It does not appear that there is any limit to the ways in which we may misunderstand the Bible—whether in the number of misunderstandings or in the degree to which we misunderstand. Like humans themselves, human responses to the texts are all over the place, sometimes varying wildly, even on certain topics which carry a considerable consensus otherwise.

And I doubt that anyone this side of Heaven can account for the whole of this phenomenon. But I can tell you this much, for it is obvious: We would likely do much better if we were trying to understand what the authors of the Bible meant, rather than simply asking the ever-popular question, “What does this mean to me?“