That old thread is long and complicated. I've combined my several pertinent posts from that old thread into this one long post, which is still significantly shorter than that old thread �
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 � the red print is not holy or inspired. 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)
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!).
� Note the distinction between an observation (descriptive) and a command or direction (imperative).
"Honor your father and mother" (Matthew 15:4 and 19:7, Mark 7:10 and 10:19, Luke 18:20, Ephesians 6:2), for example, is imperative. Imperative means "Do it!"
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife � " (Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7, Ephesians 5:31) is descriptive, an explanation of a custom, not a command. It says "This is why this happens."
The latter was of course never intended � as I've seen it used, with agonizing effect � to trump, to cancel, to rescind, or to supersede the former. The Bible is replete with observations, descriptions, and quotations that are not God's directives or statements of His desire or promise.
[quote]Much of the present day confusion in the realm of religion, and in the application of Biblical principles, stems from distorted interpretation and misinterpretation of God�s Word. That is true even in those circles which adhere unwaveringly to the infallibility of Holy Scriptures. � the adoption and use of sound principles of interpretation in the study of the Bible will prove surprisingly fruitful � this is one means which �the Spirit of truth� is pleased to use in leading His people �into all truth� � The early adoption of valid procedure in Biblical interpretation will lead the devoted kingdom worker to a life of useful service for the advancement of God�s kingdom. (Louis Berkhof, Principles of Biblical Interpretation)
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 dunatos) , 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 dunatos) 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 dunatos 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 �
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(I think there is a pattern there.) I then started going through the Bible verse by verse -- start at Chapter one verse one and look for references. Look to see who is doing the writing. Look to see who is being adressed. Context is a big deal.
