When autumn arrives, many people call it the season of reading. Some try to keep books close at hand, while others wander through bookstores searching for popular new releases. The cool breeze that slips in during the mornings and evenings, and the leaves turning color, seem to offer the perfect opportunity to look into the depths of the human soul. At such a time, we may ask ourselves: What should we read? With hundreds and thousands of books available, the English philosopher Francis Bacon once said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

This autumn, I would like to encourage you to read the Bible—our eternal nourishment—and to truly digest it. The Bible contains depths and mysteries that cannot be fully understood even after a lifetime of reading and study. To help us understand and draw closer to Scripture, let us take a moment to reflect on how the Bible came to us.

The Bible is also called “the Holy Book.” In the United States, this holy book can be found in nearly every hotel room, usually placed in the bedside drawer. There are testimonies of people who, in moments of despair or even contemplating suicide, opened the Bible and found new hope or abandoned their plans after encountering its words. Why does reading the Bible bring such change to people’s lives? According to 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God‑breathed.” Because of this, the Bible cannot be read like a novel—finished in one night with its meaning fully grasped. Some say that reading the Bible helps them fall asleep when they cannot rest at night. While God indeed gives sleep to those He loves, reading Scripture while lying down or with sleepy eyes makes it difficult to hear the powerful message of God flowing through its pages.

When reading the Bible, even a passage read yesterday can feel new today. Its mysteries can awaken the mind, and the flow of the soul becomes remarkably clear. This is why Scripture is often compared to a mirror or a window.

Today, we can easily obtain a Bible—every household often has several copies, and new translations appear regularly. But in ancient times, Scripture was not written down; it was passed on orally. The Hebrew people expressed their relationship with God through stories. In ancient society, storytellers and poets were highly respected, almost like priests. Through the retelling of ancestral stories, each generation confirmed its identity in God. They remembered the past and passed down stories of victory, peace, and blessing—teaching their children that these came when God’s covenant was faithfully kept. Even today, the strong sense of communal responsibility among Jewish people stems from their desire to live responsibly before God through their faith community.

We, however, often read Scripture individually, and because we do not read it with a communal consciousness, we may hold prejudices or distorted views of others. Without a sense of community, we lose the responsibility Scripture calls us to.

Later, when writing systems developed and ancient documents on clay tablets, papyrus, and parchment were discovered, biblical scholars gathered and edited them. The Old Testament, written in Hebrew, is sometimes called the Hebrew Bible. In the early church, some Christians accepted the New Testament but felt the Old Testament should be rejected. But ignoring the fact that Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament would make Christianity an empty religion, denying its power to transform lives. The Old Testament formed the vessel; the New Testament filled that vessel with God’s grace.

Some parts of the Old Testament are difficult to understand because ancient Middle Eastern cosmology was limited. They believed the world was like a flat tent supported by pillars, surrounded by water, and divided into three layers: the heavens above, where eternal gods dwelled; the middle layer, where fragile humans lived; and the underworld below, where the sun disappeared at night before rising again. This worldview appears in Psalm 19:

“In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.” (Psalm 19:4–6)

Knowing the cultural and scientific limitations of the ancient world can make reading Scripture even more fascinating.

Today, because we have such easy access to the Bible, we sometimes forget its importance. But for centuries, the church taught that ordinary people should not read Scripture. Translating a single Bible took years and required many scholars, so the church worked hard to protect it.

In 1536, William Tyndale was condemned as a heretic and burned alive for translating the Bible into English. Yet a few generations later, his translation became the foundation of the King James Version (KJV), completed in 1611 by order of the English king.

When the Revised Standard Version (RSV) was first published by the National Council of Churches 350 years later, some Christians burned it out of fear of change. Even in Korean churches, when new translations appeared, many resisted, quoting, “Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law.”

One reason the Bible continues to be retranslated is that languages evolve and cultures differ. Translators try to recover lost meanings or refine earlier translations, but their knowledge, experience, and theology inevitably shape the result. The Hebrew word shalom means “peace, harmony, health, wholeness, justice,” and its meaning varies by context. There is still no single English or Korean word that fully captures shalom.

The Bible has also been passed down through music, sculpture, art, film, and video. In European art museums, most masterpieces are based on Scripture. At the 1996 United Methodist General Conference, First Lady Hillary Clinton recalled vividly the picture of Jesus the Good Shepherd that hung in her childhood Sunday school classroom. Reflecting on its influence, she asked, “How could a child who grows up seeing such an image not be changed?” Many of us also grew up seeing paintings and sculptures depicting the stories of Jesus.

The first Korean translation of the New Testament was published in 1887 in Manchuria as Yesu Seonggyo Jeonseo. Scottish Presbyterian missionary John Ross worked with fellow missionary McIntyre and several young Koreans from Uiju—Lee Eung‑chan, Baek Hong‑jun, Seo Sang‑ryun, and Lee Seong‑ha—to translate it. Five years earlier, in 1882, they had published an experimental translation of the Gospel of Luke.

In 1887, Methodist missionary Appenzeller and Presbyterian missionary Underwood led a new translation committee, joined by Allen, Heron, and Scranton. They initially planned to revise the Ross translation, but because Korean spelling was not standardized, they began a new translation. The New Testament was published in 1900, and the Old Testament in 1911. During this process, Appenzeller was martyred in 1902 when his ship sank off the coast of Gunsan on his way to a translation meeting in Mokpo.

Despite many hardships, the 1911 Bible was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society—two volumes for the Old Testament and one for the New. Printing technology and paper quality were poor at the time.

Later, several translations followed. The ecumenical Common Translation produced beautiful Psalms and prophetic books, close to the original text, but it was not widely adopted by Korean Protestants. Thus, in 1983, Protestant denominations requested a new translation, leading to the New Korean Revised Version.

The beautiful Bible we use today came through thousands of years of God’s work and the blood of martyrs who belonged to His covenant people. Yet sometimes we read only our favorite verses. Some read only Revelation; others cling to a single passage. But doing so prevents us from understanding the true flow of Scripture.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double‑edged sword; it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

This autumn, the Bible is waiting for us. For thousands of years, Scripture has given life, transformed hearts, and brought healing. It will continue to be the source of life for generations to come. May the sound of Bible pages turning grow louder in every home this season.

— Yoon Wan‑hee, September 21, 1998