Studying
Scripture In Order To Teach It
Week
One: Text and Tools
a
Bill Risk
Forum Class,
(Note: The symbol 5 serves to
remind me to show an overhead).
I.
Our Approach To The Text
A.
The Bible is unique among books
·
~800,000
words
·
~40
different authors
·
took
centuries to write
·
wide
diversity of genres
o narrative, legal code, poetry,
prophetic oracle, psalms, proverbs, other forms of wisdom literature, Gospels,
letters, apocalypses
·
tells
one story (has an overall unity and coherence)
·
most importantly, it claims (and we believe) that it is the inspired
revelation of God to mankind
John Stott: “If the word revelation indicates that God has taken the
initiative to make himself known, the word inspiration
indicates how he has done so, at least in special revelation, namely, by
speaking to and through the human authors. In this sense the Bible is a unique
book; no other book resembles it. For it
is God’s Word through human words. [1]
B.
The unique nature of the Bible—particularly our belief that it is an inspired,
revelatory text—demands a unique approach in studying it.
1.
We approach the text expecting that, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
we will encounter God there.
5Gordon Fee: “The key is to be found in one’s overall
stance toward Scripture, from beginning to end. This includes several things,
but at least it means to come to the text with an absolute conviction that it
is God’s word; that here God speaks and we listen. Thus our concern in coming
to the text is to hear from God. No other stance is exegetically in keeping
with the text itself. Such a stance also includes a conviction that the text
has been inspired by the Holy Spirit; for only with such a conviction will one
expect the same Holy Spirit to help us in the twofold task of being good
historians and good listeners.”[2]
2.
Because it is the product of both one Divine Author and some 40 human
writers—because it has, in this sense, a dual nature—a dual approach is
required.
John Stott: “It thus has a double authorship (divine and human), which on that
account demands a double approach—reverent because it is the Word of God,
“critical” (to be defined later) because it is the word of human beings.”[3]
5John
Stott: “Because
of the kind of book the Bible is, we must approach it in two distinct but
complementary ways. Because it is the
Word of God, we must read it as we would read no other book—on our
knees, in a humble, reverent, prayerful and submissive frame of mind. But
because the Bible is also the word of humans, we must read it as we would read
every other book, thoughtfully and in a ‘critical’ frame of mind….In the
‘critical’ approach we scrutinize Scripture, while in the ‘reverent’ approach
we invite Scripture to scrutinize us.”[4]
Stott
argues that evangelicals tend to emphasize ‘reverence’ at the expense of ‘criticism,’ which he goes
on to explain that this means “not destruction but investigation, not judgment
but evaluation.”[5]
3.
Studying Scripture in order to teach it
requires us to read the Bible in a particular way, which may be different than
what we are used to.
Sometimes
we read the Bible devotionally, letting its words wash over us and
soaking up the wisdom and comfort of the ancient text. Sometimes we read it religiously—that is, out of
discipline, because we know it’s good for us whether we like it or not.
Sometimes we the Bible searchingly, seeking answers to a distinct question,
balm for a specific wound, guidance in a particular situation. But sometimes—and
that is the subject of our study—we need to read the Bible exegetically,
seeking to understand, interpret, apply and teach God’s Word.
5 explanation
of exegesis slide
5 Gordon
Fee: “The second key lies with our concern to do good exegesis, to hear the
text first on its own terms, not our own. This, of course, stands
over against a popular notion of Spirituality, which believes that learning
gets in the way of hearing the text in spiritual way. But such an approach to
the text misunderstands the biblical meaning of Spirituality. And very often such an approach to the text
gives one warm feelings about the biblical text and about God, but it does not
always lead to obedience or to being encountered by God’s own purposes in
giving us the text in the first place.”
Hence, in order
to understand a Scriptural text well enough to teach it to others and allow it
have impact in both our own lives and in the lives of those we teach, it is
necessary for us to dig “farther in and deeper down.” In this series, we will examine some tools
and techniques that can help us to do this.
However, once we
start down this path, it is all-too-easy to became so
enamored of the marvelous tools that are available for Bible study that
“technique” becomes more important than “text.” It is valuable to remind
ourselves what the end goal of our efforts is.
D. The aim of exegetical Bible study
is to unlock the meaning of the biblical text; when we internalize this
meaning, it should result in Spirituality; this Spirituality should be
expressed in worship, in fellowship, and in service to others.
Bernard Ramm: “The heart of Bible Study
must always be the matter of meaning. The first question of Bible study is not:
‘What is devotional here?’ nor ‘What is of practical importance here?’ nor
‘What is inspirational here?’ but ‘What does the passage mean?’” [6]
5Gordon Fee: “I begin with a singular and
passionate conviction: that the proper aim of all true theology is doxology.
Theology that does not begin and end in worship is not biblical at all, but is
rather the product of western philosophy. In the same way, I want to insist
that the ultimate aim of all true exegesis is spirituality, in some form or
another. And I insist on this because of
my conviction that only when exegesis is so understood has the exegetical task
been done in a way that is faithful to the intent of the text itself.”
“…the aim of exegesis [is] to produce in our lives and the lives of
others true Spirituality, in which God’s people live in fellowship with the
eternal and living God, and thus in keeping with God’s own purposes in the
world.”[7]
Fee continues: “…I regularly tell my students: Have the touch of God on your
life. Live in fellowship with him; be
among those who cry out with the Psalmist, ‘my soul and my flesh long for you’;
‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you; my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.’ If those who teach and preach God’s Word…do not
themselves yearn for God, live constantly in God’s presence, hunger and thirst
after God—then how can they possibly bring off the ultimate goal of exegesis,
to help fashion God’s people into genuine Spirituality?”[8]
“A great danger lurks here, you understand, especially for those
who have been called of God to serve the church in pastoral and teaching roles.
The danger is to become a professional (in the pejorative sense of that word):
to analyze texts and to talk about God, but slowly to let the fire of
passion for God run low, so that one does not spend much time talking with
God….If the biblical text does not grip or possess one’s own soul, it will
likely do very little for those who hear.”[9]
“All of this to say, then, that the first place that exegesis and
Spirituality interface is in the exegete’s own soul—that the aim of exegesis is
Spirituality, which must be what the exegete brings to the exegetical task, as
well as being the ultimate aim of the task itself.” [10]
5 Girl with Bible
Here’s
another way to look at this: when we sit down to exegete a biblical text, we
have made ourselves the doer of the action and Scripture the receiver. But the intended purpose of the text is quite
different—it is to be the doer, the agent of life and heart change, and we are
to be the recipients and beneficiaries of that action. Gordon Fee puts it this way:
Gordon Fee: “Because we believe Scripture is God’s Word, by which God
addresses us, that means that Scripture is the subject and we are the object.
During the process of exegesis we momentarily reverse the roles, so that we act
as subject with the text as object. I
would argue that the exegetical process is not completed until we return to the
proper posture of being objects addressed by the subject.”[11]
II.
The Text Itself
A.
Choosing a translation
The
first decision to be made in preparing for Bible study is what Biblical text to
use.
Numerous English translations of the Bible now exist—which should be used to
study the Bible in order to teach it?
Unless you can work directly with Hebrew or Greek texts, the New
American Standard Bible (NASB) is probably the best English language
choice. Although the NASB does not read
as smoothly as other versions (such as the New International Version or NIV,
which is the translation used in PBC pew bibles), NASB adheres more closely to
the wording and grammatical structure used in the original languages.
5 From the Lockman
Foundation Website:
“Since its completion in 1971, the New American Standard
Bible has been widely acclaimed as “the most literally accurate
translation” from the original languages. Millions of people, students,
scholars, pastors, missionaries, and laypersons alike, have trusted the NASB,
learning from it and applying it to the challenges of their daily lives. With
the NASB,
anyone can discover what the original text really says, word for word, because
it is considered the most literal translation of the Bible in the English
language, consistently following the oldest and best manuscripts.”
B. Preparing the text for study
5 NASB Ryrie Study Bible page
Unfortunately, most published NASB texts contain
elements that can detract from one’s own personal study of the text (5overhead). Printed bibles often include headings and sub-headings
that divide the text according to some scheme concocted by the publisher; many
include detailed notes and cross-references.
While these elements can be helpful in some contexts, they can too
easily become a substitute for thinking through the thought flow and meaning of
the text ourselves.
Illustration: When a child writes a letter to his
parents from camp, we expect it to look something like this:
5 Letter to parents from Andy
We would interact with the letter as
readers much differently if it looked like this:
5 Letter to parents from Andy in “Ryrie
Study Bible” format
What is true for Andy’s letters is also
true for Paul’s.
5 NASB Ryrie Study Bible page with
blackouts
The undesired elements can be “blacked out” using a
marker; however, this can be quite tedious, the result is ugly, and the spatial
arrangement of text on the page still bears the imprint of the publisher’s
organizing scheme (Figure 2).
5 Bible Gateway printouts
A better way to prepare the text is to acquire it
electronically and to format it simply. The text can be obtained online (for
example, try www.biblegateway.com)
or using any of a number of CD-ROM products (Logos, BibleExplorer,
etc). However, even most electronic
versions preserve chapter and verse numbering, which must be removed by the
user.
If none of these options is available, you can
simply rewrite or retype the text onto a clean sheet. You might want to make several photocopies
that can be marked up as you work instead of defacing your original. In the end, you want to wind up with something
that looks like this:
5 Overhead
showing clean text
III.
Tools to help us find the meaning of the text
A.
Choice of tools should be motivated by questions about the text
In
order to answer the question “What tools are needed for Bible study?” it is
advantageous to ask another question “What am I trying to discover?” In order to pick the “best tool for the job,”
you need to know what the job is! The
“job” usually becomes evident as we look at the text and questions arise in our
mind. So, rather than just giving you a
list of books (and/or software) to buy, I’d like to try to motivate the
discussion with some examples.
Suppose
that you are studying the book of 1 Samuel and you come across this passage:
5 “Now Samuel
judged
It
might occur to us to ask questions like: “Where are these places? In what part of
B.
Useful tools
1. Atlases
To
answer questions like these about the physical geography described in the text,
you need an atlas. Much of the biblical
text is intimately connected with the geography of the
In
fact, since there is no one perfect bible atlas, having two or three is a great idea if you can afford it. Each atlas depicts slightly different things
in a slightly different way and sometimes you simply have to go through a few
of them before you find what you are looking for.
Many
bible atlases are available. It is worthwhile perusing them at a bookstore or
library before making a purchase in order to find the one(s) that suit you
best. For many years, The
Macmillan Bible Atlas by Yohanan Aharoni and Michael Avi-Yonah was
routinely touted as the single best bible atlas. It probably was. It went out of print a few years ago after
the third edition was issued. Recently, an updated edition has been published
and it has been renamed The Carta Bible Atlas,
but is still somewhat hard to find. When last I checked, it was not available
from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but could be obtained from Eisenbraun’s
(https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_0YO02DZCQ.HTM)
or Dove Booksellers (www.dovebook.com). The Macmillan Bible Atlas has detailed
monochrome maps keyed to passages in the Biblical text.
5 Macmillan overhead showing Samuel’s
circuit
Recently,
the Holman Bible Atlas has appeared and has many attractive features. Full-color maps based on satellite imagery
are combined with a helpful, detailed description and numerous charts, tables,
and photographs. If you can only buy one
atlas, this may now be the one.
5 Holman page
Another
place you can often find maps that specifically address questions raised by
reading the text is in commentaries. For example, in studying Samuel with a group
of guys recently, I often found that neither the Macmillan or
Holman atlases had exactly what I wanted, but that one of the commentaries
did. We’ll say more about commentaries
in due course.
5 McCarter commentary map
B.
Concordances
To
continue with this example, we might also want to know if these places are
mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. There are basically two ways I know to
attack this problem.
The
traditional way has been to use an exhaustive concordance, which shows each
word used in a particular translation of the Bible and cites the verses where
it appears. For many years, the best
NASB concordance was the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of
the Bible, R. L. Thomas, ed. From
Holman Bible Publishers. It
appears that this is now out-ot-print, although used
copies can still sometimes be found (try www.amazon.com
or www.abebooks.com). An in-print alternative is the Zondervan NAS Exhaustive Concordance.
5 Page from NAS concordance
C.
Bible Dictionaries
Another
source of information about persons, places, things, concepts, etc. is a bible
dictionary. There are many good ones
available; the New Bible Dictionary from InterVarsity
Press is a good choice.
5 Page from NBD
D.
Specialized Tools
There
are also many specialized dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, wordbooks,
lexicons, etc. We will talk about some
of these later on when we get to more specialized topics such as word studies.
Another
small tool, worth mentioning now and well worth having is the Pocket
Dictionary of Biblical Studies, Arthur G. Patzia
and Anthony J. Petrotta, Intervarsity Press, 2002,
which defines over 300 of the terms most commonly encountered in bible study.
5 Page from Pocket Dictionary
E. Commentaries
5 C.
H. Spurgeon: “In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid
to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators: a
glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will
be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think
or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of
divines and learned men who have labored before you in the field of
exposition.…who can pretend to biblical learning who has not made himself
familiar with the great writers who spent a life in explaining some one sacred
book?”
1.
Should you use commentaries?
Commentaries
can be either a boon or a bane, depending on how you use them. They can be a
great boon when they are used properly to augment and extend your own study; they can
become a bane when they are used as a substitute for your own “pick and shovel”
work. The danger that commentary use
will become a crutch replacing direct personal interaction with the text has
led some mentors to discourage their use (this was one the attitude of PBC’s intern program, I believe). However, commentary authors often have
expertise and familiarity with the original languages beyond what most of us do
and, in many cases, have had the opportunity to steep
themselves in the text for years, sometimes decades. As Spurgeon’s quotes illustrate, it is
foolhardy to neglect their counsel and their wisdom may help save us from many
a theological blunder.
2.
Whole-bible or single-book?
Two types of commentary are available: those that span the entire bible (e.g., Matthew Henry Commentary, Expositor’s Bible Commentary) and those that are devoted to a particular book. Either type may be valuable. For most people, commentary use is motivated by the desire to study a particular book of the bible, and it is wise therefore to find out which commentaries best illuminate that book, whether they are isolated volumes or part of a larger series.
3.
Commentary Selection
The
theological perspective of commentaries spans the range from very liberal to
very conservative. Spurgeon’s contention
that “A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of
the giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild
interpretations and outrageous inferences” is nullified if the
commentary is not based on sound expositional principles. Most PBC’ers will
probably feel most comfortable with commentaries that reflect a conversative, evangelical position. However, works written
from a more liberal perspective can be valuable if used judiciously.
Example: For example, the theological position of
commentaries on Leviticus such as those by Wenham, Ross, Bonar. But the massive, three-volume work of Jacob Milgrom, a Hebrew scholar at UC Berkeley contains a
tremendous wealth of information that cannot easily be found in more
“theological correct” works.
Several
books are available that attempt to guide the reader through the selection of commentaries and
attempt to offer some insight into their theological perspective and usefulness
for Bible Study.
5 Print book commentary selectors
One
of the oldest (and most entertaining) is C.H. Spurgeon’s “Commentaries and
Commenting.” Many of the books reviewed
by Spurgeon are no longer in print, although they can sometimes still be found
from used book dealers or in libraries.
Spurgeon’s often acerbic comments make for amusing reading. (Example: “A
pile of paper, valuable to housemaids for lighting fires.”)
Of
more recent vintage are commentary review books like:
Carson,
D. A. New Testament
Commentary Survey, 5th edition.
Longman,
Tremper.
Old Testament Commentary Survey, 3rd edition.
Rosscup, J. Commentaries for Biblical Expositors.
Stuart,
Douglas. A Guide To Selecting and Using Bible Commentaries.
5 CBD commentary selector
Christian
Book Distributors has on their website a commentary selector (http://www.christianbook.com/html/specialty/1013.html). You can select the book of the Bible in which
you are interested and obtain a listing of in-print commentaries available from
CBD, grouped according to whether they are “Technical” (requiring a knowledge
of Greek or Hebrew), “Semi-Technical” (requiring minimal knowledge of Greek or
Hebrew), or “Non-Technical (requiring no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew). They
are also graded according to theological perspective, with “A” being the most
conservative (which CBD defines as assuming that the text is historically
accurate and inspired) to “C”.
Seminaries
also sometimes produce surveys of commentaries for the use of their
students. On my website (www.artidzo.org) you will find links to
commentary surveys put out by
IV. Summary
A.
When we approach a text for study, we should do so reverently and
critically—using both our spirits and our minds. While we interact with the
text, we also need to let it act on us.
B.
Every who is going to study in order to teach should find a way of producing a
“clean copy” of the text. Can get online, from
software, or by re-typing.
C.
Every one who is going to study in order to teach should look into obtaining
access to material that will help in Bible study—atlases, dictionary,
concordances, commentaries. There are lots of options
for buying them. We are working on options for enabling people to borrow them:
PBC library and BATL (www.batl.org)
5 BATL slide
V. Assignment
The
skills that we are going to talk about are best learned by doing, so I will end
each week with an assignment. You are not required to do it, but I would recommend
that you do it if you can, because we may discuss it in class the following
week.
The
assignment for this week is: find a way that you are comfortable with for
producing a clean copy of the text and produce a clean copy of the book of
Jonah.
[1] Stott, John. Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, Integrity & Faithfulness. Downers’ Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1999. p. 46.
[2] Fee,
Gordon D. Listening To The Spirit In The Text.
[3] Stott, p. 46
[4] Stott, p. 51, 53.
[5] Stott, p. 51.
[6] (Ramm’s article for Eternity Magazine, “But It Isn’t Bible
Study,” has been a favorite at PBC for many years, probably since its
publication in 1960. You can download it from the PBC website (http://www.pbc.org/dp/smith2/pdf/ch3.pdf).
I will also place a link to a version on my website (http://www.artidzo.org).
[7] Fee, p. 6
[8] Fee, p. 6–7
[9] Fee, p. 7
[10] Fee. p. 5
[11] Fee, p. 14.