future holds, our minds are transformed and re-oriented towards the truth. We are taught and reminded that God is God, that we are his people, and that Jesus is king over all.
Christians are in the news business—the good news business, that is. Let’s open our Bibles every day, and read all about it.
