Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How to study the Bible (long post FYI only, not for debate)

(If you want further clarification of anything herein, ask. If you want to add a tip, welcome. If you want to argue, disagree, or refute, say whatever you like but don't expect me to respond.)

Divide the Word

�Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.� 2 Timothy 2:15

MY BUDDY PAUL and I don�t get to see each other often, so whenever we do get together, we sit up through most of the night solving the world�s knottier problems. During one midnight-to-four discussion, my little pal became a Christian � born again, on fire, hot to trot, with nothing half-way about his commitment to Jesus. We were both away from home at a convention. When we got back to our homes, Paul called me from Illinois:

�First thing I did when I got home was to go out and buy a Bible. How do you read this thing?�

Paul�s question wasn�t comical, but I had to laugh. You have to laugh at some things, just to keep from crying about them. How, indeed, does one read the Bible to get anything but confusion out of it? The Bible stumps everyone who meets it. The trouble is, most of us then turn to books and guides written about what the Bible says and means. The catch-all name for these dubious helps is commentaries.

No one has ever described their value better than an old Negro preacher in the South, one of my unmet heroes. This dear Brother preached powerful sermons, so when his bishop came down on a visit, the bishop was appalled to find that the Bible was all that our Brother had to preach from. When the bishop got back to church headquarters, he sent this preacher a set of commentaries to make ministry easier for him.

On his next visit a year later, the bishop asked our Brother, �What did you think of those books I sent you? �

�Oh, good books � good books! They�s a bit dim in spots, but the scripture throws a lot of light in there.�

That Brother, dear to my heart although we never met, had his heart turned right, his head screwed on right, and his priorities exactly right. He is all too rare in the church; for centuries, church leaders up to and including bishops and popes have reigned, ruled, and established their dogma without ever studying the Bible.

Long before Hugo of Saint Victor stated it as an official rule in these words during the Middle Ages, the official church practice was �Learn first what you should believe, and then go to the Bible to find it there.� This attitude or approach has long been the standard foundation for the commentaries. I no longer own any commentary � they blocked accurate understanding of the Bible more than they helped. Too often, they clearly needed the brilliant flame of scripture to burn away some stupidly wrong �explanation� of scripture that didn�t need to be explained in the first place.

Born again at the age of five, I was also an intense reader as I grew up. But no matter how often or how hard I tried, I couldn�t �get into� the Bible. It just confused me. The first couple of times I tried to go to seminary, I didn�t make it. To make up for not being able to take seminary courses on the Bible, I bought every book and study guide and correspondence course that I could find to help me study the Bible. But they all suffered from the same two basic, major flaws:

� Their authors had long since forgotten how much they didn�t already know when they first tried to study the Bible, so they assumed that all their readers knew a lot more than I did.

� They all swung every study around to their special theological slants, which often required some twisted, illogical reasoning and verbal gymnastics to get around something that the Bible said that didn�t fit their theme.

Next, I tried reading the authoritative writings of all the major church denominations. While I was studying the theology of one denominational persuasion, I saw that they had the right slant on things � but then to be fair, I read everything that I could find on the other side, too. The next problem was that in studying the theology of the other side, I saw that they had everything nailed down straight, too. No matter how hard I tried to figure out which of any two opposites was right, I found myself agreeing completely with whichever side I was studying at the moment.

Obviously, I knew too little about the Bible to see where the world�s best Christian theologians had �missed it� in interpreting the Bible. Just as obviously, some of their theology had to be wrong: they disagreed with each other, and the writings on one side often clearly disputed the other side�s theology on the same subject. It was clear to me that comparative theology, no matter how widely and deeply and carefully I studied it, could clarify nothing.

I had no choice. The Lord had boxed me in. I had to learn how to deal with the Bible on its own terms. By that time, I�d had some cracking good graduate study in literary analysis � mainly the �let the book itself tell you what it means� approach. As it turns out, this is both the easiest and the safest way to study the Bible. It�s natural that we want to look to others for help � but it�s also natural and even inevitable for others to mislead or deceive us sooner or later, whether or not they intend to.

�Then what do we do? Do you mean to say that every Christian has to be a Bible scholar?�

No.

But every Christian should know his teachers and something of how they figure out what they say that the Bible says and means. Every Christian who becomes a teacher owes God and those he teaches the diligent care and attention of responsible Bible scholarship. Any �teacher� who shirks this basic duty is the parrot in the Mexican proverb El perico dice lo que sabe pero no sabe lo que dice � �The parrot says what he knows but doesn�t know what he says.�

Every Christian, including teachers, should listen only to teachers whom he knows to be sound, diligent Bible scholars and should tune out all the Bible-babblers with their funny little axes to grind. I studied for a while several years ago under a famous teacher who recommended using your imagination as you read scripture (not just to �see� in your mind what the scripture presents, which is legitimate, but to �see� what the Holy Spirit has left out). He was teaching things that his imagination had inserted into Genesis 2 and 3 when he came to the old notion that Adam wasn�t with Eve when the serpent beguiled her and she ate of the forbidden fruit. He said that Eve was alone with the serpent. The point that he wanted to make � which I�ve forgotten, now � hinged on the assumption that Adam was off somewhere else, doing his own thing.

When I pointed-out that Genesis 3:6 says �she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her: and he did eat,� this �Bible� teacher slapped that point aside with this astonishing answer: �Yes, I know it says that, there � but I think she was alone then and went to Adam later.�

When any Bible teacher puts I think ahead of it is written, he�s no longer teaching the word of God in faith and truth. He�s teaching another word, his own. Alerted by this, I then noticed that this famous teacher, under whom I�d been eager to study, had developed the habit of teaching his own word (and his wife�s) and setting God�s scriptures aside when they got in the way.

�Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing � rightly handling and skillfully teaching � the Word of Truth.� 2 Timothy 2:15 (The Amplified Bible)

In this advice from Paul to Timothy, the word that the King James Version renders "rightly dividing" is orthotomeo, literally "cut straight." Jesus as a carpenter and Paul as a tent-maker would use this word often in teaching an apprentice to cut shelves for a cupboard or panels for a tent � saw the wood or cut the fabric straight along the lines laid-out on the pattern. In wood, fabric, or scripture, each piece that you cut from the raw must fit exactly every other piece in the whole cupboard, tent, or context. There�s a world of difference between cutting-out a bunch of pieces �by eye� or at random and cutting them out along the lines that the Master has drawn.

In this chapter, I�ll give you a simple plan for what you should consider your personal minimum course of Bible study � essentially, reading and repeatedly rereading at least the New Testament and preferably the entire Bible. You may want to go a little or far beyond this minimum. You must, if you teach or preach or prophesy even a little now and then. So this chapter will also cover the basics of higher study, which you should read so that you�ll at least know what minimum standards you should hold your teachers to.

Read this chapter more than once. Don�t expect yourself to soak it all up in one trip through. The time will come when you must step outside the Bible, to study other books for light on what the Bible says and means. But not for a while. The basic rule of Bible study is that you have to know what it says before you can know what it means. Writers through many centuries have written libraries about what it means � the trouble is that they not only contradict each other but also contradict the Bible. Also, if you start with spoon-fed meanings and then look to see what the Bible says, you�ll see those meanings there whether they�re really there or not. You�ll believe a bunch of things that aren�t so, and you�ll be confused about a bunch of others.

The correct general order in practical Bible study is �
� Learn what the Bible says, not what others say it says.
� Learn what these things mean.
� See how these meanings apply to us (including you).
� Live by these and reject all contradictory opinions, traditions, and doctrines, whatever may be their claim of �authority.�

This course of study isn�t an overnight process nor even a four-year process. It stops when you stop it � but even then, it won�t be complete. No man can ever know the entirety of the Bible and its meanings and their significance to us. But each of us must learn what he can, and let the Body-wide variety of our understanding and practice of these truths edify us all. There�s always more for any of us to know; consider this the richness that lies waiting for you, not a formidable barrier that you can never get across. (It doesn�t bother you, when you eat out, that you can�t possibly eat everything that the restaurant cooks and serves that day!)

To learn and know the Bible and what it means, look first to the Bible � and for a while, only to the Bible. Once you learn how to study it � a process that�s simple enough in principle � you�ll find it to be the clear, brilliant beacon that lights up the dimmest corners of the commentaries and the darkest crannies of denominational dogma. You�ll wonder, again and again, how the meanings of certain passages can be so clear to you and yet so stubbornly ignored or even denounced by one church denomination or another.

The difficulties in studying the Bible come from the gulfs that we have to swim across to get over to its meanings. It was clear and simple to the people whom it was written to, but we live on another side of the world, not only thousands of miles away but also separated from those people by great gulfs of culture and language as well as centuries.

We have to study to learn about things that were as familiar to them as cars and electric lights are to us. We have to learn, from scholars, words that were every-day language to illiterate young sheepherders in the Jud�an hills. If we start with the King James Version, even this old form of English is strange, foreign, and difficult � across another gulf from us.

Once we start getting the hang of these, the gates of the Bible start creaking open for us, and out comes a welcoming delegation of angels led by the Holy Spirit to give us a guided tour that will go on as long as we�re willing to follow our Guide around.

He will show us living dramas, battles, adventure, intrigue, travel, love stories, and every-day life that are as lively and clear and exciting as a circus or a rodeo. More � He will show us how to avoid the dark side of eternity and how we can enjoy its glorious side, in a life that will far surpass all the drama and glory and wonder that the Bible reveals.

But all these are meant only for the dedicated participant, so they�re veiled from the view of the casual visitor. Once you demonstrate your dedication through careful, repeated study and continual prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the veils slide to the ground. He knows the differences between the receptive heart of the disciple, the shallow heart of the casual visitor, and the rebellious heart of the skeptic.

Many beginners like to compare several translations or versions of the Bible. �Parallel� New Testaments, single-volume printings of more than one version in side-by-side columns, are popular � and useful when you�ve learned enough of the Bible to use them properly. Comparing �translations� to decide which rendering you like best is not Bible study but a sure road to deception. No part of the Bible is a taste test or a popularity contest.

After careful word studies (not limited to the key English words) have made the intended meaning of the original passage clear, compare several renderings to see which if any is accurate. An excellent three-volume set for this kind of Bible study, AMG Publishers� Twenty-Six Translations of The Bible, is useful to help set the meanings of key passages clearly in your understanding. It�s also useful in teaching others the intended original meanings of studied passages.

Despite its sometimes awkward language for the modern reader and the numerous flaws in its translation, I strongly recommend that you use the King James Version (KJV) as your basic textbook. It�s still one of the best for sound study.

First, even with its mistranslations and the normal changes in the meanings of some English words since AD 1611, the KJV is still one of the most accurate and dependable translations of all. Most modern translations adopt all the old KJV errors and add new ones of their own, especially in their �translations� of passages that refer to the deity of Christ.

Many newer versions include some denominationally biased interpretations that violate the original meanings of the passages that they allegedly translate. Another reason for using the KJV is that nearly all the best references � concordances, dictionaries, linguistic keys, lexicons, grammars � are keyed to the KJV.

A Bible student of mine, who has gone on far beyond his old teacher, recommends the New American Standard Bible (especially the study version called The Discovery Bible), since it retains the values of the KJV and corrects many of its inaccuracies. Its excellent companion volume for study is the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance, which similarly retains the strength of Strong�s concordance. I haven�t seen either of these volumes, but I know what criteria govern my Brother�s recommendation and trust his judgement completely.

For your first several readings for background and over-all context, a modern English version will make your reading easier. The Living Bible and the New International Version are good.

Good News for Modern Man or Today�s English Version, which is also available under other titles, is a disaster in spite of all its ballyhoo about being a dependable translation. It isn�t. (If you have a copy, check its rendering of the key verses that I�m about to list.)

I use three key verses to get a quick idea of how reliable any new version of the New Testament is: John 1:1, Philippians 2:6, and Colossians 2:9. Any �translation� that plays fast and loose with any of these isn�t one that I can trust to handle other key verses responsibly and accurately. If the �translator� has trouble with the deity of Christ, his hang-up on that fact usually shows in his handling of these verses. Here, for example, are key excerpts from four that have �em right, according to the literal meanings of the original Greek texts:

� � the Word was God Himself.� John 1:1, The New Testament: A Translation in the Language of the People, Charles B Williams

� � did not cling to his prerogatives as God�s equal ...� Philippians 2:6, The New Testament in Modern English, J B Phillips

� � did not reckon equality with God something to be forcibly retained ...� Philippians 2:6, The Centenary Translation: The New Testament in Modern English, Helen Barrett Montgomery

�For in Christ there is all of God in a human body.� Colossians 2:9, The Living Bible, Kenneth N Taylor

(One of the great ironies of modern Bible versions is that the honest Doctor Taylor calls his rendering of the Bible a �paraphrase� and then gives us a more reliable translation than most of those whose perpetrators thump drums and toot horns about how scholarly and accurate their �translations� are.)

Before you dig into word studies and topical studies, you�ll need a Bible that you can depend on. Few people can read the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek) and the Greek New Testament, so one of the best choices for study is still the KJV supplemented with its generally dependable references to the Greek originals.

The most important aspect of Bible study isn�t word studies, nor even topical studies � both of which are essential but not the place to start. The most important key of all is context, which is simply another word for the over-all background of the specific people, events, teachings, etc. Context is the entire body of the Bible�s meaning, the entire background against which we see and examine each and all of its foreground details. Keep in mind these two levels of context � over-all and immediate � and you�ll have the most useful of all Bible-study tools always handy.

The immediate context of a word, phrase, sentence, verse, or discussion is the larger passage that it�s a part of. The sentence that a word is in is the most immediate context of that word. The immediate context of the sentence is the paragraph that it�s in, the chapter that paragraph is in, then the book that chapter is in. The immediate context of a teaching or statement or question includes who is saying it to whom, where they are, what�s going on at the time, and what brought all this about.

Nothing in the Bible has any meaning that�s independent of its immediate context, though virtually everything in the Bible has meanings that transcend their immediate scriptural and covenant contexts.

By the way � be especially wary of the pitfalls that lie hidden under the simple, innocent, useful division of the Bible into chapters and verses. Verse division is not a part of the divine inspiration that gave us the Bible. This practical innovation bears the vintage label of about AD 1550 � not a good year for Bible students, as it turns out. Verses printed like Wheat Chex imply that no bite-size morsel is part of any other, that they can exist loosely associated, and that whichever order they may come out of the box makes no difference in their meanings.

Keep in mind that the Bible�s chapter and verse divisions are reference numbers exactly like (in principle) the page numbers and grid references in a Rand McNally road atlas. Just as 56, G-4 is the location reference for one of my favorite towns, which exists inseparable from its county and state, Matthew 16:18 is the location reference for a certain centrally important statement that�s equally inseparable from its verse, chapter, and book.

Some verses are even just parts of longer sentences, and at least one chapter break in the New Testament cuts a sentence apart. Several chapter and verse breaks are terribly poorly chosen. The first sentence in Acts 8:1, for example, clearly belongs right smack after Acts 7:60, not across a bridge from it. It�s like a child who wandered off the street into a row house exactly like its home but a block down the street, got caught there during the census, and has to live there away from its family.

Over-all context is just a wider range of the surrounding scriptures. The entire Bible and God�s entire plan are the over-all context of every word, every teaching, every truth in the Bible. Every piece in this huge structure fits with all the others. Nothing is out of place. Whenever anything seems to be out of place, you can be sure that either you don�t yet understand it at all, or you understand it wrong.

To get your first grip on context, just read. Don�t study � read. Don�t take notes, don�t ask questions, don�t look up words � just read.

The English-language Bible survives a multitude of falsely and mistakenly and weakly translated words simply on the strength of its context. What your first readings give you is not details � which you can easily get wrong or get confused by � but settings, generalities, background, a basic but still largely unfocused sense of what�s going on. When you�ve learned the crucial importance of context, you�ll notice how often one simple look at the context of a particular passage corrects doctrinal errors in the way that passage is generally used.

For as long as I can remember, I�ve heard lessons and sermons, and read devotionals, on the notion that when Jesus says, in John 15:13, �Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,� He�s speaking of Himself, referring to when He�ll soon lay down His life for His friends � and that His friends are all mankind. But in the next verse, Jesus Himself drastically limits the range of His friends: �Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.�

Almost as common and equally wrong is the old notion that on the day of Pentecost, the hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem were all together in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came to them. The context of Acts 2:1�2 clearly shows that they were somewhere else. The only mention of the upper room, in Acts 1:13, refers to where the surviving eleven apostles �abode,� and two obvious context dividers break this over-all account into three parts:

Acts 1:13 says that they abode in an upper room. Looking back to find who they were, you�ll find the antecedent of this pronoun in Acts 1:2, the apostles whom he had chosen. Then, right after mention of their upper room, Acts 1:13 lists these eleven by name.

Acts 1:15 begins a new phase in the account with And in those days, when Peter spoke to a hundred and twenty disciples, but says nothing about where they were. Surely they weren�t in the upper room where the eleven apostles stayed. The Bible doesn�t say where they were.

Acts 2:1 begins yet another new phase in the account with And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place � another day, the same hundred and twenty, in another place.

Notice how the context dividers (and in those days and and when the day of Pentecost was fully come) show that the upper room, the hundred and twenty, and the day of Pentecost are parts of three separate subcontexts.

Generations of Christians have thought (and have even been taught) that Acts 8:4 refers to the apostles in they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. But Acts 8:1b reveals otherwise: �and they were all scattered abroad � except the apostles.

Context!

Read the Bible often, again and again, even after you�ve become an outstanding authority on what it says and what it means and you now teach it in a Bible school or seminary. Read it clear through, both the Old and the New Testaments, at least once a year. More often is better. Read the New Testament once a month.

The New Testament is the basic spiritual handbook for Christians. It supersedes the Old Testament, which is sort of an appendix that happens to be appended to the front of the New instead of at the back of it. The New Testament doesn�t make the Old Testament obsolete or even less important. The New Testament is clearer, In the New Testament, God has further explained what He presented more symbolically and mysteriously in the Old Testament.

At the same time, the episodes and personalities and relationships in the Old Testament illustrate God�s truths that weren�t so clear until He gave us Jesus and the New Testament. The Old Testament shows us much of what God is like, what He likes and hates � still crucial to us, since He doesn�t change.

In the New Testament, Jesus is the center and the key. The first four books � Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John � give us all that we have of His visit to Earth � His human background, what He taught, whom He taught, what He did here, what He revealed of His will for the future (which is today to us), and what happened to Him. The rest of the New Testament books from Acts up to Revelation explain further, showing the effects or results of (a) following Jesus and His way faithfully, and (b) not following Him so carefully. Revelation looks ahead to the future with the solid reassurance that no matter what has gone wrong, Jesus is still the Master and forever will be.

Now read, read, read! Start with any of the first four books of the New Testament and simply read it all the way through. Go on to Acts, then to Romans, and on through the others in order, to Revelation. You can either read or omit Revelation for now. Try it, if you want to, then if the going gets too rough for you, leave it for later. Just read through all the other books of the New Testament as fast as you can.

One very special experience is worth everything you can put into it, if you can arrange it. I recommend this, emphatically � get records or tapes of the New Testament and listen to them while you read along at the same pace. Just be sure that the tapes and the New Testament are the same translation. I once read the New Testament from Matthew 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 (that�s the whole thing!) in three long days, stopping only to eat, sleep, and go down the hall when I had to.

This exquisitely rich project wouldn�t have taken so long if I�d simply been reading and listening � I was transcribing a set of very faulty old records onto audio tapes and had to stop now and then to back up and rerecord when the record needle stuck in a groove or skipped grooves.

That was years ago, and for all these years since, I�ve meant to repeat that wonderfully blessed exercise � taking notes this time, not messing around with a record player and a tape recorder. Back then, I noticed connections and relationships that I should�ve written down, but transcribing the sound from the records onto tapes was the project of the moment, and I couldn�t turn aside to make notes whenever I wanted to.

(This would be an excellent way for a group without a teacher to study the New Testament if everybody can discipline himself to keep quiet while the tape is playing. Chatter would be ruinously distracting. Take the 'phone off the hook, too.)

Remember, you�re not studying yet. You�re simply getting the lay of the land, the same way that you might get your first look at a forested mountain from a high aircraft before you come back later for a lower reconnaissance flight in a helicopter, and still later hike in � several times � from below.

Next, pick one of the other three of the first four books, read it through as fast as you can, and go on through Acts, Romans, etc, again. Then go back to the beginning, take on another of the first four books, go on through, up to Revelation or through it, and wind-up your first lesson by reading the fourth of the first four books and on through to Revelation again.

Now you have the gist of the New Testament, and you have begun to pick-up what some of its details mean in over-all context. In your second read-through, it might be wise to start making notes as you begin to see, for example, connections between something that Luke wrote in Luke and something that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians.

Now you�re a Bible student. You�re still in the first week of your first grade, of course, but you�re a Bible student on your way to deeper studies and fuller understanding that won�t have been mashed, strained, and fed to you in spoonfuls like little bottles of apple sauce for babies.

As context makes the over-all meanings of the New Testament become clear to you, it also brings the puzzling details into sharper focus. Also, it shows you the best routes toward solving the puzzles that you�ve run into. By simply reading and repeatedly rereading, you will begin to develop the several levels of understanding that open the Bible to you more and more as you go on. If you find what seem to be two opposite truths in the Bible, don�t try to decide on your own which of the two is right or wrong. Accept them both in faith as God�s truth, in His name. Then one (or both) of two things will happen �

� The Bible itself, after further study, will clarify the picture and show you where and how you�ve misunderstood one or the other, that they aren�t really contradictory;
or
� you�ll find that they both are indeed true but not contradictory.

They may be opposite sides of the same truth, or they may be truths that apply separately somehow � under separate conditions, to different people, at different times, etc. What you thought was a troublesome contradiction may turn-out to be a vital distinction between two points or two matters.

I�m sure that much false doctrine and their derivative or resulting divisions have afflicted the Body for centuries through the invasion of this virus of men�s deciding for themselves which of two truths they prefer when they should�ve embraced both at the same time with equally fervent welcome and waiting faithfully for the Holy Spirit and further study to clarify the matter accurately.

Let the Holy Spirit leave you confused for a while, if He thinks that�ll help you grow, and let Him decide when it�s time for Him to straighten-out your understanding of the matter. It isn�t likely that you�ll get it right on your own initiative and wisdom alone.

Get a red-letter edition of the New Testament � one that has the words of Jesus (more or less) printed in red. In one sitting if you can manage it, read only the red print in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. (Just remember this caution: [i\the red print is not holy or inspired[/i]. This special touch came from a Christian magazine�s subscription promotion in the early years of the twentieth century. It isn�t entirely accurate � in at least one place, it has some of John�s words (not Jesus's) in red � but it�s mighty handy as a tool for studying the New Testament.) Read these selected passages again and again to get the full impact of Jesus�s words.

You should now begin to see what the Lord�s most important key words are and get some idea what they meant to Him and to those whom He spoke them to.

You should also begin to see what the Lord�s most important statements are, and you should start to get a feel for their relative importance to each other. You should begin to see how the Lord backs-up, supports, and [i]explains His most important statements.

You should begin to see how the Lord�s teachings applied to His people then � and you should begin to sense how they apply to you and to all the rest of us today.

In your very first reading, you can see connections only between what you�re reading then and what you have already read. This limitation affects your understanding of what you�re reading, because you can�t yet connect anything that you�ve already read with the parts that you haven�t read yet. As you read on, and once you�ve read clear through the New Testament a time or two, the category �already read� includes the entire New Testament � so you�ll begin to see ahead as well as behind, wherever you read in the New Testament.

As you get a better and better grasp of the �big picture,� you�ll automatically start picking-up details and their connections � and you'll probably have developed a robust curiosity about several of them. Meaningful patterns of thought, action, plan, purpose, and relationship will emerge on their own. You won�t have to dig for them. When you notice this happening, it�s time to start thinking a little more systematically as you read.

Whatever else you may do, don�t set up any conclusions or expectations of your own � or anybody else�s � and then try to see how the Bible explains, �gets around,� or otherwise handles them. Let the book itself tell you what it means. Your systematic study, for the moment, should be simple in principle and outline to avoid letting some mental rigidity keep you from seeing what should be bright and clear before you in the Bible�s own words. When you move beyond simply reading and repeatedly rereading, follow these guide lines (chosen and limited to let the Bible speak for itself) �

� Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John � at least one in depth, preferably all four, in any order. Get the over-all picture first, then look closely at its details.

� Read all the first four books of the New Testament one after another, again and again.

� Concentrate on Jesus�s words, with secondary attention to the authors� words, but don�t ignore the events told about or the words of other persons in these accounts.

� Notice what Jesus says clearly, what He says that�s somehow less clear, what He emphasizes, what He mentions without explaining, and what He doesn�t say.

� Resist the tendency (for now) to puzzle or wonder about the less-clear passages, accounts, and teachings. Instead, pay close attention to the clear passages. Clear teachings will in time clarify the cloudy passages.

The urge to pry meanings out of certain passages will be great and become greater as you read. The more eager you are to learn, the worse you�ll want to hammer some meaning flat and nail it down so �that it move not� before you go on with your basic background reading.

Careful! This is a test!

Satan gives it, through self, and God grades you on how well you can lay self firmly aside and go on in patience and faith � and on whether you can. This is an opportunity to practice obedient faith � to learn how to trust Him, to leave all things in His hands without worrying about them or insisting that you must know how or when He plans to make them clear to you. Self says, �I have to know now!� Faith says, �I�ll sure like to know what this means, when You get around to showing me, Lord!�

�Our own curiosity often hinders us in the reading of the Scriptures, when we desire to understand and discuss that which we should instead pass over.� Thomas � Kempis (ca 1380�1471)
__________________________________________________________

(the rest later � how soon, I can't even guess!)

Thank you for your obedience Mr. Howell.

Yes.

.

If you don't mind Mr. Howell, I would like to print this off for each of the 20 or so folks in my Sunday School class. I know I've already learned something good.

Dew

Ken,

Thank you for taking the time to write about Bible study. Faith (as mentioned) plays an important role. This evening I'm giving the New Testament a shot in it's entirety (at least a good start) with your recommendations in mind. You have helped in a big way.
God Bless,

Dave

Of course you can!

Just don't change anything.

And be sure to add the second part when I post it later.

Of course I won't change a thing. That would defeat the whole purpose of giving it to my fellow Christians.

Thank you,
D

I hope you will have the other part soon.

I'm taking a couple of copies to our Bible Study tonight. No doubt they will find able minds and I'll have to print more.

Thanks Ken.

Steve

You boys think this is good, you should read Ken's "Who will enter the Kingdom O God".

It should be required reading by every Christian.

FWIW2U, here are my personal basic premises for my Bible-study and my exegeses (YMMV):

� The Bible is God�s written instruction and direction.

� It is not my right, duty, license, or privilege to revise any of God�s instructions � nor to supersede them with logic, tolerance, politics, superstition, philosophy, feminism, wishful thinking, psychology, personal desire, creative imagination, sociology, private opinion, personal preference, or any other form of human thought.

� It is not my right, your right, or anyone else�s right to put God�s word aside in favor of something else and then to call that other thing �Christian.�

� The New Testament is the section of the Bible that's more relevant and pertinent to the Christian and the present age.

� The many early manuscripts of the New Testament, written in the common language spoken in the Middle East while Jesus was here among men (koin� Greek), give us the purest and most accurate record of what the Holy Spirit wrote by the hands of Jesus�s disciples � including the words that Jesus spoke.

� Any portion of any English translation that falls short of the full meaning of the original language � or carries a different denotation or connotation today � is to that degree inaccurate, misleading, or false.

� Revision based on doctrine, tradition, or opinion is outside the purview and authority of the translator and the exegete.

� It is the exegete�s duty to hold steadfastly to the crystalline purity of the meanings of the words in the original manuscripts, and their contexts, giving no regard to contrary teachings from whatever source or however many sources, whatever they may claim as their �authority.�

� Jesus knew what He was saying, and He meant every word of it. Jesus and the Holy Spirit knew � and intended � that these writings would be pored-over by scholars both faithful and hostile. This edifice of holy words was meant and built to stand as-built, to edify disciples of all ages and eras with the self-same spiritual truths, not to be revised to accommodate men�s changing ways, morals, tastes, and tendencies.

� If we could assume that anything in the original Bible were for us to judge and modify, then none of it would be immune or should remain unchangeable. Christianity would then be only modeling clay, which anyone could mould into whatever shape that he liked, at any time � and could reshape later when he changed his mind. But we are the clay, and the shaping hands are His. His word endures.
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(Anyone who likes these and wants to adopt or to share them in the Name of Jesus has my permission and blessing, of course.)

Here's the rest of it.

I hope that you and others find it useful to your understanding of the Bible and to the glory of God.
_____________________________________________________________

Notice who is speaking: God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), God�s spokesman (angel, apostle, prophet, disciple), God�s antagonist (infidel, disbeliever, false prophet, Satan), or a questioner (unbeliever, potential believer).

The bunch that preaches private use of the power of God likes to cite Job 22:28 � �Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways� (emphasis added) as one of their certificates � conveniently or ignorantly overlooking the crucial point that the man who spoke that line was Eliphaz, one of Job�s dumb friends, decidedly not God�s spokesman giving His people a foundational spiritual truth.

Whoever is speaking, notice whom he�s speaking to: disciples, saints, the Body, leaders, the mature, the immature � or antagonists, errants, false prophets, etc .

Notice when any exchange or teaching takes place: before or after Jesus of Nazareth � before or after His death, resurrection, and ascension; before or after the beginning of the ekklesia, the Body of Christ, on the day of Pentecost; before or after his baptism in the Holy Spirit, for example.

Distinguish between what Jesus says to His disciples and what He tells the multitudes (also what He says to those He disapproves). Note well what (or whom) He praises and what (or whom) He criticizes or rebukes.

Distinguish between Jesus�s commandments (or His requirements), explanations, and illustrations. Also distinguish between these and His rebukes or warnings.

Listen to what Jesus says. Let Him speak to you � don�t search His words for answers to your questions or curiosity. Let His main points float to the top of all that He says; let His emphasis indicate to you what it is that He considers most important (i e , what He says most strongly and repeatedly).

Don�t try to reconcile Jesus�s words with your present understanding and your past teaching. Note especially anything that He says that is notably different from your own understanding (particularly if it seems to conflict with the teachings or understanding that you�ve gotten in the church), then make your understanding change to accommodate what He says (not the other way �round!).


Like a landscape artist, you�ve painted the background first � the sky, then the farthest range of mountains, then the nearer mountains, and finally the nearest mountains. You�ve begun to block-in the major details of the middle ground and the foreground. Next come the details. In Bible-study, these are word studies, topical studies, and peripheral studies (in this, their natural and logical order).

When most of us begin �Bible-study,� we start with peripheral studies. Few get far past this way of studying the Bible by looking at it from outside. Most who go further want to study topics first, then delve into the full richness and the precise intended meanings of the key words later. This isn�t a good way to learn the Bible.

If the Bible were accurately and literally translated without exception or flaw, this may be the preferred method. But a number of serious flaws and weaknesses of translation stand in the way. Inevitable misunderstandings of the meanings of key words guarantee some pollution of the topical studies that go forward ahead of good word studies. It�s imperative that you get the exact meanings of key words clearly in mind before you study key topics. As you�re sure to discover, unlearning wrong meanings of key terms is worlds rougher and nastier than getting them straight and clear the first time around. Much error and deception inhibit the Body today because so many topical studies have locked us into misunderstandings as solid as concrete and as hard to chip away.

Don�t worry � your favorite or most puzzling topics will still be there when you come back with your tool kit well stocked with sharp, tight understanding of what their key words mean in their immediate and over-all contexts. You�ll be delighted to see how quickly your topical studies illuminate themselves, and you�ll have a minimum of ecclesiastical junk to unlearn in getting down to the fullest, richest meanings of those topics. In fact, you will have begun your topical studies automatically as you study the meanings of their key terms.

The finest tool of all for digging-out the meanings of the Bible�s words is a working knowledge of koin� Greek, the language that was used in the original manuscripts of the New Testament � and the language that was used by the Hebrew scholars long before Jesus�s time to translate the ancient Old Testament manuscripts into the language that was in those days most easily understood by the most people in their land (including visitors). But koin� Greek isn�t a common subject today. Even the seminaries no longer require it as a standard, basic tool for Bible-study. Most ministers who studied it in Bible college or seminary don�t remember much of it or use any of it.

It�s possible to delve into the old key words without having a reading knowledge of koin� Greek, however. The method is tedious, but it�s terrifically rewarding to everyone who cares to go on into this slightly deeper realm of Bible-study. I�ll list some good references at the end of this chapter.

(The alternative, if you don�t want to dig into the Greek for yourself, is to rely on someone whom you can trust not to play fast and loose with it. The main thing is to want to know all you can, as accurately as you can. When this is your sincere spiritual hunger, you�ll quickly learn how to spot the synthetic �scholars� whom you�re wise not to depend on too trustingly.)

No, I haven�t forgotten the Old Testament. But I don�t know of any special, magical time to start including it in your studies. Use your own judgement � when your study of the New Testament has given you a reasonably decent grasp of its basic truths, go to the Old Testament and read it through again and again, using the same approach that I've already described for studying the New Testament.

Certainly, by the time you get far into a bunch of word studies and before you start studying the key topics of the New Testament in any depth, you should have read the Old Testament at least a time or two. Just avoid making two common mistakes:
(a) don�t ignore the Old Testament,
and
(b) don�t get so wound-up in reading about those often dramatic old times that you spend more time in the Old Testament than in the New.

The New Testament is the main volume to study carefully and to follow faithfully, for a basic knowledge of Christian life and belief. The Old Testament is its ancestry, its background.

Now you�re ready to start using a few other books that will help you study the Bible on its own terms � books that you can depend on to guide you around through the Bible without misleading you.

The first two are a complete concordance and a strange but wonderful little book called The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. The concordance and your Bible must be the same version � and this limits your choices a little.

An English concordance lists, in alphabetical order, all the English words that are used in a specific translation and below each word lists all the verses in the Bible that use that word. The two best English concordances also include brief references to the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek words translated into English.

The two best complete concordances to the KJV are Strong�s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and Young�s Analytical Concordance to the Bible.

I prefer Strong�s but often turn to Young�s different layout for some studies. I wouldn�t want to do without either of these two. Cruden�s old concordance is pale and weak compared to either Strong�s or Young�s.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is a ring-tailed hummer of a little book that every Bible student should own and use. Arranged in Bible order by book, chapter, and verse, it lists cross-references for each verse. This system lets the Bible speak for itself. Most study Bibles have a few cross-references in the margins or in a narrow center column. The Treasury is a collection of all the verse cross-references from a bunch of study Bibles.

(As you study using the methods and techniques that I recommend, you�ll notice connections between verses in different books, even in both Testaments, that the Treasury doesn�t cross-reference. Whenever you do, write �em down right away! I don�t know how all those old Bible scholars of years past missed the obvious connection, for example, between Romans 7:6 and 2 Corinthians 3:6.)

To begin any word study, find where that word is used. Start with the concordance and study each occurrence of the word in context in the Bible. Read back up from it to see where the immediate context begins, and read on through until the immediate context shifts to something else. Do this for every occurrence of that word. Strong�s concordance is best at the start.

Next, note whether only one or more than one Greek or Hebrew word is the original term translated into the English word that you�re studying. Strong�s is best for the basic list, but Young�s adds a special advantage here � under each English-word entry, it lists separately the original words and the scriptures that use them. (Strong�s lists all occurrences of the English word in book, chapter, and verse order, with an identification number for each original word so translated.)

Two complications of translation, mirror images of each other, call for extreme care in basic word studies �
� Often, two or more original words are translated into the same English word.
� Equally often, one original word is translated into two or more English words.

The meanings that you�re after, of course, are those of the original speaker or writer of those words, as also they were meant to be understood by his hearers or readers then . Your understanding grows and deepens and gets immensely richer as you learn differences and similarities in original meanings � for example, as you study the several Greek words translated gift � those translated love � or the two translated believe, one of which is translated both believe and commit.

Word studies lead automatically to topical studies (but not necessarily vice versa ) as you search and study to determine whether two original words translated as one English word actually mean two distinctly different things or whether they simply emphasize two different aspects of the same thing to fill-out and enrich the one central meaning that they share.

As you contemplate these possibilities, it�s often a help to realize that the New Testament is koin� or �sidewalk� Greek written in Hebrew literary style and thought patterns and that Hebrew literary style includes poetry that�s quite different from the rhyming, matching lines we think of as poetry. Hebrew poetry is repetition rather than rhyme, and this repetition is sometimes meant to contrast two things, sometimes to reinforce one thing. We use the same technique both ways in English, for that matter �
� contrast: love and hate, war and peace
� reinforcement: cease and desist; null and void; sell, market, or vend

Word studies lead into topical studies when your word studies reveal that the several writers used one or more synonyms for the same basic meaning.

One reason that the King James Version is still best as a basic study Bible is that the KJV translators, for all their intentional and accidental errors, were basically honest with us. An important little KJV detail, left out of most modern translations, is the italic print in the KJV. This little typographical detail was the KJV scholars� way of indicating where they felt that they had to add words to complete the sense of the original word, where the original language has no words to translate directly into English.

This usually causes no problem. Often, we can read KJV passages, leaving-out the italicized words, and get exactly the same meanings.

Examples:
Luke 8:28b, �What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?�
Luke 9:11a, �And the people, when they knew it, followed him � �

We definitely need the italics, for example, in Acts 10:2a, �A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house �� But sometimes the italicized words are just flat wrong, as in 1 Corinthians 12:1, �Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.� In this verse, pneumatikon means literally spirituals and idiomatically in this immediate context means spiritual things or spiritual matters.

We use English exactly the same way, for example, when we say �Mind the essentials and let the incidentals take care of themselves,� to speak of essential and incidental �things or matters. The unfortunate use of i]gifts[/i] in verse 1 illegitimately narrows the range of the chapter.

Most commentators say that the subject of the chapter is spiritual gifts when in fact the context clearly shows that Paul�s main concern is broader � crucial spiritual matters that include but are not limited to the gifts, which he uses as specific examples within a wider and deeper discussion.

A handy reference for a quick key to the literal meanings of the Greek words in the New Testament is Berry�s or Marshall�s The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. These handy, dandy little books double-space the Greek text to leave room between the lines for an awkward but literal Greek-to-English translation. One of these should be a standard reference for careful Bible-study. It can save you (often, quickly, and simply) from going on with a ruinous misunderstanding that you�ve picked up from studying an English translation. (Even if you don't know the Greek letters or words, you can see whether two are identical or different.)

Sometimes, the italicized words are neither helpful nor wrong, but some revisionists use them to support their own weird theology.

In Matthew 24:24, for example, Jesus says, �� there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.� Ignoring Jesus�s strong and definite shall arise, shall show, and shall deceive, some commentators teach that the it were means that it isn�t possible to deceive the elect.

In this verse and its parallel in Mark 13:22, the �if it were possible� is (ei dunaton) , literally �if possible.� Nothing anywhere in the original Greek indicates that it isn�t possible for God�s people to be deceived or seduced, but there�s plenty there � from the Master Himself � to indicate that not only is it possible but also that it shall happen to those who don�t abide in Him and stay alert to this very danger.

The same Greek words (ei dunaton) appear in Acts 27:39, �� they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.� Surely no one in his right mind � not even a Baptist theologian � would have us believe that the master of that Alexandrian ship, seeking safe haven from a violent sea storm, would be looking for a place where he knew that he couldn�t possibly shove that ship.

No, he was looking for a place that offered the hope of possibility, not one that denied it. Ei dunaton means �if it's possible,� not �if it were (but of course it ain�t) possible.� The latter interpretation means that Jesus was wasting His breath trying to warn His people of coming deceptions that can�t possibly deceive those whom He most wants to warn about a certain danger.

The attractive basis for this twisted theology is, of course, these people�s assurance that �I can�t be deceived.� Those who believe that the elect can�t be deceived (or, as Mark 13:22 warns against, seduced) assume that they�re of the elect � undeceivable, unseducible, therefore invulnerable to all evidence that anything that they think or do is wrong. As someone with a sharper mind has noted, this kind of people deny themselves the right to change their minds.

In his wonderfully bottomless first letter to the disciples in Corinth, Paul wrote the warning that these people need to hear: �� let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall� (1 Corinthians 10:12).

This brings up another point about Bible-study that ought to reassure every so-called ordinary person who has been deceived by the notion that understanding the Bible requires a special kind of braininess, an ultra-high degree of spirituality, or a creatively imaginative mysticism.

This �modern� insult to ordinary people�s intelligence is really the ancient idea that the literal meaning of scripture is only a pacifier for the weak-minded � that the �real meanings� are hidden from all but the spiritually gifted elite. While it�s true that no man by logic alone can figure-out God and His doings, this doesn�t mean that God and His doings aren�t logical.

One of the exquisite glories of the Bible is that it reveals, to plain men with ordinary minds, certain eternal, infinite truths that not only make sense but also show us the highest realms of logic. When you see the Bible say something very clearly, and it fits the context, then you can take it as saying what it means and meaning what it says � especially when you see it repeated, explained, or reinforced by other passages of scripture.

You will learn much from deep, careful word studies of key nouns and verbs, especially those that Jesus used in His commandments, His teachings, and His other main statements. A clear understanding of the contemporary and contextual meanings of repent, love, gift, believe, name, temple, baptize, and beware, for example, is crucial to full understanding of the gospel and normal Christian life.

But don�t ignore the �minor� words, especially the prepositions and pronouns. Often in the New Testament, the difference between a vague idea and clear knowledge of what a passage means hinges on understanding one or more of its prepositions, pronouns, or other �minor� function words � in, into, among, thee, and ye, for example. Knowing that there are two words translated another, and the distinction between them, makes all the difference in getting the meaning of this passage:

�I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.� (Galatians 1:6�7)

In verse six, the word translated another in another gospel is heteros � another thing of a different kind � like when you�ve caught a bass and then catch a bluegill, which is another fish but of a different kind.

In verse seven, the word translated another in which is not another is allos � another of the same kind � like when you�ve caught a bass and then catch another bass � another thing of the same kind. Notice how the choice of the two anothers in these two passages adds to the meaning �

�For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another (heteros) law [that is not like the law of God] in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.� (Romans 7:22�23)

�And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another (allos) Comforter [of the same kind as I am][/i], that he may abide with you forever �� (John 14:16)

Notice that each of these two passages makes the distinction by using only one of these two words for another, not both. The implied contrast is enough to make the point.

But in Galatians 1:6�7, Paul used both � why did he use both, do you suppose, when one would make the point?

For emphasis � Paul stressed that another �gospel� that was of a different kind wasn�t another gospel of the same kind that the Galatian Christians had learned from him. The foolish Galatians (3:1), like so many gullible and tradition-bound Christians throughout the world today, had swallowed a fake gospel that had to be purged from their system. So Paul had to make his point early and then bear down on it to make it stick. Be alert for this kind of double-whammy emphasis as you study the Bible, especially in the New Testament.

To find the real meaning of some verses, you�ll often have to use more than one or two basic study techniques. Three distinctions are necessary in full study of this verse �

�And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.� (Matthew 16:19 �emphasis added)

The tenses of the Greek verbs are critical here, as they are in many passages where no English translation catches their full sense.

Two idiomatic expressions here aren�t familiar to us. We have to go to references outside the Bible (peripheral studies) for the key.

In many passages the figurative, not the literal, is the intended meaning. Usually, the scripture itself gives a clue. At other times, plain common sense eliminates the literal meaning (Jesus as the door, for example � clearly, He isn�t a hole in a wall or a hunk of oak with hinges and a latch). Sometimes, outside studies have to reveal to us that the commonly understood meaning of an expression, in the time and culture that gave it to us, was figurative and not literal.

This version gives more of this verse�s meaning:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind � that is, declare to be improper and unlawful[� on earth must be already bound (Williams: �Perfect passive participle, so things in a state of having been already forbidden.�) in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth � [/i] declare lawful[/i] � must be what is already loosed (Prince: �� shall be having been loosed�) in heaven.� ( Matthew 16:19 � see this passage in The Amplified Bible)


�Gr deo : �by a Chald[ean] and rabbin[ical] idiom to [deo]�, to declare lawful: Mt xvi.19, xviii.18.� (Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament )

�Rabbi Necmia, thirty years after Christ, ended his sermon with a plea to God �not to allow what he had loosened to be bound, nor to render pure what had been declared impure.� � The expression �to bind and to loose� in the sense which Jesus used it was common among the doctors of the law:�� (Daniel-Rops, Jesus and His Times)



The rabbinical use of these terms, in the sense of prohibiting or permitting, of declaring something to be unlawful or lawful, shouldn�t be hard to understand or remember. But one thing gives us trouble: we already think of them in the context of Matthew 16:19 in another sense altogether � of �binding� Satan, demons, or earthly problems and �loosing� ourselves from them. It is the forgetting of this other sense that is hard for us, and this other sense confuses our view of the true meanings of binding and loosing.

It ought to be easy to see the meaning here. After all, we use several very similar English idioms ourselves �
� Limit your remarks to language fit for ladies.
� The management restricts the use of this hotel to presentable white Gentiles only.
� The moderator confined the discussion to items directly affecting this fall�s presidential campaign.
� Many protested the opening of the meeting to protestors who were not members of the society.
� The loosening of adolescents� moral behavior is certain to bring destruction.
� The governor tightened restrictions on tourists� travel through the area after last night�s violence.
� The professor relaxed his requirements after everyone in the class got an F on his term paper.

In these examples, whatever the effect on people might be, the people are not what these sentences refer to as limited, restricted, confined, opened, loosened, tightened, or relaxed. And in only a very figurative way do they refer to remarks, use, discussion, meeting, behavior, travel, and requirements as in some way bound or loosed. This is but one more reminder that the exegete or student who bases his theological understanding or teaching loosely and wholly on the English translation and human conjecture is sure to miss something of the original point of the verses.

Nuggets that you find in your peripheral studies will clarify the meaning and significance of something then, for your application today. Don�t flit over these with the superior smile of the aeronautical engineer who�s reading the legend of Icarus (�What a quaint old myth!�) or the relief of the agriculture student who�s reading about early American farmers� nailing gar skin, with its prehistoric ganoid scales, to planks to make crude but usable plow shares (�Thank God we�re not so primitive today!�).

When you consult any reference for your word, topical, and peripheral studies, don�t rely on any one of a kind alone; never relax your sense of context (anything that you get from these sources must fit both the over-all and the immediate contexts. They must clarify and edify, not contradict or confuse). Even the authoritative lexicons aren�t all trustworthy � it�s necessary to check any of them against what the others say. Some are what one Brother calls �ecclesiastically circular� � they define key words and phrases according to their own doctrines, which sometimes give the Greek new twists that aren�t what those words and phrases meant when they were written. And a few so-called lexicons merely �define� the Greek words by listing the ways that they�re rendered in the New Testament.

In no particular order, here are some excellent study references (I�ve already mentioned others in this chapter). A few that I wish I could send you to are, alas, out of print. Some in this list may now be.

Remember always that none of these is as sound, dependable, authoritative, or trustworthy as the original texts of the Bible!

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge

The Encyclopedia of Christianity

The New Bible Dictionary

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Edersheim)

The Englishman�s Greek Concordance of the New Testament (Wigram)

A Concordance to the Septuagint (Morrish)

Old Testament Word Studies (Wilson)

Analytical Greek New Testament (Friberg and Friberg)

The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Davidson)

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich)

An Index to the Revised Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich Greek Lexicon (Alsop)

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer, and Waltke)

Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (Rienecker)

A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament

Vine�s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Word Studies from the Greek New Testament (Wuest)

The Expositor�s Greek Testament

Aaaamen to your FWIW2U.

Thanks again for your work.

You flatter me!

Anybody who wants a copy of "Who Shall Enter � ?" has but to ask (by PM or e-mail). I seem to remember posting it here already, but if I did, those posts are 'way deep in the archives.

As I feared, the "Who Shall Enter � ?" file � last edited and formatted with an older word-processor � is going to need a lot of tedious redo to make it fit to share, so please be patient with slow and doddering Ol' Useless.

Ken I would love to find that old "Who Shall Enter..." post of your's.

Searched the archives but couldn't find it. You posted it three or four years ago, as I recall.

Does anybody have a link?

I have it all on my hard drive � but in an old word-processor file that has to have a lot of tedious, time-consuming work-over to make it again presentable. Have begun the chore but have a lot to do yet.

(The problem is only a matter of format, not a matter of content, fortunately! If I had to do it over from scratch, I probably wouldn't even consider it. Gettin' slower has also made me lazier!)

Please just bear with me, and I'll get it done � eventually. Will post it then.

I still think that the way that I study the Bible (above) is better, but in the spirit of fairness, here's one of the classic essays on the subject. Decide for yourself which method you think is more logical and more fruitful.
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Methods of Bible Study
by Rev. R. A. Torrey

In this article Rev. Torrey often mentions using the "Textbook". He is referring to his New Topical Textbook, but any book that organizes the Bible into topics can be used with this study method. Books in this category include, but are not limited to, Nave's Topical Bible, Thompson's Chain Reference, and Torrey's New Topical Textbook. He also mentions a "concordance". Concordances let you quickly look up every occurrence of a particular word in the Bible. Bible Explorer accomplishes this via the Find command. Rev. Torrey also recommends The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, which is a large collection of cross-references. Bible Explorer contains all of the study aids he recommends, and many more besides.

1. First of all make up your mind that you will put some time every day into the study of the Word of God. That is an easy resolution to make, and not a very difficult one to keep; if the one who makes it is in earnest. It is one of the most fruitful resolutions that any Christian ever made. The forming of that resolution and the holding faithfully to it, has been the turning point in many a life. Many a life that has been barren and unsatisfactory has become rich and useful through the introduction into it of regular, persevering, daily study of the Bible. This study may not be very interesting at first, the results may not be very encouraging; but, if one will keep pegging away, it will soon begin to count as nothing else has ever counted in the development of character, and in the enrichment of the whole life. Nothing short of absolute physical inability should be allowed to interfere with this daily study.

It is impossible to make a rule that will apply to everyone as to the amount of time that shall be given each day to the study of the Word. I know many busy people, including not a few labouring men and women, who give an hour a day to Bible study, but if one cannot give more than fifteen minutes a great deal can be accomplished. Wherever it is possible the time set apart for the work should be in the daylight hours. The very best time is in the early morning hours. If possible lock yourself in with God alone.

2. Make up your mind to study the Bible. It is astounding how much heedless reading of the Bible is done. Men seem to think that there is some magic power in the book, and that, if they will but open its pages and skim over its words, they will get good out of it. The Bible is good only because of the truth that is in it, and to see this truth demands close attention. A verse must often-times be read and re-read and read again before the wondrous message of love and power that God has put into it begins to appear. Words must be turned over and over in the mind before their full force and beauty takes possession of us. One must look a long time at the great masterpieces of art to appreciate their beauty and understand their meaning, and so one must look a long time at the great verses of the Bible to appreciate their beauty and understand their meaning.

When you read a verse in the Bible ask yourself, What does this verse mean? Then ask: What does it mean for me? When that is answered ask yourself again: Is that all it means? and do not leave it until you are quite sure that is all it means for the present. You may come back at some future time and find it means yet a great deal more. If there are any important words in the verse weigh them, look up other passages where they are used, and try to get their full significance. God pronounces that man blessed who "meditates" on the Word of God "day and night" (Ps 1:2,3). An indolent skimming over a few verses or many chapters in the Bible is not meditation, and there is not much blessing in it. Jeremiah said: "Thy words were found and I did eat them." (Jer 15:16). Nothing is more important in eating than chewing. If one does not properly chew his food, he is quite as likely to get dyspepsia as nourishment. Don't let anyone chew your spiritual food for you. Insist on doing it for yourself. Any one can be a student who makes up his mind to. It is hard at first but it soon becomes easy. I have seen very dull minds become keen by holding them right down to the grindstone.

3. Study the Bible topically. Take up the various subjects treated in the Bible, one by one, and go through the Bible and find what it has to say on these subjects. It may be important to know what the great men have to say on important subjects; it is far more important to know what God has to say on these subjects. It is important also to know all that God has to say. A great many people know a part of what God has to sayand usually a very small partand so their ideas are very imperfect and one-sided. If they only knew all God had to say on the subject, it would be far better for them and for their friends. The only way to know all God has to say on any subject is to go through the Bible on that subject. To do this it is not necessary to read every verse in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It would be slow work, if we had to do that on every subject we took up. This would be necessary were it not for topical guides and Concordances. But in these we have the results of the hard work of many minds. Here we have the various passages that bear on any subject brought together and classified for use, so that now we can do in a few hours what would otherwise take months or years.
The topical method of Bible study is simplest, most fascinating and yields the largest immediate results. It is not the only method of Bible study, and the one who pursues it exclusively will miss much of the blessing God has for him in the Bible. But it is a very interesting and fruitful method of study. It was Mr. Moody's favourite method. It fills one's mind very full on any subject studied. Mr. Moody once gave several days to the study of "Grace"; When he had finished he was so full of the subject that he rushed out on the street and going up to the first man he met he said: "Do you know anything about Grace?" "Grace who?" the man asked. "The Grace of God that bringeth salvation." And then Mr. Moody poured out upon that man the rich treasures he had dug out of the Word of God. That is the way to master any subject and get full of it. Go through the Bible and see what it has to say on this subject. This is easily done. Take your Textbook and turn to the subject. Suppose the subject you desire to study is "Prayer." There will be found a long list of the various passages of Scripture that bear on this subject. Look them up one after another and study them carefully and see just what their teaching is. When you have gone through them you will know far more about prayer than you ever knew before, and far more than you could learn by reading any books that men have written about prayer, profitable as many of these books are. Sometimes it will be necessary to look up other subjects that are closely related to the one in hand. For example, you wish to study what the teaching of God's Word is regarding the atonement. In this case you will not only look under the head "Atonement," but also under the head "Blood," and under the head "Death of Christ." To do this work a concordance is not necessary but it is often very helpful. For example, if you are studying the subject "Prayer" you can look up from the concordance the passages that contain the words "pray," "prayer," "cry," "ask," "call," "supplication," "intercession," etc. But the Textbook will give most of the passages on any subject regardless of what the words used in the passage may be. Other passages will be found in the section on Bible Doctrines under their proper headings.

There are four important suggestions to make regarding topical study of the Bible.

First: Be systematic. Do not take up subjects for study at random. Have a carefully prepared list of the subjects you wish to know about, and need to know about, and take them up one by one, in order. If you do not do this, the probability is that you will have a few pet topics and will be studying these over and over until you get to be a crank about them, and possibly a nuisance. You will know much about these subjects, but about many other subjects equally important you will know nothing. You will be a one-sided Christian.

Second: Be thorough. When you take up a subject do not be content to study a few passages on this subject, but find just as far as possible every passage in the Bible on this subject. If you find the Textbook incomplete make additions of your own to it.

Third: Be exact. Find the exact meaning of every passage given in the Textbook on any subject. The way to do this is simple. In the first place note the exact words used. In the next place get the exact meaning of the words used. This is done by finding how the word is used in the Bible. The Bible usage of the word is not always the common use of today. For example, the Bible use of the words "sanctification" and "justification" is not the same as the common use. Then notice what goes before and what comes after the verse. This will oftentimes settle the meaning of a verse when it appears doubtful. Finally see if there are any parallel passages. The meaning of many of the most difficult passages in the Bible is made perfectly plain by some other passages that throws light upon them. Then parallel passages are given in the margin of a good reference Bible and still more fully in The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, a volume worthy of a place in the library of every Bible student.

Fourth: Arrange the results of your topical study in an orderly way and write them down. One should constantly use pen and paper in Bible study. When one has gone through the Textbook on any subject, he will have a large amount of material, but he will want to get it into usable shape. The various passages given on any topic in the Textbook are classified, but the classification is not always just the one best adapted to our individual use. Take for example the subject "Prayer." The classification of texts in the topic is very suggestive, but a better one for some purposes would be:
Who Can Pray so that God Will Hear?
To Whom to Pray.
For Whom to Pray.
When to Pray.
For what to Pray.
How to Pray.
Where to Pray.
Hindrances to Prayer.
The Results of Prayer.

The passages given in the Textbook would come under these heads. It is well to make a trial division of the subject before taking up the individual passages given and to arrange each passage as we take it up under the appropriate head. We may have to add to the divisions with which we began as we find new passages. The best classification of passages for any individual is the one he makes for himself, although he will get helpful suggestions from others.

There are some subjects that every Christian should study and study as soon as possible. We give a list of these:
The Atonement (of the Blood of Christ)
Justification
The New Birth
Adoption
Sanctification
Holiness
Assurance
The Flesh
Cleansing Faith
Repentance
Prayer
Thanksgiving
Praise
Love:
To God
To Jesus Christ
To Christians
To all men
The Future Destiny of Believers
The Future Destiny of the Wicked:
Punishment of the Wicked
Death of the Wicked
The Character of Christ
The Resurrection of Christ
The Ascension of Christ
The Second Coming of Christ:
The fact, the manner, the purpose, the results, the time
The Reign of Christ
The Holy Spirit
Who and what He is
His Work
God.
His Attributes and Work
Grace
Messianic Prophecies
The Church
The Jews
Joy
The Judgment
Life
Peace
Perfection
Persecution

4. Study the Bible by chapters. This method of Bible study is not beyond any person of average intelligence who has fifteen minutes or more a day to put into Bible Study. It will take, however, more than one day to the study a chapter if only fifteen minutes a day are set apart for the work.

First: Select the chapters you wish to study. It is well to take a whole book and study the chapters in their order. The Acts of the Apostles (or the Gospel of John) is a good book to begin with. In time one may take up every chapter in the Bible, but it would not be wise to begin with Genesis.

Second: Read the chapter for today's study five times. It is well to read it aloud at least once. The writer sees many things when he reads the Bible aloud that he does not see when he reads silently. Each new reading will bring out some new point.

Third: Divide the chapters into their natural divisions and find headings for them that describe in the most striking way their contents. For example, suppose the chapter studied is 1John 5. You might divide in this way:
The Believer's Noble Parentage (1 John 5, verses 1-3)
The Believer's Glorious Victory (verses 4,5)
The Believer's Sure Ground of Faith (verses 6-10)
The Believer's Priceless Possession (verses 11,12)
The Believer's Blessed Assurance (verse 13)
The Believer's Unquestioning Confidence (verses 14,15)
The Believer's Great Power and Responsibility (verses 16,17)
The Believer's Perfect Security (verses 18,19)
The Believer's Precious Knowledge (verse 20)
The Believer's Constant Duty (verse 21)

In many cases the natural divisions will be longer than in this chapter.

Fourth: Note the important differences between the Authorized Version (KJV) and the Revised and write them in the margin of your Bible.

Fifth: Write down the leading facts of the chapter in their proper order.

Sixth: Make a note of the persons mentioned in the chapter and of any light thrown upon their character. For example, assume your chapter is Acts 16. The persons mentioned are:
Timothy
Timothy's mother
Timothy's father
The brethren at Lystra and Iconium
Paul
The Jews of Lystra and Iconium
The apostles and elders at Jerusalem
A man of Macedonia
Luke
Some women of Philippi
Lydia
The household of Lydia
A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination
The masters of this damsel
Silas
The praetors of Philippi
The Philippian mob
The jailor of Philippi
The prisoners in the Philippian jail
The household of the jailor
The lictors of Philippi
The brethren in Philippi
What light does the chapter throw upon the character of each?

Seventh: Note the principal lessons of the chapter. It would be well to classify these: e.g., lessons about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, etc., etc.

Eighth: The Central Truth of the chapter.

Ninth: The key verse of the chapter if there is one.

Tenth: The best verse in the chapter. Opinions will differ widely here. But the question is, which is the best verse to you at this present reading? Mark it and memorize it.

Eleventh: Note the verses that are usable as texts for sermons or talks or Bible readings. If you have time make an analysis of the thought of these verses and write it in the margin, or on the opposite leaf if you have an interleaved Bible.

Twelfth: Name the chapter. For example, Acts 1 might be called The Ascension Chapter; Acts 2, The Day of Pentecost Chapter; Acts 3, The Lame Man's Chapter; etc. Give your own names to the chapters. Give the name that sets forth the most important and characteristic feature of the chapter.

Thirteenth: Note subjects for further study. For example, you are studying Acts 1. Subjects suggested for further study are, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit; The Ascension; The Second Coming of Christ.

Fourteenth: Words and phrases for further study. For example you are studying John 3, you should look up words and expressions such as, "Eternal life," "Born again," "Water," "Believer," and "The Kingdom of God."

Fifteenth: Write down what new truth you have learned from the chapter. If you have learned none, you had better go over it again.

Sixteenth: What truth already known has come to you with new power?

Seventeenth: What definite thing have you resolved to do as a result of studying this chapter? A permanent record should be kept of the results of the study of each chapter. It is well to have an interleaved Bible and keep the most important results in this.

5. Study the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God, and we get the most good out of any book by studying it as what it really is. It is often said that we should study the Bible just as we study any other book. That principle contains a truth, but it also contains a great error. The Bible, it is true, is a book as other books are books, the same laws of grammatical and literary construction and interpretation hold here as hold in other books. But the Bible is an entirely unique book. It is what no other book isThe Word of God. This can be easily proven to any candid man. The Bible ought then to be studied as no other book is. It should be studied as the Word of God. (1Thes 2:13). This involves five things.

First: A greater eagerness and more careful and candid study to find out just what it teaches than is bestowed upon any other book or upon all other books. We must know the mind of God; here it is revealed.

Second: A prompt and unquestioning acceptance of and submission to its teachings when definitely ascertained, even when these teachings appear to us unreasonable or impossible. If this book is the Word of God how foolish to submit its teachings to the criticism of our finite reason. The little boy who discredits his wise father's statements because to his infant mind they appear unreasonable, is not a philosopher but a fool. When we are once satisfied that the Bible is the Word of God, its clear teachings must be the end of all controversy and discussion.

Third: Absolute reliance upon all its promises in all their length and breadth and depth and height. The one who studies the Bible as the Word of God will say of every promise no matter how vast and beyond belief it appears, "God who cannot lie has promised this, so I claim it for myself." Mark the promises you thus claim. Look each day for some new promise from your infinite Father. He has put "His riches in glory" at your disposal. (Php 4:19).

Fourth: Obedienceprompt, exact, unquestioning, joyous obedienceto every command that is evident from the context applies to you. Be on the lookout for new orders from the King. Blessing lies in the direction of obedience to them. God's commands are but signboards that mark the road to present success and blessedness and to eternal glory.

Fifth: Studying the Bible as the Word of God, involves studying it as His own voice speaking directly to you. When you open the Bible to study it realize that you have come into the very presence of God and that now He is going to speak to you. Every hour thus spent in Bible study will be an hour's walk and talk with God.

Sixth: Study the Bible prayerfully. The author of the book is willing to act as interpreter of it. He does so when we ask Him to. The one who prays with earnestness and faith, the Psalmist's prayer, Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law, will get his eyes opened to see beauties and wonders in the Word that he never dreamed of before. Be very definite about this. Each time you open the Bible to study it for a few minutes or many, ask God to give you the open and discerning eye, and expect Him to do it. Every time you come to a difficulty lay it before God and ask an explanation and expect it. How often we think as we puzzle over hard passages, "Oh if I only had so and so here to explain this." God is always present. Take it to Him.

Seventh: Look for "the things concerning Christ" "in all the Scriptures." Christ is everywhere in the Bible (Lu 24:27). Be on the lookout for Him and mark His presence when you find it.

Eighth: Improve spare moments in Bible study. In almost every man's life many minutes each day are lost; while waiting for meals or trains, while riding in the car, etc. Carry a pocket Bible or Testament with you and save these golden minutes by putting them to the very best use listening to the voice of God. The Textbook can easily be carried in the pocket as a help in your work.

Ninth: Store away the Scripture in your mind and heart. It will keep you from sin (Ps 119:11), from false doctrine (Ac 20:29-30, 32; 2Ti 3:13-15), it will fill you heart with joy (Jer 15:16), and peace (Ps 85:8), it will give you the victory over the Evil One (1Jo 2:14), it will give you power in prayer (Joh 15:7), it will make you wiser than the aged and your enemies (Ps 119:98, 100, 130) it will make you "complete, furnished completely unto every good work." (2Ti 3:16, 17). Try it. Do not memorize at random but memorize Scripture in a connected way. Memorize texts bearing on various subjects in proper order. Memorize by chapter and verse that you may know where to put your finger upon the text if anyone disputes it.

Thanks Ken for being faithful because "Faithful is He who calls you, and He will do it".

Joined this forum a few weeks ago and this is the best part!

Have been in "The Way" for over sixty years and one of the Master's messenger boys for 50+. Been teaching the last few Sundays on Inspiration, Revelation and Illumination (today). Very appropriate that I read yours above. God bless