The Well That Washes What It Shows: An Invitation to Holy Scripture

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An accessible introduction to the Bible that brings together theological insight with pastoral concerns
 
In this distinctive introduction to the Bible, Jonathan Linebaugh illuminates Scripture’s dual capacity for revealing human sinfulness and imparting divine love. Drawing on the language of the poet George Herbert, Linebaugh characterizes Scripture as “the well that washes what it shows”—that is, the living and active word that simultaneously reveals our need for Jesus and gives us Jesus.
 
Linebaugh begins by outlining Scripture’s overall story, subject matter, and shape. He then provides a broad overview of the Old and New Testaments, followed by a case study of the book of Romans that demonstrates how to bring together theological, historical, exegetical, and devotional concerns when studying Scripture. Whereas many introductions to the Bible prioritize one of these concerns at the expense of the others, Linebaugh shows readers how to synthesize them. In so doing, he demonstrates how reading the Bible can be both generative and regenerative: we attend to the gospel revealed in Scripture so that same gospel can be spoken afresh on the basis of Scripture. Grounded in Linebaugh’s combined expertise as a theologian and experience as an ordained minister, The Well That Washes What It Shows is a valuable resource for pastors, seminary students, and anyone seeking to read Scripture in ways that engage both the mind and the heart.

From the Publisher

What People Are Saying

Excerpt from the Introduction, “The Story and the Shape of Holy Scripture”

In 1633 a pastor wrote a poem about the Bible. Holy Scripture, celebrated George Herbert, is “infinite sweetness,” “precious for any grief,” a source of “health” and “joy” and a message of divine mercy and love stronger than “death.” Then comes this line: God’s word is “the well / That washes what it shows” (“Holy Scripture I,” from The Temple). “The word of God,” as Hebrews 4:12 says, “is living and active.” God “spoke,” sings Psalm 33:9, “and it came to be.” Herbert’s poem captures this living and creative power of Holy Scripture with the verbs “washes” and “shows.” Holy Scripture is “the well” of God’s word, and this “living and active” word does a double work: it “washes” and it “shows.” God speaks to show, to unveil honest human need: there is sorrow, bondage, shame, sin, and fear. But God also and finally speaks to wash, to deliver and redeem those in need: there is hope, freedom, mercy, forgiveness, and peace.

About a hundred years before Herbert’s poem, a professor named Martin Luther proposed a set of theses in 1518 entitled For an Inquiry into Truth and for the Consolation of Troubled Consciences. The two parts of that title capture the two hopes of this book: to hear the truth of Holy Scripture as the word of honesty and hope, God’s address that says, “I see and know you” and also “I forgive and forever love you.” God’s word is a well that shows, surfacing and honestly seeing the weariness, pain, confusion, and fear of life. But this well also washes, speaking what Thomas Cranmer calls the “comfortable words” of God’s love in Jesus that give hope to the hurting, ashamed, worn-out, and afraid (Book of Common Prayer).

This book is an introduction to Holy Scripture that hopes to be an invitation to Holy Scripture: to hear and receive what the apostle Paul calls “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). This is the “treasure” that “God’s word” announces and gives (2 Cor. 4:2, 7). “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5). This, according to Paul, is the “ministry” we have “by the mercy of God” (2 Cor. 4:1), the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). As Paul asks in another letter to the church in Corinth, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). The “treasure” of “the gospel of the glory of Christ” is given as God speaks, and it is held by those who hear “in jars of clay” because “the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Ministry is hearing before it is speaking, receiving before it is giving. Ministering the word entails patiently and prayerfully listening to and receiving the gospel so that the words of pastoral care and proclamation do not morph into “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6) but remain and are given as the actual and only “gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7). Oswald Bayer captures this pattern of ministry: ministers “pass on to others the word they have received.” This means, first, that ministers “need to receive the word themselves” and only then announce “that word” in a way that, in the power of Holy Spirit, “it speaks to the hearts of their listeners as God’s word for them today.” This “one gospel,” Bayer concludes, “is an unconditional promise and categorical gift” that gives Jesus Christ, and “it must always be spoken anew without ever saying anything new . . . for the only thing we can say new is what will never again become old”: the gospel of Jesus Christ, who said, “Fear not, I am . . . the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:17–18; Bayer, “Preaching the Word”).

Author Bio

Jonathan A. Linebaugh serves as Anglican Chair of Divinity and professor of New Testament and Christian theology at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University. He is the author or editor of several books, including The New Perspective on Grace, The Word of the Cross, and God’s Two Words.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Eerdmans
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 26, 2025
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802885489
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802885487
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.43 x 0.55 x 8.43 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #16,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #32 in Christian Bible Exegesis & Hermeneutics #323 in Christian Bible Study (Books)