How to cite this article: Joshua N. Tilton, “Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 1—More Different Than You’d Think,” Jerusalem Perspective (2026) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/38050/].[1]
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I received my first Bible on May 22, 1988 at an awards ceremony in Sunday School from my pastor, Rev. Wayne L. Sawyer. It was an NIV Children’s Bible complete with colorful illustrations and a picture of Jesus welcoming children on its cream-colored hard cover. As a child, that Bible was one of my most treasured possessions. It’s now quite battered, and the old covers have been replaced with olive wood covers from Bethlehem. Pages keep falling out of it, and it’s filled with underlinings and notes, but I still have it, and it’s the Bible I tend to use whenever I use one at all. But these days, especially for work, instead of using a Bible, I tend to consult the Scriptures.
If that juxtaposition—Bible versus Scriptures—sounds like a distinction without a difference, then you’re just exactly the kind of reader this article and the following articles in this series are intended for. This series aims to discuss questions about the nature of the Scriptures and to explore how readers can honor and value the Scriptures without abusing them or using the Bible to mistreat others.
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To Be Continued….
In the articles to follow I’d like to explore with readers more deeply the implications of making a distinction between the Bible and the Scriptures a bible contains. This more sophisticated and realistic way of understanding the Scriptures can help us form a different kind of relationship with our sacred texts and help readers to interact with the Scriptures in more reasonable, healthy, and neighborly ways.
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| [*] Music in the Audio JP files is excerpted from the Hebrew song Moshe written by Immanuel Zamir in a recording sung by Yaffa Yarkoni obtained from Wikimedia Commons. |
Notes
- My thanks to Katia Motzeva, Kalina Cloutier, and, of course, my wife, Lauren Asperschlager, whose comments and suggestions enhanced the articles in this series. Despite their welcome input the articles in this series pretend to speak for no one but myself—JNT. ↩
