The goal of reading

Chris — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:17:58 +0000

The goal of reading is the application, in our lives, of what we read. Not to learn it by heart, but to take it to heart. Not to practice using our tongues, but to be able to receive the tongues of fire and to live the mysteries of God. If one studies a great deal in order to acquire knowledge and to teach others, without living the things he teaches, he does no more than fill his head with hot air. At most he will manage to ascend to the moon using machines. The goal of the Christian is to rise to God without machines.

Elder Paisios the Athonite (1924-1994)

(Via Word from the Desert.)

Chapters and Verses

Chris — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:15:52 +0000

The issue of chapters and verses came up last week. The Latin Bible (Vulgate) was first divided into chapters in the 13th century, most probably by Stephen Langton who was later to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. As to verses, this is normally credited to Robert Stephanus a Parisian book printer who completed this work in 1551.

Chapters and verses are useful for locating a text, but not always useful for understanding it. Even more unhelpful are the titles often put at the top of sections. Some texts, for example the Nestle edition of the Greek New Testament, put the chapter and verses in the margins. This leaves the reader to split the text up into sections which is a better idea.

All of this is to say that you should try and ignore chapters, verses and sections when reading Biblical texts as they will force you into structure that isn’t part of the text. Oh, and bear in mind that there was no punctuation in the original texts either!

Research on literacy in the Roman Empire in the New Testament period usually gives a literacy rate of between 10 – 15%, and those who could read would read aloud in any case. Texts were meant to be heard and I would suggest that reading a text aloud is still a rich way of encountering it.

Chris Moore » reading

The goal of reading

Chapters and Verses