Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally - Reading the Bible Again For the First Time

The author makes a compelling argument that the Bible, for the most part, must be approached as metaphorical. It cannot be taken literally. He also points out that a metaphorical passage can have an almost unlimited number of implied meanings. He tries, then, to use historical context to limit the number to some reasonable number. Very interesting!

Nicely written. Author uses examples of interpretation to relate what he is drawn to believe. Many interpretations he uses as examples are not new, if you have been reading reviews since 1980's. I feel this is the author's journey to find his own place and peace with the bible. It's interesting, if you've never heard alternative interpretations. But he uses only the interpretations which make his viewpoints relevant and help him on his personal quest.

I found this book to be well written and informative. I never realized how much I did NOT know about the old and new testaments and how very interesting this information is until I read this book. The book provides the reader with a look at why the the various "books" of the Old Testament were written and how much the New Testament reflects the fact that it was written within a Jewish background by Jewish men. The changes that came over time because of disagreements among and between the new Christians and the Jews and oppression from the Romans, are also described. It makes you think. I like that!

A great book for either individual enlightenment or a group study no matter how liberal or literal your views. Borg is an intellect with superior credentials as a biblical scholar, and footnotes his resources copiously. Although it is a scholarly study it is in no way dry reading. In part, it is a compelling discussion of many historical situations and how they became stories of the Bible.

Think you've read the Bible often enough that there's little more you need to know? Borg dispels such thoughts in an easy to read manner which leads you back to those verses you thought you understood so well. And if you haven't considered reading the Bible, this is just the book to change your mind. Borg writes so well that you'll wonder why you haven't read the Bible. No proselitizing, no esoteric language, just good straight-forward prose.

Despite his penchant for catchy titles, Borg is arguably amongst the most accessible Christian theologians writing today. He has the disquieting ability to read the poorly framed questions in my mind, state them crisply, and then provide clear, studied, and believable answers. And he is a careful researcher: in some chapters, the length of the notes section almost matches the length of the text itself.
Occasionally I was left with the sense that Borg rushed his writing in this book; some chapters ended before I was ready to leave the topic. And he made only passing reference to the NT epistles that were not written by Paul. Nevertheless, his discussion and interpretation of Revelation alone was worth the price of the book.
If you are new to Borg's work, I would suggest starting with Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. It will give you an excellent grounding in the central tenets of the faith. And you may find some surprises there. Reading the Bible...... then expands the beachhead to cover the core text of the faith.

The book, while taking a progressive and modern approach to the Bible, gives weight to Christian experience, to an experience of the Holy Spirit, to the divine, in people's lives, and from this point then logically challenges one to think clearly about how one should approach the Bible. The author is clearly "a believer" in the classical sense of the word, not in the fundamentalist sense, and gives the thinking Christian and even the skeptic a way to sensibly appreciate the Bible;.

I find this book to be exceptionally beneficial in terms of understanding the Bible. I read a chapter in the book and then read that significant Bible chapter. It gives me a better understanding of the Bible.

Easy to read and follow.....A wonderful dialog on the important aspects/teachings of the Bible. I tend to refer back to this book over and over( and this from someone who rarely picks or picked up the Bible.)

Marcus' book gives hope for a rational reading of the Bible that takes seriously the bible's creation and meaning for Christianity. Reminding us that we have faith in God... not in a book... Biblical idolatry.The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith

Very accessible and meaningful tour of the Bible. Marcus Borg led me on a kind and gentle journey that has helped me to better understand what it is that is really important about our sacred scriptures and how the Bible instructs my daily understanding of today's world.

I was sorely disappointed with "Reading the Bible Again For the First Time". I read a review in a local news paper, and thought I would like to read this. The content is probably not too far off, but I found tone too condescending, and was irritated to the point where I did not finish it. It comes across as a person, who after realizing that the content of the bible consists of myths, legends and other forms of made up stories, decided that he now has to find another way to justify his believes. If you are religious but troubled by content of the Bible, this might be for you. If you are scientifically minded, and wanted more information on the Bible stories and their origins, this will likely disappoint you as well.

Simplistic, pedantic, pseudo-academic lengthy digressions into frequent irrelevancies of biblical history and superficial linguistics. Its point, if any, is that thousands of years of oral tradition can be morphed into sacred revelation. If there is any of the miraculous in this, it is the lack of the tendency of generations of human beings to gasp and stretch their eyes upon reading this sort of thing, much less its original source. It can be used as a concordance to Shakespeare.

In the interest of full disclosure I didn’t finish the book, I got to the part where the author explains his way of seeing the Bible as a product of two ancient communities, that the Bible is not God’s word, not even containing God’s word. At this point I put my reference material, my numerous Bible versions, on ebay to trade for a motorcycle. If the Bible is not the Word of God then we are adrift, and this man’s opinion is of equal value to Peewee Herman’s. I would much rather get my motor running, head out on the highway, and go looking for some adventure. If we are created (I believe we are) and the Creator left us to our own devices, then I don’t think much of zim, zer, zhat, or whatever you want to call it.
But then I remembered reading in this compilation of strangers unwarranted opinions that at the very beginning, a being opposed to the Creator cast doubt on what the Creator said. I thought; could this be but a continuation of diabolical doubt. I contemplated all the efforts to subvert the Divine message, maybe this is just one more. I looked back on all the prophecies fulfilled and thought how could mere sojourners know that stuff? I looked at the promise of a Divine Redeemer, what man would dream up that God should die, and for someone like me? It must be the Word of God, so I cancelled my ebay auction and continued my more adventurous journey to discover the mind of God through His written Word.
The reason I bought this book is I heard a sermon series by the same name and thought it was phenomenal, I went back and found it was by James Jordan, if you want a Biblical based teaching search it out. Needless to say I was disappointed with this book.

Marcus J. Borg is an excellent writer and very sober theologian (or religious historian) that writes widely about Christianity with the depth it deserves. This is a book that is imperative for the artistic thinkers. It is a book that reminds the poetic thinker that the Bible is steeped in allegory, metaphor, similes or all other manners of figurative speech.

It is a very important work in a world of Christianity that has been smitten by the superficial, reductive ways of Christian Fundamentalism; a world that is nihilistic and even believes that the notion of idea or a greater intelligence at the heart of the universe can be destroyed by a lack of belief in dogma. The drivel, called "God is Not Dead" is a film that severely disrespects the history of mysticism and philosophy in Christianity, which often dealt with the deepest elements of spirituality with the artistic and philosophical rigor they deserve.

Marcus J. Borg, in this wonderful volume, reminds intelligent readers, tired of evangelicals scaring us into reading the Bible in a supercilious manner that the Bible is first and foremost a work of literature. It should be respected as something that carries as much contradictions and paradoxes, as a work written by Shakespeare. This book conjures the peace, the mendicant mindset needed to read this kind of work in utter silence, where frantic persons of fundamentalist forms of faith are not berating us for treating the Bible "seriously," when they believe wrongly and destructively that is should be read in a literal fashion.

It is time for the serious thinkers of religion to take the Bible back, out of the mire of literalist thinking. This book reminds us that the right way to read the Bible is the same way we read poetry. We should read carefully, consider the contextual nature of the text, consider the allegorical function of certain stories, accept the paradoxes, and make peace with the fact that just because something is not factually true, does not mean that the story is not ethically or philosophically true.

We don't read the story of David and Goliath as just history; it is a story, an archetypal story of the brave man of small stature that triumphs over their enemies not with physical prowess, but with the strength and courage of our own intrinsic spiritual or ethical gifts that rest within the metaphorical hearts of ourselves. It is about facing odds, just like the story of Jacob wrestling with God is not literally about Jacob wrestling God into submission. It is about that endless torment of trying to figure out our reasons for existence, and discerning clarity within the murk of the complex world that we inhabit. Everyday, that myth is played out again and again, as we wrestle with our own vulnerabilities, the antithetical nature of other people's ethical beliefs, our own impotency, and the lack of clarity surrounding whether there is a larger, more smarter intelligence that underpins the fabric of our small, dust-like fragment of an existence.

In the end, the true vigorous existential struggle to find meaning in our lives is a universal, and the Bible is one attempt to try to coherently display the trials and tribulations of finding that meaning in the universe. It is a long-spanning, psychological history of the many types of Jewish scribes that wrote it, and the later Christian scribes that incorporated their own newer thoughts. The Bible is a text of evolution, a text of fluidity- the overall direction of the Bible is towards a more progressive, a more evolved sense of spirituality. It is not just about one, literallist notion of religion. The Bible covers the many paradoxes and contradictions that inevitably exist in any text about the history of humanity's thoughts about God.

If we stop reading the Bible in a literalist way and read it in the same reverent way one reads a poem written by William Wordworth, we may find ourselves remembering that the most crucial element of good spirituality is to honor the mystery of existence and others around us.

In the interest of full disclosure I didn’t finish the book, I got to the part where the author explains his way of seeing the Bible as a product of two ancient communities, that the Bible is not God’s word, not even containing God’s word. At this point I put my reference material, my numerous Bible versions, on ebay to trade for a motorcycle. If the Bible is not the Word of God then we are adrift, and this man’s opinion is of equal value to Peewee Herman’s. I would much rather get my motor running, head out on the highway, and go looking for some adventure. If we are created (I believe we are) and the Creator left us to our own devices, then I don’t think much of zim, zer, zhat, or whatever you want to call it.
But then I remembered reading in this compilation of strangers unwarranted opinions that at the very beginning, a being opposed to the Creator cast doubt on what the Creator said. I thought; could this be but a continuation of diabolical doubt. I contemplated all the efforts to subvert the Divine message, maybe this is just one more. I looked back on all the prophecies fulfilled and thought how could mere sojourners know that stuff? I looked at the promise of a Divine Redeemer, what man would dream up that God should die, and for someone like me? It must be the Word of God, so I cancelled my ebay auction and continued my more adventurous journey to discover the mind of God through His written Word.
The reason I bought this book is I heard a sermon series by the same name and thought it was phenomenal, I went back and found it was by James Jordan, if you want a Biblical based teaching search it out. Needless to say I was disappointed with this book.

Marcus J. Borg is an excellent writer and very sober theologian (or religious historian) that writes widely about Christianity with the depth it deserves. This is a book that is imperative for the artistic thinkers. It is a book that reminds the poetic thinker that the Bible is steeped in allegory, metaphor, similes or all other manners of figurative speech.

It is a very important work in a world of Christianity that has been smitten by the superficial, reductive ways of Christian Fundamentalism; a world that is nihilistic and even believes that the notion of idea or a greater intelligence at the heart of the universe can be destroyed by a lack of belief in dogma. The drivel, called "God is Not Dead" is a film that severely disrespects the history of mysticism and philosophy in Christianity, which often dealt with the deepest elements of spirituality with the artistic and philosophical rigor they deserve.

Marcus J. Borg, in this wonderful volume, reminds intelligent readers, tired of evangelicals scaring us into reading the Bible in a supercilious manner that the Bible is first and foremost a work of literature. It should be respected as something that carries as much contradictions and paradoxes, as a work written by Shakespeare. This book conjures the peace, the mendicant mindset needed to read this kind of work in utter silence, where frantic persons of fundamentalist forms of faith are not berating us for treating the Bible "seriously," when they believe wrongly and destructively that is should be read in a literal fashion.

It is time for the serious thinkers of religion to take the Bible back, out of the mire of literalist thinking. This book reminds us that the right way to read the Bible is the same way we read poetry. We should read carefully, consider the contextual nature of the text, consider the allegorical function of certain stories, accept the paradoxes, and make peace with the fact that just because something is not factually true, does not mean that the story is not ethically or philosophically true.

We don't read the story of David and Goliath as just history; it is a story, an archetypal story of the brave man of small stature that triumphs over their enemies not with physical prowess, but with the strength and courage of our own intrinsic spiritual or ethical gifts that rest within the metaphorical hearts of ourselves. It is about facing odds, just like the story of Jacob wrestling with God is not literally about Jacob wrestling God into submission. It is about that endless torment of trying to figure out our reasons for existence, and discerning clarity within the murk of the complex world that we inhabit. Everyday, that myth is played out again and again, as we wrestle with our own vulnerabilities, the antithetical nature of other people's ethical beliefs, our own impotency, and the lack of clarity surrounding whether there is a larger, more smarter intelligence that underpins the fabric of our small, dust-like fragment of an existence.

In the end, the true vigorous existential struggle to find meaning in our lives is a universal, and the Bible is one attempt to try to coherently display the trials and tribulations of finding that meaning in the universe. It is a long-spanning, psychological history of the many types of Jewish scribes that wrote it, and the later Christian scribes that incorporated their own newer thoughts. The Bible is a text of evolution, a text of fluidity- the overall direction of the Bible is towards a more progressive, a more evolved sense of spirituality. It is not just about one, literallist notion of religion. The Bible covers the many paradoxes and contradictions that inevitably exist in any text about the history of humanity's thoughts about God.

If we stop reading the Bible in a literalist way and read it in the same reverent way one reads a poem written by William Wordworth, we may find ourselves remembering that the most crucial element of good spirituality is to honor the mystery of existence and others around us.

We're almost finished reading this book in a Episcopal church's group of those favoring a "progressive Christianity" view. We meet 2ce monthly for 1 1/2 hours a session and take turns one person reading aloud a few pages, then discussing anything that provoked interest or comment, then going on to another reader. Works very well for us.

Some of us favored the books of John Shelby Spong and subscribe to his weekly column and wanted to read something by him -- but Borg has grown on us and I'm very glad we've read him.

Borg's Preface & 1st 3 chapters, IMO, spend a L-O-T of time apologizing & justifying for NOT taking a more traditional, literal view of the Bible but -- once Borg gets in to discussing the actual Bible, I found these sections to be easily 5 STAR worthy. I liked that Borg presents alternative views when they exist. IF I'd been reading it on my own (without the group), I'd probably have given up reading it before reading the 4th chapter and the rest of the book.

Those who look upon the Bible as the source of inerrant, literal truth and the 4 Gospels as actually being "Gospel Truth" should stay away from it -- it will not confirm their beliefs. Paul was the earliest of the New Testament writers to write about Jesus and he lived after Jesus died. Mark, Matthew, Luke & John lived and wrote (in that order) later in the 1st Century and each book is probably collections of several writers rather than of the one named. These writers attempted to write (invent) actions that would be consistent and meaningful with what Jewish people at that time already knew and valued from their familiarity with their existing scriptures.

Very interesting book to discuss in a group -- glad we chose it.

I have often wondered how a person might read and teach the Bible if they did not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Having read this book by Borg, I now know, and I am pleasantly surprised. After three opening chapters about how we got the Bible and how it is to be read and understood, Marcus Borg takes the reader on a broad survey of the Bible, beginning with Genesis and going all the way through Revelation.

As I struggle with what I was taught in Seminary about Scripture, books like this give me hope that there is room for serious scholarship and deep thinking about Scripture, even if Scripture is not inerrant. I highly recommend this book.

Particularly liked the way he makes the distinction between 'literal-factual' and 'historical-metaphorical'. Also the insights he shares about the personal experience of the relationship with Spirit/God/Universal Energy. Thanks for your insightful and 'kind' style.

Marcus Borg is a my nominee for the best theologian of the 21st century. His writing is clear, compelling and full of integrity. What's more, his many books are truly accessible to a popular audience -- unlike so many other works by ponderous academic writers.

"Reading the Bible Again for the First Time" is Borg's masterpiece, in my opinion -- even better than his more famous books on Jesus. It's both concise and convincing, kind and yet deeply challenging. The average person could read it from cover to cover in about three hours. (Read more slowly if you want to enjoy each wonderful chapter.)

Borg's basic argument is this: A modern literalist reading of the Bible is not just intellectually dishonest, but it actually prevents us from experiencing the many wonders and rich treasure trove of meaning contained in Scripture. That's why his subtitle is "Taking the Bible Seriously, But Not Literally."

Borg, himself a believer in the Anglican tradition, recounts his own spiritual journey from naive (childhood) literalism through doubt and disbelief and ultimately to a more mature understanding of the Bible. Key points include the following:

-- Some parts of the Bible are clearly based on historical events (e.g., who was king of Israel during what period of time).
-- Others provide spiritual insight and meaning through the use of metaphor (e.g., the Tower of Babel).
-- Forcing metaphor into historical reporting, or visa versa, is an enormous mistake that leads to all sorts of problems. It's not only dishonest, it's also completely unnecessary.
-- We should read the major sections of the Bible in the true context in which they were written (e.g., the prophets of the Hebrew Bible had profound messages for humanity but they were focused on Jewish society at the time).
-- We must also be honest about when and how the Bible was written, edited, revised and published. If God is truth, he certainly doesn't want us to lie about the origins of Scripture.

The fact that something in the Bible may not be "historically true" in the sense of a newspaper report does not mean that it isn't "spiritually true" in a much more profound sense. To use a secular analogy, the great soliloquy in Hamlet was never actually spoken by a prince of Denmark. Yet it contains great truth and wisdom for all of us today.

If you are a spiritual searcher, or you are annoyed by people who pick bits out of the Bible to use as weapons, I strongly urge you to read this amazing book. You won't regret it!

Should the Bible be taken literally as fundamentalists believe? No says biblical scholar Marcus J. Borg, author of Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. He advocates an historical metaphorical way of reading and interpreting it - an approach he says that is becoming increasingly common in recent decades.

Using this lens he takes the reader through the Old and New Testaments shedding light on the meaning behind the scriptures and showing how they can bring meaning to our twenty-first century spiritual lives. He argues that we need a fresh way of approaching the Bible that takes the texts seriously but not literally. In making his argument he presents a contemporary way of re-connecting with the Bible and its wisdom.

Borg does not see the Bible as a whole as divine in origin, or some parts as divine and some as human. He maintains that it is all human product, though generated in response to God. We must discern "how to read and interpret it and how to hear and value its various voices," he says.

Borg's unique book invites everyone, whatever their religious background, to engage the Bible, explore its mysteries and appreciate its relevance. It's a fresh approach well worth considering.

Barry Francis

I wish everyone, everywhere, would read this book. It was life-changing, thought-provoking, and extremely engaging. I took the book everywhere with me, to read every chance I got, until done. This is the one book I would buy for everyone who matters to me, everyone who is open to different ideas. Borg invited me to make peace with the Bible and peace with organized religion. Just fabulous.

Coming from a fairly modernist, conservative mindset with a pretty strong reformed evangelical background, I had a lot of mixed reactions to how Borg views and interprets the Bible.

Initially, I found the book to be very frustrating. Borg seems to start from the premise of "fantastic things don't happen, therefore they didn't happen" and proceeds from there. I don't entirely agree with this. Just because some of the events in the Bible appear to be fantastic, even to the point of absurdity, it doesn't mean they never happened, and to assume that such things can never happen is bringing an assumption to the Bible.

In spite of this disagreement, I really got a lot out of the book. Borg offers a pretty compelling critique of the modernist approach to the Bible that I'm not sure I knew I had. The biggest question I faced was "does a story have to be historically accurate to be meaningful or true?" As Borg went through the different documents that make up the Bible, I saw that the answer can sometimes be "no."

While I probably would align more closely with N.T. Wright's understanding and view of the Bible, I'm really glad I read this book. Though I don't agree with every point that Borg makes, I found my admiration and understanding of the Bible to be richer, fuller, and more complex after reading this book, and I would recommend it.

This is an excellent book, well written, in-depth and yet easy for the layman to read. It cleared a lot of things up for me, and reading the Bible this way makes perfect sense. I highly recommend it!!!

Nothing to add from the other high ratings. Such a breath of fresh air: I finally found a writer who has thought deeply and made sense of my growing discomforts. Here is a thoughtful, kind-hearted and energetic construct for reading the bible without turning off your brain. I devoured his "Heart of Christianity" and ran to this. This book is a bit slower for me, but a resource I will turn to and think about for years to come. Thank you Marcus for showing me he path!!

This book, and others by him and his friend Dominic Crossan, are the reason I have not completely turned my back on Christianity. I grew up in Catholic Schools, and worked for the Church for awhile. Like many others, over time I became disillusioned with both the people and the doctrines. Reading this book got me excited about Chrisianity again. Christianity does offer freedom and meaning, but not in the way most Americans understand it to. Borg presents a reading of the Bible that is sensible, beautiful, and inspiring. It is accessible to non-scholars, but incredibly thoughtful and intelligent.

I was left sad that this reading is not what is taught in our churches and schools. I took 4 university theology classes at a conservative Catholic University and the one professor who said things like that are in this book was run off. It's sad, because while the ideas that Abraham and Jacob might be personifications of a whole tribe rather than real people, or that the resurection narrative is best read as metaphor might be scary at first, these readings are ultimately life affirming. Thank you Borg, for spreading the Good News to a new generation!

As a pastor from a conservative, evangelical background, I have increasingly become uneasy with traditional ways of understanding the scriptures that I love. Marcus Borg has opened, for me, a whole new way of understanding and reading the scriptures. His "metaphorical" approach blesses something in me that has been jelling for a long time and is helping me find the scriptures more exciting, meaningful, and spiritual than ever before. The idea that everything does not have to be understood literally to have powerful metaphorical and spiritual meaning is something I find quite liberating. I can't say I agree with everything Dr. Borg writes, but I like a lot of it, and am still reflecting on much of the rest of it. Plus, he has freed me to reflect more meaningfully on the meaning of scripture and to preach more creatively in sermons, without feeling like a heretic for doing so. His approach to the scriptures has freed me to hear the scriptures spiritually in a way I never had before. If you're a Christian and not afraid to think new thoughts about the Bible, and you're hungry for some new angles on the faith, this book is fascinating. It is written with warmth and humility. Dr. Borg seems, himself, to be very spiritually minded, even though his approach to scripture and Christian faith may be quite new to many. This is a good book and I recommend it to those open to grow and reflect in new ways.