Prescriptive Vs. Descriptive
Photo from Preserving Bible Times, used with permission. For more information, please visit www.preservingbibletimes.org
How do we understand how to apply the Bible to our lives? Is the Bible history to be read, or instructions to be adhered to?
In Sunday School settings, and in some Christian circles, the acrostic B.I.B.L.E. is used to explain the Bible as “basic instructions before leaving earth.”
This is an oversimplified and partially true definition of what the Bible is, and this definition distorts the complexity of God’s word and overgeneralizes the Bible—neglecting to take into consideration the diversity of the literary genres within the Bible’s covers.
The truth is, there are many literary genres found in the Bible, including: law, history, wisdom, poetry, narrative, epistles, prophecy and apocalyptic literature.
Our work in properly interpreting the scriptures—to exegete the passage we are looking at—is to identify the literary genre we are reading, and then determine if the passage is descriptive or prescriptive.
If you are sick and go to the doctor, your doctor may prescribe you a pill and say, “take two of these and call me in the morning.” The doctor is not telling you in generalities how healing works. The doctor is giving you specific directions that he expects you to follow if you are to be made well.
In properly interpreting scripture: “Decipher whether or not the text is descriptive or prescriptive and call me in the morning.”
If the word of God is making a commandment or expressing a timeless truth or instruction, God intends us to obey and to act upon this truth. God is prescribing this axiom or rule to us for our benefit and well being.
If the passage of scripture we are reading is historical narrative, God is describing what occurred in a specific time, with a specific people, in a specific place, and we are learning what transpired and the outcome, either positive or negative. This description does not necessarily contain a direct application for us.
It is often the case that the Bible speaks of what actually occurred in history, and not necessarily what God’s ideal is, or what God actually intended in his pre-fall design. Just because a Bible passage describes something, for example: war, slavery, or incest, it does not mean it is prescribing war, slavery, or incest. The Bible is simply being descriptive.
The Bible is descriptive most of the time. While the Bible explains the fallen world as it is, it is not condoning what it is describing as it tells the historical narrative of a fallen people living sinful lives in a broken world.
However, there are prescriptive texts in the Bible. These texts are speaking of God’s ideal. These texts instruct us in God’s best for us. The prescriptive texts of the Bible are giving commandments, axioms, rules to live by, warnings, lessons, wise sayings, and so on. These prescriptive texts are instructing us specifically in what we should do, or not do, or what we should think, or what we should say, or not to say, and so on.
Examples of descriptive texts include: the creation account, slavery and the Exodus, the history of Joshua and the Judges—the conquering and the settling of the land, most of the Levitical laws for purity, and the exile.
Examples of prescriptive texts include: the Ten Commandments, the Proverbs, the wisdom literature—with their timeless truths and applications, and Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus warned the Jewish religious leaders of his day that they were missing the main storyline and application of the scriptures—they were missing the description and the prescription—Jesus himself.
Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40, ESV).
Jesus gave a corrective to these religious leaders. He was teaching them both how to see the scriptures, and how to apply the scriptures. Jesus was asserting that the entire narrative of the Bible is speaking of him. Jesus was also inviting them to see that the application of the Bible is an invitation to come to Jesus so that you may have life.
May we see what the Bible describes—the storyline of the Bible—the narrative of the Bible, and may we understand what the Bible prescribes—the application that God’s word is calling us to. And may we see Jesus throughout the Bible and come to Jesus so that we may have life.
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Prayer Before The Reading Of Scripture: “Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (#101, Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo from Preserving Bible Times, used with permission. For more information, please visit www.preservingbibletimes.org
