Matthew Hyde 20.12.24

I write this as we come to the end of another year, and amidst the absolute scheduling carnage that is the Christmas season, I’ve allowed myself some moments of reflection. Because over the last twelve months, there has been a common theme among the Christian communities I’m part of, a push to get back to basics and rediscover some basic spiritual formation tools; prayer, for instance, or reading the Bible. And that’s great, because these things are the heartbeat of faith, but sometimes they’re easier said than done. Take the Bible; we’re told we should read it regularly, but look at it – it’s a big, thick book with lots of thin pages and small print. Churches love the Bible so much they can sometimes forget how intimidating it can at first appear.

So I wanted to come at this from a different angle, specifically the angle of me being a great big nerd. And while me growing up with the Bible took away some of the fear factor, I do have history of facing a corpus of texts featuring interlinking narratives, multiple authorship and years of background history and context. Because sometime around the turn of the millennium, I started reading comic books, and believe it or not, there are similarities.

No, wait, come back. I’m serious. Think about Marvel movies. On hand, they’re one big thing, the Marvel Cinematic Universe telling an overarching story and hinting at what’s still to come by post-credit scenes. But the story isn’t told as one, incredibly long movie – it’s spread across a number of different films, each one featuring different characters and scenarios (Thor fighting frost giants here, Iron Man fighting the consequences of his own arrogance there) which occasionally come together for a collective Avengers movie.

And, bear with me, this is similar to the Bible, because we need to stop looking at it as a leather-bound monolith. It’s a collection of numerous texts written across centuries, and that means starting at Genesis and ending at Revelation isn’t necessarily the best approach. Because while it starts with the stories of Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham, it soon stops being a straightforward narrative and starts being a guidebook for ritual practices. And then it goes into history (repeating itself for significant stretches), then religious poetry and erotic poetry before introducing a bunch of intense prophets who rail against the social conditions of the time. And all that’s before Jesus turns up. The Bible is a wide-ranging collection of genres, and it’s helpful to have a feel for which genre each book is before you dive in.

A range of genres, yes, and therefore a range of authors, some of whom handle the overarching storyline differently to others. This is a feature, not a bug – there’s a tension between the writer of Ruth and the write of Ezra/Nehemiah, for instance, but that’s where you have to engage with the texts, think about them and pray about them and ask why each writer went one way and not the other.

But ultimately, like me standing before a wall of comic books, you have to make the decision to start somewhere. I grabbed a Superman comic, because he’s the most famous superhero and I’d already seen the Christopher Reeve films. And that wasn’t the first Superman comic ever published, it was probably issue five hundred and something, but sometimes you’ve got to jump in feet first.

So don’t feel you have to start in Genesis, because you don’t. Maybe you’re a poetry fan, in which case Psalms might be an on-ramp. Maybe you dimly remember stories you’ve heard before – so Jonah, maybe, or Exodus for the whole Prince of Egypt narrative. Or, if we assume the function of the Christian Bible is to point us to Christ, start with a gospel – Mark’s the short snappy one. Matthew has stuff like the Sermon on the Mount and (some of) the Christmas story, Luke has (the rest of) the Christmas story and a lot of the famous parables. John is a bit more mystical.

So pick one and start reading – there’s plenty of support out there. On a logistical level, there are a lot of resources out there. Bible Gateway gives you access to lots of different translations; the Bible Project is fantastic for information on overarching themes and how each book fits into them. And as I write this, I’m aware that the very word ‘read’ can be problematic, so if a lot of text is difficult, try an audio Bible – the YouVersion app has one included, while the Bible Experience has Samuel L. Jackson voicing God. Listening may be an easier way into the Bible for many (let’s not forget that, across the whole scope of history, more people will have heard the scriptures than will have read them).

But then there are people. I still miss the old DC Comics message boards because that’s where I met a bunch of people who would answer questions, give different perspectives, argue with me and teach me why 1985 was such a pivotal year. And likewise, for all people will tell you the Bible is perfectly understandable, that only goes so far – there will be difficult bits, bits that make you confused or angry, bits that are deliberately obtuse (Revelation needs diagrams, for goodness’ sake). Finding a community with which you can read and study the Bible is invaluable; at the same time, and go to all mystical, it’s also something between you and God, whose Spirit will lead you through the labyrinth.

Over the last few years, we’ve got used to stories of shared universes, come to expect that we’ll end up following a huge number of characters through narratives that span huge timeframes and geographies. And we can bring some of that experience to the Bible, not limiting it to being an intimidating user manual, the trite old Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth cliche, but encountering it on its own terms, letting all its authors speak as we find ourselves reflected in its pages, as we find ourselves drawn into its story, as we let ourselves be found by Christ as we read.