How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart

An Honest Book Critique

Summary

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart wrote How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to help Christians understand how to handle the Scriptures in context, by showing them how to properly approach the basic genres within Scripture (9). They are concerned with teaching Christians how to properly apply the Scriptures. In order to accomplish this goal, they begin by showing their readers the need to interpret and the importance of a good translation. Following this, Fee and Stuart detail how to properly handle the various genres of Scripture, including the epistles, Old Testament narratives, Acts, the Gospels, the parables, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, Wisdom Literature, and Revelation.

Beginning with the need to interpret and the importance of a good translation, Fee and Stuart hope to help readers to rightly handle what they probably already have experience in, namely interpretation. Everyone who reads anything is an interpreter (14). People are either good interpreters or bad interpreters. Fee and Stuart argue that good interpreters understand the Scriptures in light of the historical and literary contexts. Furthermore, once interpreters understand the proper meaning of the text, they can properly apply this meaning to their current culture and life. Fee and Stuart then encourage their readers to use various translations when studying to compare and contrast the text in question, but to use one bible version for the aid of Scripture memory (31). They then argue for the superiority of the New International Version over the use of the King James Version due to the date of the copies used for the translation in relation to the originals.