Reading Scriptures Intelligently: Using Your Bible's Notes

Modern translations of the Bible now incorporate a lot of features designed to help the reader understand a biblical text or passage with an eye to its human dimensions.  We already said that this fact should be appreciated precisely because it reflects a way of approaching the Biblical word which is coherent to its nature.  After all, in the Bible, the Word of God is echoed forth in human words such that in order to contemplate the divine Word, one must first pass through the low and narrow door of the human word.  (This was precisely one of the first big mistakes of the young St. Augustine: During his first contact with Scriptures, the lowliness of the human made him reject the Word of God altogether.)

I must admit that what daunts the modern reader of the Bible is not really the "lowliness" of its "humanity."  What is daunting is the realization that one's understanding of the Scriptures cannot be as immediate as once was thought.  Contemporary exegesis and modern hermeneutical theory has taught us that between the reader of the 21st century and the Bible, there is a wide gap that can only be bridged partially by our modern translations.  And we know too that not even the countless essays and books of theologians and bible interpreters can fully bridge that gap.  No matter how much one has studied the philology or the history and culture behind the letter of Scriptures, there still remains a space which only the Holy Spirit, the Inspirer of the sacred authors, can enlighten.  If contemporary understanding of the Bible looks daunting, it is because the Word of God can never be imprisoned within the science -- and ignorance, let me add -- of a particular era or society of human beings.  

Since the Word of God is both revealed and hidden ("Transcendent-Immanent" as Tillich would write) the right stance towards Him must be that of humble faith that bows to the Revelation acccompanied by the firm resolve to make full use of one's understanding in grasping the truth Revealed.  When Mary received the Angelic announcement about her impending pregnancy, she asked a biological question: "How can this be; I haven't had sex with anyone?" When confronted by an angelic announcement in the form of a text, we would do well to ask literary and historical questions.  This is what intelligent reading of the Scriptures is about.  it is faith in dialogue.  And the footnotes and marginal notes of our Bibles (not to mention the maps and tables appended to them) aid the contemporary Bible reader in entering into that dialogue.