When you read the Bible, how do you read it? What emotion do you read into it? What attitude do you project as you read it aloud?

Consider this text from Mark 10:

“23And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” 24The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Mk 10:23-26.

Look at that last question by the disciples: “then who can be saved?” Do you read it without emotion and allow the reader to decide? Or do you read it with emotion? Do you read the question as coming from humble disciples? Do you read the question with scorn? Are the disciples forlorn or are they angry?

I have listened to many audio Bibles. The best ones do little inflecting as possible, unless the text makes clear the heart and intent of the person talking. An example of this is in Mark:

“13Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. 14They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15“Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” Mark 12:13ff.

Here it is clear that the question was not coming from sincere people and most audio reading of it will indicate some arrogance and false respect.

So here’s the upshot. My point is that in our reading of Scripture, we may say something about the biblical characters that isn’t accurate. And so we teach falsely through the false reading. Give the benefit of the doubt when the Biblical person is speaking. Be careful not to put attitude in their words which may be unwarranted. That is hurtful to their memory and testimony and can leave a wrong impression of the text.

I offer this humbly.

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Update: to clarify what I’m saying, let me share a comment I received with my response…

Matthew D. Ruiz My impression is that false teaching is intentional – the intent is to lead one away from the known truth. What is described in the OP sounds more like an innocent misunderstanding. And while misunderstandings also need to be addresses, they seem like something very different than intentionally leading someone astray.

Me: I agree. I don’t think it’s intentional. However, much false teaching isn’t intentional. Some people are always cheery and some people are always grumpy. They bring their attitude to the text and can misrepresent the meaning. As I said in the OP, I have listened to numerous audio Bible productions (Youtube has many offerings). It’s weird how one will make the apostles sound humble in the reading and another will make the apostles sound sarcastic with the same verse.