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The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It Paperback – September 15, 2015
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The controversial Bible scholar and author of The Evolution of Adam recounts his transformative spiritual journey in which he discovered a new, more honest way to love and appreciate God’s Word.
Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion, teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community.
Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to “protect” the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God’s plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job—but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow.
The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns’s spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God’s Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider—the essence of our spiritual study.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateSeptember 15, 2015
- Dimensions0.7 x 7.9 x 5.3 inches
- ISBN-100062272039
- ISBN-13978-0062272034
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“The central thesis of this book is unassailable― our preoccupation with defending the Bible has blinded us from seeing what it actually says. With clarity, insight, wisdom, and humor, Pete Enns helps restore our sight, enabling us to encounter the Word of God afresh in our time. In so doing, he has offered a faithful witness not only to the words of scripture, but also to the God revealed in its pages.” - John R. Franke, executive director and professor of missional theology, Yellowstone Theological Institute
“Peter Enns has written a great book about The Book. If you’ve ever struggled with the violent or contradictory or just plain strange passages in the Bible, this book is for you . . . And he’s funny.” - Rob Bell, author of Love Wins
“Stop what you’re doing and read this book! Challenging, compelling, and delightfully readable, The Bible Tells Me So is a game-changer for anyone who longs to read the Bible without compromising either intellectual integrity or devotion. With the humor and humility of a favorite professor, Peter Enns releases Scripture from the cage we’ve built for it and then teaches us to love it for what it is, not what we try to make it. Every Christian should read this book, but especially those who fear they are alone in their questions about the Bible. They will find not only relief, but also companionship, within its pages.” - Rachel Held Evans, author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood
“Enns [argues] that evangelicals have misinterpreted scripture. . . . The Bible isn’t necessarily an owner’s manual that answers all of our questions about God but a ‘guide for the faithful by being a story, not by giving us a list of directions disguised as a story.’ . . . A popular treatment designed to provoke a reset of how we read the Bible.” - Library Journal
“The question of how to read, inwardly digest, and eventually ‘live’ the Bible is probably the most divisive one among Christians today. The shock of Enns’ The Bible Tells Me So, then, is either the simplicity and clarity of its answer to that question or else the humor and confessional belief with which the answer is offered. I can’t decide which it is, but I do know one thing: This is a book that every Christian will be the better and richer for having read.” - Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence
“The question of how to read, inwardly digest, and eventually ‘live’ the Bible is probably the most divisive one among Christians today. This is a book that every Christian will be the better and richer for having read.” - Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence
“Cross a stand-up comic, a robust theological mind, a college professor, and a decent normal guy who likes baseball and has both cats and dogs, and what do you get? Peter Enns. And what does he write? A super-enjoyable, highly informative, disarmingly honest, and downright liberating book called The Bible Tells Me So. The message of this book needs to get out. Fast.” - Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity
“Cross a stand-up comic, a robust theological mind, a college professor, and a decent normal guy, and what do you get? Peter Enns. And what does he write? A super-enjoyable, highly informative, disarmingly honest, and downright liberating book. The message of this book needs to get out. Fast.” - Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity
“Peter Enns has emerged as one of the stars of biblical interpretation for thinking Christians, and with The Bible Tells Me So, he steps into the spotlight. With writing that is winsome, readable, and non-intimidating, he cuts a path between wooden literalism and faithless liberalism, giving those of us who want it a way to read the Bible that is both faithful and intellectually credible. If you want the Bible to make sense, read this book.” - Tony Jones, theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch and the author of Did God Kill Jesus?
“Peter Enns has emerged as one of the stars of biblical interpretation for thinking Christians. With writing that is winsome, readable, and non-intimidating, he cuts a path between wooden literalism and faithless liberalism, giving us a way to read the Bible that is both faithful and intellectually credible.” - Tony Jones, theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch and the author of Did God Kill Jesus?
“As an author I wish I could write in as lively and as interesting a manner as Peter Enns. And while I, as an old fashioned evangelical, have some problems with what he has written, I think that many other readers will find answers to some of the most perplexing questions that they have about the Bible.” - Tony Campolo, professor of sociology, Eastern University
“In The Bible Tells Me So, Peter Enns addresses the problems of scripture form the position of an evangelical Christian who observes with candor and fresh humor that too often faithful readers approach the Bible with expectations it is not set up to meet.” - Publishers Weekly
From the Back Cover
What Do You Do When the Bible Doesn't Behave?
About the Author
Peter Enns (PhD, Harvard University) is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, St. David’s, Pennsylvania. He has also taught courses at Harvard University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the host of The Bible for Normal People podcast, a frequent contributor to journals and encyclopedias, and the author of several books, including The Sin of Certainty, The Bible Tells Me So, and Inspiration and Incarnation. He lives in northern New Jersey.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperOne
- Publication date : September 15, 2015
- Edition : Reprint
- Language : English
- Print length : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062272039
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062272034
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.9 x 5.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #64,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #129 in Christian Bible Exegesis & Hermeneutics
- #313 in Inspirational Spirituality (Books)
- #1,302 in Christian Spiritual Growth (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Dr. Peter Enns (PhD, Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, St. Davids, PA. He has taught courses at several other institutions including Harvard University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Enns is a frequent contributor to journals and encyclopedias, and is the author of several books, including, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It (HarperOne), The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously (with Marc Brettler and Daniel Harrington, Oxford University Press), Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and The Problem of the Old Testament (Baker), and The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't Say about Human Origins (Baker).
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A Must Read for Christians Seeking Deeper Understanding of the Formation of Scripture!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2014Format: HardcoverVerified PurchasePeter Enns begins his new book with the following observation: “Many Christians have been taught that the Bible is Truth downloaded from heaven, God’s rulebook, a heavenly instructional manual—follow the directions and out pops a true believer, deviate from the script and God will come crashing down on you with full force.” If it were up to me, and we all know that it isn’t, I would insist that this book be required reading for anyone who takes the Bible seriously enough to read. This is no doubt Bible 101 at its best.
Written in a casual and humorous style, Enns tackles one of the most important issues of our day: How to read and understand the Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments). Fortunately The Bible Tells Me So is not written for Biblical scholars but for everyday Christians who often wonder why the Bible misbehaves the way it does. By misbehaving Enns means that there are things in the Bible that would make a Prostitute blush or a hardened soldier cringe.
Beginning with the conquest of Canaan and the extermination of the Canaanites, a military campaign ordered by God, Enns addresses one of the most embarrassing episodes in the Bible for many peace-loving Christians. Why would God order the extermination of men, women, and children (not to mention all their animals) just so the Israelites can take possession of the land promised to them? Does God bless genocide of this magnitude—the extermination of an entire race? This, according to Enns, is the Bible misbehaving at its best (or worse).
What are post-modern Western Christians to make of such carnage as a worldwide flood that kills every human being and living creature on earth save eight human souls and a boatload of animals? Is this the kind of Bible story we want to read to our children and then tell them God is love? Is this really the God Jesus spent a brief lifetime revealing? Is it enough to just say, “Well the Bible says it happened that way so it must be true”? Really? Might there be a better way to understand these ancient stories of carnage and violence? According the Enns the answer is “Yes!”
Yet aside from all the violence and death in the early parts of the Bible (Old Testament) how are thoughtful Christians to reconcile some of the major inconsistencies in the Bible’s storytelling? For example, there are two obviously different histories of Israel in the Bible, one in the books of Samuel/Kings and the other in Chronicles. Each account deviates from the other. How might one reconcile these glaring discrepancies of historical reporting? Or were the authors up to something else other than simply reporting history? Enns believes they were indeed up to something else.
Then there are the four different accounts of Jesus’ life recorded in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Within each of those four Gospels there are four different accounts of what happened on that first Easter morning—the central event of Christianity: The resurrection of Jesus. How does one reconcile the differences?
Peter Enns is a noted Biblical scholar with a PhD from Harvard. He provides a brief testimony of his own Christian journey as a backdrop to this wonderful, thought provoking book. My sense is that The Bible Tells Me So . . . is going to raise some hackles among some Christian while at the same time it’s going to cause others to ask why it took so long for such a book to be written.
In fact here is another excellent review of The Bible Tells Me So: [...]
From my own personal point of view, Enns’s book has answered some of the most difficult questions about the Bible that I have harbored for a long time. Questions I would have been afraid to ask a mere decade ago.
For Peter Enns the Bible is not the central focus of the Christian life, but rather Jesus is! For a fuller explanation one must read The Bible Tells Me So.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2014Format: KindleVerified Purchase"The Bible Tells Me So" is an excellent book that I would recommend to most people who identify as Christian or are seeking to know more about Christianity. At the same time I feel compelled to warn you, to quote Rachel Held Evans in her review, "it is not for the faint of heart."
Peter Enns has written a book for Christians who are struggling with the contradictions and distasteful stuff (Canaanite genocide, anyone?) in the Bible and who, for some reason, do not have an advanced degree in textual criticism. He offers them a way forward: you can continue to believe in God and ask legitimate questions about all the weird stuff in scripture that doesn't make sense.
All too often there has been a deep divide between people who study the Bible: good Bible-believing Christians on one side, godless academics on the other. Peter Enns wants to bridge that divide. He shows that textual criticism allows us to look at the Bible as it really is rather than trying to impose our own vision of what the Word of God should be on it. The Bible that he presents is messy, self-contradictory and challenging. It offers conflicting portraits of who God is and what He wants from His children. And, Enns suggests, that is okay!
Of course such a radical shift in perspective on the Bible might be a pretty earth-shaking experience for some people. Thus, my disclaimer at the top of this review.
But the fact is that if you read your Bible with open eyes, you will run head-long into things that don't make sense, seem glaringly self-contradictory or just don't match up with the God that Christians believe in. At times, scripture almost seems daring the reader to challenge it, like for instance in Proverbs 26:4 where it says "Answer not a fool according to his folly" and then the following verse says "Answer a fool according to his folly..."!
The way to deal with these contradictions, Enns argues, is to accept that the Bible is a compilation of different writers at different times who are telling stories about God in their own way. And, yes, through the lens of their own times and cultures.
Modern scholars, for example, believe that the books of the Torah were compiled from several different writings or oral traditions, which is why there are stories and even laws that flatly contradict each other. Interestingly, Enns shows that this is not a new way of looking at scripture: the Jews of Jesus' time accepted that there were at least two different 'legal traditions' in the Torah and were not afraid of 'creatively interpreting' them.
Nor were the Church Fathers of the New Testament afraid of creative interpretations of scripture - including the Apostle Paul and even Jesus! Enns spends a great deal of time at the end of the book showing how both of them put creative spins on established scripture that would give a modern Bible teacher a heart attack. Yet today we accept their radical reinterpretations without question.
In the New Testament, Paul points out that God's relationship with the Israelites predates the writing of the Torah. Likewise, Peter Enns points out that Christians' relationship with God and with Jesus predates the writing of the New Testament. Christians don't believe in the Bible - they believe in Christ. God, to quote what of Enns' chapter titles, is bigger than the Bible.
Peter Enns' argues that in the Bible God lets his children tell the stories about him. And when they tell it in their own way, like when the early Israelites made God out to be a vengeful tribal deity, God is okay with that. Yet God is also bigger than those stories. The story of who God is doesn't end with the impatient deity who wiped out almost everything on earth with a flood just six chapters into Genesis. God had more to say about himself and still has more today. After all, he is the vast, incomprehensible creator of the universe. Is anyone surprised when our knowledge of him turns out to be a little incomplete?
Peter Enns argues convincingly that the Bible was never supposed to be a rulebook. We have put the Bible and ourselves into a straight-jacket trying to make it into one, editing out the parts that we don't like and doing logical back flips to try and tidy up all the little 'problems'. The trouble is, these efforts convince nobody but ourselves.
Enns writes that Christians are supposed to wrestle with scripture, like the Psalmists and the writers of Ecclesiastes and Job. But fear about being 'wrong' about the Bible has driven us to make indefensible arguments about it, and to deny serious attempts to study it as it is.
The idea that the Bible isn't 'perfect' can be a deeply unsettling one for evangelical Christians. But Peter Enns tackles it with humor, wit and serious scholarship. And he shows that accepting the Bible for what it is is also deeply liberating.
I could write a great deal more about this book: I have given mere lip service to only a handful of the ideas Peter Enns' presents in The Bible Tells Me So. This book is insightful, challenging, funny and engaging. You may not agree with all of it. You may not even agree with most of it. But if you are a Christian that wants to dig deeper into your faith you should definitely read it.
Top reviews from other countries
Client KindleReviewed in France on December 25, 20215.0 out of 5 stars I would recommend it
Format: KindleVerified PurchaseVery intersting and in depth. Also reachable. I love how it's not dogmatic pleasing but truth seeking. Also very funny titles!
Marcelo RigoReviewed in Brazil on June 15, 20255.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and delightful book
Format: KindleVerified PurchasePete has a remarkable ability to gather information and weave it into a coherent vision of Holy Scripture. Rather than viewing it through the lens of our 21st-century evangelical culture, it is far better to let Scripture speak for itself — and then seek to understand it, always bearing in mind that final conclusions will likely remain elusive, especially after two thousand years of Christianity and who knows how much more of Judaism. Jesus was fully human. The Bible is inspired, yes, but also shaped by human hands. It is time we gratefully acknowledge that it did not fall from the sky, but was written by people — people very much like us.
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NightreaderReviewed in Germany on November 14, 20224.0 out of 5 stars Die alternativen Fakten der Bibel
Zuerst einmal das Positive. Peter Enns ist fachlich kompetent, hat einen guten Stil, aufgelockert durch lieben und niemals bösartigen Humor und greift ein Thema auf, an dem sich schon viele Christen die Zähne ausgebissen haben: Die "Problemzonen" der Bibel. Als da wären, um nur ein paar zu nennen, die sprechende Schlange, die Übertragung der Erbsünde quasi als Geschlechtskrankheit, die doch sehr skurrilen Gebote , die flache Erde, der grausige "Blitzkrieg" Joshuas, der in Dschengis-Khan-Manier den halben Nahen Osten ausrottet und zerstört, und und und. Fragt man Pfarrer, Pastor oder fortgeschrittene Christen, bekommt man meistens nur ein gequältes Lächeln zu Antwort. "Äh, stimmt doch alles nicht. Was nicht heißt dass es nicht stimmt, wohlgemerkt! Die Bibel ist schließlich Gottes Wort. Und überhaupt wollen wir jetzt lieber über das sonntägliche Kaffeekränzchen reden."
Für mich war es eine ehrliche, große Erleichterung zu lesen, dass Peter Enns alle diese Problemstellen kennt und auch gleich die dummen Antworten zitiert, die man bekommt ("die Kanaaniter waren eben ur-böse Ungläubige, da musste Gott einmal ordentlich reinhauen ... nein, das ist kein Dschihad und auch nicht dasselbe wie der Holocaust und die Plünderung jüdischen Vermögens!" Ich hatte schon gedacht, ich bin die einzige Idiotin auf der Welt, die mit mit solchen Bibelstellen echte Probleme hat.
Also - vom Problem weiter zu einer möglichen Lösung. Und die ist bei Peter Enns auf jeden Fall originell. Er weist sehr schlüssig nach, dass bestimmte "historische Berichte" einander grob widersprechen, nicht nur bei "dem alten Judenschmuß", wie ein Glaubensbruder as AT zu bezeichnen pflegte, sondern auch in den Evangelien, dass die Urzeitgeschichten der Bibel starke Ähnlichkeit und starke Differenzen zu den gleichzeitig kursierenden Mythen anderer Völker aufweisen, dass Adam z.B. im ganzen AT nur an einer einzigen, bedeutungslosen Stelle erwähnt wird (der war doch schuld an allem, oder?) und einiges mehr, das ich mit befriedigtem Kopfnicken zur Kenntnis genommen habe. Auch das Statement, dass so ziemlich das ganze AT während und nach der Rückkehr aus der babylonischen Gefangenschaft geschrieben und reichlich überarbeitet wurde, selbstverständlich basierend auf älteren Überlieferungen und Schriften. Peter Enns führt sehr überzeugende Beweise dafür an.
Dann kommt der Knaller.
Was da geschrieben wurde, nennt Peter Enns "kreatives Schreiben". Soll heißen: alternative Fakten, was ein anderes Wort für Lügen, Verdrehungen, Ergänzungen etc. in einem Ausmaß ist, dass man sich an die Geschichtsklitterer in "1984" erinnert fühlt (und natürlich an Ex-POTUS D.T.) Ein Beispiel: Die scheußlichen Massaker der Landnahme haben in Wirklichkeit nicht stattgefunden, sagen die Akademiker, (Gott seis gedankt) und Peter Enns fügt hinzu: Das haben die Autoren der Bibel nur erfunden, um dem verwundeten Selbstbewusstsein der Verschleppten ein Pflaster aufzukleben. ("Mann, damals waren wir wer! Da rannten alle vor uns davon!")
Spätestens an dem Punkt hat es mir die Haare aufgestellt. Die Bibel als ein Sammelsurium von Kriegspropaganda und Selbst-Bauchpinselei? "So spricht der Herr" - eine Marionette in den Händen irgendeines Zebulon oder Habakuk, dem man (wie später Jesus) in den Mund legt, was gerade passt? Andererseits: Was in der Bibel steht, ist nicht gerade eine Ode hemmungsloser Bewunderung an die alten Hebräer. Welches andere Volk hat so penibel seine Fehler und Schwächen publiziert? Steckt also doch etwas anderes hinter dem mehr als lockeren Umgang auch mit der konkreten Geschichte (Israel hatte ja eine ganz konkrete Geschichte, die - teilweise - wissenschaftlich fassbar ist!)
Ich habe mich durch dieses Buch und das noch spannendere "The Evolution of Adam" durchgewühlt, bis mir die Augen brannten. Dass die Bibel wortwörtlich Gottes Wort und Seine Meinung sei, habe ich zwar nur in sehr zartem Alter geglaubt - dafür steht zu viel Gemeines, Scheußliches und einfach Falsches darin - aber wenn Peter Enns recht hat, dann kommt das doch sehr nahe an "den größten Hoax aller Zeiten" heran. Was für das AT gilt, gilt schließlich auch für das NT.
Jedenfalls ist mir schon lange kein Buch mehr untergekommen, das mich so erleichtert, fasziniert, befriedigt und verärgert hat wie dieses.
T ChierReviewed in Australia on March 5, 20225.0 out of 5 stars Every Christian should read this!
This is the second book I’ve read by Pete Enns and I found it an eye opener. While I don’t agree with every proposition he puts forward, what he says on the whole makes a lot of sense. If you are a Christian who wants to witness to well read atheists and skeptics, this book is a must read. I found the author’s take on OT books such as Joshua truly enlightening and it has definitely given me a new perspective on the Bible in general.
I intend to read it again in a month or so as there is a lot to digest even though the author does his best to write in a light-hearted and entertaining style. Well done Pete Enns - I’ll definitely be reading more of your books.
KennethReviewed in Canada on October 28, 20145.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening and essential for the common Christian
Format: KindleVerified PurchaseThis book is amazing at exposing without shaming. It does this to the Bible and also to theologians that would disagree with it. Peter Enns clearly knows how to have a good debate and knows exactly where to poke to get people going, yet he does it with grace and clarity that it's hard to be mad at him. I've found myself mad at myself more that him when reading this book.
This book is for the common Christian. It isn't heady theology or hard to understand. It doesn't talk over you (in fact it talks under you most likely). This book doesn't make me want to go out and correct all the people that I know are wrong. Instead it makes me want to go to church, read my Bible, and converse with my friends with more grace and freedom. It has helped me in my journey by challenging assumptions but not criticizing me for having them.
Amazing read and 99% recommended.
I'm sure Peter will understand that 1% ;)
Thank you Peter.
















