I have only been to London once. Well, I guess if you count a layover in Heathrow as time in London, then I’ve been there twice. But if you’re one of those people who insist that it only counts if you leave the airport, then I’ve only been to London once.

The reality is that you don’t really need to have ever visited London to be familiar with the oft-repeated phrase heard countless times a day echoing down the corridors of the many Tube stations: “Mind the gap.” It’s a cultural idiom that has spread far beyond the city itself, and yet is quintessentially Londonian. The “gap,” of course, refers to the space between the tube train and the platform. It’s that space you don’t want your foot to accidentally fall into and get trapped ten seconds before the train departs. So to “mind the gap” is a friendly warning to watch your step as you board the train.

The Old Testament Gap

There’s an excellent book on OT background and culture by Philip King and Lawrence Stager called Life in Biblical Israel, in which they put their finger on one of the most fundamental issues in Bible study in general and OT study in particular. They write,

“The gap between us and the ancient peoples continues to widen as we become further removed from our agrarian roots. Today less than two percent of the population in the United States are farmers. In ancient Israel, it was just the opposite. Nearly everyone, even those living in royal cities such as Jerusalem and Samaria, was involved in some form of agriculture and had encounters with animals wherever they went” (King and Stager, Life in Biblical Israel [Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001], 8).

When we go to read and study the OT for the purpose of understanding it, we have to accept the fact that there is a gap standing between us on the one hand and the biblical text and the biblical writers on the other. The act of reading and studying is not a magic formula. We can’t “study” any which way we choose and expect to come to accurate understanding. Reading and studying the OT is a road we take. It’s bumpy and windy, and at times seemingly un-navigable. But it’s the road we must take to arrive at proper interpretation, which in turn leads to understanding and ultimately to application and sanctification.

Now, the road we have to take requires that we bridge this OT gap. We have to “mind the gap” so that we don’t fall in and get stuck. Successful Bible study of any kind keeps this gap in focus throughout the process. More than that, productive and successful Bible study seeks to bridge this gap through a tried and true method of interpretation.

So what’s this OT gap, then? Well, it consists of six elements:

1. The Familiarity Gap
2. The Language Gap
3. The Geography Gap
4. The Culture Gap
5. The Historical Gap
6. The Literary Gap

This week’s blog is going to focus specifically on the first of these gaps, because if we were being honest, familiarity is probably something that we struggle with when it comes to the OT. Therefore, if we want to start anywhere, it should start with familiarity.

The Familiarity Gap

To a certain extent, all of us are probably familiar with some aspects of the OT. I doubt it’s a completely foreign thing to us, on par with the Rosetta Stone and the Code of Hammurabi. To prove this, let’s play a little fill in the blank…

“The Lord is my _____________________, I shall not want.”

“In the beginning, _________________  __________________ the heavens and the earth.”

“Your Word is a _________________ unto my feet and _________________ unto my path.”

“The ____________________ of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

We could go on, but I’d venture a guess that most of you reading this had no problem filling in those blanks. Each of these sentences are quotations from the OT. You know what that means? It means you already have at least some familiarity with the OT. You might not be able to tell me from which book they are taken or what they mean, but you’re at least familiar with them. That’s a start!

So now that you’re all puffed up and excited, let me now completely deflate you. As much as it’s good to fill in those blanks, that’s a far cry from reading and studying the OT for understanding. And it’s a far cry from having a working familiarity with the OT.

So how do we get there? How do we become more familiar with the OT? Well, let me start by saying, you’re never going to “arrive.” Like sanctification, reading and studying the Bible is a life-long activity that you will never exhaust. Just ask any preeminent OT scholar…Walt Kaiser, Eugene Merrill, William Barrick, Duane Garrett, John Walton, Daniel Block…these are all world-class OT scholars with decades of study, research, and writing experience. And yet I am 100% confident that they will be the first to tell you that they are still learning, still growing, and still gaining more and more familiarity with the OT and with the Bible.

So with that said, there are some things you can do to increase your familiarity with the OT and bridge this OT gap.

Read the Old Testament A LOT!

Please tell me you knew I was going here? After all, how else are we going to become familiar with the OT unless we commit to reading it? The reality is, we can read all the books in the world about the OT, but that will never replace the actual act of reading the OT.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, when I went to seminary one of my first classes I took with a survey course on the OT. While there was some supplemental reading required for the course (mostly books concerning OT history), our main textbook was the Bible itself. And I’ll never forget what the professor told us as he was introducing the coursework for the semester. He said, “When I was in seminary, we took Old Testament and New Testament survey, and we read a lot about the Bible, but we never actually read the Bible itself. That’s why I’ve made Bible reading such an integral part of the class.”

And it was! We ended up reading every OT book three times, making titles for every chapter and writing down common themes we see in each book and what we thought the overall purpose of each book might be. It was rigorous to say the least, and I’m by no means saying that it takes that kind of blood, sweat, and tears in order to bridge this gap. But there’s no getting around the fact that familiarity with the OT means you actually have to spend some time with the OT.

There are 929 chapters in the OT. That computes to about 2 1/2 chapters for every day of the year. That’s not a completely unmanageable load. It might take you 20 minutes to read 2-3 chapters, depending on which book of the Bible you’re in. Give yourself some extra reading time on a Saturday to give you margin for those days when you run out of time or you’re out of town and can’t read and you can easily make it through the OT in a year.

Feeling more ambitious? Try cutting that time in half. Read 5 chapters a day and you’ll get done with the OT in 6 months.

Maybe reading regularly just doesn’t fit well into your life rhythm right now. (I would make the argument that you should try to change that when you can, but you can read about that in my previous post.) But even if it’s not possible right now…you’re a busy mom just trying to survive, or a teacher with loads of reading and grading to do already, etc…there are still ways to get the OT text flowing into the ol’ brain cells. Instead of listening to that podcast on your morning commute, try putting on an audio reading of the OT. You can even cheat and put it on 2x speed!

The point is, the first and most important step to gain familiarity is to read, read, read. There’s no going around it. The familiarity gap must be bridged by becoming more familiar. The old saying goes, if you want to get to know someone, you have to actually spend time with them. That same principle applies to the OT.

Read Some Old Testament Overviews

Another great way to gain some quick familiarity with the OT (while you’re reading it on your own, of course!) is to read some books that summarize the OT and synthesize everything for you. In fact, if you do this in tandem with your personal reading, then it can actually enhance the time you spend reading the OT.

Obviously, when you’re just starting out, the OT can seem like vast and impossibly intimidating to grasp. Understanding how all these stories and prophecies and psalms come together into a cohesive whole is difficult, which is why having someone help you out by synthesizing and tying together these books will help you spend less time scratching your head. It won’t answer every question, but it can at least take away that sense of being overwhelmed by the trees. Sometimes you need a guide to help you stay connected to the forest.

Now, I’m not talking about commentaries. Those are tools to use when you want to get into the weeds and study the OT text. But when you’re just looking to gain familiarity with the OT as a whole, you want to use a resource that keeps you flying at 30,000 feet.

There’s lots a good resources you can turn to to help you with this. Here are a few resources I would recommend:

• Wilkinson, Bruce, and Kenneth Boa. Talk Thru the Bible: A Quick Guide to Help You Get More Out of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1983. A must-have resource for Bible study. This volume covers the entire Bible and provides excellent discussions of each book without getting bogged down in the weeds. 576 pages.
• Benware, Paul N. Survey of the Old Testament. Revised Edition. Everyman’s Bible Commentary. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1993. This volume provides a brief survey of each book of the Bible along with an overview of the OT as well as discussions on special topics. 318 pages.
• Hill, Andrew E., and John H. Walton. A Survey of the Old Testament. 3rd Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. This is more of a textbook, but it’s beautifully produced with lots of full-color photos and illustrations and good discussions on each book of the Bible. It’s a bit more of an investment but a great volume to have as an OT reference in your home library. 800 pages.
• Arnold, Bill T., and Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015. Another textbook with good book-by-book discussions, color photos and illustrations. 560 pages.
• MacArthur, John F. The MacArthur Bible Handbook: The Ultimate Book-by-Book Survey of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003. Another fantastic full-Bible resource covering each Bible book with introductions to each book covering themes, purpose, outline, and broad summary of events and highlights. 592 pages.

Crossing the Finish line of familiarity

So how do you know when you’re beginning to become “familiar” with the OT? Well, I hate to break it to you, but like I already mentioned earlier in this post, you never “arrive” with this. There’s no finish line to cross. It’s better to think of this as an exercise to explore and grow in throughout your Christian life.

Like learning any skill or studying any subject, the beginning is going to be a little rough. Give it time. Eventually, you’ll start to become more comfortable. And there are some tangible things you’ll start to see happening as you gain familiarity with the OT.

You’ll start to make connections

First, you’ll start to see connections you never saw before. For instance, you may read Job 14:7-9 and suddenly think, “That sounds a lot like language in Isaiah 11:1.” Or you may be reading in the Psalms and come across the statement in Psalm 138:5 that all the kings of the earth “shall sing of the ways of the Lord,” and that might spark in your mind echoes of Exodus 34, when God showed Moses his “ways.”

These are examples of what is called “intertextuality,” where the biblical writers quote other biblical texts, creating verbal echoes or allusions. This happens all over the place in the OT. There are frequent allusions throughout the OT historical books to the Torah, and specifically to Deuteronomy. There are allusions all over the place in the Psalms and other wisdom books. And the Prophets as well quote often from other OT books to make their points.

As you broaden out, you’ll also see this happen all over the place in the NT as well. The NT writers loved to quote and allude to the OT. After all, it was the foundation of their theology and everything they were writing about was thoroughly based in the OT. What’s really exciting is when you start to make those kinds of connections and see things that are familiar to you in the NT because you’ve read it in the OT.

The reason this happens is because the biblical writers wanted their readers to read and understand what they were trying to say in light of the rest of the Bible, and specifically in light of certain passages that were very influential to their thinking. The amazing thing is that as you start to get more familiar with the OT by reading it often, jotting down notes, and reading other helpful resources, these kinds of connections will start to jump out at you. It’s one of the most exciting verifications that you’re gaining familiarity with the OT.

You’ll start to know your way around

Another thing you’ll start to notice is that you have a better idea of where you’re at in the overall flow of the OT. Part of learning and becoming more familiar with the OT is knowing how it all fits together chronologically. When you’re reading in Isaiah, for instance, you’ll start to autonomically think about how Isaiah fits into the history of the OT, who was king of Judah during that time, and what were some of the challenges facing the people during his ministry. This is because Isaiah’s prophecies overlap with two other OT books, 2 Kings 15–20 and 2 Chronicles 26–32. Regardless of which book you’re in, you have a better understanding of how they relate to other books and to the chronology of the OT.

You’ll also start to notice how your familiarity with the order of the books of the OT improves. After you spend some quality time in the OT, you’ll start to get a better sense of how the OT is laid out and how our English Bibles are arranged. When the pastor tells you to turn to the book of Nehemiah, you won’t have to think quite as hard about where that’s at. That’s a mark of better familiarity.

Continue minding the gap

Undoubtedly, the first and easiest gap to bridge is the familiarity gap. It’s essential to get more familiar with the OT as you seek to understand it and apply it in your life. So make a habit of picking up your Bible regularly and reading it. Yes, there’s a necessity to study the Word of God. Reading isn’t the only required task. But it’s the first task, and by itself it will prove a worthy pastime in and of itself.