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- [00:01]
Unknown Host
Hey, Bible nerds.
- [00:02]
Dr. Manny Arango
This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey.
- [00:27]
Unknown Co-Host
Family. We are going to dive into the New Testament, but I want to prepare us before we get into Luke chapter one. I remember being in middle school, like, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, and it was the first time that I had, like, a teacher, a history teacher that just made Black History Month come alive. I remember hearing stories of, like, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and just being aware that I was connected to something that was bigger than me, that I was connected to people that had gone before me, that as an African American male, that I wasn't just out here existing on an island, but that my identity, like the thing that shaped me as a person was actually not just up to me, but decisions of people who had come before me. And you know what's crazy? Like, I had the same experience as a freshman in college as my New Testament professor began to, like, unlock the New Testament books for us. I began to realize I'm connected to the global church. And maybe when you think of the global church, you think of Christians that live all around the globe who are alive right now. But when I say the global church, I don't just mean people around the globe who are alive right now, but Christians who are living in the Book of Acts, the disciples that are actually following Jesus. Lydia, who starts this church in Philippi, like Philemon and Onesimus, like actual people, real people living real lives. And I know the temptation. The temptation is to just treat a Bible reading plan like it's your devotions, right? And a lot of us are in this habit of approaching our devotions like, lord, just give me something. Tell me something about my life. And I've realized that the pastor. There's exegesis, right? Which is like taking the real meaning of the text, like, in context. There's isegesis, which is taking the text out of context. And then there's narcissus, which is what narcissists do. It's reading yourself into every single Bible verse that you read. And what I'm actually going to force us to do or compel us to do or maybe inspire us to do, is to not be narcissistic, but to actually learn the historical context of these Christians that we are Connected to. Because when we learn about Lydia and Philemon and Onesimus, when we learn about the Corinthian Church, when we learn about the real context and the real scenarios that are the iceberg, like, that's underneath the surface. When we learn about that stuff, it's not just filling our mind with information, but it's helping to connect us to the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ that's existed since. Since Jesus called his first followers to him. And so I'm gonna give you, like, some, some big ideas, and I'm gonna help you with each genre of, of the New Testament. Here's some big ideas. The Bible was written for you, but not to you. And so we are going to take seriously the setting, the audience, and we are going to always ask this question, what was the original meaning to the original audience? Because the Bible, although it was written for us, is not written to us. And I know this requires a lot of work, right? It requires more work than just sitting down with your devotions and a, you know, playlist of worship music and asking the Holy Spirit, God, what do you have? For me, it takes more work, but could I maybe like, argue or contend that reading the Bible in a selfish, narcissistic way is actually not good for your spiritual formation? That actually approaching the text like a spiritual gold digger, like, what do you have for me? What do you want to say to me is actually not the thing that's going to bring lasting change and transformation into your life. Like, I want you to think about it this way. Any gas will work in my car, right? Like 87, 93. Like, they all work, but one gas will make my engine run the best. And I'm proud of you. Like, if you've approached the scriptures with kind of like a narcissistic God, what do you want to say to me? I'm so glad that you put that gas in your car, but I want you to put better gas in your car because it's not just important that you get to some destination, but that you have faith for the long haul, that you have faith to make it through hard times, that you have the kind of faith that gives you an identity that connected to the historic global church. And so we want to build real strong disciples. And it's quality over quantity. Doesn't matter how many Christians are on the planet. It matters how strong we are. And the strength of the church is always going to be found in our ability to connect with the church that Jesus birthed.
- [05:30]
Unknown Host
What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg. The Bible department is actually powered by arma.
- [05:39]
Unknown Co-Host
What is arma?
- [05:40]
Unknown Host
I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday.
- [05:48]
Dr. Manny Arango
People, learn the Bible for themselves.
- [05:51]
Unknown Host
We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere can have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community, a community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding.
- [06:25]
Unknown Co-Host
Out on the Bible together.
- [06:26]
Unknown Host
If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want.
- [06:35]
Unknown Co-Host
More exclusive access to me and the.
- [06:38]
Unknown Host
Entire armor team, how about you go.
- [06:40]
Unknown Co-Host
To thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post.
- [06:44]
Dr. Manny Arango
The link in the description of this video.
- [06:46]
Unknown Host
Let's make this your year to become a Bible man.
- [06:52]
Unknown Co-Host
So one last big idea is that this is going to take work, but I promise it's worth it. And can we be real? I've done a lot of the work for you. Like you just gotta show up. You gotta show up to the Bible department. You gotta listen every single day. I promise I've done a lot of work for you. We're gonna make it digestible, but it is gonna take work. It's a different way of engaging with the Bible, but it's totally, totally worth it. So let's talk about the genres of literature that we're gonna find in the New Testament. Here. The first genre of literature, the Gospels. Okay? There's no other place in the Bible where we have gospel accounts. The gospel accounts are trying to answer the question, who is Jesus? However, the four gospel accounts are different. They're different because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all have an audience. And so they're taking source material of things Jesus did, Jesus said. But they're applying that source material differently to different audiences. So when we approach the Gospels, we're always going to ask a twofold question. What was Jesus saying to his audience? And then what was the gospel writer saying to their audience? And since the audiences are different, right? Mark's audience is Roman, Luke's audience is Gentile, Matthew's audience is Hebrew, and John's audience is Jews and Gentiles. Since each gospel writer has a different audience, they are going to put a different spin on the story of Jesus. They're going to present Jesus in a different way. One of the things I want you to remember as we go into the Gospels is that the Gospel accounts are not photographs, but portraits. A photograph has to be accurate, right? My photograph on my ID better match my face or I ain't going through TSA PreCheck. But if I commissioned an artist to draw a portrait of me, then now the artist has the liberty to depict me based on their interpretation. And the word interpretation is going to be huge for us this year. We're going to use the word interpretation here at the Bible department a lot because it's not enough to just say, what did the Bible say? We have to ask, what does the Bible mean by what it says? And that means that we have to use context to fill in the gap of interpretation. We don't just want to ask what the text says, but we want to ask what does the text mean by what it says? Which is going to require that we're going to have to have good interpretation skills. Next we're going to get into the book of Acts. And the book of Acts is going to be the historical timeline that all of the letters fit into. Okay, so instead of just going to the book of Philippians, we're going to look at the book of Acts and go, well, what was Paul doing in Philippi before he ever wrote a book of Philippians? Maybe when he was in Philippi, this historical moment can give us some context on what he meant in the book of Philippians. So there's a reason that the book of Acts goes before Paul's letters on this plan. So the book of Acts is the historical backbone of the entire New Testament. And then we are going to get into letters. Letters are an ancient genre. Christians weren't the only people who wrote letters. We're going to study Greco Roman letters. This is a genre that most people just aren't familiar with. And I liken it to being in the car with someone who's on the phone. This actually happened to me a couple of days ago. I was in the car with my wife and someone called her. She was in a full blown conversation next to me and I'm nosy, so I'm trying to figure out who's she talking to? Are they okay? Is my wife happy? Is she sad? Is she upset to be on the phone? And all I have is what my wife is saying. I'm not privy to listening to the person on the other end of the phone. Now, I would have loved for my wife to put this person on speakerphone, but that's a whole nother case. That's a whole nother story altogether. The person wasn't all speakerphone, so I had to use my context clues to try to fill in the gaps and try to figure out who was my wife talking to and what were they saying. But I only had one side of the conversation. Well, when we get to letters, we get to epistles like Peter and James, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. We only have one half of the conversation. So I'm going to give you a lot of historical context to try to figure out, well, why did Paul say that? Did Paul really mean that women shouldn't talk in church? Or is there something happening on the other end of the phone that would actually cause us to create or come to a different interpretation? Because it's not important, just saying what Paul said. Paul said women shouldn't talk. No, what's more important is what did Paul mean? And oftentimes there's context, something happening on the other end of, of the phone. And then, last but not least, we got everybody's favorite book of the New Testament, which is Revelation. Now, the English word for apocalypse, that's a Greek word, is revelation. And now this is one of the most misunderstood words on the planet because most people think of an apocalypse. They think of a zombie apocalypse. They think of an event where the world ends. But actually, in its context, an apocalypse is an unveiling. It's a revelation. When Elisha is actually praying, there's an army surrounding the city that Elisha's in. He says, lord, would you open my servant's eyes that he could see? And when he. When the Lord does open his servant's eyes, he realizes that there isn't just a chariot, human chariots, but they're chariots of fire. What did the servant experience an apocalypse and unveiling? In John's apocalypse, what happens is that John gets a revelation that although it seems like Emperor Domitian, or maybe it was Emperor Nero, although it seems like they rule the world from their Roman throne. Want to know what John gets an apocalypse of? A revelation of? He gets a revelation that the lamb that has been slain from the foundation of the earth, that that lamb is actually in charge, that the creature that seems weak is actually in authority. And that's an apocalypse. That's the revelation that we all need, that Jesus is Lord. And that is what the New Testament is actually all about. It's revealing to all of us the Gospel. And what is the gospel? It's not that Jesus died for your sins. No. It's that he is king, that he's Lord. And so the gospels, the letters, the book of Acts, the apocalyptic book at the end of the New Testament are all preaching the gospel, the message that Jesus is Lord, that he's the Lord over sickness, that he's the Lord over governmental authorities, that he's the Lord over everything. He's. He's Lord. And our process of discipleship is the process whereby we surrender more and more and more of our lives to His Lordship. And so I pray that this journey, this year of you reading the Bible would actually be a journey where you would surrender more and more and more of your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Because that is what the New Testament is all about. You coming to a revelation that Jesus Christ is Lord.
- [14:33]
Unknown Host
We got a lot of work to do.
- [14:35]
Unknown Co-Host
Let's roll up our sleeves. But we got all the tools that we need to do the work that's ahead. It's work that is worth it. It's going to be so rewarding.
- [14:44]
Unknown Host
I'm already proud of you.
- [14:46]
Unknown Co-Host
Like I'm proud of you for embarking on this journey. Not only am I proud of you, but I love you. It's going to be great. Let's dive in the loop.
- [15:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Thank you so much for joining me on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, it would mean the world to me if you'd give us a follow rate and review the show. And don't forget to share. You can learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com or and find us on Instagram hebible department. If you want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.