How to Read Scripture Like You’re Still in the Field

A Field Manual for Grunt Works Bible Study

If you’re new to how we approach Scripture here at Grunt Works, you might notice we don’t read the Bible the way most churches do. We’re not trying to be edgy or contrarian - we’re trying to be honest about what the texts actually are and how they actually work.

The Centralization Problem

Here’s what happened: Around 70 CE, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Two groups emerged from the wreckage, both claiming to be the legitimate heirs of what came before. Rabbinic Judaism (emerging from the Pharisees) standardized around specific texts and interpretations. Early institutional Christianity (consolidating around Psaul’s communities) did the same thing. Both built their authority on claiming they alone preserved the “real” tradition.

But that’s not how things worked before 70 CE.

Before the Monopoly

When Jesus was walking around Galilee, there wasn’t one official Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove this - they show multiple versions of texts coexisting, some matching what became the standard Hebrew Bible, some matching the Greek translation, some completely unique. People read Scripture with interpretive flexibility. Rabbis could argue about what a word meant because ancient Hebrew was written without vowels - the letters לחם could be “bread” or “fighter” depending on how you pronounced it.

This wasn’t a bug. It was a feature.

Joshua himself operated this way - playing with double meanings, flexing interpretations, finding new significance in old words. He wasn’t disrespecting Scripture. He was engaging it the way his tradition taught him to.

What We Lost

The scribal-institutional turn - writing things down in one fixed way, building authority structures around “correct” interpretations - wasn’t just about preserving texts. It was about consolidating power. Oral traditions got suppressed. Multiple valid readings got narrowed to one. Communal interpretation got replaced by institutional control.

The well-intentioned impulse that standardized the Bible is the same impulse that tried to destroy indigenous traditions worldwide. European colonizers couldn’t tolerate oral wisdom, flexible interpretation, or communal authority that didn’t submit to their institutional structures. They needed everything written down, fixed, controlled.

Why This Matters for Rank and File Believers

You know what centralized authority looks like. You live under it right now. You know the difference between the mission brief and what actually happens on the ground. You know that the guys who write the After Action Reports weren’t always in the shit with you.

Reading Scripture with interpretive flexibility isn’t about being wishy-washy or relativistic. It’s about recognizing that texts can hold multiple meanings, that different communities can validly understand the same words differently, and that institutional claims to have the one "true" interpretation are usually political power moves rather than divine revelation.

Second Temple Christians Without the Temple

That’s what we’re trying to be at Grunt Works. We’re Christ-centered - absolutely, fully, completely. But we’re not submitting to the post-70 CE institutional monopoly that claims authority over how Christ gets interpreted. We’re learning from indigenous wisdom traditions that never fully submitted to scribal colonization. We’re recovering the interpretive flexibility that "Jesus" himself used.

This means:

• We work with multiple text traditions, not just one “authoritative” version
• We recognize that Hebrew without vowels allows for wordplay and multiple meanings
• We let context and community guide interpretation, not just institutional authority
• We learn from oral traditions that preserve different ways of knowing
• We resist anyone who claims their reading is the only legitimate one

What This Looks Like Practically

When we study Scripture together, we:

• Ask what different vocalizations might reveal (Bethlehem as “house of bread” or “combative clan”)
• Notice when institutional readings serve power over truth
• Listen to how indigenous communities engage their sacred stories
• Trust communal discernment over expert pronouncement
• Follow a christ who doesn't seek out Christian approval

This isn’t anti-Semitic and it isn’t anti-Christian. It’s anti-monopoly. It’s resistance to any Abrahamic aspirant who claims sole ownership of divine truth.

The Way Forward

We’re not trying to go back to some pure primitive origin. That’s Enlightenment fantasy. We’re trying to practice now in ways that honor the pluriformity and flexibility that existed before institutions industrialized and monopolized control.

We do this because Christ Joshua did this. Because indigenous communities are still doing this. Because rank and file believers know what happens when centralized authority erases ground truth.

Welcome to the field. Let’s read together.

For more on our approach to Scripture, community, and veteran spirituality, join us for GruntCon(versations) or stop by The Chapter House in Albany.