You might find that even within your own faith, beliefs about scripture vary a lot. Some people hold that Holy texts are completely right and there cannot even be one mistake, because they’re directly from God. Others might say that they’re inspired by God, but interpreted and written down by imperfect humans, so the scriptures themselves aren’t always perfect. Some scriptures are translated from ancient languages, and the words we use in translation might not always carry the original meaning. Scriptures often originate in cultures and times very different from our own, so the things they talk about or consider important could be different to that which we consider important now.

There will be a lot of ways of thinking about and interpreting scripture within your own traditions. For example, many Muslims when trying to find a correct interpretation of the Qur’an will look at how the Prophet Muhammad interpreted it, what his earliest followers said about it, and perhaps look at Arabic meanings of words or what saints have said. Do you believe that parts of your scripture have more authority than other parts? Some Christians believe that the words of Jesus carry more importance than other parts of the Bible, so they try to interpret the rest of the Bible through things Jesus said.

Some people spend their entire lives learning about their scriptures and thinking about what it means. There is always more to learn about our religious texts. It might be learning a new language like Ancient Hebrew, reading books by scholars in your tradition, or talking to people in your tradition that you respect. Learning more about a text can change what you think about it. It might also give you more confidence in what you believe.

This is a difficult one to answer, because it depends on how much importance you give to different parts of scripture. If your text criticises what we might think of as sex between men only once, but mentions poverty 500 times, what does that mean?