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Even the Devil Quotes Scripture: Reading the Bible on Its Own Terms
“We are meant to take the Bible seriously, not literally.” —from the Introduction
In Even the Devil Quotes Scripture, Robyn J. Whitaker looks to the Bible as a guide to interpreting the Bible, and her findings breathe new life into our understanding and use of Scripture. As it turns out, the uses of Scripture within Scripture are flexible, open to frequent reinterpretation, and rarely literal.
For instance, Ezra and Nehemiah reinterpret laws about whether Jews can marry foreigners in the wake of the Babylonian exile. Their contradiction of earlier traditions found in Deuteronomic law do not invalidate Scripture but rather represent its diverse applications for the prophets’ specific situations. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents a more demanding interpretation of Mosaic law in the Sermon on the Mount, while in Mark’s Gospel he all but ignores its prohibition of working on the Sabbath. Yet the common ethos of the two gospels prioritizes compassion over legalism.
Ultimately, Whitaker ascertains one definitive characteristic of inner-biblical love. After all, the Old Testament passage most frequently quoted in the New Testament is Leviticus 19:18: “Love thy neighbor.” Thus, Whitaker proposes a hermeneutic of love—a litmus test for the validity of a scriptural interpretation measured in charity. Ideal for any devoted reader of the Bible, Even the Devil Quotes Scripture opens our eyes to the Bible as a living, loving gift of God’s unfolding revelation.
In Even the Devil Quotes Scripture, Robyn J. Whitaker looks to the Bible as a guide to interpreting the Bible, and her findings breathe new life into our understanding and use of Scripture. As it turns out, the uses of Scripture within Scripture are flexible, open to frequent reinterpretation, and rarely literal.
For instance, Ezra and Nehemiah reinterpret laws about whether Jews can marry foreigners in the wake of the Babylonian exile. Their contradiction of earlier traditions found in Deuteronomic law do not invalidate Scripture but rather represent its diverse applications for the prophets’ specific situations. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents a more demanding interpretation of Mosaic law in the Sermon on the Mount, while in Mark’s Gospel he all but ignores its prohibition of working on the Sabbath. Yet the common ethos of the two gospels prioritizes compassion over legalism.
Ultimately, Whitaker ascertains one definitive characteristic of inner-biblical love. After all, the Old Testament passage most frequently quoted in the New Testament is Leviticus 19:18: “Love thy neighbor.” Thus, Whitaker proposes a hermeneutic of love—a litmus test for the validity of a scriptural interpretation measured in charity. Ideal for any devoted reader of the Bible, Even the Devil Quotes Scripture opens our eyes to the Bible as a living, loving gift of God’s unfolding revelation.
189 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 17, 2023
Brilliant!
Insightful, interesting, not too tricky to understand and accessible to folks with a limited understanding of the bible.
Definitely recommend.
Thank you!
Insightful, interesting, not too tricky to understand and accessible to folks with a limited understanding of the bible.
Definitely recommend.
Thank you!
July 5, 2023
This is one of the books where I scratch my head and wonder how the conclusions are drawn from the given information. I fear that this thinking promotes lackadaisical, lukewarm faith. Would not recommend.
One of the highlights of the book is the quote that effectively says, “just because someone quotes the Bible, doesn’t mean that they understand, know, and interpret it well.”
One of the issues I have with the book is that it casts Jesus as the roll of interpreter. I’m not exactly sure what I would call him, but interpreter is not what comes to my mind. To me, interpreters see what’s there and draw / share conclusions. I feel like ‘interpreter’ fails to account for the additional information that Jesus has as God incarnate. Isn’t that the closest we can ever get to something God-breathed? Yet the author attempts to disarm the Bible as not being infallible / inerrant. Once you do so, the Bible can become whatever you want it to be as you’ve removed it’s authority. You can pick out the parts you don’t like because it may be subject to human interpretation, and therefore capable of flaw or bad interpretation. Tying everything back to ‘love,’ as nice and flowery that sounds, may be wrong. Author things she is in the right because “if she err’s, she err’s on the side of love.” That’s not the question, is it? You shouldn’t base your decision based on your perception of where love is, or justify the possibility of being wrong with, ‘well, at least I was loving.’ That’s a slippery slope and a dangerous place to be. Love through interpretation seems so wrong to me. God is just, loving through his authority and sense of right and wrong. Everything gets tied back to love, yes, but that shouldn’t justify subjective interpretation once you’ve removed the Bible’s authority. There are a lot of extreme examples of what love would look like in the broken world, or biblical examples to the contrary where you read and go, “Huh, that doesn’t seem very loving.” I fear that promoting this kind of thinking can cause catastrophic effects with unrepented sin. I believe God is black and white of many things regarding sin. I hope and pray that he is aware of mixed signals, such as these, that exist. People like the author can (somewhat) reasonably determine x and put forth public acceptance for what I might consider sin. I can come to a very different conclusion. Is there other sin that society has dismissed over the years? A scary thought. Easy to be a critic - a good exercise in reading and finishing something I didn’t agree with nor like.
One of the highlights of the book is the quote that effectively says, “just because someone quotes the Bible, doesn’t mean that they understand, know, and interpret it well.”
One of the issues I have with the book is that it casts Jesus as the roll of interpreter. I’m not exactly sure what I would call him, but interpreter is not what comes to my mind. To me, interpreters see what’s there and draw / share conclusions. I feel like ‘interpreter’ fails to account for the additional information that Jesus has as God incarnate. Isn’t that the closest we can ever get to something God-breathed? Yet the author attempts to disarm the Bible as not being infallible / inerrant. Once you do so, the Bible can become whatever you want it to be as you’ve removed it’s authority. You can pick out the parts you don’t like because it may be subject to human interpretation, and therefore capable of flaw or bad interpretation. Tying everything back to ‘love,’ as nice and flowery that sounds, may be wrong. Author things she is in the right because “if she err’s, she err’s on the side of love.” That’s not the question, is it? You shouldn’t base your decision based on your perception of where love is, or justify the possibility of being wrong with, ‘well, at least I was loving.’ That’s a slippery slope and a dangerous place to be. Love through interpretation seems so wrong to me. God is just, loving through his authority and sense of right and wrong. Everything gets tied back to love, yes, but that shouldn’t justify subjective interpretation once you’ve removed the Bible’s authority. There are a lot of extreme examples of what love would look like in the broken world, or biblical examples to the contrary where you read and go, “Huh, that doesn’t seem very loving.” I fear that promoting this kind of thinking can cause catastrophic effects with unrepented sin. I believe God is black and white of many things regarding sin. I hope and pray that he is aware of mixed signals, such as these, that exist. People like the author can (somewhat) reasonably determine x and put forth public acceptance for what I might consider sin. I can come to a very different conclusion. Is there other sin that society has dismissed over the years? A scary thought. Easy to be a critic - a good exercise in reading and finishing something I didn’t agree with nor like.
June 15, 2023
I wish I had read this book when I was a teenager. As a late teen, facing questions raised by people who wanted to argue about Biblical interpretation (from athiest, fundamentalist, evangelical, and liberal viewpoints) I longed to understand where these ideas were coming from and ways to think out my own responses. This book would have saved me years of frustration.
Whitaker uses the Bible as a tool for Biblical interpretation and uses illustrations of Biblical interpretation within its own pages, answering questions like: Why does the Bible present multiple versions of the same stories and laws? How did the Biblical authors interpret stories and laws? How is Jesus illustrated as intepreting the Scriptures? How do we interpret God in today's context? Whitaker says "Within the pages of the Bible, we have other parts of it interpreting, updating and adapting previous versions based on the later community's experiences of God" and asks the question of how we wrestle together with others when our opinions differ. She also offers some great potted history examples of how the church has changed the way it interprets scripture. I found the brief overview of the emergence of the historo-critical vs literal pseudoscience interpretations really helpful. All of this is solid, clearly expressed, and so very helpful.
In the midst of this, Whitaker offers a "hermeneutic of love". That we are to interpret the scriptures in the way that Jesus did, by asking how this leads us to love God and neighbour more.
Finally, she offers a series of questions, and an example of how to interpret a Biblical passage (choosing the story of David and Bathsheba). This example is very helpful for preachers seeking to find ways to think through a passage, and makes this more than just a helpful book for those who are early in their journey of understanding the Bible. It becomes a valuable resource for weekly sermon preparation as well.
Whitaker uses the Bible as a tool for Biblical interpretation and uses illustrations of Biblical interpretation within its own pages, answering questions like: Why does the Bible present multiple versions of the same stories and laws? How did the Biblical authors interpret stories and laws? How is Jesus illustrated as intepreting the Scriptures? How do we interpret God in today's context? Whitaker says "Within the pages of the Bible, we have other parts of it interpreting, updating and adapting previous versions based on the later community's experiences of God" and asks the question of how we wrestle together with others when our opinions differ. She also offers some great potted history examples of how the church has changed the way it interprets scripture. I found the brief overview of the emergence of the historo-critical vs literal pseudoscience interpretations really helpful. All of this is solid, clearly expressed, and so very helpful.
In the midst of this, Whitaker offers a "hermeneutic of love". That we are to interpret the scriptures in the way that Jesus did, by asking how this leads us to love God and neighbour more.
Finally, she offers a series of questions, and an example of how to interpret a Biblical passage (choosing the story of David and Bathsheba). This example is very helpful for preachers seeking to find ways to think through a passage, and makes this more than just a helpful book for those who are early in their journey of understanding the Bible. It becomes a valuable resource for weekly sermon preparation as well.
August 1, 2024
While I agree with the author, that interpretation should be out of love, I can’t seem to make up my mind on her view of inerrancy or that we could infact almost always loop back to subjective interpretation. If interpretation is subjective, it should be love always, if as the book posits we should accept LGBTQI+ people, I am not sure what her definition of acceptance is. Do we accept them for just their orientation or do we also accept when people of different gender identify would want to undergo surgery. Not sure about her stance on that. I do think Christians need to be loving of the people who identify differently from their birth gender. But I am not so sure of how to be loving in that case nor does author seem to give any insight into her view on the matter.
August 31, 2023
An interesting overview and introduction to some advanced issues in textual criticism and hermeneutics, that I could see being very helpful to someone who grew up in a very conservative background with no prior knowledge of academic biblical studies. The book would have been helped with more robust discussion of the "authority" side of scripture, in addition to the good discussion of interpretive method.
Full written review forthcoming for Englewood Review of Books...
Full written review forthcoming for Englewood Review of Books...
July 20, 2023
A Masterpiece
The authors writing style is compelling and she skilfully crafts the various way of reading the biblical texts and it’s interpretation. A must for those who are well versed in the Christian tradition to those attempting to understand the Bible.
The authors writing style is compelling and she skilfully crafts the various way of reading the biblical texts and it’s interpretation. A must for those who are well versed in the Christian tradition to those attempting to understand the Bible.
October 24, 2023
Enormously helpful as part of my current and ongoing spiritual odyssey.
An underlying ethic of love: the best way to interpret the Bible, any text and indeed, the best way to live.
Highly recommended.
An underlying ethic of love: the best way to interpret the Bible, any text and indeed, the best way to live.
Highly recommended.
April 30, 2024
This is an excellent book for a non-technical audience. It’s a very valuable skill to be able to write about complex theological ideas in plain language while relying on good scholarship and not becoming simplistic. Robyn Whitaker does it very well. Would be great for a church book club.
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August 7, 20234.2
Practical and well presented
Practical and well presented
December 25, 2024
a necessary book for anyone who ever utters the classic “I’m just following the bible”
This is a well researched and accessible book for everyday Christians, and hopefully those who’ve accepted a literal reading of scripture their whole lives may rightfully stop and pause after this read.
My only comment would be this book did beg the question for me, as to whether being alleviated from seeing the Bible as literal means that when we are instead asked to ‘wrestle with the biblical texts’, will this just mean we succumb to secular culture under the guise of reinterpretation (a point the author notes, to her credit, however could have explored with greater depth)
This is a well researched and accessible book for everyday Christians, and hopefully those who’ve accepted a literal reading of scripture their whole lives may rightfully stop and pause after this read.
My only comment would be this book did beg the question for me, as to whether being alleviated from seeing the Bible as literal means that when we are instead asked to ‘wrestle with the biblical texts’, will this just mean we succumb to secular culture under the guise of reinterpretation (a point the author notes, to her credit, however could have explored with greater depth)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews