Below are notes I took are from an awesome class on www.BiblicalTraining.org called How to Read Your Bible by Dr. George Guthrie the Professor of New Testament at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Reading the bible is like going on an exposition. You're going somewhere to bring something back with you.
ie. When Paul talks about food sacrificed to idols we need to "leave home" to understand it.
What vehicle can we take to get us to this other place?
- A Sound Process of Study, or reading, using good tools with the right spiritual commitments and these will help us to arrive at the original meaning of the text.
| A Sound Process of Studying / Reading
- understand the language
- historical backdrop
- aspects of the culture
- what God was saying to them in that place at that time
Read the bible like you're going on a trip. You leave a home situation that you're familiar with. You need to prepare for it. Learn about where you're going. Each book of the bible is different. We are separated culturally and from time from the people in the bible. Try to close the gap from their perspective compared to ours. To hear the word well we need to be sensitive to certain historical and cultural dynamics. You learn what it's like in the place you visit and become familiar with it, then you go back home. When you finish reading the bible, how do you apply it to your life?
| Personal Commitments to Make before Reading
A. Consider your pre-understanding about a particular passage
- Based on our culture.
- Based on past teaching we might have had
- Based on past experiences.B. A reliance on the Holy Spirit
- John 15:26
- 1 Corinthians 2:12
C. Be willing to submit to the text in obedience
D. Prepare to share your study or reading
Exegesis - Study the book before you start it.
Critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.
Then do personal study of it before you teach it.
| General Historical Background
Ask: Who, What, When, Why, Where?
| Immediate Historical Context
What was going on when it was written?
| Cultural Background
Understand the point of visions, food laws, what things mean to their culture
"Pride does not listen. It knows."
God is the one who made the choice of when and where the scriptures would be written. We need to study the background and historical backdrop of the text we're respecting God's choice of it being written in that place and time.
| Know the Context
Philippians 4:13
[13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (ESV)
- People use this verse for a lot of things, but what was Paul talking about?
Philippians 4:11–15
[11] Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. [12] I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. [13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Doesn't mean he's superman and can do anything.
Proverbs are not promises. Don't read them as such. Read them as "this is the best way to live life."
ie: Proverbs 22:6
6Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Apocalyptic Literature is highly symbolic.
Read Psalm 73
- Identify the main points & main message
- based on the context of the whole chapter as well as the genre of literature
- what is an appropriate application for us now in reading that chapter?
| Observe the Bible
- like that student did of a fish for 3 days until more kept revealing itself to him
- Observation is doing a very close reading of the text so that we: see, become familiar with, and hear the important details of the passage.
- slow down and ask questions about what's there in the text
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Sometimes we don't always see the things around us.
B. The most important aspect of Bible Study is observation because you can't interpret or apply what you don't see.
C. Observation: Doing a very close reading of the text so that we see, become familiar with, and hear the important details of the passage.
II. HOW TO OBSERVE THE BACKBONE OVER AGAINST SUPPORT MATERIAL.
A. The two main points of any passage:
1. Determining the backbone
a. Identify the main verb or verbal ideas
i. Main actors - Give action to the ideas.
ii. Connectors - These main verbal ideas are connected in some way.
iii. Conjunctions.
iv. Patterns of verbs that serve like threads
v. Logic relationships
2. Support material
a. How do you identify support material?
i. Prepositions
ii. Pronouns
| Word Studies
- Words have a range of meanings
- semantic meanings
- They take time
- You can't possibly study every word
- Tune in on the 3 or 4 most important words
- crucial to the passage, key words that are repeated, figures of speech (get a dictionary of biblical images), difficult words, especially theological words
- With the right tools they don't have to take forever
- Word studies can be a rich way to discover the meaning the author had when writing, but be cautious to always read things in context.
| Word Study Fallacies
- English Only fallacy
- sometimes you can put too much stock in the way one translation interprets a difficult passage to translate, here's where there's value in comparing it with other translations
- don't get hung up on one translation's interpretation of a specific verse
- Root Fallacy
- I'm going to base my understanding of the word based on the Greek or Hebrew root of the word
- People learn just enough to get dangerous
- What if people in the future wanted to know what a pineapple is from the roots? This document was written in the southern United States had a lot of pine trees and apples trees. They must have combined
- What about butterfly? The roots wouldn't tell you the meaning.
- The roots might tell you what the word means, but not what it meant in that culture in that time.
- Time Frame Fallacy
- Taking an earlier meaning of a word, or one that came hundreds of years after the writing and reading it into the text
- The Greek dunamis is used 120 times in the New Testament. Loosely, the word refers to “strength, power, or ability.” It is the root word of our English words dynamite, dynamo and dynamic.
Romans 1:6
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..."
- "The Gospel is the dynamite of God" but Paul had no concept of dynamite when he wrote that, also dynamite destroys things and is used in terrorist activities. You can get into all sorts of fallacies.
- Overload Fallacy
- Take all the different possible meanings and read all of those into the text, even worse you pick your favorite one for your purposes.
- Word Count Fallacy
- pulled up all the uses of the word, and think it must mean what it means in most places rather than in its specific context. Just because it usually has one meaning doesn't mean it always does.
| How to do Word Studies
- Context is very important
- Identify key terms or concepts in the passage
- Have 3 or 4 translations side by side.
- Help you see what the most significant word is in the passage
- Try using an exhaustive concordance
Reading the bible is like going on an exposition. You're going somewhere to bring something back with you.
ie. When Paul talks about food sacrificed to idols we need to "leave home" to understand it.
What vehicle can we take to get us to this other place?
- A Sound Process of Study, or reading, using good tools with the right spiritual commitments and these will help us to arrive at the original meaning of the text.
| A Sound Process of Studying / Reading
- understand the language
- historical backdrop
- aspects of the culture
- what God was saying to them in that place at that time
Read the bible like you're going on a trip. You leave a home situation that you're familiar with. You need to prepare for it. Learn about where you're going. Each book of the bible is different. We are separated culturally and from time from the people in the bible. Try to close the gap from their perspective compared to ours. To hear the word well we need to be sensitive to certain historical and cultural dynamics. You learn what it's like in the place you visit and become familiar with it, then you go back home. When you finish reading the bible, how do you apply it to your life?
| Personal Commitments to Make before Reading
A. Consider your pre-understanding about a particular passage
- Based on our culture.
- Based on past teaching we might have had
- Based on past experiences.B. A reliance on the Holy Spirit
- John 15:26
- 1 Corinthians 2:12
C. Be willing to submit to the text in obedience
D. Prepare to share your study or reading
Exegesis - Study the book before you start it.
Critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.
Then do personal study of it before you teach it.
| General Historical Background
Ask: Who, What, When, Why, Where?
| Immediate Historical Context
What was going on when it was written?
| Cultural Background
Understand the point of visions, food laws, what things mean to their culture
"Pride does not listen. It knows."
God is the one who made the choice of when and where the scriptures would be written. We need to study the background and historical backdrop of the text we're respecting God's choice of it being written in that place and time.
| Know the Context
Philippians 4:13
[13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (ESV)
- People use this verse for a lot of things, but what was Paul talking about?
Philippians 4:11–15
[11] Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. [12] I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. [13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Doesn't mean he's superman and can do anything.
Proverbs are not promises. Don't read them as such. Read them as "this is the best way to live life."
ie: Proverbs 22:6
6Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Apocalyptic Literature is highly symbolic.
Read Psalm 73
- Identify the main points & main message
- based on the context of the whole chapter as well as the genre of literature
- what is an appropriate application for us now in reading that chapter?
| Observe the Bible
- like that student did of a fish for 3 days until more kept revealing itself to him
- Observation is doing a very close reading of the text so that we: see, become familiar with, and hear the important details of the passage.
- slow down and ask questions about what's there in the text
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Sometimes we don't always see the things around us.
B. The most important aspect of Bible Study is observation because you can't interpret or apply what you don't see.
C. Observation: Doing a very close reading of the text so that we see, become familiar with, and hear the important details of the passage.
II. HOW TO OBSERVE THE BACKBONE OVER AGAINST SUPPORT MATERIAL.
A. The two main points of any passage:
1. Determining the backbone
a. Identify the main verb or verbal ideas
i. Main actors - Give action to the ideas.
ii. Connectors - These main verbal ideas are connected in some way.
iii. Conjunctions.
iv. Patterns of verbs that serve like threads
v. Logic relationships
2. Support material
a. How do you identify support material?
i. Prepositions
ii. Pronouns
| Word Studies
- Words have a range of meanings
- semantic meanings
- They take time
- You can't possibly study every word
- Tune in on the 3 or 4 most important words
- crucial to the passage, key words that are repeated, figures of speech (get a dictionary of biblical images), difficult words, especially theological words
- With the right tools they don't have to take forever
- Word studies can be a rich way to discover the meaning the author had when writing, but be cautious to always read things in context.
| Word Study Fallacies
- English Only fallacy
- sometimes you can put too much stock in the way one translation interprets a difficult passage to translate, here's where there's value in comparing it with other translations
- don't get hung up on one translation's interpretation of a specific verse
- Root Fallacy
- I'm going to base my understanding of the word based on the Greek or Hebrew root of the word
- People learn just enough to get dangerous
- What if people in the future wanted to know what a pineapple is from the roots? This document was written in the southern United States had a lot of pine trees and apples trees. They must have combined
- What about butterfly? The roots wouldn't tell you the meaning.
- The roots might tell you what the word means, but not what it meant in that culture in that time.
- Time Frame Fallacy
- Taking an earlier meaning of a word, or one that came hundreds of years after the writing and reading it into the text
- The Greek dunamis is used 120 times in the New Testament. Loosely, the word refers to “strength, power, or ability.” It is the root word of our English words dynamite, dynamo and dynamic.
Romans 1:6
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..."
- "The Gospel is the dynamite of God" but Paul had no concept of dynamite when he wrote that, also dynamite destroys things and is used in terrorist activities. You can get into all sorts of fallacies.
- Overload Fallacy
- Take all the different possible meanings and read all of those into the text, even worse you pick your favorite one for your purposes.
- Word Count Fallacy
- pulled up all the uses of the word, and think it must mean what it means in most places rather than in its specific context. Just because it usually has one meaning doesn't mean it always does.
| How to do Word Studies
- Context is very important
- Identify key terms or concepts in the passage
- Have 3 or 4 translations side by side.
- Help you see what the most significant word is in the passage
- Try using an exhaustive concordance
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