Ever wonder why people don't read the Bible much? Many people read about the Bible--more or less. Christian bookstores are full of books purporting to be Bible-based. A fair number of Christians buy these books; some Christians may read a few of these books. The shrinking number of American Christians have some idea what the Bible contains and vague impressions about biblical characters, places, and events. But, in truth, people just don't read the Bible. I've read it twice--in my youth and in the Authorized Version no less (that's "King James" to most people). But I dare say that I could select a random 10,000 people in church on any Sunday and find not a one who has read the entire Bible, few who have read the entire New Testament, fewer still who have read most of the Old Testament. Considering that the Protestant ideal was to place the Bible in the hands of the believer so that he could be his own priest with direct access to scripture and to God, the present state of affairs is deplorable at a minimum. What's the answer?
It's simple. Go on the web and find the National Adult Literacy Survey that the federal government conducts every 10 years or so. The survey divides reading skills by five levels of difficulty, the first being the simplest, the fifth requiring the greatest literacy. The survey describes levels 4 and 5 as requiring considerable ability to handle long passages of text and to perform complex calculations based on those passages. Lest you think that the survey tests your ability to comprehend Hegel or quantum mechanics, the government publishes sample questions from prior surveys to indicate the reading abilities it is examining. Inspect these samples and you'll discover that the highest levels of literacy require the comprehension and calculation abilities of an average high-school student of a mere generation ago. Basically, all you need is a vocabulary sufficient to read USA Today and elementary arithmetic. There's nothing tough about this survey. Or so a literate person would think.
If you examine the results of the survey, you'll discover these amazing facts:
(1) More than 20% of the country is functionally illiterate; that is, one-fifth or more of American adults cannot read a brief passage in simple English (this is level 1 complexity) and comprehend its meaning. Put differently, more than one-fifth of Americans cannot read and understand the message that you are reading right now.
(2) Not more than 21% and as little as 18% of American adults have sufficient reading skills to qualify as level 4 or 5 readers. That fact should terrify you.
To read the Bible, you need reading skills of at least level 4, preferably level 5. To have any hope of truly understanding the Bible, we modern readers need to read the Bible with a special study edition (like the Oxford Study Edition I use) that has lots of notes and explanations of the text; and we need a good commentary (like the Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary that I also use). Effective use of these tools gives the modern reader a good, general knowledge of the Bible and its proper historical context. Now, these are basic tools; serious study requires far more complex and specialized apparatus. To use even the basic tools effectively requires reading skills considerably in excess of the Literacy Survey's level 5. Don't take my word for it; just compare passages from these books to the survey's sample questions to see how truly minimal are the reading skills that the survey examines. Yet not more than 21% of American adults possess sufficient reading skills to use these tools; in reality, substantially fewer have the requisite skills.
So why do so few Americans read the Bible? Answer: Because relatively few Americans are sufficiently literate to read the Bible. Most Americans don't read the Bible because they can't.
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