GET YOUR MIND RIGHT!!! NECESSITIES FOR ALL AROUND GOOD BIBLE STUDY SKILLS

PREPARING YOUR MIND FOR THE WORD Respect for the Bible as the trustworthy word of God. Key biblical texts include: John 10: Timothy 3:16 1 Peter 1: Hebrews 4:12 Begin to understand important ideas like revelation and inspiration Forces one to think about “the nature of Scripture” as literature and how its “trustworthy message” is carried within the text.

KNOWING JESUS IS NOT JUST ANY OTHER PERSON Faith that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. This is the most fundamental question in all of life. “If He isn’t, then why bother?” Important Scriptures: Matthew 16:13-16 Colossians 1:15-20 Philippians 2: 5-11 John 1:1-4; 14 “Who is Jesus and what difference does He make?” Jesus claimed that “Scriptures bear witness of me” (John 5:39) This clearly makes the “who is Jesus” question crucial in the context of interpreting Scripture.

LANGUAGE IS GIVEN BY GOD Confidence that language is a reliable means of communication. If language is not reliable – then we have no sure way to understand who God is nor do we have a way to tell others what we understand about God. Isaiah 55:8-11 – the phrase “I have given you my word” speaks to the idea of language. Interesting to think about Tower of Babel (confusion of language” and Pentecost (everyone heard in his/her own language) Revelation, inspiration, providence come back into play in any reasonable discussion of the reliability of language.

MINDFUL TOOLS FOR BIBLE STUDY Good Bible Study must be comprehensive. Avoid sporadic, jumping-around reading of Scripture Don’t limit yourself to “favorite texts” Even genealogies can teach us something Develop a disciplined, daily reading program “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:12) Important personal question: “How often do I read God’s word just for myself?”

MINDFUL TOOLS FOR BIBLE STUDY Good Bible Study must be open-minded. Have a genuine desire to hear and obey God’s word. The more genuine, the more intimate it becomes. Commitment to let the Bible speak for itself – without distorting its message to fit your preferences, culture, ideas. Don’t avoid its challenge that you might need to change your life style. Three crucial concerns: The Bible’s culture My culture The culture of people around me.

MINDFUL TOOLS FOR BIBLE STUDY Good Bible Study must be expectant. The Bible is “the living word of God” (Hebrews 4:12) We should expect that its words will change and transform our lives. (Romans 12:1-2) To the extent that the Bible “testifies about Jesus” we are being exposed to the One who said “to see Me is to see God.” Expect that One to transform you!!!

INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE The “Nature Of Scripture” Scripture has Eternal Relevance and Historical Particularity It speaks to all humankind, in every age, and in every culture. Each document is conditioned by the language, time, and culture in which it was originally written. There are 2 task when Interpreting Scripture: Task #1: Exegesis Task #2: Hermeneutics

EXEGESIS The careful, systematic study of the Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning. The “then and there’ meaning. This is basically a historical task. The attempt to hear the Word as the original recipients were to have heard it, to find out what was the original intent of the words of the Bible. The key to good exegesis is to learn to read the text carefully and to ask to right questions of the text.

EXEGESIS First Step: READ EVERYTHING!!! This will not be easy to do, at first. But it will pay off greatly down the road. The problem with being “selective” is that one will often read one’s own, completely foreign, ideas into a text & thereby make God’s Word something other than what God really said. Second Step: Do Not Begin By Consulting The “Experts” Not all “Experts” are trustworthy or true to the Word of God. If you need help in weeding out, or finding out who is a true expert, just ask Bro. David, Payton, or Charity.

EXEGESIS Two questions should be asked about every Biblical text: Those that relate to context and those that relate to content. The questions of context are also of two kinds: Historical and Literary

EXEGESIS: HISTORICAL CONTEXT The historical context, which will differ from book to book, has to do with several things: The time and culture of the author and his readers, that is, geographical, topographical, and political factors that are relevant to the author’s setting. Jesus’ parables is greatly enhanced by knowing something about the customs of Jesus’ day. The more important question of historical context has to do with the occasion & purpose of each biblical book and/or its various parts. Here one wants to have an idea of what is going on in Israel, or the church, that called forth such a document, or what the situation of the author was that caused him to speak or write.

EXEGESIS: LITERARY CONTEXT Literary context means first that words only have meaning in sentences, and second that biblical sentences for the most part have clear meaning in relation to preceding and succeeding sentences. “Read above and below the verse” – Bro. David Crucial Question is “What’s the point?’ We must try to trace the authors train of thought and see their reasoning and understanding. This question will vary from genre to genre.

EXEGESIS: THE QUESTIONS OF CONTENT “Content” has to do with the meaning of words, the grammatical relationships in sentences, and the choice of the original text where the translations differ from one another. To answer these questions you will ordinarily need to seek outside help. Again, the quality of your answers to such questions will usually depend on the quality of the sources you use.

EXEGESIS: GOOD TOOLS TO USE #1: A good translation that is easy for you to read. You will end up using 2 or 3 translations for deep study, but you want at least one that helps with “easy reading”. #2: A good Bible dictionary. #3: Good Commentaries. Bible commentaries aid in the study of Scripture by providing explanation and interpretation of Biblical text. John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, David Jeremiah, John Piper

HERMENEUTICS The branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts. We will use it exclusively in this way, to ask the questions about the Bible’s meaning in the “here and now”. Though this is not the word’s most common meaning. Proper hermeneutics begins with solid exegesis.

HERMENEUTICS: HERE & NOW The reason you must not begin with the here and now is that only proper control for hermeneutics is to be found in the original intent of the biblical text. This is the “plain meaning” one is after. Otherwise biblical texts can be made to mean whatever they mean to any given reader. But such hermeneutics becomes total subjectivity, and who then is to say that one person’s interpretation is right and another’s is wrong? Anything goes. A text CANNOT mean what it never meant! The true meaning of the biblical text for us is what God originally intended it to mean when it was first spoken. This is the starting point.