My earliest memories of the Bible are happy— receiving my own Bible as a Christmas gift, being given a Bible-based game (which I still have) by a Sunday School teacher for having memorized the order of the books of the Old Testament, going to Vacation Bible School—summer classes for kids to which I went with my German-Canadian Lutheran friends in rural Saskatchewan, Canada.

I also remember listening to a sermon when I was six or younger as the minister explained Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed—something that a child in a farming community could easily understand. I even recall coming back to the Bible in first-year university when I read it cover to cover, perhaps unconsciously sensing how its words and concepts were influencing me and would influence me later, after I learned of Christian Science.

Of course, from a literary point of view, the Bible is unique—66 books written mostly in Hebrew and Greek by a variety of authors over a period of some 1,200 years. Nothing really compares to the Bible, even in the realm of religious scriptures in general. Here are some of its extraordinary contents:

Proverbs 22:17–24:22, which many scholars consider the oldest part of the Bible, and an adoption of the Egyptian text Instruction of Amenemope, written around 1100 BC.

Song of Solomon, a book of love poetry that is often interpreted by Christians as a love song between God and Christ or between God and the Church. Though the book is difficult to interpret, it’s the only book in the Bible where the leading voice in the work is said to be that of a black woman. See verses 5 and 6 in the first chapter to decide what you think.

Several of the prophets offer scathing criticism, cajoling people to stop exploiting one another and dedicate themselves to God (Micah 3:1–3 illustrates this). A religious tradition that criticizes itself!

After the fall of Israel and Judah and the destruction of Solomon’s temple, the prophet Ezekiel describes an idealized temple of God and a visionary city of God, named “The Lord is there” (see Ezek., chaps. 40 to 48, especially 48:35). Here you can feel the prophet’s yearning for a practical manifestation of the deep, permanent reality of the holy presence of the Divine.

I think that the biblical passages that move me most are those written in the first person—the readiness of the prophet Isaiah to speak on behalf of God (see Isa. 6:1–8); Jeremiah’s wish to be free of risking his life during decades to preach an unpopular and largely ignored message of impending danger (see, for example, Jer. 15:10–21); and the burning conviction of Paul seen in chapter 15 of First Corinthians that the resurrection defines the Christian faith. (As one Christian historian, Jaroslav Pelikan, put it: “If Christ is risen—then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen —then nothing else matters.”)

Of course, people’s experiences with the Bible have not always been happy. People have used the book to justify slavery, but also to overcome it; to provide a rationale for racism, but also to destroy it; to subjugate women, but also to free women and men, indicating that how one interprets the Bible is essential.

One of the great interpreters of the Bible, or at least of the Old Testament, was Jesus himself. At times, he interpreted it literally. When asked by a man how to gain eternal life, the Master turned him point-blank to the commandments: “Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother” (Mark 10:19).

But at other times he interpreted the Bible spiritually. In the Sermon on the Mount the Way-shower says, in effect, “You all know that these are the commandments. But let me show you how to think more spiritually about them.” So, for example, he takes higher the commandment to not kill by saying that even to call someone a fool is to commit violence (see Matt. 5:21–28).

Paul likewise interprets the Scriptures spiritually. He refers to Abraham having two sons, one by his first wife, Sarah, and one by a bondwoman, Hagar. But he uses this freewoman/bondwoman contrast as a metaphor to explain the spiritual freedom found in Christ (see Gal. 4:22–31). Elsewhere Paul uses a passage from the Old Testament to illustrate that those who are laboring spiritually deserve compensation: “It is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn” (I Cor. 9:9).

Mary Baker Eddy makes clear that she stands in the Bible’s interpretive tradition. She wrote in Science and Health: “The most distinguished theologians in Europe and America agree that the Scriptures have both a spiritual and literal meaning. In Smith’s Bible Dictionary it is said: ‘The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral;’ . . .” (p. 320).

When should you interpret the Bible literally? When should you interpret it spiritually? Christian Scientists understand the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus literally. On the other hand, they understand morally other passages.

For example, it says in Joshua 6:1–21 that the children of Israel circled the walls of Jericho seven days in a row, and that on the seventh day, the walls fell flat and the children of Israel killed everyone in the city, including men and women, young and old, and even the oxen, sheep, and donkeys.

What are we to make of such a story? Did it really happen? Did God require that the children of Israel commit genocide?

I’ve come to understand that story morally like this: The children of Israel represent all humanity, united, while the walls and city to be destroyed represent distrust of ourselves and others, suspicion, cynicism, and hate, all of which must fall before the love of God and the unity we all find in that love.

The Bible registers humanity’s progressive understanding of God. Thus, particularly in the older part of the Bible, God often is seen as all-powerful and merciful, but sometimes as vengeful and destructive. While later, in the newer part of the Bible, God is almost always seen as loving and merciful. In fact, in First John it says that “God is love” and that He is unopposed light (see 4:8 and 1:5).

To 21st-century ears, parts of even the New Testament may seem strange and inappropriate. For example, Paul writes a letter to Philemon, in which he respectfully asks that Philemon, a friend of his, accept with good grace the return of Philemon’s runaway slave. Paul asks that Philemon forgive his servant, and Paul even requests that the fault of the slave be charged to Paul.

In other places, First Timothy states that women should be subordinate to men. On this question, there is a long history of scholarly and not so scholarly discussion, including whether the first letter to Timothy was written by Paul or by someone else.

But I, in my own mind, reconcile such passages with the emphasis in Christian Science on the equality of men and women by seeing that if Paul did express these views, these were his opinions of what was culturally appropriate for that time and place. These were not absolute metaphysical truths that will stand for all eternity and be required in every time and culture. In contrast, the fundamental message of the New Testament echoes and re-echoes around the globe—that in Christ everyone is saved as each practices the teachings of Jesus. In this teaching we find a spirituality, an equality, and a humanity that transcend anything material, including gender—a teaching that uplifts and redeems all cultures.

Without a doubt some find parts of the Scriptures difficult to interpret. But what keeps me hungering and thirsting for Bible study is something beyond textual questions. When I open the Bible, I am opening my thought to know how to grow in grace, as it says in Second Peter 3:18, how to see God’s perfection in myself and in those around me, how to put into practice more selflessly the love that Jesus exemplified.

In this, the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible, I am confident that in 2411, when a person opens his or her Bible, as a book, a tablet reader, or in whatever format may exist, the truths of the Bible will be there waiting for that person. I’m confident that those truths will be there waiting because those truths are already present in that person’s heart—even as they live today and forever in the hearts of you and of me and of all humanity.