3 Questions to Ask When Reading the Bible: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Perspective

In the Jewish tradition, reading sacred text — whether Torah, Prophets, or Writings — has never been a casual exercise. The rabbis developed a rich culture of questioning, embodied in the Talmudic method itself. When approaching a biblical passage, the first question a Jewish reader is trained to ask is: What does this text actually say? — a call for diligent inquiry into the plain meaning, or peshat. Deuteronomy commands exactly this kind of careful investigation: "Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently" Deuteronomy 13:14.

The second question flows naturally from the first: What does this teach me about fearing God and keeping His commandments? The king in Deuteronomy 17 is told to read the law daily "that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them" Deuteronomy 17:19. Rabbi Akiva (c. 50–135 CE) and later Maimonides (1138–1204 CE) both insisted that Torah study divorced from ethical and legal application was incomplete. The third question a Jewish reader asks is: Does this lead me toward wisdom and the knowledge of God? Proverbs promises that diligent seeking yields exactly that result Proverbs 2:5.

Isaiah's rhetorical challenge — "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning?" Isaiah 40:21 — underscores that ignorance of scripture is inexcusable. The tradition expects readers to bring prior knowledge, communal context, and a questioning mind to every encounter with the text.

Christian biblical hermeneutics has historically centered on three core questions, rooted in the New Testament's own instructions about reading. The first is: What does this passage reveal about Christ? Paul's letter to the Ephesians explicitly connects the act of reading with grasping "the mystery of Christ," suggesting that comprehension of scripture is inseparable from Christological understanding Ephesians 3:4. This interpretive lens — sometimes called the sensus plenior — was championed by Origen (c. 184–253 CE) and later by Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE).

The second question is: Does this text testify to eternal life? Jesus himself directed his audience toward this inquiry: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" John 5:39. This instruction, recorded in John 5:39, has been foundational for Protestant reformers like John Calvin (1509–1564), who argued that Christ is the "soul" of the Old Testament. The third question is: What is God commanding me to do or believe? Isaiah's rebuke — "Have ye not known? have ye not heard?" Isaiah 40:21 — is frequently cited in Christian preaching to challenge complacency in readers.

It's worth noting there's genuine disagreement among scholars about whether John 5:39 is a command ("Search!") or a statement ("You search..."). The Greek eraunate can be read either way, and this ambiguity has fueled centuries of debate between traditions that prioritize personal Bible study versus those that emphasize ecclesial interpretation.

Islam's relationship with the Bible is complex and shouldn't be oversimplified. Muslims believe the original Torah (Tawrat) and Gospel (Injil) were divinely revealed, but that the texts as they exist today have undergone alteration (tahrif). Nevertheless, classical Islamic scholars like Ibn Hazm (994–1064 CE) and Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 CE) engaged seriously with biblical passages, and the Quran itself encourages the People of the Book to apply their scriptures faithfully. The first question an Islamic framework would pose when reading the Bible is: Does this passage align with what God has revealed through all His prophets? — a question of theological consistency.

The second question is: Does this text point toward the unity of God (tawhid) and righteous conduct? The Quranic instruction to "seek" and "read" resonates with Isaiah's call: "Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail" Isaiah 34:16. Islamic tradition values tadabbur — deep, reflective pondering of sacred text — and this principle can be applied to any scripture being evaluated. The third question is: Does this passage confirm or contradict the prophethood of Muhammad? Muslim scholars historically read Deuteronomy 18 and John 14–16 as containing references to Muhammad, making prophetic verification a key lens.

It's honest to acknowledge that Islam doesn't prescribe a formal method for reading the Bible the way it does for the Quran. The questions above represent the framework most consistent with classical Islamic scholarship, not a codified curriculum. The diligent inquiry Deuteronomy commands Deuteronomy 13:14 is, however, a value Muslims would recognize and affirm in principle.