Have you heard statements like this before: “I just love my pastor, she really knows the bible.” Well, I have, and I wonder what this means. Does it mean you can quote lots of scripture to prove your point? Does it mean you are a quality exegete? Does it mean you can talk for hours on theories of Pauline authorship? Maybe it means you’ve memorized lots of Scripture.
What would it take for you to say your pastor “really knows the bible?”
mattjudkins.com 
I don’t have a good answer here.
I always get suspicious of people who can toss out a handy verse to answer any question. And yet, you wouldn’t want a minister who never could do that.
For me, I want my pastor to embody the gospel. How does (in my church’s case) he live and talk? And I want him to be able to link he actions and words to Scriptural witness. We do these things because of these stories, poems, letters, etc.
This is not a very well formed answer to a great question.
Matt – I agree, great question. For me to say that someone really knows their Bible, it takes a deep knowledge of the God’s narrative as told in the Old and New Testaments. I am not as concerned about quoting verse number and location but more with the movement of God in and through God’s people across time. I agree with jmeunier to know the Bible is to embody the gospel. I think that a deep knowledge of the narrative of the Bible allows a person to live into that narrative in her or his own life.
Well, Deut. 6: 6-9 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
🙂 I kid!