BOOK REVIEW: "How Do You Read It?" by Benno Kurvits

I first became aware of Benno Kurvits’ 2025 book How Do You Read It?: Twenty Principles for Interpreting the Bible Well last year. The author of the book had just started attending Heritage Fellowship Baptist, the church I was pastoring, following a joining of our two churches along with a third Spanish-speaking church. Benno had been one of the long-time Elders at Pilgrim Baptist Fellowship before that church joined with ours. As I began to familiarize myself with the people who were coming over from the two churches that we were blending with, I noticed that many of the people -who were very theologically well-informed- from Pilgrim Baptist not only had copies of Benno’s book, but they spoke very well of it. So I made it a priority to get a copy of the book and look through it myself.

Just to say up front, I am very impressed by what Benno has produced. How Do You Read It? does a fantastic job of distilling out twenty principles for Bible interpretation under six categories. That framework of twenty principles and six categories alone already makes it easier to communicate and pass on teaching about how to read and understand the Bible to laypeople. But it is also remarkably polished for a self-published work. The main text is just 333 pages with a comfortable font size and the writing style is very accessible. In addition to the main text there are another five appendices on various subjects, a bibliography, and (I think this is a nice touch) a full Scripture index which can’t have been easy to produce but which will come in handy for those who use this book repeatedly as a reference tool.

GEARED MAINLY TOWARDS THE LAYPERSON

The content of the book is mainly geared towards laypeople. “I am not writing primarily for the Christian academic, the seminary professor, or the pastor,” Benno says, “Rather, I aim to help the Christian in the pew” (p. 7). His concern in writing the book is mostly pastoral: “Why should one interpret the Bible well? One answer is: because a lot of pain and loss can be avoided through good interpretation” (p. 6). Later on in the book, Benno goes on to give some more examples of the pain that can be caused in people’s lives when the Bible is misinterpreted, including the experience of those who have lived through divisions between well-meaning Christians (p. 7), the pain felt by people who have fallen into cult movements (p. 269), or those struggling to overcome the marks of having been raised in “oppressive [religious] homes where the abuses of power were realities” (p. 271). I appreciated this emphasis and I agree with his insight: how we read the Bible has an incredible impact on the trajectory that our lives will take as individuals and communities. It's important to get this right.

Because this book is geared toward laypeople, Benno is up front about saying that he is going to presuppose rather than defend things like the 66-book canon of the Protestant Bible,* the dual divine and human authorship of the Scriptures, and the Bible’s historical reliability (pp. 11-13). You won’t find detailed discussions regarding the canon, textual criticism, or translations in this book. However, Benno does acknowledge these issues, and he recommends good resources for these in footnotes at the appropriate places, for example on p. 62 and pp. 74-75 (the canon), p. 30 (textual criticism and manuscript evidence), and pp. 69-70 (discussion of translations). Interested readers can look up the recommended resources in those footnotes to learn more about those subjects. This is one example of how Benno does a very good job of keeping the scope of the book focused.

THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK

The first of the categories that Benno lists for Bible interpretation is Faith Fundamentals, under which he lists principles 1-3 of coming to the Bible with a posture of faith, of relying upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and of acknowledging the centrality of Christ to the message of the entire Bible. I don’t often see these principles listed in the more mechanical guides for reading the Bible that I have seen elsewhere, so I appreciated that Benno starts with these. It also helps to give the book a more devotional feel. These postures unlock, rather than blind us to, the treasures of Scripture.

The second of Benno’s categories is Literary Skills, under which he lists principles 4-7 on the importance of context, of careful examination of words and grammar, of reading according to genre, and of noticing literary structures. Throughout these chapters the author includes plenty of illustrations and examples that help to keep the writing engaging. Where these chapters could have felt overwhelming, the takeaway was that the material was handled in a practical and relatable way.

The third category given is Background Basics, which lists principles 8-10 of looking into historical context, relevant geography, and cultural background which might be relevant for understanding the text. Benno uses plenty of examples throughout, and at least once touches on other religions like Mormonism where this kind of background work would be made impossible by their own holy book’s inability to find any confirmation of the events they describe in outside historical sources. That is in marked contrast to the Bible which comments on what God has done in human history, and of which the reader can gain increased understanding by learning a little about the times, places, and cultures in which it was first written.

Fourth, under the category of Internal Dynamics, Benno lists principles 11-15 on being aware of how Scripture interprets Scripture, of progressive revelation, of distinctions between the various covenants of the Bible, and of the priority placed upon the New Covenant for followers of Jesus, as well as of how the revealing of Jesus Christ in the New Testament helps us to see more clearly “pictures” of Christ in the Old Testament. The subject of New Covenant theology or Progressive Covenantalism is clearly a passion for Benno, so the chapter on the covenants contains a decent amount of detail, and he also has another appendix devoted to it at the end of the book.

Fifth, under External Influences, Benno lists principles 16-18 on the helpfulness of tradition, of the importance of interpreting within a community including family and friends and experts, and of being aware of “the spirit of the age” that we live in so that we can resist its influence on us to make us try to reinterpret the Bible in novel ways to line up with modern tastes. Even where external influences are favorable, Benno also does a good job here of showing where they can become dangers, and he does address issues like Jewish and Roman Catholic traditions being used to override the meaning of the text in those faith traditions. He also shares a personal story about how even a trusted, well-meaning teachers can still lead people into error unintentionally. This helps to give the reader an understanding of why external influences are valuable while still cautioning the reader not to let these external influences carry an outsized amount of weight on them as they read the Bible.

Finally, Benno’s sixth category of principles is Personal Attitudes, which lists principles 19-20 on hard work, and the “magnificent seven” attitudes of humility, reverence, dependence, carefulness, openness, purity, and thankfulness, as things that the reader can cultivate within themselves as they approach the text of Scripture. These final chapters underscore the devotional bent of the book—this isn’t a mechanical “how to” book, although it does teach “how to” read the Bible, but How Do You Read It? comes time and time again back to the formation of the reader as a Christian who is approaching God through their engagement with the Scriptures.

THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK

I fully recommend this book. As someone who reads a lot of books, somewhere between 40-70 books per year, and whose bookshelf needs to be constantly pared down just to keep it manageable—this book is going to keep its place on my bookshelf. I’m going to use, and recommend, this book often.

If Benno were to publish a second edition, I only have minor suggestions to make, though the book is already good without incorporating them. I think the section on Principle #2, regarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit, could be expanded a little as it's a bit short. I also think that Principle #7, on literary structures, could give some more attention to how whole books of the Bible are structured, rather than focusing mainly on the small structures contained within the different books such as chiasms and parallels, etc. The messages of some whole books of the Bible like Leviticus, Psalms, Daniel, and Matthew really come into focus when their entire structure is understood, just to name four examples. Principle #3 on the centrality of Christ could also have used a little more of a taxonomy of ways that we can see Jesus in the Old Testament, although that is partly helped by the chapter on Principle #15, which gives more detail regarding typology. However, it’s difficult to know what to exclude in future editions if all of this other suggested material were to be included, in order to maintain the accessible length of the book—maybe cutting down some of the longer footnotes. In the end, this book is already fine the way it is, and its writing is a significant achievement for the author.

I also wish this were available in some more accessible forms, such as e-book and audio book formats. This makes it easier to consult for people who are on the go, and that is primarily the group that this book is written for. As it stands the book is currently only available in paperback format.

In the end, I am very happy with this book. It is what Benno intended, which is a gift to followers of Jesus that helps them to be formed by the Bible and to approach it with confidence and joy. Well done!

You can find the book available for purchase at this link: https://www.amazon.ca/How-You-Read-Principles-Interpreting/dp/1069444707/

Cheers,

-Sean

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*The 66-book canon of the Protestant Bible. Although labelled “Protestant,” it is also the canon of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest body within Eastern Orthodoxy (according to Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky). The Protestant Old Testament canon is also the same as the Jewish Tanakh of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism.