A FEW IMPORTANT GUIDELINES FOR BIBLE STUDY

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Osborne Lucas
6 years ago
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1 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION Study relates to knowledge gaining wisdom, perspective, understanding & direction. We study the Bible to ensure that we understand the meaning, the message and the context of the scriptures. On the one hand, Bible study is about knowledge. It is about bringing our questions, concerns or curiosity before the Lord and letting the Lord answer (and question!) us. On the other hand, Bible study is about application. It is about being shaped by God s character and will and doing what God calls us to do. The rule of thumb with bible study is the same as with everything else in life: You will get as much out of it as you put into it. At a minimum, to become a more careful or intentional student of the Bible you need to invest in a study Bible, a regular reading plan and a group with whom to process. A more in-depth understanding of the Bible will require a higher level of commitment such as more focused study and communal accountability. Becoming familiar with and comfortable using commentaries and Bible dictionaries will also be a must. A BASIC APPROACH FOR STUDYING THE BIBLE Start with the FIVE W S: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHOM, WHY and HOW. Approach the Bible as if you are a journalist and investigate the text. Read as if you were an eyewitness, or better yet as if you were interviewing an eyewitness. Let the Five W s help you to visualize what is going on in the passage (get as detailed and descriptive as possible) and let the Scriptures come alive. Soak in and reflect upon the text. Don t casually breeze over the text. Notice repeated words or key images. Pay attention to the silence (what is not detailed, answered or addressed) of a text. Fill in the spaces between the lines and humbly speculate as to any gaps in the passage. (i.e. How did things get from here to here? What is going on behind the scenes?) Meditate on the depth of meaning in the text both in its context and in its application. Always move from Text to Theology to Life. Ask lots of questions, both of the text and yourself. Here the KEY questions though: TEXT: What did this passage say or mean to those who first heard/read it? THEO: What does this passage say about God his character, his will, his purposes? : What does this passage reveal about us our identity, our struggle and our destiny? LIFE: What is God saying to me/us? (Be specific) How should I/we respond? (Engage a plan) Let your questions be driven by the leading of the Spirit as much as your own curiosity. A FEW IMPORTANT GUIDELINES FOR BIBLE STUDY 1

2 I. Realize the content of the Bible is not entirely self-evident or automatically comprehensible. Despite our love for God and good intentions, we still have to study the Bible in order to understand it. Study is required of all great literature and important books. o Almost any reader might understand a newspaper report. o Whereas other writing such as a Shakespeare play might require readers to consult dictionaries, study guides, and other aids because of the nature of the language and the subject matter. o Or what about a physics textbook? A book like that might require years of prior study as well as patient, focused effort in order to appreciate even a single page. The Bible contains literature at all these levels. o Some parts any reader can follow, some parts require some help, and some are difficult enough that even seasoned scholars struggle to comprehend them! This is to be expected. o Any book claiming to be authored by God, the Creator of all that exists, should demand serious and consistent effort from the created from those who honestly to seek to comprehend the One whose thinking is beyond human understanding. II. How you approach the study of a book or section of the Bible varies depends upon the genre. For example: Parables are more than just simple stories. Parables are puzzles framed around a punch line designed to reveal a truth that might be otherwise missed. o Parables are crafted in such a way to separate the willing and honestly engaged student from those who are resistant or unwilling to bother with what seems irrelevant to their own interests. (Matt 13:10 17). Our culture is used to moral stories and not parables. o Without reasonable study it would be easy to confuse the two and turn profound insights about the nature of God s reign into things we have to do to get into the Kingdom. Another example: Proverbs also are not as simple as they first appear. On the one hand, proverbs present life s choices in fairly straightforward manner. On the other hand, the presentation of a proverb is often much like a riddle requiring the reader to wrestle with it in order to truly understand its deeper meaning. While there are many different genres in the Bible, ten dominate: Narrative, Law, Wisdom, Poetry, Prophecy, Gospel, Parable, Letter & Apocalypse. III. When studying the Bible, one must not completely separate the parts from the whole. The Bible is not a How-To manual, a list of do s & don ts or just a great novel. The Bible is an anthology of many books, each of which has its own integrity but all of which contribute to the integrated whole. Studying the Bible begins by recognizing the genre of a given book but continues by reading through that book as a piece of literature that contributes to the overall message of the Bible. 2

3 Therefore one should read the Bible book by book so as to see both the points of each individual book and the whole of Scripture. This is also true of a biblical passage. One ought to analyze what a passage contributes to the Bible as a whole, and what the rest of the Bible contributes to understanding the passage. IV. It is important to appreciate and respect the many different angles from which one can and should study the Bible. There are several different ways to look at any piece of literature. When it comes to the Bible, it pays to look from every angle that might yield a payoff. Here are several different angles or steps, in the Bible study process: 1. Text: Seeking the original wording of the Bible to avoid treating a scribal error that accidentally crept into the text as original. Side note: No formatting existed in the original texts of the Bible. Until at least 900 A.D., no punctuation marks were included in the Scriptural texts. There were no verse or chapter numbers until centuries after that. Actually, prior to about 900 AD, the texts were written in Scriptua continua, where there were no spaces between words or sentences, no capitalization and no punctuation. Originally, the Bible must have been extremely hard to read, let alone copy. 2. Translation: Studying how to best convey in a modern language the concepts conveyed by the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. 3. Grammar: Analyzing the language of the passage under consideration to be sure it is not misunderstood. 4. Form: Studying the literary category and the characteristics that make any passage special. 5. Structure: Analyzing the way that the elements of a passage are ordered and how that affects its meaning. 6. Historical context: Considering both the historical situation of the writer and the event itself. o Remember most history is written AFTER the fact, AFTER it happens. o Also keep in mind the unique scope of the Bible. It is like a world epic. It covers the sweep of history from the very beginning of Creation to the end of history, when our universe is radically transformed. o Therefore, biblical books always deal with something that is part of this very big picture the story of God s creation, its fall, His ongoing redemption of it, and the ultimate consummation of all the hopes of good people for a permanent establishment of true goodness. 7. Cultural context: Looking at questions of how the people thought in the time that the 3

4 material was written and/or the events took place. o In particular, we are interested in the types of concepts they used, their cosmology (understand of how the universe worked), their language, and how they lived. 8. Lexical content: Seeking the correct meaning of a passage s words. o A significant aspect of Bible study is understanding the words used in the text. But even more important is understanding the concepts used the point, significance, or meaning of a passage, verse, statement, or word. o It is very important to respect the difference between words and concepts in order to develop an accurate interpretation of the Bible. For example, in Luke 15, when Jesus illustrates what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, he tells the story of the Good Samaritan. This account does not include the words love, neighbor, or self, but the story richly includes the concept of loving neighbor as self and shows how that concept works in an excellent illustration. 9. Literary context: Studying how a passage fits within the book of which it is a part and how that affects its meaning. An example using literary context and lexical content: Psalm 12 o Frequently cited in support of the view that the Bible must be preserved word for word through all translation processes. Specifically cited is verse 6: "The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace in the ground, purified seven times." However, upon closer study one can immediately point out that the context is not one of Bible translation. The Psalmist is not dealing with a translated text at all. What he is dealing with is God's promises, and he is stating that God's promises are true and will come to pass. (Read all of Psalm 12 to get this literary context.) o In terms of lexical content, this is why many translations use promises here rather than just words because in context, that is the precise meaning of the Hebrew word used. 10. The community of faith: o Always interpret scripture with an eye and an ear in tune to the tradition, wisdom and diligent study of those who have gone before us in the faith. How has a given passage been understood by the Christian community in the past and the present? Which aspects of the interpretations of the Christian community have endured? Which aspects have fallen away due to the recognition of cultural or personal bias? For example, consider the interpretative history of passages like Ephesians 6:5-8, Colossians 3:22-25 and 1 Peter 1:18-25 in light of the question of human slavery. V. Don t try to reinvent the wheel, and don t try to do everything on your own. 4

5 The Greatest Story Ever Told: How To Read, Study and Interpret the Bible Always begin, continue and end with prayer. o Invite the Holy Spirit and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit for understanding. o Through his empowerment, God will help you have the desire, patience, and discernment to recognize the simple truths of the Bible without making them needlessly complicated, and to recognize difficult concepts without reducing them simplistically to something they don t say. Look up anything you don t fully know or understand. o Make use of the many good resources available to help you be a better student of the Bible than you would be on your own. o Here are three great resources to consider using. A good study Bible. Provides an introduction to books of the Bible and special topics of interest. A study Bible will also provided focused notes that explain a particular verse or passage by using the different angles or steps outlined above (see IV). A Bible dictionary Gives an overview and a brief analysis of virtually any topic mentioned in the Bible, as well as the various books and major doctrines of Scripture. Bible commentaries Succinctly explain Bible passages from an expert and researched angle. Take good notes and keep track of your study of the Bible. o If you rely entirely on your own memory, you ll eventually lose many valuable insights. On the other hand, if you develop an external memory (your notes of observations on what you ve learned), you ll preserve them. o Writing down what you ve learned also forces you to express your thoughts more precisely and carefully than if you merely relied on what you happened to remember. o The continuity of written notes (especially in the same Bible) provide you with an element of stability and sense of progress for what you ve learned. VI. The Difference Between Inerrancy and Infallibility The Bible is the inerrant word of God. Translation = the Bible is without any errors. Important! This claim is made only in terms of the original manuscripts. Since, as far as anyone knows, all of those original manuscripts have long since disintegrated, and only scribe-made copies of any of them still exist, this claim is beyond any possible proof and therefore is an assumption. It is a logical and reasonable assumption (if it is accepted that God inspired the writing of the books of the Bible, then to claim otherwise would imply that either he made or permitted mistakes in the Bible or that he is nowhere near as allknowing as we believe he is) but it is still an assumption. The Bible is the infallible word of God. 5

6 Translation = the Bible is without any errors in matters of faith and practice. In other words, the Bible makes no false or misleading statements about matters of faith and practice. TWO BIBLE STUDY EXERCISES Luke 8:19-21 Exodus 20:5 Two final important rules of thumb for interpreting the Bible: The immediate context of a passage ought to be considered before looking at similar texts. Always interpret difficult or ambivalent passages of scripture in light of passages wherein the meaning is more plain. 6

ELA CCSS Grade Five. Fifth Grade Reading Standards for Literature (RL)

ELA CCSS Grade Five. Fifth Grade Reading Standards for Literature (RL) Common Core State s English Language Arts ELA CCSS Grade Five Title of Textbook : Shurley English Level 5 Student Textbook Publisher Name: Shurley Instructional Materials, Inc. Date of Copyright: 2013