Who Is the Bible Written To?

After 20 years of ministry, my husband and I found ourselves “church shopping.”

Ugh.

The pairing of those words feels so gross to us.

Maybe it’s because after spending years of ministry in local churches when newcomers mentioned those words, it usually meant that they would compare this church to the others they had visited. It felt like judgment. But after the last two years of “church shopping,” the pairing of words felt different to us. Because mostly what we felt when we did church shop was wanting to find a church that welcomed us. One that helped us feel seen. One that came to us with trust and not suspicion. One that understood our desire to help serve in the ways God had gifted us. One that wanted to know our family and truly cared about our children. We realized it was never about judgment.

But throughout our time “church shopping,” we did realize a few things. There are churches that focus on what the Bible says, and then there are churches that focus on what was written to a particular audience, at a particular time, in a particular place, by a particular author. And folks, there’s a huge difference there.

Why? As with all good principles of interpretations, we must, as modern readers, remember that all Scripture (before Christ's appearance) was still holy and God's Word. Even though many preachers/teachers now teach the Old Covenant is irrelevant since we live under a New Covenant, we need to remember that these Scriptures gave an outline to God's people on how to live with wisdom and love for each other and for God. The early Church held the Old Testament Scriptures with such high esteem and still held the laws of the Ten Commandments. An early church father, Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum (Lyon), Apologist, and leading Christian theologian of the 2nd century, once wrote in his Book of Heresies IV, Chapter 13,

"Inasmuch as all natural precepts are common to us, and to them (the Jewish audience), they had in them indeed the beginning and origin, but in us, they have received growth and completion... ​Now all these precepts were not of one doing away the law, but of one (Jesus) fulfilling, extending and widening it amongst us​; just as if one should say that the more extensive operation of liberty implies that a more complete subjection' and affection towards our Liberator had been implanted within us. For he did not set us free that we should depart from him . . . but that the more we receive his grace the more we should love him.”

Now, Irenaeus wrote to his audience of the time back in the first and second centuries (and his writing is a mouthful!) But essentially, what he’s saying is that the ancient Jewish people always had the Old Testament, and with Jesus’ entrance, their understanding of the Law was brought to fruition, extended, and widened. Liberty was given to them through the Law (Jesus brought its full understanding of freedom about.) For example, in the Ten Commandments, God stated, “Do not kill,” but Jesus states that it’s not just murder that’s the issue. It’s the anger that is at the root of it (Matthew 5:21-22). What went from a behavior change that set apart the Hebrew people from the rest of the world was now a heart change that Jesus brought. From the beginning, God intended to use the Law to institute heart change so that the people could become holy and be in His presence (because He has always desired a relationship with us).

For example, in Matthew 1, the author quotes an Isaiah passage pointing to Jesus fulfilling prophecy. It reads,

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

The problem with Matthew quoting this Isaiah passage is that it is already believed to have been fulfilled back in the days of Isaiah or shortly after. Hebrew readers of Matthew’s Gospel would have scratched their heads, wondering why he was quoting a fulfilled prophecy. Again, we must remember that the "particular people at that particular time, in that particular culture," were the original hearers (in this case, mostly ancient Hebrew people) and recipients of prophecy, writings, and historical accounts of the Scriptures. As my professor Dr. Laney explained, the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14 could have had two fulfillments- one during Isaiah's time and then later when the Messiah appeared, born to a virgin. When Matthew’s audience read this quote from Isaiah, they would have connected the dots: that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

So, who was the Bible written to? Check out the graphic below for a brief summary of audiences and themes. (For a PDF printable version, click here!)

In a sense, we need to realize that the Old Testament was written for ancient Israel. However, their individual circumstances (for example, were the people in exile or the wilderness?) changed how the author tried to communicate with them. The New Testament authors wrote both to Gentile and Jewish audiences but mostly to churches and believers spreading across the ancient world. Therefore, we need to be careful not to just pull out a passage and let it stand alone. (This can get a lot of believers into misunderstanding Scripture!) We must also look at the original context around the passage to find what the original author/audience would have understood was happening and then go from there to apply it to our lives.

At the end of the day, our family finally found a church home. We had actually decided to become members at one church, but my parents invited us to come and see them sing in their new church’s choir. When we walked through the doors of that new church plant, there was something different in the air. We immediately felt HOME. We decided to go back the next Sunday and began to realize that they focused their teaching of the Bible upon each author’s intended meaning for the book and THEN applied it to our modern lives.

As Peter wrote in his 2nd letter to Christians everywhere,

2 Peter 1:19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Who actually is the Author of the book we call the Bible? Yep, you guessed it. The Almighty. Yahweh. God, the Father.

And it’s His message that we’re trying to discover every time we pick up our Bibles.

Endnotes:

Irenaeus. ​"Against Heresies"​ (Book IV, Chapter 12.3, 13.4). Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103415.htm

Phylicia Masonheimer, "Do Christians Need the Ten Commandments?: A Beginner’s Guide to Supersessionism" January 2021.

Kruger, M. J.  "Why We Can't Unhitch from the Old Testament"  (2018, October 22). Retrieved January 2021, from https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/irresistible-andy-stanley/

Beckwith, R. T., & Stott, W. (1978). The Attitude of the Early Church to the Ten Commandments. In ​This is the day: The Biblical Doctrine of the Christian Sunday in its Jewish and Early Church Setting​ (pp. 125-164). London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.