One of the reasons for the widespread ignorance and neglect of the Bible is the failure to study it sufficiently from the viewpoint of faith. All too often it is assumed that a serious examination of the Scriptures can only treat them as historical documents. In a great deal of modern investigation the Bible is regarded as a collection of materials for research into ancient history and culture.
Scholars claim to approach it without any presuppositions of faith.
If they have any personal religious beliefs about it, they put them in cold storage whenever they indulge in scholarship. The books of the Old and New Testaments, they maintain, are to be treated in the same way as any other documents used for research into the history, religion and culture of the ancient world. Viewed in this light, Old Testament scholarship is part of the study of the ancient Near East, and New Testament scholarship is part of the study of Graeco-Roman civilization. Some modern critics put their emphasis on the Bible as literature. They vary in their interests in this field of investigation.