How to read the Bible – Dr. Eitan Bar | Bible Scholar https://eitan.bar Eitan Bar is a Theologian & Author Bringing a Jewish Perspective to the Christian Faith Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:08:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://eitan.bar/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/icon-logo-eb-eitan-bar-scaled.webp How to read the Bible – Dr. Eitan Bar | Bible Scholar https://eitan.bar 32 32 The Bible Thinks in Pictures – And So Should You https://eitan.bar/articles/the-bible-thinks-in-pictures-and-so-should-you/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:03:34 +0000 https://eitan.bar/?p=5534 God has a long nose. I realize how that sounds, so let me say it again properly. When Moses hides in the cleft of the rock and the glory of God passes by, God proclaims his own name: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,…

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]]> Reading the Bible by Its Genre: Poetry Is Not Law, and Revelation Is Not a Newspaper https://eitan.bar/articles/how-to-read-the-bible-by-genre/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:10:26 +0000 https://eitan.bar/?p=5530 This morning, before breakfast, you read a weather forecast, two text messages, a cereal box, and a road sign, and you did not read any of them the same way. Nobody taught you this. You simply know that “70 percent chance of rain” is a probability, that “we need to…

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]]> When Reading the Bible: “Context is King!” https://eitan.bar/articles/when-reading-the-bible-context-is-king/ Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:31:50 +0000 https://eitan.bar/?p=5527 “There is no God.” That sentence is in the Bible. Twice, actually. If verses were bullets you could fire one at a time, Scripture would be an atheist tract, and your pastor would owe the congregation a very awkward retraction. Of course, the verse in full reads: “The fool says…

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]]> How to Read the Bible? (And Any Other Ancient Text) https://eitan.bar/articles/how-to-read-the-bible/ https://eitan.bar/articles/how-to-read-the-bible/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:49:53 +0000 https://eitan.bar/?p=5523 Allow me to write a short letter to a reader in the year 5025. “Dear future person: today was rough. My phone died this morning, so I missed the meeting, and my boss hit the roof. My wife says I need to touch grass. Honestly, this whole week has been…

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]]> https://eitan.bar/articles/how-to-read-the-bible/feed/ 1 You Are Not Reading the Bible – You Are Reading a Translation https://eitan.bar/articles/you-are-reading-a-translation-not-the-bible/ Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:04:44 +0000 https://eitan.bar/?p=5519 Frank kicked the bucket. Go ahead and translate that sentence into Japanese. If you translate the words, Japanese readers will spend the rest of the chapter wondering why Frank assaulted a pail. So you do what every translator does: you translate the meaning instead, and you write “Frank died.” Clean.…

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