Ears to Hear?

The Importance of Hearing God’s Word in Community over Reading God’s Word in Private

Part One

By David Christensen

Western Christianity has long stressed that reading the Bible privately is essential for spiritual formation. The result of such an emphasis is often that spiritual growth becomes individualized and isolationist, which are characteristics of the Western church. However, we have neglected the importance of communal reading and explaining the Bible, which is arguably more important for spiritual formation. Even our worship services tend to minimize the public reading and exposition of the Bible in favor of giving people an emotional experience through inspirational songs and entertaining talks. This is the first of two articles on the importance of hearing the Bible for spiritual formation. We need to hear God’s voice more than we need to see words on a page if we are to grow to know God.

We hear God’s voice through God’s Word, spoken, written, and personified by God’s human mouthpieces. Peter David wrote, “From beginning to end, the Bible is a book about God who speaks, about people who hear and respond to God’s words, and about people speaking those words to others.”[1] God signs off on His creative work with the repeated chorus, “And God said … and there (it) was” (Gen 1:3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 20). The great Hebrew Shema is “Hear, O Israel” (Deut. 6:4). God spoke to Moses (Ex. 33:9,11) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:1–2; 3:22). Peter, in his first sermon, said, “God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets” (Acts 3:21; 2 Peter 1:20-21)). God calls us to hear His words because His words are powerful and transformative, even though they come through human mouthpieces.

Jesus continued God’s pattern of speaking God’s words first and calling people to hear God’s voice foremost. Augustine wondered what many others have pondered, “We must first discuss a matter which is apt to present a difficulty in the minds of some. I refer to the question why the Lord has written nothing Himself.”[2] Jesus wrote nothing down, nor did he commission any of the disciples to compose a written record of his teaching. The first gospel was not written until at least twenty years after Jesus died. John probably didn’t write his gospel until fifty or sixty years later. The Apostle Peter didn’t write his letter until thirty years after the life of Christ. James was the earliest. He probably wrote his letter within twenty years. The lack of immediate written documentation puzzles modern readers.[3]

Why?

Jesus, as God, was not just a revealer but a teacher. He was (and is) the Word of God–a teacher par excellence. The Word of God refers first to the spoken Word fleshed out in Jesus as the incarnate Word of God (Jn. 1:1,14).[4] In a hearing-dominant world, oral communication was the primary means of teaching. Jesus told his disciples that God “has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. … Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me” (Jn 12:49–50). The God-breathed Word must be heard through human voices for spiritual growth to take place.

From beginning to end, we learn from the book of Hebrews that God is a speaking God (Heb. 1:1–2). Oral communication is God’s modus operandi for self-disclosure. The oral/aural process is foundational to spiritual growth throughout the Scriptures.[5] The author of Hebrews warns us not to “refuse Him who is speaking” (Heb. 12:25) and calls us to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Heb. 2:1). Hearing is God’s spiritual aptitude test. A person is not ready to teach until they are ready to listen. Jesus, through John, challenged the churches in Revelation 2–3 with the refrain, “he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22). Whoever has ears to hear will have a heart that beats in sync with Christ. In training leaders, we must look for people eager to hear God.

The hearing principle goes back to Deuteronomy 6:4–8, where God commands the Israelites to teach their children the words they have heard. It is foundational to all spiritual growth in both Testaments. Peter Adam writes: “‘Hear O Israel’ is followed by instructions to remember, teach, discuss, meditate on and practice these words of God. Here is the verbal spirituality at the heart of Deuteronomy.”[6] Isaiah says God “awakens my ear to listen as a disciple” (Isaiah 50:4). The Israelites were to assemble to hear God’s Word read and explained to them (Deut. 31:12–13; Neh. 8:1–8). Listening is the key to growing in the instruction of the Lord.[7]

Effective teaching comes through not just the eye gate but the ear gate; not just seeing but hearing; not just reading but listening. Jesus, God’s Word incarnate, passed on His teaching to human voices who pass on the words of God to others. Hearing God’s teaching is foundational to training God’s teachers (2 Tim. 2:2). Dietrich Bonhoeffer followed this model in his training communities during World War II. Bonhoeffer said in 1936, “God does not want the word to be proclaimed by phonograph records, but rather by witnesses.”[8] It is not enough to study textbooks and pass online courses. We can communicate information efficiently this way, but God did not design spiritual growth to take place in a relational vacuum. God’s Word must be heard, not just read. God teaches us in a community where His Word is heard, lived, and learned.

THE ORAL/AURAL PROCESS

One by one, they entered the drawing room of Charles Simeon’s quarters at King’s College on the campus of the University of Cambridge. The campus was within walking distance of the Holy Trinity Church, where Simeon served as Vicar for 54 years (1783–1836). It was a Friday evening. Sixty to eighty students and pastors would gather every Friday evening for one of Simeon’s “conversation circles.” The men sat on chairs and wooden benches scattered around the room, with many finding spots in the window recesses. After greeting each one personally, Charles Simeon would take his seat on a raised mahogany stool without arms or back, and tea would be served to all the guests. He always had his Bible within reach as he took questions from the men. He might open with a brief exposition of Scripture or introduce a topic for conversation. After that, the men would raise their questions for discussion. These “conversation circles” focused on biblical and theological discussions that would help train these men for ministry.[9] In this way, Charles Simeon trained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men for the pulpits of England and the missionary outreach worldwide.

Simeon stands in a long tradition of teachers, both spiritual and secular. The Greek philosophers preferred oral communication to written texts for teaching. They would read the texts out loud to a gathering of disciples, leading to a discussion. The first century rabbis followed Ezra’s ancient example of reading and explaining the text orally (Neh. 8:1–8). The rabbis taught small circles of disciples, where oral (from the mouth) communication stimulated aural (by the ear) responses in their disciples.[10] Jesus followed the same model in his teaching ministry. The delivery system was oral, and the training was personal. Instruction took place by the mouth/ear gate more than the reading/text gate.

The Word of God entered a hearing-dominant world in the first century. Written literature began with the Myceneans (c. 1500 B.C.), but the first Greek literature emerged around 700 B.C.[11] Scholars estimate that between 5 and 20 percent of the biblical world was literate in the first century.[12] Most people listened. They didn’t read. Teaching was oral, and learning was aural, not textual. As Walton and Sandy write, “A society that does not speak to one another has never existed; a society that does not write to one another has always existed.”[13] This oral/aural process is central to spiritual growth in the Scriptures.

Jesus wrote no books. He spoke, and the disciples learned. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).  Oral communication was central to His ministry, but oral communication required an aural response to be effective. Jesus later told God in his prayer, “The words which you gave me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood” (John 17:8).[14] Jesus spoke God’s words (oral), and the disciples received God’s words (aural). Even the letters of the New Testament were written to be heard, not read. They were designed as oral communication in written form. God first spoke, not wrote, His Word. Writing came later. Inscripturation of God’s Word was necessary for preservation, protection, and dissemination, but even the written word was written to be heard, not read.

Augustine famously said of Ambrose that he was the most impressive man he had ever met because he could read without moving his lips or making a sound.[15] The Ethiopian eunuch was reading out loud because Philip heard him reading from Isaiah (Acts 8:30). Private reading was generally done out loud because hearing was central to learning. Silent reading was considered defective and incomplete by the Greek and Roman philosophers. The rabbis, too, emphasized the practice of reading out loud because it “delights the ears of those who read.”[16] The reading of the Torah was a central feature of the weekly synagogue service. The entire Torah was to be read consecutively in a three-year cycle. In the first century, a reading from the prophets was added.[17] They read the Scriptures out loud because, of course, many could not read them for themselves. However, more importantly, the oral Scripture reading was emphasized because people needed to hear God’s Word. God is the teacher. His word is the content, and the oral/aural learning process is the means God uses to instruct His people.

God’s central call to His people was to hear His Word (Deut. 6:4). The prophets consistently called the people to “hear the word of the Lord” (Isaiah 1:2, 10; Jer. 2:4; Amos 7:16). The prophets indicted the people for their unwillingness to hear God’s word. God condemned Israel because “I spoke to you … but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer” (Jer. 7:13; cf. Hosea 9:17).[18] The author of Hebrews repeatedly cited Psalm 95:7 in warning Christians not to harden their hearts if they hear God’s voice (Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7). Jesus stressed that how we hear the word determines our spiritual destiny (Mt. 13:18–23; Mark 4:13–20; Luke 8:11–15). Jesus said, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21).

First century Christianity was not led by illiterate people, contrary to what many think. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament demonstrate a high level of rhetorical skill and knowledge of the Greek language and culture.[19] The epistles are better understood as rhetorical speeches written to be read out loud by the emissaries of the apostles. They are much longer than other ancient letters, showing literary skill beyond the norm. Paul wrote his letters to be read aloud by his representatives, who essentially preached his message to the congregations (1 Thess. 5:27; Col. 4:16). Stein writes, “If, as I assume, Paul was a careful writer, he would therefore have penned these letters more for his readers’ ears than for their eyes.”[20] The Apostle John wrote, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the word of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).

It is certainly true that reading the Scriptures out loud was necessary because most people could not read the texts for themselves. As Walton and Sandy observe, “There was no reading public, only public reading.”[21] However, there is more to oral reading than the illiteracy of the public. Many who can read the word learn best by hearing the word. We are oral/aural learners.[22] It is true that in the first century world, the reading public was small, but public reading was everywhere. Every church would have had at least one member who could read the text aloud. Historian Brian Wright draws the analogy to social media today. Everyone was listening to people read out loud. People may have been illiterate but, at the same time, highly literate. Friends and family, not just the scribal elite, read the literature for others to hear. One humorous example comes from a first century writer named Martial, who complained that people were reading while he was in a public bathroom. People became so familiar with pieces of literature that they could correct a reader if he made a mistake, much like people on social media correct misinformation today.[23]

The spoken word gives voice to the written word, transforming textual information into oral communication and readers into listeners.[24] For this reason, the early church emphasized the public reading of the Scriptures. Paul commanded Timothy “to give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13).[25] The early church read aloud and discussed Paul’s letters as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16). The public reading of Scripture was a central part of worship services in the first few centuries of church history, and four to six Scripture passages were read each week.[26] Papias, an early church father, said, “I do not believe that things out of books are as beneficial to me as things from a living and enduring voice.”[27] If God is the teacher and Scripture is His teaching, then the oral expression of His Word will be more powerful than the written form. Martin Luther considered the oral word superior to the written word.

The gospel should not really be something written, but a spoken word, which brought forth the Scriptures, as Christ and the apostles have done. This is why Christ himself did not write anything but only spoke. He called his teaching not Scripture but gospel, meaning good news or proclamation that is spread not by pen, but by word of mouth. … So it is not at all in keeping with the New Testament to write books on Christian doctrine. Rather in all places there should be fine, goodly, learned, spiritual, diligent preachers without books, who extract the living word from the old Scripture and unceasingly inculcate it in the people, just as the apostles did.[28]

_____________

About the Author:

David Christensen served in dual ministry for thirty years as a Bible college professor and local church pastor. He is the founder of The Rephidim Project, a ministry devoted to encouraging and equipping pastors for expository preaching. David is the author of seven books including “A Philosophy of Pastoral Preaching: Shepherding God’s People with God’s Word in One Place.” He retired as Preaching Pastor of Galilee Baptist Church in 2018 to devote himself to encouraging pastors, missionaries, and church leaders through Bible exposition and teaching the methods of expository preaching to the next generation of preachers.

 

[1] Peter Adam, Hearing God’s Words: Exploring Biblical Spirituality, in New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. 16, edited by D.A. Carson, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2004, 47.

[2] Cited by D. Brent Sandy, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord: What We Miss If We Only Read the Bible, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2024, 19.

[3] John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Biblical Culture and Biblical Authority, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2013, 152-153; Sandy, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, 68.

[4] The primary meaning of λόγος is “speaking” or “what you say.” William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other ‘Early Christian Literature, Second Edition revised and augmented by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick Danker from Walter Bauer’s Fifth Edition, 1958, 477.

[5] Peter Adam, Hearing God’s Words, 99.

[6] Peter Adam, Hearing God’s Words, 53.

[7] Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, 541; Michael Wilkins, Discipleship in the Ancient World and Matthew’s Gospel, Second Edition, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 1995, 46-51. See also Isaiah 54:13. It is possible that the passage is messianic, referring to Jesus as the servant of the Lord who is the model for our disciple-making.

[8] Cited by Paul R. House, Bonhoeffer’s Seminary Vision: A Case for Costly Discipleship and Life Together, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2015, 183.

[9] H.C.G. Moule, Charles Simeon, London, England: Methuen & Co., 1892, 210–231.

[10] Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 104–105.

[11] Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 79.

[12] Ben Witherington III and Jason Myers, New Testament Rhetoric: An Introductory Guide to the Art of Persuasion in and of the New Testament, second edition, Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2022, 1; Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 83; Sandy, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, 24.

[13] Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 90.

[14] Tom Steffan and William Bjoraker, The Return of Oral Hermeneutics: A Good Today as it Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2020, 148–149.

[15] Witherington and Myers, New Testament Rhetoric, 2.

[16] R.H. Stein, “Is Our Reading the Bible the Same as the Original Audience’s Hearing it? A Case Study in the Gospel of Mark,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 46(1), 2003, 68-69.

[17] Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, A New English Version Revised and Edited by Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Matthew Black, Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark 1979, 2:450-452.

[18] Gerhard Kittel, ἀκούω in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel, translator and editor, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1964, 1:218.

[19] Witherington and Myers, New Testament Rhetoric, 2. They write, “This skill and erudition can only seldom be attributed to scribes, except in cases where scribes such as Tertius and Sosthenes (cf. Rom. 16 and 1 Cor. 1) had been converted and donated their skills to the movement. Even then, it appears they were largely taking dictation from Paul.” Jesus could read the Hebrew scrolls, no mean feat (Luke 4:16–20). Paul and Luke were well-educated men. Philip could presumably read the Scriptures (Acts 8:35). John wrote his letters (1 John 2:1,7,12,14; 2 John 12; 3 John 13), and Christ commanded him to write to the seven churches while in exile on Patmos (Rev. 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7,14). Apollos was well-educated (Acts 18:24) and may have written Hebrews, a literary masterpiece. Timothy studied the writings from an early age (2 Tim. 3:15). In a world where 10% of the population could read, a remarkable percentage of the early church was literate.

[20] Stein, “Is Our Reading the Bible the Same as the Original Audience’s Hearing it? 70.

[21] Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 23.

[22] ION: International Orality Network, https://orality.net/about/oral-learners-who-are-they/ The orality network estimates that 80% of the world are oral learners, even if they are literate.

[23] Brian Wright, “Reading Together, Early Church Style,” Interview with Caleb Lindgren in Christianity Today, May 2018, 63–64. See also Brian Wright, Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices, Fortress Press, 2017, 41.

[24] Steffan and Bjoraker, The Return of Oral Hermeneutics, 83–89.

[25] The noun ἀνάγνωσις means reading out loud as in the Synagogue service (Acts 13:15; 2 Cor. 3:14).

[26] Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, The Patristic Age, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1998, 2:277–283.

[27] Walton and Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, 140.

[28] Cited by Steffan and Bjoraker, The Return of Oral Hermeneutics, 81, fn. 57.