Preface to the Third Edition
The appearance of How to Read the Bible Book by Book (2002) prompted the authors to revisit this first book and give it a thorough updating. In part this was occasioned by the fact that we regularly cross-referenced the present book (dubbed How to 1 in that book, which in turn has been cross-referenced in the present edition as How to 2). In the process of this cross-referencing we came to realize how much we ourselves had learned since we wrote the first book in 1979 and 1980, and how out of date some of the material had become in the meantime. Not only did we need to change all “century” references from the “twentieth” to the “twenty-first”(!), but we became aware of other “dated” items as well (indeed, the mention of our secretaries’ typing and retyping the first edition [p. 23] made us both feel a bit Neanderthal!). We also wanted to reflect several significant advances in scholarship (especially regarding biblical narrative). So that in brief explains the why of this present edition. But a few further explanations are needed as well.
The most obvious chapter that needed reworking was chapter 2. Although most of the explanation and examples of translational theory remain the same, every translation listed in the second edition except for the NRSV has undergone revision within the last two decades. That not only made much of the discussion of the translations themselves out of date, but also required some additional explanations of the reasons for the revisions of these well-established and well-loved expressions of the Bible in English. In the first edition we offered many of our comments in contrast to the King James Version; and we have become aware of how few among the majority of people in the United States and Canada (namely, those under age thirty-five!) presently have any serious acquaintance with the KJV. So that, too, needed to be revised in this edition of How to 1.
The other obvious item that needed serious revision — and will need revision again as soon as this edition becomes available(!) — is the list of suggested commentaries in the appendix. New, good commentaries appear with some regularity. So, as before, we remind readers that they need to be aware of this and try to find help where they can. Even so, our present list will provide excellent help for years to come.
But we felt other chapters needed some overhaul as well. And this, too, reflects both our own growth and what we perceive to be a change in the climate and makeup of our readership over the past two decades. At the time of our first writing, we had both come from backgrounds where poor interpretation of Scripture was an unfortunately frequent phenomenon. That caused us in some chapters to lean heavily toward how not to read certain genres. Our sense is that many of today’s readership know less about these poor ways of “doing Bible,” in part because we are also going through a period where we find a frighteningly large number of people who, by and large, are biblically illiterate. So in some chapters our emphasis has changed decidedly toward how to read well, with less emphasis on the ways texts were abused in the past.
We also hope that those who have read thus far will go on to read the preface to the first edition, where we made only one slight change to a sentence to give it greater clarity. Though some things there are dated (especially the mention of other books of this kind), it still serves as a genuine preface to the book and should help orient you to what you can expect.
A word about the title — since we have received as many “corrective” comments here as about anything else in the book. No, neither we nor the publishers made a mistake. The “Its” is a deliberate wordplay that works only when it appears without the apostrophe; and in the end our own emphasis lies with this possessive. Scripture is God’s Word, and we want people to read it because of its great value to them. And if they do it “for all it’s worth,” hopefully they will also find its worth.
Again, we are glad to thank several people to whom we are indebted for helping to make this a better book. Maudine Fee has read every word several times over, with a keen eye for things that only scholars would understand(!); special thanks also to V. Phillips Long, Bruce W. Waltke, and Bill Barker for input of various kinds.
We are both humbled and delighted with the measure of success this book has had over the past two decades. We pray that this new edition may prove to be equally helpful.
Gordon D. Fee
Douglas Stuart
Advent 2002