What would following Jesus be like without a Bible to read? That’s how it was for most believers in the early days of the church. It’s called oral culture, and Dr. Brent Sandy’s latest book shows us why that matters today.
Way back when, Dr. Brent Sandy and I were both students at Grace Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. Since then he and I have crossed paths regularly, often at national and regional meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Dr. Sandy earned his PhD at Duke University. He has served on the faculties of Grace College and Seminary, Liberty University, and Wheaton College. Throughout his career he has also been actively involved in local church ministries.
It’s a pleasure to feature, albeit belatedly, Brent’s latest book Hear Ye the Word of the Lord. Thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing me a copy of the book!
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View my conversation with Dr. Sandy about his book here.
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Imagine this . . .
Our practice today of buying books (or E-books), shelving them (or filing them on your Kindle), and silently sight-reading them once in a while is not how it worked in biblical times. And that’s not just because most of us are likely more affluent than most of them were.
Imagine a world where you don’t have your favorite Bible on the table by your favorite chair. You don’t have other Bibles stowed away gathering dust around the house.
If that sounds too much like your grandparents, imagine you don’t have a Bible app on your cell phone, your tablet, your laptop, or even on your desktop computer. There’s no Bible apps, WIFI, or 5G networks.
Anyway, none of this matters, because you can’t even read.
Imagine you’re an artisan or a slave living in Rome, and you just heard that your house church finally has a chance to hear a letter that’s been circulating around the Christian gatherings in your city. It’s from a controversial teacher named Paul.
Imagine how excited you are to hear the word of the Lord through Paul, when your elder, one of the few in your gathering who can read, stands up and begins to unroll a thick scroll. He says
“Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus . . . to all those in Rome . . . grace to you and peace . . .”
As you imagine, remember, these words aren’t being projected on a large screen for you and everyone else to see. Imagine how eagerly your ears strain for every bit of Paul’s teaching, and how your mind strives to remember it. Maybe you’ll get to hear it again, if someone in your gathering has the skill and time to hand-copy the letter before it is worn out as it circulates to other house churches in the city.
Dr. Sandy speaks about ancient oral culture here.
Here’s how he sums it up: Ancient oral culture meant that “people needed to hear carefully and remember faithfully what God and Jesus said so they could repeat it, giving more people the opportunity to hear the word of the Lord.”
Speaking and Hearing God’s Word in the Bible
Think with me for a moment about speaking and hearing in the Bible.
God spoke the world into existence. Moses heard God speak on Mount Sinai. Israel heard Moses and later scribes read the Ten Commandments and the Torah. They heard the prophets speak oracles of blessing and judgment from God. Jesus may have once briefly written in the dirt with his finger, but he didn’t write any books. He did read aloud publicly from Isaiah 61 in his home synagogue. Thousands of people heard him preach and teach all the way from Galilee to the Jerusalem Temple. After Jesus arose and ascended to heaven, his apostles began making disciples by orally proclaiming his teaching. Luke assured Theophilus that his written Gospel was based on real eyewitness testimony—what Theophilus had been taught was reliable. Paul taught that faith comes by hearing the word of God. He directed that his letter to the Colossians be read in Laodicea, and that the letter to Laodicea be read in Colossae. He commanded the Thessalonians to have his first letter read to everyone in the church. He commanded Timothy to teach what he had heard from Paul to faithful men who would hear and teach others who would in turn hear and teach. This cycle of teaching and hearing must never end! At its beginning, the book of Revelation pronounces a blessing on the one who reads it and on those who hear it. At the end of Revelation, there is a warning not to add to or take away from the words that were heard.
By the way, Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40, was a very unusual case. This court official was on the rigorous trek back to Ethiopia after making the long, arduous trip to worship in Jerusalem. This man may have been a god-fearing Gentile like Cornelius (Acts 10:2, 35; cf. 13:16; 16:14), but he was for sure a well-heeled man of means. He could afford to buy a hand-written copy of (a portion of?) Isaiah, and he was educated well enough to read it. When Philip was led by the Spirit to approach the man, he heard him sitting in his chariot and reading aloud from Isaiah 53. His manuscript was probably a Greek translation of Hebrew Isaiah, related to what we call the Septuagint (LXX) today. Philip was ready to speak the good news of Jesus, beginning from this text. After hearing, the eunuch was baptized.
What’s in Dr. Sandy’s book?
Dr. Sandy’s book has four sections containing 18 theses. He writes clearly in language that’s accessible to readers. He builds his case as each thesis is explained in roughly 8-10 pages. Part One sets the stage of ancient oral culture. Part Two recounts key human agents through whom God, the ultimate oral communicator, spoke in the Bible. Part Three presents three key implications of ancient oral culture for today. Dr Sandy “thinks out loud” in Part Four, presenting four examples (he calls them “experiments”) of how an oral approach impacts our understanding of the Bible.
Dr. Sandy is concerned about how we mine the Bible for slogans or mottos—we piously refer to them as “life verses”—that are divorced form their historical settings. Such “nuggetizing” of the Bible (I just made up that word) keeps us from reading it holistically, dulling the drama of God’s grand story of redemption. He also advocates that we take a cue from the poetic and metaphorical texts of the Bible and imaginatively compose our own poetic reflections on the Bible. Dr. Sandy also experiments with Jesus’ imagery of the vine and the branches in John 15, explaining the intertextual richness of the metaphor and downplaying the value of the Calvinist/Arminian scuffle over the meaning of the severed branches.
As he concludes, Dr. Sandy summarizes the oral culture of the Bible and shows how it is hidden in plain view. It’s there for all Bible readers to see, even if they don’t hear it. His final pleas is for the oral culture of the Bible to be unleashed in the church through a new emphasis on oral interpretation of the Bible in various Christian settings.
What happens if we take the book seriously?
Dr. Sandy warns us that our current common practice of personal, silent, sight-reading of the Bible can rob us of the joy of hearing the Bible read aloud as we gather to worship and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. It can lead us to a jaded, lackadaisical attitude toward the Bible’s life-giving and life-sustaining message.
If we take this book seriously, and recognize the oral dimension of the Scriptures, . . .
- Maybe we’re not so apathetic about the Bible. Does our familiarity with written Bibles lead us to passive, lazy reading, if not actual contempt?
- Maybe we’re not so casual, even nonchalant, when the Bible read in church. Maybe we tell ourselves that we can always look it up when we get home. But do we?
- Maybe we should close our eyes and listen intently when Scripture readings are projected during church services.
- Maybe we listen more carefully to get the main point of a biblical passage, instead of nitpicking details that we pore over in the fine print of our study Bible. Remember the old saying about missing the forest for the trees?
- Maybe we make space in worship services for reading the Bible interpretively, emphasizing the rhetoric and emotion inherent in the text. Find out more about that here.
- Maybe we look for gifted oral interpreters who will form a team that regularly performs dramatic readings of Biblical texts in our worship services. Watch this being done here.
- Maybe getting back to speaking and hearing the Bible will draw us back to greater wonder at the power and beauty of the Holy Scriptures and the loving God who gave them to us.
Hear Ye the Word of the LORD!
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View my conversation with Dr. Sandy about his book here.
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Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear it and
take to heart what is written in it,
because the time is near.
– Revelation 1:3
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I could not gain access to your conversation on the video.
When I was a little girl my dad had the Bible on records and we would listen every night. I am rereading the bible now and its amazing how much I remember of the King James Version. My Revised Standard Version is in tatters and so underlined that I have started my new rereading in the NIV.
I do listen to Charles Stanley, Rev. McGee, and others that have passed on. I am more focused if I listen.
Sorry about the video access. It’s fixed now.
Keep listening!
Thank you, David!
I’ve thought some about the relationship between message and media since sitting in a lecture during my DMin studies at TMS given by self-described “media ecologist” T. David Gordon (ironically via skype!). This has led me to minimize the use of technology in the worship service to projecting lyrics (much of what we sing isn’t in our hymnal) since the original dynamic is orator to auditor. I don’t provide notes or encourage people to take notes during the preaching. I read a passage of Scripture related to the sermon text of 5–6 minutes in length.
On a related issue, I’ve been reading Liquid Scripture by Jeffrey S. Siker discussing how electronic media impacts our perception of the significance and authority of Scripture. I wonder what the transitory nature of pixels communicates to us. Do you have any thoughts?
Thanks for the comments Dean. Frankly, I don’t have much worth saying in reply, except to mention my uneasiness at the visual sensory overload we in the USA often experience in church today, which apparently reflects our wider culture.
You’ve apparently decided less is more. I’d welcome some follow-up comments related to Gordon’s and Siker’s insights and concerns. Could you tell us more?
When I click to hear your conversation with the author it says that the video is private.
Sorry about that, it’s fixed now.
David, excellent insights to encourage a fresh approach to the Scriptures for people we disciple. Well Done, as always!
Thanks Doug!
It was truly enriching to listen to the conversation between Dr. Turner and Dr. Sandy. I deeply resonated with the discussion, especially as someone born and raised in a rural part of Tamil Nadu, where oral learning continues to be a vital mode of communication and education. Studies indicate that even today, around 60% to 70% of Indians are oral learners.
In this context, Dr. Sandy’s book, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, is profoundly significant—not just for me, but for many in our communities. I would love to get a copy of the book and, if possible, it would be a great honor to have Dr. Sandy speak to our part of the world on the importance of “hearing the Word of the Lord.”
Grateful to Dr. Turner for sharing this meaningful and timely conversation!
Johnson, thanks for this response from India! I fear my thinking is quite midwest-USA provincial, and I always welcome perspectives like yours.
I’ll pass along your email to Dr. Sandy—perhaps the two of you can arrange a video conference with your students.
I totally resonate with Dr. Sandy’s message and with the possible applications! I’m so pleased that he wrote this book and that you interviewed him. The interview was so helpful. David, your above description of the book with the list of responses, if we should take it seriously, provides enough to encourage both a change of mentality and of action, even without reading the book. Of course, we should read the book!
I love the Oral Scripture Reading Team idea. Spending most of my life in Grace Brethren, Baptist, or Bible churches, I was amazed to observe the depth of Scripture presentation (both in quantity and quality) that I discovered when attending historically traditional, liturgical churches, whether mainline or conservative. I saw the irony that we who believe we hold to the highest view of Scripture often treat it as a wall flower — lovely, referenced, and when read aloud poorly delivered — but we can preach it or sing it better! Sigh.
I am deeply grateful that Dr. Sandy wrote this book, and that you, Dr. Turner gave it needed attention. May many have ears to hear.
Thanks Karen, well said. I call what you’re talking about the ornamental use of Scripture. We use Bible verses to decorate our ideas, but do we hear the message?