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The Bible is the most influential book in human history, but what is it exactly? Our friends at Bible Project put together this 19 part video series that introduces the Bible and its unique design, various genres, and unified story.
The Bible can often seem like a weird ancient book that many people use to say different things. These things can even sometimes lead to using the Bible to oppress or hurt others or the world. And on top of the confusion, reading the Bible can also be tedious and confusing, so most of us just stick to the parts we know and understand.
While He Gets Us focuses on the story of Jesus’ life on Earth, this series explores all of the sections of the bible, its literary styles, characters, parables and more. It explores the origins of the Bible too.
For more information on Bible Project, please visit: <a href="https://bibleproject.com">https://bibleproject.com</a>

The Bible is a collection of books, all of which emerged from the history of ancient Israel. It is the most influential book in the history of Western and much of Eastern civilization. People have a lot of opinions about the Bible’s message, but let&#8217;s just start with what it is. In this video, you&#8217;ll get a condensed history of how the Bible came into existence and the different forms of the Bible in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian traditions.
We’ll also look at what the Bible says about the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3:15-17, the author Paul describes the entirety of Scripture (which, at the time of writing, would have referred to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible) as being “breathed out by God” (verse 16). Your translation may say “inspired by God.” The Greek word used here is theopneustos, which literally means “God-breathed.” This is how the biblical authors viewed the Hebrew Scriptures—as God-breathed. And the apostle Paul believed that within this divinely-inspired literature, we can find the salvation that comes through Jesus (verse 15).
Though the Bible includes many different books, it is one unified story. The Hebrew Bible tells one story that leads to Jesus (Luke 24:27), and the New Testament continues that story and describes Jesus and his followers advancing his Kingdom on Earth. And this compelling story has transformed the lives of millions of people, transcending time, age, gender, and culture.
So what is this story? We’ll take a look at that next time!

Part 1: What is the Bible? A brief history of how this small library of books written over hundreds of years became the most influential document in history.

The Bible is a really large book made up of the Old and New Testaments, which themselves are made up of many books. There’s a lot of ancient history, poetry, and letters written across the span of 1,500 years. On top of that, there’s a cast of hundreds of people over this period of time. Who can keep it all straight?
It can be easy to get lost, not only because it’s an ancient text but also because the book is large and complex.
Despite this variety and diversity, the Bible shows a remarkable unity. The most dominant type of literature in the Bible is narrative. The Bible opens with “in the beginning,” and the second to last paragraph concludes with “and they reigned forever and ever.” Narrative makes up 502 chapters—or 43 percent of the text. That’s nearly half the Bible! On the other hand, poetry makes up 33 percent of the Bible (387 chapters).
Although the Bible is diverse and may appear fragmented at first, it ultimately presents itself as a unified epic narrative that leads to Jesus. There is one main plotline weaving the different books and stories together.
Once you grasp this core storyline and how all the books fit together, you can open the Bible at any point and you’ll know right where you are and what’s going on.

Part 2: The Story of the Bible If you want to read the Bible for yourself, start with the narrative.

The Bible is a collection of many books telling one unified story from beginning to end, but all those books were written in different literary styles.
First and foremost is narrative. It makes up a whopping 43 percent of the Bible! 33 percent of the Bible is poetry, and then the rest of the Bible (24 percent) is written in prose discourse.
Most books have a primary literary style, like narrative for example. But then embedded within the narrative, you’ll come across poems or parables or collections of laws. Every book is a unique combination of literary styles.
Reading the Bible wisely requires us to learn about the ancient literary styles used by the biblical authors. These writers expressed their ideas and claims through a variety of different types of literature, and this video will explore why it&#8217;s important to distinguish them so we can better understand the message of each book.
There&#8217;s one more unifying feature of biblical literature that’s really important and really cool, and that is what we’ll explore next.

Part 3: Literary Styles in the Bible How to read the poetry, ancient law code, and narrative storytelling, and letters in their original context.

Each time period and culture produces its own unique kind of literature. In order to read the Bible well, we need to keep in mind the ancient Near Eastern context and the type of literature produced in this period of time.
The Bible is written as ancient Jewish meditation literature, and it’s meant to draw readers into a lifelong journey of reading and meditation. The Bible is designed as a multi-layered work, offering new levels of insight as you reread it and allow each part to help you understand every other part.
In Psalm 1, we read about the ideal Bible reader. It’s someone who meditates on the Scriptures day and night. In Hebrew, the word “meditate” means literally to mutter or speak quietly. The idea is that every day for the rest of your life you slowly, quietly read the Bible out loud to yourself. And then you go talk about it with your friends and family, pondering the puzzles, making connections, and discovering what it all means. And as you let the Bible interpret itself, something remarkable happens. The Bible starts to read you. Because ultimately, the writers of the Bible want you to adopt this story as your story.

Part 4: The Bible as Jewish Meditation Literature We tackle the challenges of reading ancient Eastern literature in a modern Western context.

Nearly half of the Bible is written in narrative. So in order to understand the Bible more fully, it’s important that we learn how to read this style of writing. With biblical narrative, we are not watching security footage of these ancient events. We’re reading an artistic, literary representation of the story of Israel. The goal isn’t just to tell us about something that happened, it’s also to discern the meaning of these events.
A key element in biblical narrative is the plot—the arrangement of characters and events to convey a message. The Bible uses plot embedding, meaning there are multi-layered biblical storylines.
Level 1: One overall storyline of the Bible. 
Level 2: The multiple movements of that overall storyline. 
Level 3: The hundreds of individual narratives that make up each of these movements.
All of these individual events are framed within a larger context that exists within an even larger context. All of this context gives these events deeper meaning. A single story’s meaning is only determined by the relationship of all its elements to the whole text.
How the authors frame the story and what details they choose to emphasize all help to convey what they are trying to communicate to the reader.
In this reading, pay attention to the plot of the story of Gideon. Notice how the short scenes, like Gideon and the fleece, are combined with other scenes to create a larger plotline. As you read, do your best to trace the conflict and resolution through the entire plot. How does this help you see the message the author is trying to get across?
In this video, we’ll explore these concepts and more.

Part 5: Plot in Biblical Narrative Understanding how ancient authors used plot differently than we do today.

Most of us think of characters in the Bible as either sinners or saints, good or bad. At least that’s how Bible stories are often presented to children. In this video, we’ll explore the ways biblical authors present characters as more complex and morally compromised than we usually imagine.
Biblical authors use characters as vehicles for their message primarily through showing rather than telling. A narrator’s comments about a character are fairly rare in biblical narrative (such as physical appearance, as in Joseph’s looks, Saul’s stature, Esau’s hair, etc.). Additionally, direct characterization is extremely rare in the Bible (such as describing someone as evil, good, righteous, wise, foolish, etc.). Biblical authors give you the outline of a character, but you have to fill in the rest based on what you read in the text.
For example: 
&#8211; Esau is hairy, meaning that he’s “outdoorsy,” primitive, and behaves like an animal. 
&#8211; Eli is old and blind, meaning he is literally and relationally blind, since he ignores the rebellion of his sons. 
&#8211; Saul is tall and David is short, emphasizing their contrasting characters. Saul imposes himself from above, and David humbly allows God to exalt him from below.
Characters’ names also often indicate their role in the story. 
&#8211; Saul = “the one asked for” 
&#8211; Abram/Abraham = exalted father / father of a multitude 
&#8211; Israel = struggles with God 
&#8211; Adam = humanity
Biblical narrators prefer to show people’s character rather than tell you an evaluation. Instead of moralizing about characters’ decisions, biblical narrators simply show you the decisions and consequences of characters’ decisions and allow you to ponder the significance.
God is the only character who continues through every movement of the biblical narrative from beginning to end, and this tells us something about the purpose of these stories. The fundamental purpose is to reveal God’s character, identity, and purposes in history.

Part 6: Character in Biblical Narrative Explore the sophisticated ways the Bible gives shape to its characters

Every story has to take place somewhere, and very often, locations have a special meaning or significance evoked by events that already took place there. Biblical setting utilizes both place and time. As the biblical story develops, places begin to take on a symbolic/meaningful significance based on what has happened there.
Example: Garden of Eden &gt; the east &gt; Babylon: The human spiral of sin and selfishness moves from the garden to Babylon, as we see in Genesis 1-11.
&#8211; Adam and Eve are banished “to the east” (Genesis 3). 
&#8211; Cain is banished “to the east” (Genesis 4). 
&#8211; People move “to the east” to build Babylon (Genesis 11:1-2). 
&#8211; Babylon becomes a superpower in the story, eventually exiling the family of Abraham. 
&#8211; Egypt, Moab, the wilderness, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem all become loaded with more and more meaning as the biblical story develops.
You can tell which events are most meaningful to the author’s message by what gets the most “air time.” For example, Mark chapters 1-10 cover around three years, and chapters 11-16 cover seven days in Jerusalem—30 percent of the story for just seven days! Additionally, there are other meaningful periods of time in the Bible. For example:
&#8211; Increments of 40 represent periods of waiting and testing (e.g. Noah in the boat, Moses’ time on top of the mountain, the spies’ time scouting the promised land, years wandering in the desert, Elijah’s journey in the desert, and Jesus’ journey in the desert). 
&#8211; Three days and nights 
&#8211; 70 days/years
In this video, we’ll explore how biblical authors use setting in the narrative to either meet the reader&#8217;s expectations or mess with them. Paying attention to location and time in biblical stories can unlock deeper layers of meaning.

Part 7: Setting in Biblical Narrative Every aspect of every story tells an even deeper story - even the place and time.

Design patterns are one of the key ways the biblical authors have unified the storyline of the Bible. Individual stories across the Old and New Testaments have been coordinated through repeated words and parallel themes.
One of the most important design features of biblical narrative is repetition. This technique creates patterns that guide the reader’s focus and help them know where to look for meaning. By following a word or phrase that is repeated significantly in a story or section of text, we can better decipher or grasp the main message of the text (For example, notice how the word “good” is used in Genesis 1).
Repeated words can unite a whole string of stories, but this kind of unifying technique can work in different ways too. Sometimes entire stories or scenes are designed to repeat elements of other stories. This involves not only repeated words but also parallel narrative patterns, themes, and sequences. For example, the “see and take” pattern shows up with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3), Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 16), and David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The “salvation through waters” pattern appears in creation (Genesis 1), the flood narrative (Genesis 7-8), and the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 14).
In this video, we’ll take a look at these patterns and more to see how they highlight core themes of the biblical story.

Part 8: Design Patterns in Biblical Narrative When something is repeated, it’s important.

The Gospel narratives have two main goals: 
1. To faithfully represent the story of Jesus—that the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel and the true King of the world. 
2. To persuade the reader to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and become his disciple.
The four authors frame Jesus’ story in a unique way for distinct purposes. Each author has carefully edited, arranged, and designed the core stories about Jesus to emphasize unique facets of Jesus’ character. So what do each of the accounts emphasize?
Matthew portrays Jesus as a greater-than-Moses figure who fulfills the promises of the ancient Scriptures and whose resurrection has enthroned him as the King of Heaven and Earth.
Mark emphasizes the mystery and misunderstanding caused by Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom of God. He shows Jesus as the unexpected Messiah and highlights the paradox of how the exalted Messiah can only be recognized in the humbled, crucified Jesus.
Luke highlights how Jesus brings the Gospel to the nations. He shows that Jesus is empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Old Testament promise that God’s salvation would reach beyond Israel to include all nations.
John introduces Jesus as Israel’s God become human, presenting signs that demonstrate the truth of his messianic claim and his offer of eternal life for any that will trust in him.
The Gospel authors deeply believed that Jesus rose after death and fulfilled the ancient story told in the Hebrew Scriptures. And they proclaimed that joining in this belief and following his teachings would change our lives forever! The Gospel accounts are persuasive texts that invite the reader to consider their own relationship to Jesus the Messiah.
The Gospel narratives offer the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings, but how often do we really take in their literary artistry from beginning to end? How can we reconcile the fact that there are four accounts with differing stories? This video is all about learning to understand and respond to these unique books!

Part 9: The Gospel The climax of the story, but not the end.

Jesus was a master teacher. Some of his most well-known teachings are told in short stories called parables. The four Gospel accounts—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—tell the “good news” that God’s Kingdom has arrived on Earth through Jesus. Jesus himself announced the Kingdom of God through his famous teaching called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This same sermon is preached “on the plain” in Luke chapter 6. Jesus also brought God’s Kingdom into reality through his healings, miracles, and the creation of a renewed family of Israel.
One of the most common ways that Jesus communicated was through stories, or in Greek, parabole. Parables can often be seen as illustrations or explanations relating to morality or religious truth. This assumes that there is a basic abstract idea that the parables help to illuminate, but this doesn’t capture how and why Jesus used parables. Parables are more than short stories.
The parables are beautiful and entertaining, but they are often cryptic. How can we read parables in a way that leads to understanding? That’s what this video is all about. You’ll be introduced to key concepts and passages that will guide your own exploration of the parables of Jesus.

Part 10: Parables How a master teacher used short stories to change the world.

Thirty percent of the Bible is made up of ancient poetry. That’s a lot! Poetry is everywhere in the Bible, and some biblical books are entirely poetry. Most of the Hebrew prophets wrote masterful poems, and the majority of God’s speech in the Bible is represented as poetry. It’s also very common in biblical narrative for the story to pause while a character breaks out in poetic song.
Nearly all human cultures with a common literature have ways of separating functional, utilitarian language from intentional, expressive, and artistic language, namely, poetry. And all cultures develop unique patterns of poetic speech or conventions for how poetic speech works. For example, metered rhyme is a feature of classic Western poetry:
Roses are red, violets are blue, 
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.
And a haiku, a traditional Japanese style of poetry, uses specific line length and syllable structure—three poetic lines and the numbered syllable pattern: 5-7-5.
An old silent pond… 
A frog jumps into the pond, 
splash! Silence again. 
&#8211; Matsuo Bashō
The Ancient Israelite poetry found in the Bible doesn’t fit any kind of master system like meter (though some think so). However, the Israelites were aware of a certain kind of speech that was poetic, dense, and distinct from normal speech. They even have vocabulary for it.
“Song” (Hebrew, shir / shirah) 
Exodus 15:1: “Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song…”
“Psalm” (Hebrew, mizmor) 
Psalm 3: “A mizmor of David.”
“Lament” (Hebrew, qinah) 
2 Samuel 1:17: “David lamented this qinah over Saul and Jonathan.”
These compositions show a unique, cultural form of Hebrew poetry, not a formal system but a series of characteristics.
1. Rhythm: Hebrew poetry is shaped into a line-rhythm or verse. It is not metrical (based on syllable counts); rather, it’s a form of free verse poetry. 
2. Terseness: Hebrew poetry is concise, using as few words as possible to communicate as much as possible. 
3. Parallelism: This refers to the correspondence and relationship of one verse or line to another.
Poetry is a rich and artistic form of human communication, but it is often the most difficult to read. In this video, we’ll explore the unique characteristics of biblical poetry, so you can discover its beauty and power for yourself!

Part 11: The Art of Biblical Poetry How ancient writers wielded a powerful artform.

Metaphor is our fundamental way of thinking and perceiving the world. We use conceptual categories based on familiar experience to describe unfamiliar and complex realities. They provide the framework for how our minds make sense of the world around us, and they govern all of our thinking and language.
Every culture has its own way of developing metaphors and imagery unique to their history and experience. Similarly, biblical poetry draws on a core cultural understanding of the world from which the poets develop images and metaphors.
Basic conceptual metaphors are not the unique possession of a poet, but rather of the poet’s culture. And the creative poet will adapt these basic metaphors in unexpected directions, creating new ways of conceiving reality.
The rich metaphors in biblical poetry are rooted in images from earlier biblical narratives. That’s how metaphors work in the Bible. You need the narratives to understand the poetic images, and the images reveal deeper meaning in those narratives.
The best way to become familiar with the basic conceptual metaphors used in the Bible is to meditate on the Torah (i.e. the first five books of the Bible). The Torah provides the basic conceptual world in which biblical imagery makes sense, especially Genesis 1-11.
For example: 
1. The ideal state is a mountain, garden temple (Genesis 1:8-10; Exodus 15:13, 17; Joel 2:1-3; Psalm 48:1-3). 
2. Danger and death are found in the chaotic waters, but safety and life are found in the the river of Eden (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 18; Psalm 69; Isaiah 17:12-15). 
3. The ideal state of shalom, or peace, is humanity living among the animals (Genesis 1:28-30; Deuteronomy 32:20-24; Hosea 2:18-19; Isaiah 11:6-9). 
4. God’s ideal for creation is found in the garden of Eden (Psalm 1:1-3; Psalm 92:11-15; Jeremiah 17:5-8; John 4:13-14). 
5. Covenant and marriage are ways that God talks about his relationship to his people (Jeremiah 2:2; Hosea 2:2-5, 8; Hosea 3:1-5; Revelation 21:1-3).
Understanding how metaphors are used in the Bible is an essential tool for reading biblical poetry. Any time someone references one thing to describe another thing, they are using metaphorical thinking whether they realize it or not. Metaphors are everywhere in the Bible and in our everyday speech. In this video, we’ll explore this crucial aspect of biblical language.

Part 12: Poetic Metaphor How the Bible uses symbolism in nature to tell a deeper story about God and humanity.

There are 150 poems broken up into five sections. The first two sections explore the complicated story of David and his royal family. The third section focuses on the tragedy of Israel’s exile and the downfall of David’s royal line. And the fourth and fifth sections rekindle the hope for the Messiah, a new temple, and God’s Kingdom on the other side of exile. Then the book ends with a five-part conclusion, praising God for his faithfulness.
Each poem has been expertly crafted and intentionally placed within the book to create a storyline from the book’s beginning to its end. At the beginning of Psalms, there’s a short introduction, Psalms 1 and 2, which lays out the main themes of the entire book by reviewing the biblical storyline—God’s original intent for humanity, humanity’s disobedience, and God’s promise of a future human, the seed of the woman, who will come and defeat evil and restore the world.
Psalms is an invitation to a literary temple where you can meet with God and hear the entire biblical storyline retold in poetic form. The poems have been designed for a lifetime of slow rereading and reflection—these prayers and laments and songs of praise are meant to become ours. They’re poems for exiles who are learning to live by God’s wisdom and seek God’s justice in the world as they hope for the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of God.
In this video, we’ll explore the design, shape, and main themes of this marvelous book, which was crafted to be read from beginning to end.

Part 13: The Book of Psalms Deep dive into the Bible’s largest poetry collection.

The books of the Hebrew prophets are some of the most challenging books of the Bible to read and comprehend, but they are also some of the most beautiful books! Learning to read them takes some effort, but it is totally worth it.
The fifteen prophetic books are a mosaic collection of narratives, poems, and essays that represent the message of the Israelite prophets. These collections have been expertly crafted over a long period of time, and they were eventually integrated into the larger collection of the Hebrew Bible.
Here are some fun facts about the prophetic books:
1. The prophetic books take up as much page space in the Bible as the entire New Testament (27 percent). 
2. Jesus and the apostles constantly quoted from the prophets to explain how Jesus was bringing Israel’s story to its fulfillment (77 times in the Gospels and 98 times in the rest of the New Testament).
The prophets are the bridge between the past story of Israel and the covenant and the future story of God’s rescue plan for the world through Jesus.
Each prophetic book has a unique design and organized flow of thought, but it’s rarely chronological. Reading the prophets is a lot like listening to a symphony. There’s an opening introduction to all the main themes, but then the work is broken up into multiple movements or sections. But if you pay attention, you’ll hear the key themes being repeated and developed throughout the book, and then you’ll begin to see how all the parts fit together.
Key insights from the prophets:
1. God loves justice: Israel had been called to a higher level of justice than the surrounding nations, especially in the treatment of their land and the poor (See Isaiah 1:10-20). 
2. God gets angry at evil: The prophets give a lot of space to God’s exposure of evil among Israel and the nations. It can be intense, but it reveals how much God cares about the goodness of his world (see Hosea 13). 
3. God has hope for our world: God refuses to let Israel’s sin get the last word, so all the prophetic books contain profound images of future hope and restoration for God’s people and for the entire world (see Isaiah 11:1-9).
In this video, we’ll learn how these prophetic books contribute to the storyline of the Bible and why it’s worth learning how to read them more attentively. Let’s take a look!

Part 14: The Prophets How to read some of the most challenging books in the Bible .

What is biblical wisdom literature? Technically, this term can describe the entire Hebrew Bible (see Psalm 119:98-99; 2 Timothy 3:15), but wisdom literature also refers to a specific group of books connected to two things:
1. King Solomon 
&#8211; Proverbs 
&#8211; Ecclesiastes 
&#8211; Song of Songs (Song of Solomon)
2. The themes of wisdom, the “good life,” and the fear of the Lord 
&#8211; Proverbs 
&#8211; Ecclesiastes 
&#8211; Job
Though biblical wisdom literature is connected to these specific themes and the work of King Solomon, the main ideas are rooted in the narratives of Genesis and, specifically, in the garden of Eden in Genesis 1-3 and the story of Abraham. These stories introduce and unpack the core concepts of good and bad, blessing and curse, death and life, and the fear of Yahweh.
The wisest king of Israel, King Solomon, is associated with three books of the Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Each book offers a unique perspective on how humans can rule with wisdom and the fear of the Lord.
Each of these books takes Solomon’s story as a universal paradigm, an Adam and Eve story, so that his failure reenacts all humanity’s experience. These books focus on universal questions like:
&#8211; How can humans access the good life of Eden that comes as a gift from God? 
&#8211; How can humans learn to live by the wisdom and the fear of Yahweh in all of life’s diverse seasons and circumstances? 
&#8211; How can we process the failure of wisdom, the limits of mortality, and God’s inscrutability in our search for wisdom and life? 
&#8211; Is there any hope for humanity to truly embrace God’s wisdom and live by it?
In this video, we’ll briefly explore how the message of each book fits into the overall story of the Bible.

Part 15: The Books of Solomon An introduction to Biblical wisdom literature.

Entire sections of the Bible are devoted to describing strange dreams or visions that reveal something vital to humans in the story. These visions uncover God’s realm and change how the visionary sees their earthly circumstances. The biblical word used to describe these is translated as “apocalypse.” But these passages often get misunderstood because of our current understanding of what an apocalypse is.
In contemporary culture, the words “apocalypse” or “apocalyptic” refer to the catastrophic end of the world. The dictionary definition of the English word describes it as, “the complete and final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation,” or “an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale” (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).
This is not what these words mean in the Bible, and this popular definition leads us to drastically misunderstand and misread apocalyptic literature. In the biblical definition, the word literally means “to uncover,” or to “reveal.” It’s what happens when someone on Earth is exposed to the heavenly, transcendent reality of God’s realm, transforming their view of everything. We see these apocalypses all throughout the Bible, like the prophet Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room (Isaiah 6) or Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).
A biblical apocalypse is a moment when God reveals himself in such a way that the observer is overtaken by a divine vantage point on a person’s life or human history. These moments almost always involve altered states of consciousness (dreams, visions) as a result of ascetic practices (fasting, meditating, prayer, isolation). In these moments of heightened awareness, the person comes to realize that their current situation or environment is actually permeated with divine presence and power. In an apocalyptic moment, Heaven joins Earth in the mind and heart of the visionary, and they are able to see reality in a way that others do not or cannot.
Reading apocalyptic literature can be difficult. These passages are filled with strange images, poetic language, and symbolism. The key to understanding biblical apocalyptic literature is to look at the literary design that’s introduced in the book of Genesis and developed throughout the rest of Scripture. We’ll explore this and more in this video!

Part 16: Apocalyptic Literature Strange dreams that ancient writers record in scripture.

If you have ever tried to read the Bible from the beginning, you may have noticed that at 69 chapters into the story (at Exodus 19 to be exact), the story slows way down to make room for the laws given to ancient Israel. And there are over six hundred of them! Why are they in the story? Are Bible readers supposed to follow them or respond to them in some way? And how do they relate the New Testament part of the story when Jesus shows up?
These are huge questions that we will explore in this video, but here are some helpful starting points:
1. The Old Testament is not a law book. Rather, these laws given to Israel constitute the terms of their covenant relationship with the God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The covenant ceremony is found in Exodus 19-24, where we find the 10 commandments, plus 42 other commands that illustrate the principles of worship, justice, and community life that Israel was to follow. 
2. These laws were given to appoint Israel as a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:4-6), a contrasting community that would represent God’s presence and character to the surrounding nations. 
3. The covenant was consummated as God prepared a miniature Eden to inhabit when he took up residence among his people (i.e. the tabernacle in Exodus 25-31, 35-40). 
4. As the story picks up again, we find a pattern of narratives alternating with sections of more covenant laws. And these narratives usually involve the Israelites breaking the covenant laws they just received! This begins with the story of the golden calf (Exodus 32-34), then the rebellion of the sons of Aaron (Leviticus 9), the worship of the goat idols (Leviticus 17), and then the constant rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 11-21).
This pattern is part of the Torah’s communication strategy, which is to show that these laws offered ancient Israel a way to live by God’s will, but they consistently failed. This is why Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30-32 predict their ultimate failure and exile from the promised land. Moses also says that God would have to recreate their hearts if they were to ever be God’s faithful covenant partners. There’s a lot to unpack here, but these hundreds of laws are part of the way that the Torah’s storyline points forward to the same future that Israel’s prophets announced (see Jeremiah 31 or Ezekiel 36-37). It’s only when humanity is renewed by God’s creative Spirit that we are able to truly love God and trust his wisdom.
This is the story that Jesus was stepping into when he said that he came to bring the Torah to its fulfillment (see Matthew 5:17-48), and that loving God and one’s neighbor fulfills the Torah (see Matthew 22:34-40). And this is the same story carried forward in the work of the Spirit among Jesus’ followers (see Galatians 5:13-23). So the laws actually play a crucially important role in the biblical story, but it requires a macro view to see how it all fits together and leads us to Jesus.

Part 17: Biblical Law You know that part we usually skip? Let’s explore how it fits in the story.

The New Testament letters are some of the most accessible parts of the Bible. They were written by early Christian apostles (or representatives of Jesus) who were appointed to spread the good news about him to the ancient world. And they are addressed to a &#8220;you,&#8221; which makes any reader feel like they are being directly spoken to by the people who were closest to Jesus. What could be better?
But if you read these letters at any length, you know that they are full of sections we may experience as inspiring (Paul&#8217;s bit about the foolish wisdom of the cross in 1 Corinthians 2), puzzling (Paul&#8217;s discussion of hairstyles in 1 Corinthians 11), or off-putting (Peter&#8217;s depiction of obedient slaves and wives in 1 Peter 2-3). Passages like these remind modern readers that these letters are ancient texts written in a language and culture vastly different from our own.
However, it&#8217;s precisely by honoring the historical context of the New Testament letters that we can learn how to wisely read them and see how they can speak a powerful message to our own time and place. The apostles were heralds of the good news of Jesus as the risen King of the world, and they believed this message had the power to transform people and whole communities (see Paul&#8217;s exposition of this theme in Colossians 1-3 and Ephesians 2-4). But because they lived in the first-century Roman world, the specific cultural issues and challenges they wrote about are not identical to our own.
This means we need to learn about life in the ancient Roman empire to gain a deeper understanding of why the apostles said what they said. We also need to search each letter to understand what circumstances in each church community prompted the writing of the letter in the first place. Once we see that Paul&#8217;s letter to the Romans was written to a church divided along cultural and racial lines, or that Peter&#8217;s letter was sent to churches facing shame and persecution for following Jesus, we can better interpret these letters.
In these letters, we get to watch the apostles navigate the challenges of their day with the good news that the risen Jesus is the King of the world. And if Jesus is still King of the nations, we must address the unique issues of our own time and culture with the same message. And who better to guide us than the people who surrounded Jesus himself? The ancient words of the apostles, when they&#8217;re read in historical context, are full of divine wisdom to guide followers of Jesus in every generation.
A baseline skill in reading the letters is to read them as a unified whole. This reading will be through one epistle—but don’t worry, it’s a short one! While reading, look for any explicit statements about the purpose of the letter or the situation that motivated the author to write the letter.

Part 18: New Testament Letters The cultural context of First-century letters.

Have you ever tried reading the letters in the New Testament and found yourself lost or asking, “What on earth is Paul talking about?” You’re not alone! Even the apostle Peter found Paul’s letters difficult to read (see his comments in 2 Peter 3:15-16). But with an understanding of the literary context, you can learn to read these letters with more wisdom and insight.
It’s important to remember that in the first-century world, most people did not read, so the apostles designed these letters to be read aloud (see Colossians 4:16 and 1 Thessalonians 5:27). The letters would have been read by the people who delivered them, like Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2 or Tychicus in Colossians 4:7 and Ephesians 6:21. They read more like written speeches, which actually gives us a helpful angle on how to read them.
The apostles adopted and adapted the common first-century letter format by beginning their letters with a greeting, a prayer of thanksgiving, or a blessing. They usually packed this introduction with the key words, ideas, and themes that they planned to develop throughout the letter.
Once you get into the main part of the letter, there are a few skills that you can hone to help you make sense of the meaning:
1. Learn to break the letter down into smaller sections and paragraphs. Think of these as the basic building blocks, each with its own main idea. 
2. Start tracking with repeated words and ideas within each paragraph. You can then trace those words that link the many paragraphs together. 
3. Take notice of the key transition words that link all the paragraphs together, words like “therefore,” “because of this,” or “however.”
Before you know it, you’ll find yourself tracing the thread of the main idea throughout the letter from beginning to end. These letters are not a random collection of theological ideas. They are carefully crafted speeches, written in letter form, that develop a coherent set of ideas from beginning to end. It takes effort, but if you’re diligent, you’ll find yourself reading the New Testament letters with more insight than ever before.

Part 19: New Testament Letters How to read the first letters written to the early Church by followers of Jesus.

How to read the Bible

We’re taught that greatness is defined by our status, achievements, and the amount of recognition we receive. But Jesus had a different idea. He exemplified and taught others that greatness was beneath the surface. That true greatness is defined by the content of our character, hearts, and willingness to serve others.
What does it mean to be great? We spend so much of our lives chasing greatness—trying to be successful, admired, or the best at what we do. But does that kind of greatness ever truly satisfy? Jesus showed us a different way. He didn’t seek status or power. Instead, he measured greatness by love, humility, and sacrifice. He cared for the overlooked, served those in need, and willingly put others before himself. He showed us that the greatest thing we can be is a humble servant—willing to give, to sacrifice, and to lift others up. 
What if we pursued that kind of greatness? What if we measured our lives by how we care for others rather than what we achieve? In this video, we explore what true greatness looks like—and why it might just change everything.

Do we have greatness all wrong?

Yeah. He really did.
We don’t always use the word “struggle” to describe Jesus. But maybe we should.
Because his life wasn’t just about sermons and miracles. It was also about pressures and pain. Grief. Exhaustion. Being pulled in every direction. Sound familiar?
Jesus didn’t live in a peaceful, easy world. He lived under a powerful empire that watched and controlled everything. A society that misunderstood him. Friends who didn’t always show up. Systems that didn’t bend for anyone, especially a working-class carpenter from the sticks (Nazareth wasn’t exactly a booming metropolis).
Jesus knew burnout. Anxiety. Loneliness. Seen as a threat for challenging the existing social and political order, Jesus experienced government oppression. He lived under Roman occupation—a regime that taxed the poor into deeper poverty, silenced protest with violence, and used public executions to keep people in line. It was a system that protected the powerful and punished those who called for justice. He faced betrayal from friends and suffered sleepless nights and the crushing burden of carrying other people’s pain as well as his own.
He got tired. 
He got overwhelmed with emotion. 
He wept. 
He asked God hard questions.
Jesus knew the crushing weight of everyone’s expectations – and he knew what it was like to feel completely alone. He knew what it meant to care deeply in a world that didn’t always care back. But he didn’t numb out. He didn’t self-medicate. He didn’t shut down. He stayed present. Jesus kept pursuing and practicing compassion.
But, so what? Is any of this relevant thousands of years later? Well, consider this: So many of us today are dealing with similar issues. Inflation and an uncertain job market may have you feeling burned out. Perhaps you are one of many Americans working multiple jobs to keep your family afloat. The aftermath of social distancing, coupled with social media, has radically changed our interactions, leaving some to feel more disconnected and alone than ever.
Some of us feel that politics aren’t fair, while others still feel hurt about things that happened in the past. So, what’s the solution? We won’t pretend we have the answers, but Jesus left clues about how we might manage. If you could simplify his teachings and methods to a singular idea, it would be this: that everyone deserves to live good, full lives.
He didn’t want to see others struggle and barely scrape by; he wanted everyone to thrive. He desired a world that was just and equitable for all. He dedicated his life to this ideal. With that in mind, maybe his way of handling life’s hardships can help us deal with ours.

Did Jesus struggle?

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What if we told you that despite living thousands of years apart and on opposite sides of the planet, most of us are discontented with the same things as people who lived during Jesus’ time?
To learn more about our discontent, we traveled across the country, asking people a simple question, “What are you sick of?” Jesus spent heaps of time with others and helped them overcome their discontent, which posed a question in our minds, “Can his <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/jesus-taught-us-to-say-hard-things" target="_blank" rel="noopener">teachings</a> help us now?”
This question led us to consult Dr. Avery Hoenig and Dr. Cristina Sevadjian, two mental health experts, to ask them about discontent, its health effects, and what modern science says about Jesus’ solutions.
</div>

Jesus, Science and Mental Health

Jesus asked a lot of his followers. He wanted them to be the absolute best they could be, and he wasn’t ambiguous about what that looked like. In fact, he gave a whole speech on top of a mountain where he outlined pretty clearly what it looks like to live a good life — a fulfilled life. He started that speech with a few statements most commonly known as “the Beatitudes,” which basically just means “the blessings.” With eight blessings, he highlighted eight character traits that he called “blessed.” We think these are some of the traits Jesus valued most. Traits like being meek or humble, being merciful, being a peacemaker, or being pure of heart. We surveyed over 600 people, and as it turns out, the traits Jesus valued are also traits we value (at least most of us). 
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So, we’re almost all on the same page: mercy, humility, and peacemaking are all good things. Specifically, we see that these things are really good when the people around us display them. Whether it’s our friends, our family, our community leaders, or just strangers we interact with daily, it’s pretty intuitive to most of us that making peace, being merciful, and staying humble are important and lead to a flourishing community. Ninety-two percent of people, regardless of religious background, think that leaders should outwardly embody traits like the ones Jesus talked about. 
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1931 size-large" style="width: 100%; max-width: 396px; height: auto;" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/HGU_Stat2_Article-V_-1.png" alt="" /> 
But when we look at the world around us, for many of us, flourishing is not the word that usually comes to mind. So, there must be a gap or a disconnect. And we think there is. We all hold these values to be incredibly important, but we don’t see each other acting on them. We don’t even see ourselves acting on them. Eighty-five percent of people say they could benefit from having more mercy on those who have hurt them. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1932 size-full" style="width: 100%; max-width: 396px; height: auto;" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/HGU_Stat-3_Article-V_-1.png" alt="" width="1200" height="1500" /> 
That’s almost all of us. We know that mercy is good, but we don’t have much of it to spare for others. And when we say all of us, we mean it — this is something that seems to be the case across all demographics and religious leanings. We all have problems living up to the traits we value.
So, what’s with the gap? Why is it that 87% of people think they embody the traits Jesus valued, then, when asked about specific traits, walk them back? Why don’t we see an abundance of those traits we all value in the real world? We think the answer is pretty simple: because these traits are incredibly difficult to live out. Living together well does not come naturally — we have to learn how to do it, and in that process, we have to unlearn all sorts of other habits and leanings that get in the way.
If you’ve ever tried to learn a second language, you know the struggle. Constantly mispronouncing things, forgetting the words, making a fool of yourself despite your best efforts. It’s a difficult process. But if you stick with it, it opens up a whole new way of seeing the world. Jesus’ love and the traits he cared about most are the same. If we want to get better, we have to get the reps in. Jesus called his followers to quite literally practice what they preach — not just to avoid being hypocrites but also to actually get better at the things that lead to a flourishing life.

Why are we so bad at living out the traits we care most about?

Jesus was radically selfless. The love he showed others sought nothing in return; he gave his time and energy freely to anyone who asked for it and plenty that didn’t; he even humbled himself to the point of washing his friends’ feet — an act reserved for a servant. He was selfless.
But he didn’t run on empty. Over and over again in the Scriptures, we see him leave the crowds and his friends and find time in solitude to pray and recharge. And the timing of when he chose to steal away can give us a little insight into why this practice was so important.
One of the first examples of Jesus finding time alone might not sound like self-care to many of us — he spent 40 days in the wilderness on his own facing a grueling season of temptation. But as soon as he finished his sabbatical in the wild, he began his three-year ministry that included traveling all over the place, making disciples, preaching to large crowds, and the list goes on. It seems then that his 40 days served in some capacity as preparation — filling the tank for what was going to be an exhausting journey, making sure he was ready for it, and getting clarity on what exactly it would look like through prayer. Frequently throughout his ministry, he took little pit stops like this to rest and recharge as well. He even charged his followers to do the same.
Another time Jesus made space to be on his own came when he learned that his cousin and good friend, John the Baptist, had died. He went away to grieve. The result of loving others the way Jesus did — fully, selflessly, unconditionally — is that you end up really invested. That’s ultimately a very good thing, but it can make an already difficult loss even harder. A life lived for other people is one where you share in many more joys than you would otherwise, but it’s also one where you share in more sorrows, and Jesus made space for both. In this instance, he needed time alone to process and grieve before he could continue his ministry.
One last example of Jesus practicing self-care is an easy one to miss. There’s this time when Jesus and his disciples are en route to the next town to continue their ministry, and they’re simply walking on a road. Around noon they stop, and the whole group goes into town to find food for lunch — the whole group except Jesus. Instead, Jesus simply sits down beside a well and takes a break because he was “weary from his journey.” Jesus didn’t just practice self-care emotionally; he practiced it physically. He rested when his body needed it. It’s as simple as that.
The thing I think that connects all of these is the fact that we as humans have limits and capacities. Jesus wasn’t exempt from those — his many decisions to rest, pray, and take time alone are evidence of that. Jesus was aware of his limits and took a step back when he exceeded them. When we talk about self-care, we can take it too far in one of two directions. We can completely ignore it and give and give and give until there’s nothing left of us to give. That’s neither good for us nor the people we’re trying to care for — they don’t get our best because we’re running on empty. Or we can put self-care on a pedestal and use it to justify always putting ourselves first and never truly loving people selflessly. Jesus didn’t err in either direction. His life suggests that the best way to live, the way that is most fulfilled, is one where we give of ourselves right up to our limits and then recharge so we can do it again. We care for ourselves so we can better care for others.

Jesus practiced self-care.

What if we told you that if Jesus had been born today, he would be from the sticks? The so-called boonies? A remote area that has a reputation of producing no one of prestige or education? The wrong side of the tracks? It may seem odd to think of Jesus this way, but it’s true. In Scripture, a conversation between two brothers, Phillip and Nathanial, provides context. One day Phillip met Jesus, heard his teachings, and felt his love. He was excited and went to share the good news with his brother, who replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
At the time of his birth, Jesus’ family was forced to flee Nazareth for Egypt after King Herod decreed that all children under the age of two be killed. Yes, Jesus was a refugee, and the people of his hometown were not wealthy or elite by any means. No one expected anything positive or prominent to come from there, let alone someone who would change the world forever.
Over two thousand years later, not much has changed. All we need do is turn on our televisions and observe how the media describes immigrants and refugees. They are often branded as invasive and disruptive, with their reasons for migrating and positive contributions muted. But why?
The answer lies, in part, within the concept of unconscious bias &#8211; we may not know an individual, but because of where they are from, the color of their skin, or what they are wearing,  we make judgments about them.
I was drawn to write this piece because I intimately understand the feeling of being dismissed because of where you come from. Unlike Jesus, I am not from the sticks, yet I, too, have judged because of where I came from. You see, back in middle school, I was the new black kid who moved from the looming city to the developing suburb. That gave the other kids a false narrative of how they thought I should be. Faster. Aggressive. Disruptive. Bold. In their minds, I wasn’t allowed to exist as I was because I looked a certain way and came from a side of town that mandated otherwise.
Jesus too faced stereotypes based on society’s ideas about who he should be. That’s why his persecutors inscribed “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” on the cross at his crucifixion. This was their attempt to mock him because how could a mere man from a small, forgettable town ever hold any power or authority? Perhaps others’ perception of him would have been different had he been born into a wealthy family in an area of prestige.
Jesus made a point to reach out to those who were judged because of their birthplace or circumstance. He spoke to Samaritans, the ethnic enemies of the Jewish people. He went out of his way to uplift lepers, who had been outcast by their communities. He conversed with women, who had little to no political power or social authority. He did so out of love, but he was able to do it so well because he had experienced similar dismissal.
Jesus provided an example of the powerful change that comes when we choose to overlook shallow demographics and focus our intent on truly understanding someone. How can we be more like Phillip, ignoring social hierarchy and judging not based on where someone comes from but solely on the content of their heart?

Jesus overcame bias, too.

Weird is a relative term. We all have likes or dislikes or tendencies that others might consider weird. Some people think what we’re doing is weird—creating a campaign focused on the humanity of Jesus—a man who became the world’s most prominent religious figure. But as we read about Jesus, we cannot help but appreciate how often he made room for the outcast, the despised, and those people that most of society deemed “weird.”
His inner circle of disciples, for example, were not religious scholars but blue-collar workers, fishermen, former corrupt bureaucrats, and reformed violent zealots. It was a weird crew to start a love movement, to be sure.
And there was this story about a corrupt tax man named Zacchaeus. He was reviled by his own people. A corrupt tax collector working for the foreign occupying force of the Roman Empire, he made himself wealthy by extorting and overtaxing his countrymen. Oh &#8230; and he was really short.
By the time they’d crossed paths, Jesus had developed significant notoriety as a healer and a teacher. Crowds would follow him everywhere he went. When the crowd passed his way, Zacchaeus was curious to see what all the fuss was about, so he climbed a tree to see over the crowd of average-sized onlookers towering over him. And of all the people Jesus passed by, and of all the people who were following him down the path, Jesus only stopped for the odd short man that nobody liked sitting up in a tree.
Weird. But powerful. They spent time alone in his house, and their brief visit together changed Zacchaeus’ life. He gave back all the money (and some) he’d extorted from his fellow oppressed citizens. People marveled at how a visit with this teacher of love forever changed that weird little person.
And we were also enamored with the story of Mary Magdalene—one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Jesus. As his movement grew, she remained a steadfast member of his inner circle, but the Bible records her history as one who was demon-possessed. Tradition ascribed even more labels to her and her past, from being a prostitute and more. My guess is she had a host of challenges, and we don’t know all of them, but she certainly didn’t fit the mold most people would assume characterizes a devout, loving follower of Jesus. But Jesus welcomed her with open arms, helped her overcome her issues, and gave her an important role in his movement. It was one of the many instances where people dealing with spiritual, mental, and emotional disorders—even people with a questionable past—were not just cared for, but included in Jesus’ community in meaningful ways.
Jesus welcomed the weird, loved the weird, and built a movement full of weirdos that ended up changing the world. The example reminds us that every person has incredible value, and their story and their identity, no matter how strange, are beautiful and important.

Jesus welcomed the weird.

Back in Jesus’ time, a respectable Jewish teacher wouldn’t dare consider taking a female student under his instruction. He would also not engage with someone who had a chronic illness or disability, since it was believed to be a testament of poor character and lineage. And never mind having dealings across the ethnic and political barriers that existed then. That, too, was a no-no.
Yet, Jesus—who, as a religious Jewish teacher, had these expectations tenfold—didn’t follow any of these rules. In fact, he went out of his way to break them.
Though there are still places today where women, ethnicities, and people with disabilities are openly excluded from society, it may be hard to fully understand how shocking Jesus’ behavior was when, for instance, he comforted a woman because she suffered from years of constant blood flow — a disorder that was considered unclean. Or when, without hesitation, he associated himself with a man sick with leprosy, and another with blindness, and yet another who was paralyzed. Or how about when he engaged in a deep conversation in broad daylight with a woman who came from a people that many likened to dogs, and then went on to visit a Roman man’s home to tend to the sick there.
Jesus sought to include everyone in his ministry, giving them a place to belong by treating all with value and respect. This meant he crossed the line countless times. One of the more notable instances happened when he befriended a woman who was widely considered to be demon-possessed. Even today, we can imagine how this might’ve gotten tongues wagging. But because of Jesus’ compassion, this woman would go on to find her health and become one of the most influential people associated with him. Her name was Mary Magdalene, and the fact that we know about her over two-thousand years later is a testament to the barriers Jesus successfully erased by simply ignoring them.
Today, Jesus’ legacy continues to challenge us to be inclusive in a real way, to reach past people’s physical and mental struggles, gender, and ethnicity so that we may really see them. And once we do, we might just find—much like those who knew Mary Magdalene in her time—that the people who are considered the least of us will impact us the most.

Jesus was exclusively inclusive.

For Jesus, it was issues with society at large that escalated into verbal confrontations with what we might call the religious influencers of his day — the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They made Jesus an enemy because they believed him to be a disruptive dissident who challenged their customs and character, and they were right. He strongly opposed what the Pharisees stood for and publicly scolded their hypocrisy and greed on numerous occasions. His gall shaped the Pharisees’ anger, and as his following grew, so did their disdain.
The elite was not the only group who had a bone to pick with Jesus. Common folk made an enemy out of him, too. Some felt that his message was too blatant, too brazen, even ludicrous. So, they took it upon themselves to make him feel unwelcome in his hometown and in cities across Israel. After all, it was an incensed crowd, not only a handful of religious elites who demanded that Pontius Pilate condemn Jesus to death. Ironically, he had famously rode into Jerusalem on a donkey a week prior, and many were ready to crown him king. However, the aforementioned religious elite were quite powerful and used their influence to drown the voices of those who supported him and turned those on the fence away from him.
Jesus faced a mountain of outward enemies, but he also faced opposition from his inner circle. In arguably one of the most notorious cases of betrayal ever, Jesus had to navigate the emotional strain of being offered up to the authorities by one of his own — Judas. It was his own friend, one of his inner twelve, who led the Roman authorities to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. For three years, Jesus treated Judas as a confidant, a brother. Only for Judas to later reveal himself as one of his most detrimental foes, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Jesus appeared to have a laundry list of enemies, but how did he react to those who opposed him? Well, he didn’t fight fire with fire. He chose different weapons to combat his enemies — love and forgiveness. But what does that really mean? Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness, and we reference it all the time, but it’s one of those words that’s been used in so many different ways it’s started to lose its meaning, so we explored it a little deeper here in the next article in this series.