Jesus’ Method or the Devil’s?

The Right Way to Use the Scriptures

Anil Solanki

Using Scripture verses for one’s own purpose has been problematic in our times, throughout the history of the church, and even during the time of Jesus.

The temptation narratives, recorded by both Matthew (4:1-11) and Luke (4:1-13), give insight as to how Jesus uses the Scriptures. We might view the way Jesus uses Scriptures as Jesus’ method and the way the Devil uses Scriptures as the Devil’s method.

In all three temptations Jesus uses Scripture to defeat and silence Satan. The comparison is never clearer than in the Second Temptation, when Satan, the Devil, challenges Jesus: “Throw yourself down, God will command his angels to lift you up,” says Satan, quoting Psalm 91:11-12.

Not so long ago a TV news report told of a mother duck leaving her nest on a high ledge of a city building and going to a pool of water, leaving her ducklings high above the street. A banker walking by saw a duckling tumbling out of the nest and somehow caught it. Then one by one others tumbled out and he caught each. Still some remained in the nest, so with a ladder he rescued those remaining and led them all across the street to reunite them with the mother duck. The banker became an angel for the ducklings!

The temptation narrative is different. In this temptation the Devil asks Jesus to throw himself down purposely to test God—the Devil uses the Scripture to validate and support himself (Ps. 91:11-12). But Jesus says, “It is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Deut. 6:16). The Devil takes verses out of context and uses them in the wrong way to challenge Jesus and to test God.

Some congregations emphasize handling snakes (Mark 16:18). Some Christian snakehandlers have died when bitten. This risks testing God and being an unwise use of Scripture.

The Devil takes one scripture but Jesus takes another scripture and puts the two in dynamic tension, in holy tension. Two scriptures side by side: because truth has many sides, not just one. Compare what one text says with what another text says—they must be seen in creative tension or balance.

Let us apply Jesus’ method to two verses that sound strange (1 Cor. 14:34-35). “Women should remain silent in the churches. . . . ” Some Christians use these verses to silence women in the church and treat them as second-class citizens. Once the ABC Evening News told of one woman, a Sunday school teacher for 35 years, who was prohibited from teaching by a new pastor. Such congregations insist that “Women can’t do this; women can’t do that.” No teaching or preaching—maybe no Amen!

Now let’s use Jesus’ method. In the same book of 1 Corinthians, verse 11:5, Paul speaks of any “woman who prays or proclaims God’s message in public worship” (GNT). And in Galatians 3:28-29, Paul stresses that “There is neither . . . male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” 

Discrimination on the basis of gender should not be allowed. At no time in the early church were women silent. They sang, prayed, taught, and preached. It was only after Paul’s death that thinking of and treating women as inferior and to be silenced came into more widespread practice.

In Romans 16 several women are mentioned as leaders. Priscilla was an important leader and teacher (Rom. 16:3). More women than men are praised in this chapter for their leadership. Phoebe was a minister (deacon) at the church in Cenchrea (16:1). She was a benefactor and supporter of Paul. Persis is referred to as “beloved.” Junia was referred to as an apostle (So her name was later changed to Junias—no such name was discovered in Rome according to archeological findings.)

Mary Magdalene was the first to announce the good news of the Resurrection. At Pentecost, Peter in Acts 2:17 reports that your “sons and your daughters will proclaim my [God’s] message. . .” (GNT).

So when we put other Scriptures alongside 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, then we realize that here is something strange. We know that the manuscript evidence of these two verses present problems. In some ancient manuscripts these two verses appear after 14:40, and in one manuscript as a notation in the margin. In most manuscripts the verses appear after verse 33. In some newer versions (such as NRSV), these verses are put in brackets. They are considered not from Paul but later interpolation.

However, they are in the Bible so we have to deal with them by Jesus’ method. Possibly in the Pauline churches, those first established according to Paul’s teachings, women had important functions in the worship service. Perhaps these verses were eventually to inspire 1 Timothy 2:11-15, written later. 

Jesus’ method of using scriptures is also called “horizontal reading.” Read one text in one place and another in a different place—and then bring them together in balance. This horizontal reading is not what most people do; rather, we read vertically and then forget to refer to and read the other Scriptures. We need to use horizontal reading of the Bible to deepen our understanding of context within the Scriptures. 

Let us look at another example of horizontal reading: King David in Old Testament times ordered a census to count the fighting men. In 2 Samuel 24:1 we read that God made him do it, whereas in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it says that the Devil (Satan) made him do it. Who is right? Both! It depends on each writer’s viewpoint, perspective, and theology, whatever one may call it. We have to put both verses together and keep them in dynamic tension because truth has many sides, not just one.

There is a story of a rabbi who listened to one man’s complaints against another and told the man, “You are right”; The man went away happy. When the man against whom the complaints were made came to tell his side of the story, the rabbi said “You are right”—and the second man went away happy. The rabbi’s wife challenged what she felt were inappropriate responses by the rabbi, saying, “They cannot both be right!” The rabbi declared, “You are also right!”

Turning again to the Scriptures, read John 3:7. This verse is widely misunderstood. “You all [plural] must be born again [or born from above] Who are “you all”? Nicodemus was a Pharisee. “You all” are Pharisees!

Now if we place this verse beside Matthew 23—which speaks of the seven woes of Pharisees—and especially Matthew 23:23, we get some idea of the issue. Pharisees were tithing mint, dill, and cumin, but they lacked justice (no care for the needy), mercy, and faithfulness. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus and indirectly to all religious people that “You all must be born again to do justice, to care for the needy.”

The genius of Jesus, the Master Teacher, is powerfully manifested in the grand example of Jesus bringing two scriptures together side-by-side in Matthew 22:37-40; namely, Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love God with all your heart,” and Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

These two sayings/commandments come from two different books of the Bible and belong to two different traditions. It is possible that the Pharisees believed in the first part “Love God” and interpreted it in a legalistic way in their practice of “giving tithe of mint, dill, and cumin.” But they neglected justice (Matt. 23:23) and did not care for the needy.

Jesus combines the vertical love of God with the horizontal love of one’s neighbor like two sides of the same coin. When in an effort to evade responsibility someone asked, “But who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the Good Samaritan story and commanded, “Go and do likewise.” Pharisees neglected a part of the Torah (law) which could be hard on their pockets!

In my congregation I teach these two scriptures as “passion for God and compassion for the needy.” Pharisees and scribes took only one part of Scripture—the vertical relationship with God—and neglected care for the needy. (“They devour widows’ homes,” says Mark 12:40—now that is some kind of foreclosure!)

When, like Jesus, we put one Scripture beside another Scripture and try to understand, we follow Jesus’ method. But if we use only one Scripture to force our case, it is not Jesus’ method; it is the Devil’s method. If we follow Jesus’ example we must put more Scriptures side by side.

One example from real life: I have a friend who is a devout Christian and a devoted husband. His wife seems to know a lot of Bible verses pertaining to husbands and men. One day he told me, “Anil, my wife asks me to do this and that and she always quotes some Scripture to support her. She says, ‘You must do so because you are the man.’ What should I do?” 

I told him, “When your wife is in a good mood after a good dinner in the evening, you sit with her and ask her to read Proverbs 31:10-31. This passage of the Bible describes a wise and industrious wife. She does everything and anything (including buying real estate—31:16) while her husband sits with his buddies in the town square and has a good time!”

My friend followed my advice. Like Jesus he put this scripture (Prov. 31:1-31) side by side with his wife’s scripture verses. The result was dramatic. His wife still requests that he do this and that (though less frequently then before), but she does not quote any scripture anymore. Unless a wife is full of scriptures concerning husbands and men, no husband should read to his wife this idealized portrayal of an imaginary wife. Jesus’ method of putting texts side-by-side works in real life!

The lessons of Jesus’ method are simple and direct:

1. The Devil knows, misuses, and abuses the Bible and so do some preachers and teachers.

2. We need to know the Bible to counter the Devil’s wiles and those of false teachers.

3. We need teachers and preachers who use Jesus’ method.

4. Truth has more than one side.
—Anil Solanki, whose approach to Scripture is enriched by his roots in his native India, lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and is Adjunct Professor in Old Testament (focusing on Hebrew) at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Three colleagues and Anil translated and published the whole Bible in the Gujarati language for the Bible Sociey of India, a thirty-five year project. For a Miscrosoft Word file of an updated and fuller version of this article provided more recently by Solanki, click here.