Why Study the Bible?
The most troubling question on the lips of the students is why they should study the Bible as a general
course. The students often query what the Bible has to do with their respective disciplines in the
university. They ask for instance what the Bible has got to do with my studying of Education, Law,
Commerce and the list goes on. The Bible to them belongs elsewhere may be in the Faculty of Theology.
The question can be broadened and be asked in regard to humanity in general. Why should anyone
study the Bible?
The general feeling is that the Bible belongs to the Church. Therefore, when it is studied in a university
like ours as a common course it is because the institution has a connection with the Church. The most
extreme answer that I once got from an adult student is that the Bible belongs to children. This
reasoning strikes a chord with the notion that religion belongs to the realm of those who are not fully
emotionally developed.
Therefore, as the first question one needs to deal with is this fundamental question. What has the Bible
to do with me as a person? Why should I read or study the Bible?
The answer to this question lies in the understanding of our own selves. Socrates once said that human
beings are a measure unto themselves. The statement begs the question whether a human person is an
end in himself. Human nature always appeals to a being higher than itself. The limitations in human
nature points to an existence of a being higher than us. Human beings have had various references to
this being over centuries.
Religion refers to this being as God. We read, for example, from both the Old and the New Testament
that God is the creator of everything. In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis we learn that God
created the heavens and the earth and all they contain (Gen 111,21).
Human beings are therefore God’s creatures. In these two accounts in the book of Genesis, they are,
however, created in a more special way in relation to other creatures. They are created in the “image
and likeness of God (Gen 126 . ; 27 and God breathed into his nostril life giving breath and man became a
living being),They are further given dominion over other creatures Gen 1 26 . While in Gen 219 we read: “And God brought all
creatures to man to see what name man will call them and that was their name.” Human beings are finally mandated to be fruitful
multiple and fill the earth (Gen 128).
It is important to understand what these expressions each means individually. What does it mean that
we are made in the image and likeness of God. There is always an interpretation of the phrase to mean a
physical resemblance. God is thus conceived as the model of humans. Humans are seen to be an exact
copy of God (2 Kings 1010). In Ex. 204-6 and Deut. 58-10 it is forbidden to make the image of God since
nothing on earth resembles God. We, therefore, encounter a difficulty in perceiving human being as a
physical stature of God. The expression that we are made in the image and likeness is, therefore, a
figurative language which bears the same connotation as God breathing in human being enabling him
become a living being.
The making of man in the image and likeness of God is a royal language. According to the surrounding
cultural settings of the biblical times (ANE) kings were seen as images of God. They were the
representatives of God. Hence the expression image and likeness of God is a reference to power sharing.
Human beings are made as co-creators or co-partners with God. We are basically God’s stewards here
on earth. We take care of the earth on behalf of our creator. We acknowledge that all we are and have
are gifts from our creator. The basic of the gifts is life itself. Hence to be good stewards we must seek
the mind of God.
