Why Reading the Bible as a Human Book Unlocks Its Divine Mystery (Embarrassed by the Bible Series #2)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2017

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A conversation with author and speaker Rob Bell about how reframing the Bible as a deeply human book opens the doorway to encountering its divine depth. As part of the “Embarrassed by the Bible” series, Mike and Andy talk with Bell about his book "What Is the Bible?" and how growing up in our reading of scripture helps us make sense of its most difficult passages. From violent Old Testament narratives to doubt, deconstruction, and rediscovery, this episode encourages us to move beyond literalism into transformation. Bell offers a pastoral and provocative invitation: stop reading the Bible flatly—and start seeing it as an unfolding narrative that shapes personal and communal identity.

Key Takeaways:
• Reading the Bible as Evolving Narrative – Why understanding scripture as a human and progressive story helps us encounter the divine more honestly and powerfully.
• Recovering the Original Purpose of Sacred Text – How the Bible’s ancient poems, stories, and laws were subversive, political, and profoundly human responses to empire and suffering.
• Violence, Wrath, and Redemption – Rethinking how Old Testament violence reflects a tribal consciousness rather than a divine endorsement—and how Jesus reframes it all.
• Taking the Bible Seriously, Not Literally – The difference between honoring scripture’s depth versus flattening it through rigid dogma.
• Doctrine and Experience – Bell explains how doctrines were attempts to preserve divine experience, but without engagement, they lose meaning.
• What Reconstruction Looks Like – Why building anew after deconstruction isn’t returning to certainty, but embracing the ongoing journey of faith and transformation.

Guest Highlights:
Rob Bell – Bestselling author, former pastor, and host of The RobCast. Bell shares insights from his book What Is the Bible?, expanding on how cultural context, poetry, humor, and the human experience reveal the Bible’s enduring relevance and beauty.

Resources Mentioned:
• What Is the Bible? by Rob Bell – Link
• Bell’s Podcast – The RobCast
• Book Recommendations in Bell’s Bibliography – found at the back of "What Is the Bible?"
• Genesis 1, Book of Jonah, Book of Lamentations – used to illustrate poetic and political layers of Old Testament literature
• Enuma Elish – Babylonian creation myth compared with Genesis
• Greg Boyd’s Crucifixion of the Warrior God – an alternative take on biblical violence, discussed in a future episode

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Music by Timothy John Stafford (@GoneTimothy)

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Internet, Mike and Andy here.
0:15.2	As Andy, so, you know, made sure everyone knew he's back.
0:19.7	And I want you to know there,
0:21.9	there are a couple of sure signs that the Vox podcast is very, very successful. Yes. Um,
0:27.5	number one, that the, the podcast episode I did by myself is probably our most popular episode.
0:35.7	And, um, and number two, we are, we are beginning to have conversations with
0:41.8	guests that we've just been dying to have conversations with. So Micah, Carrie and Bonnie
0:48.5	and the Avis is. And I mean, we're just,'re we're loving having conversations and we're trying to do
0:56.5	there are podcasts that are like pure preaching shows there are podcasts that are that are let me just
1:02.7	do q and a there are podcasts that are just interview shows we we want to be a little bit of all
1:07.1	those things and so we've been cooking out up a series called Embarrassed by the Bible.
1:12.1	And we did our first one. I'm working on Noah and the Ark, which, oh, my Lord, is going to take
1:17.2	me hours to put together. It's just ridiculous. I'm in the middle of all these Mesopotamian flood
1:22.5	stories. I don't see what the issue is. It's pretty straightforward. Oh, my lord. But then you get into the Nephilim. And I mean,
1:28.2	it's just nuts. So I don't even know when that one's going to air because it's, I'm, oh, I mean,
1:33.5	literally, if you look right there, Andy Bear, how many books is that, like eight or nine books?
1:38.1	Yeah. And that are all just like, strangely, it's two of every book from what I could see from here. Oh,
1:45.5	that's so awesome.
1:49.3	You've been so saturated that you somehow started to replicate.
1:50.2	Andy.
1:50.7	Yeah,
1:54.0	let's not mention the massive pile of wood you have in your backyard now either.
	...

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