Bible 101 with Rev. Libby Tigner
Begins March 27 – After Worship on Sundays
You’ve heard the adage, “the three most important words in real estate are location, location, location.” Similarly, for many years
I’ve thought that the three most important words in Biblical study are “context, context, context.” If we don’t understand the historical and sociological settings, if we’ve no idea of the culture and the customs, then it’s hard to understand the what the words on our pages meant to the original hearers and early readers of the texts.
For example, in the 21st-century, we know that the universe is vast beyond our understanding and is still growing and expanding. But the people in the ancient near east thought that the earth was the center of all that was, and beyond our skies was nothingness. God lived within the confines of the earth and the firmament, or sky. How might the closeness of that limited understanding of creation affect how they developed names and language for and about God? One of the tasks of understanding the Bible is to try to set aside our 21st-century lenses and preconceptions to try to get a sense of how the ancients thought. Understanding their experiences of God and scripture will give us a new perspective for how we might think of God and scripture.
Starting on March 27, I will be offering a class that I call “Bible 101.” It’s an introduction to thinking critically about our scripture. We’ll talk about cosmology and culture and history, and hopefully create a context in which our Bible comes alive to us in new and exciting ways. I hope that you can join me after church on Sundays.
~ Libby Tigner