{"id":361,"date":"2013-01-01T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T05:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warrenmyers.com\/blog\/?p=361"},"modified":"2013-01-01T00:01:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T05:01:20","slug":"how-to-study-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"How to Study the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In follow-up to my <a href=\"http:\/\/warrenmyers.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/reading-the-bible-for-life\">last post<\/a> about {{George Guthrie}}&#8217;s book {{Read the Bible for Life}}, I wanted to give some more thoughts on\u00a0<em>how<\/em> to <a href=\"http:\/\/warrenmyers.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/bereanism-bible-study-and-seminaries\">study<\/a> the Bible in practical ways.<\/p>\n<h2>Let the Bible speak for itself<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Word of God is living and sharper than any two-edged sword&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Hebrews+4:12&amp;version=NASB\">Hebrews 4:12<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Given that this is true, there is no better place to turn to understand the Bible than the Bible itself! The Bible is\u00a0<em>not<\/em> up for personal interpretation:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one&#8217;s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2%20Peter%201:20-21&amp;version=NASB\">2 Peter 1:20-21<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The entirety of the Bible is open for personal\u00a0<em>application<\/em> &#8211; that is taking the meaning and interpretation of the text and putting it into practice in your own life: but it is never right to think about a text, &#8220;what does this mean to me?&#8221; &#8211; you must always ask instead, &#8220;how does this apply to me?&#8221;. The difference is subtle, but vital &#8211; one follows postmodernistic thinking that says there are no absolutes and that your truth is ok for you, but my truth is good for me (and those two &#8216;truths&#8217; may be contradictory); the other believes that God meant what He said and what has been preserved in the Bible, and that it needs to be applied and lived-out in each of us personally.<\/p>\n<h4>Exegete &#8211; don&#8217;t Eisegete<\/h4>\n<p>Most closely related to the concept of letting the Word speak for itself is to never\u00a0<em>read into<\/em> (ie eisegete) the text: <strong>always<\/strong> <em>read out of<\/em> (ie <a href=\"http:\/\/m-w.com\/dictionary\/exegete\">exegete<\/a>) the text. This topic was covered in a <a href=\"http:\/\/christianity.stackexchange.com\/q\/8964\/69\">question<\/a> I asked on <a href=\"http:\/\/christianity.stackexchange.com\">Christianity.SE<\/a>\u00a0this past August.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The only answer that seems reasonable would be that\u00a0<strong>you read into Scripture the meaning you want it to have when you disagree with the actual meaning.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To read into Scripture what is not there is to put oneself as somehow over Scripture as more of an authority on the matter than the Scriptures themselves. There are definitely two distinct approaches to the Scriptures.<\/p>\n<p><em>Two people will see in the Scriptures something that differs from either their own ideas or their own deeds. One person will conclude,\u00a0<strong>The Bible<\/strong>\u00a0must be wrong, and then misinterprets it to make it agree with him. Another will conclude,\u00a0<strong>I<\/strong>\u00a0must be wrong, and changes his ideas or his life to agree with the Bible.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I would argue that only one of these is a true follower of Jesus and of His teachings. Eisegesis is\u00a0<em>never\u00a0<\/em>appropriate.&#8221; &#8212;<a href=\"http:\/\/christianity.stackexchange.com\/a\/8965\/69\">Narnian<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Know the style of the text<\/h2>\n<p>The next vital aspect of studying the Bible is to understand the literary style employed by the author. There are several styles employed in the Scripture, which each have their own methods of understanding and interpretation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historic Narrative\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style\n<ul>\n<li>Genesis, Joshua, 1&amp;2 Samuel, Esther, Job<sup>*<\/sup>, Daniel<sup>^<\/sup>, Matthew, Acts, etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Poetic\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style\n<ul>\n<li>Job<sup>*<\/sup>, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Prophetic\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style\n<ul>\n<li>Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel<sup>^<\/sup>, Obadiah, Revelation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Parabolic\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style (most of Jesus&#8217; recorded sermons and parables)\n<ul>\n<li>Matthew, Mark, Luke, John<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Didactic\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style\n<ul>\n<li>Leviticus, The New Testament Epistles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Apocalyptic\n<ul>\n<li>examples of books that employ this style\n<ul>\n<li>Daniel<sup>^<\/sup>, Revelation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Learn the external context relating to the author&#8217;s circumstances<\/h2>\n<p>Part of this is similar to the next section, but understanding the historical and cultural context of a given author (eg Matthew or Isaiah) helps to shine extra light on not only\u00a0<em>what<\/em> they wrote and\u00a0<em>how<\/em> they wrote, but\u00a0<em>why<\/em> they wrote in the manner in which they did.<\/p>\n<p>There are a host of resources that can help in this area, but a general interest in history is a great boon to finding nuggets, too \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<h2>Use reliable study tools<\/h2>\n<p>The following study tools should be at your ready disposal if possible:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Concordance\n<ul>\n<li>I like {{Strong&#8217;s Exhaustive Concordance}}, personally<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bible Chronology<\/li>\n<li>Bible Dictionary\n<ul>\n<li>{{Vine&#8217;s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words}} (<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.mf.no\/bibel\/vines.html\">online edition<\/a>) is great<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Maps\n<ul>\n<li>{{Bible maps}}<\/li>\n<li>Near and Middle East maps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Several solid translations of the Bible\n<ul>\n<li>translations I recommend (alphabetical order):\n<ul>\n<li>{{ASV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{Amplified Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{ESV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{HCSB}}<\/li>\n<li>{{KJV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{NASB}}<\/li>\n<li>{{New English Translation}}<\/li>\n<li>{{NKJV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{NRSV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{RSV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{YLT}}<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>translations I prefer to not use, but can be helpful for &#8220;just reading&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>{{JB Phillips}}<\/li>\n<li>{{NIV}}<\/li>\n<li>{{NLT}}<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>translations to be avoided because they are truly poor (or claim to only be paraphrases\/gist &#8216;translations&#8217;):\n<ul>\n<li>Common English Bible<\/li>\n<li>Easy-to-Read Translation<\/li>\n<li>Good News Translation<\/li>\n<li>Living Bible<\/li>\n<li>New American Bible<\/li>\n<li>New Century Version<\/li>\n<li>New English Bible<\/li>\n<li>New English Translation<\/li>\n<li>Revised English Bible<\/li>\n<li>The Message<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Good&#8221; Study Bible\n<ul>\n<li>solid examples of this include the following (choose a good translation (see above) when picking a study bible):\n<ul>\n<li>{{Archaeological Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{Chronological\u00a0Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{ESV Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{HCSB Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{Life Application Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{MacArthur Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<li>{{Reformation Study Bible}}<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Ancient Near and Middle East history books &#8211; preferably written as close as possible to the events described (eg {{The Works of Flavius Josephus}}, {{Herodotus}})<\/li>\n<li>Archaeological\u00a0data of the Near and Middle East<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Concluding thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>{{David Platt}}&#8217;s book {{Radical}} is a treatise on letting the Word of God do its own job &#8211; to enlighten, encourage, and admonish the reader, with the ultimate goal of showing sinners their utter hopelessness away from Jesus so they can turn to Him.<\/p>\n<p>It is easy to get lost in lots of theological and doctrinal discussions &#8211; they have their place, and can be very useful, but when we move Scripture from the point of preeminence, we lose the opportunity to hear God.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><sup>*<sub>Job is unique in that it typically employs a poetic style to recount a historical narrative<\/sub><\/sup><br \/>\n<sup>^<sub>Daniel is unique in that it records in historical narrative style history, prophecy, and apocalyptic text<\/sub><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In follow-up to my last post about {{George Guthrie}}&#8217;s book {{Read the Bible for Life}}, I wanted to give some more thoughts on\u00a0how to study the Bible in practical ways. Let the Bible speak for itself &#8220;The Word of God is living and sharper than any two-edged sword&#8221; (Hebrews 4:12). Given that this is true, &hellip;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=361\" class=\"more-link pen_button pen_element_default pen_icon_arrow_double\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Study the Bible<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[883],"tags":[894,390,960,964],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study","tag-bible","tag-how-to","tag-scripture","tag-study-2"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fkeyring_services&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}