Early in my preaching life, and after a preacher’s luncheon at Pepperdine University, I was shopping at the bookstore. I was trying to build a pretty meager library with commentaries on my radar. A fellow preacher was nearby, and I asked him what books he was looking for. His answer surprised me: “I don’t use commentaries; I just use the Bible.”
A close friend in college, upon graduation, began a preaching career. He told me that he didn’t prepare sermons, but trusted the Lord to speak through him as he stood before the congregation. Sadly, I’ve lost contact with him. I’d like to ask him how that went.
As a child, I attended a church away from our home, twice in the same year. Between visits, they hired a new preacher. What I heard from that pulpit that year were two deliveries of the exact same sermon. As I first started preaching, I learned that many preachers relied on sermon books that lasted them about four years, after which they moved to a different congregation. I knew some of these men and found them good and honest men, but… On the other hand, my mentor and model for preaching, with a Bible in his hand, said he could never run out of sermons. He studied diligently and read extensively, to faithfully preach from the one book. I have tried to follow his example.
Let’s look at the claim that we can go directly to the Bible without human interference. We can’t! Pick up a Bible, and you’re picking up centuries of Biblical scholarship. Unless you have a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew (which, like English, evolved over the centuries), Aramaic, and Koine Greek, you need a translation—enter the scholars. Translation is not math, with one right answer. Even the most literal translation involves interpretation, and that’s not avoidable. It's not just words we need translated, we need meaning translated into our language and thought world. Without scholars, we would have no Bible to pick up.
Behind the Bible are thousands of manuscripts with thousands of differences. Handwritten manuscripts have some mistakes, additions, notes in the margins, and interpretations. Most of these differences are insignificant, but not all. There are four different endings to the Gospel of Mark. No ending beyond Mark 16:8 has clear manuscript evidence. Even though the most popular ending speaks of baptism and salvation, the issue cannot be decided by appeal to sectarian dogma. Scholars, called textual critics, have given us as close to the original manuscripts (called autographs), as we could hope.
All the Bible was written from the perspective of ancient cultures, mostly from the ancient Middle East, although the letters of the New Testament may reflect an ancient Mediterranean Greco-Roman culture. We live in a twenty-first century culture. It is easy and natural to import our culture into these ancient passages, misunderstanding how ancient people would have understood them. I, at least, need help with this. As one scholar said, we must know what a passage meant, before we can know what it means. A good commentary will help us bridge the centuries.
Of course, not all commentaries are good commentaries. Not all Biblical scholars believe the Bible is inspired or even trustworthy. Mature Christians need to learn to pick out the bones and look for the good meat. Even with a lot of chaff, there may be valuable wheat. We can learn from unbelievers when they give textual and historical truth. Of course, we should pray for insight and truth through the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t exclude getting help from others. Read from Luke 1:1-4 and listen as an inspired writer tells us he did careful research.
Refusing to learn from scholars is not a virtue, however loudly we signal it. In fact, refusing to get help when we need it is a form of arrogance. Over the centuries, the church has provided us with women and men who have had the gift of study and insight. The Spirit gave them those gifts, and we should be thankful. I certainly am because I certainly need the fruit of their gifts.
To my Littleton sisters and brothers: I kept my radar on commentaries and have a collection of commentaries, most of which are excellent. I have donated them to our church family. They can be found and used in the conference room downstairs, across the hall from the kitchen. Use them for your own edification, in that room, and replace them on the shelves when you are through. I especially urge teachers to make use of them, but anyone can profit from them.
Tim Kelley