Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Writing at For the Church, Godwin Sathianathan has some great ideas for making the most of your Bible reading.
Sathianathan’s article has more explanation for each point. Check it out!
Last week I wrote about how cross-references often cause us to flap our wings without achieving liftoff. They certainly keep us busy, but often at the cost of missing the point of the text at hand. This week I’d like to explain some pertinent and helpful uses for cross-references.
In writing this list, I want to clarify that cross-references are sometimes a necessary part of Bible study. In many cases, failing to check the cross-references may leave you with poor interpretation. However, keep in mind that cross-referencing is not always a necessary part of Bible study. If you leave your passage behind like a solitary child in a grocery store, you should always have good reason to do so. And typically the only compelling reason for such behavior is if you’ll be right back after grabbing an emergency item from the car or service desk.
So in what situations are cross-references appropriate?
The Holy Spirit did not leave us without direction on how to read the Scriptures. Each instance of divinely inspired interpretation of another passage should be for us as a tent-peg firmly driven into the temple. A clear example: Matthew 1:22 shows that Isaiah 7:14 is about something bigger than the prophet’s own wife and child (Isaiah 8:1-4). A less clear, but no less compelling, example: In Acts 7:25, Stephen definitively reveals Moses’ intentions in killing the Egyptian (Ex 2:11-12). This fact should do away with our common condemnation of Moses as a young, brash, and insecure young man foolishly committing an impulsive murder.
This point is same as the first but in reverse. When your passage has a clear quote or allusion, don’t skim lazily past it. Look it up and study it in context! Connect that chain.
Simon Lutz (2013), Creative Commons
For example, too many people propagate the notion that Jesus told parables to confuse people, all because they read the words quoted from Isaiah 6 (Matt 13:14-15, Mark 4:12) without exploring their context. Isaiah’s larger point has to do with idolatry blinding the eyes of those who persistently cling to it. As G.K. Beale marvelously put it, we become what we worship. Jesus came not to speak confusion, but to speak with utmost clarity—a clarity that would open many blind eyes, while simultaneously driving committed idolaters deeper into their idolatry.
Allusions can be difficult to pick up on unless we continue devouring large portions of Scripture in our reading, getting more familiar over time with the language and ideas. Recently I was studying Psalm 106 with a small group, and we were struck by how much Psalm 106:20 sounds like Romans 1:23. They are so close that it can’t be mere coincidence. Thus our study of Psalm 106 in context gave us deeper understanding of the point Paul appropriates for his purposes in Romans 1.
I’m studying Mark 15:1-20, where Jesus is called King of the Jews but not treated in a kingly manner. I must go back to Mark 10:32-34 to see that things are playing out exactly as this king intended.
Or I’m studying Joshua 24, and there appears a sudden reference to Joseph’s bones. I must go back to Exodus 13:19 and Genesis 50:25 for context.
Over the last 2 months, I’ve read Exodus 6 times to prepare for preaching through the book. As I read, I’ve tried to make sense of the tabernacle sections in Ex 25-31 and Ex 35-39.
One question I had was why the order of instructions (Ex 25-31) differs from the order of production (Ex 35-39). And while I don’t have a great answer yet, pursuing that question led to another one: Why are the census tax (Ex 30:11-16) and priestly ordination service (Ex 29:1-46) the only sets of instructions not repeated in the production chapters? Especially when the production chapters repeat the phrase that Moses did all the things exactly as the LORD had commanded him (Ex 39:1, 5, 7, etc.)?
As for the census tax, this brought my attention to the incident where David takes a census but doesn’t collect the tax (2 Sam 24, 1 Chr 21). Suddenly, another mystery unlocks for me: why David’s census was so egregious in God’s sight.1 And why the resulting plague is stopped when David purchases the land later used to build the temple. It’s all connected to Moses’ census tax to support the building of the tabernacle.
As for the priestly ordination service, I didn’t get an answer until I kept reading into Leviticus. The service does take place, word for word, in Leviticus 8. According to the structure of Exodus, I would expect it between Exodus 40:3 and Exodus 40:34. But Moses pulls it out of there and delays it until after the instructions for sacrifices (Lev 1-7). Again, I don’t have a crystal clear answer about why Moses did this, but the later text (Lev 8) highlights for me how important those instructions will be when I come to teach them in Ex 29. They are important enough to warrant a delay before we see them fulfilled.
For example, our generation has no idea what it means to cut an animal in half and pass between the pieces. So no Bible study of Genesis 15 can be complete without first referring to Jeremiah 34:18-20 to clue us in.
As with most tools, the blessings or curses come not from the tool itself but from how we use it. I could use a blow dryer on an extension cord to defrost my windshield; but why would I want to? Likewise, let’s make great use of cross-references.
1My colleague Mark Fodale made this point in a talk years ago, and I’m now appreciating the depth of his insight.
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I remain much impressed by the videos being produced by The Bible Project. If you haven’t seen these videos, you really should check them out. I’ve begun having longer out-loud Bible reading times with my children (30-60 minutes at a time), and when we start a new book we always watch the Bible Project’s video first. Right now we’re in Leviticus—and my kids understand and love Leviticus!
However, I’m writing now to highlight their recent video on the book of Zechariah, which I consider the most difficult book in the Bible. This video does a better job communicating the main message of Zechariah than a long commentary I recently read. I suddenly have much hope for my study of this mysterious book.
This is top-notch Bible study in visual form. What a tremendous gift we have in these free videos.
My ministry’s Board of Directors recently met with a consultant, who, among other things, warned us to watch out for “wing-flapping reports” from the Chief Executive. Such reports deftly avoid reporting on tangible progress toward required objectives, and they do so by describing the flurry of activities undertaken by the organization during the reporting period. “We did this event…and this conference…and began this program…and updated these employee benefits…and connected with all these people…and we just did a great job, didn’t we?” Such wing-flapping isn’t usually sinister; it merely flows from a lack of clarity regarding results and production. When we’re unsure what we ought to produce, we seek assurance instead from how busy we were.
Of course, this concept taught me an invaluable lesson about leadership and accountability, but, surprisingly, it also taught me about Bible study. I’ve attended countless Bible studies that were busy, active, and engaging—but that also left me feeling like we didn’t get anywhere. We can spend lots of time in Scripture and make use of many resources, but do we know God through Jesus Christ any more deeply than when we began? We flap our wings and feel great about it. But there’s something more to be done.
And while I could nominate many potential culprits in the “wing-flapping Bible study” cartel (search engines, commentaries, and word studies come quickly to mind), there is one chief culprit I see more than any other: cross-references.
Sinclair Ferguson wrote an excellent commentary on the book of Daniel. In fact, it’s the only Daniel commentary I’ve read that I’m happy to recommend as promoting OIA Bible study. I love this commentary, and you should check it out if you study Daniel.
But notice how the good Dr. Ferguson flaps his wings a bit, filling the page with cross-references without moving his argument forward. On Daniel 5, he writes:
From all we know of Belshazzar, he had fallen into the sin of Rehoboam. He once sought the advice of his elder statesmen and was counseled: “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” Rehoboam rejected this counsel, however, and consulted those who had grown up with him (1 Kings 12:7-8); the result was the division of the tribes into two camps, Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Similarly, Daniel’s counsel appears to have gone unheeded and eventually unsought. Finally, however, he was brought into Belshazzar’s presence. (pp.117-118)
A lengthy catalog of Daniel’s credentials is provided by the queen…. He had “light and understanding and wisdom” and “an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, [and abilities to interpret] dreams, solv[e] riddles, and explain enigmas” (vv.11, 12). This description is reminiscent of the prophetic description Isaiah gave of the Messiah [quotes Isaiah 11:2-3].
Daniel had a share in the Spirit of the Messiah just as surely as what Christians now experience is a share in the Spirit of the Messiah and a taste of the powers of the age to come (cf. Heb. 6:5). No wonder there were so many ways that Daniel resembled Christ. This was what the queen tried to express. Daniel was in fellowship with another world; he knew God. (pp.119-120)
Why did Daniel refuse the king’s offer? Probably there were two reasons for his refusal. (1) It was important for him to make plain that spiritual gifts cannot be bought. Instinctively we are reminded of Simon Magus [quotes Acts 8:18-20]…. (2) It was important for him to make plain that God’s servants cannot be bought [quotes 1 Thess. 2:4-5]. (pp.120-121)
Alan Vernon (2010), Creative Commons
“Similarly…This description is reminiscent of…Instinctively we are reminded of…” Such is the language of wing-flapping cross-references. Unfortunately, after romping our way through 1 Kings, Isaiah, Hebrews, Acts, and 1 Thessalonians, we don’t know the text of Daniel any better. But we certainly feel like we’ve accomplished something. Ferguson is much more helpful when he sticks to the text at hand, applying his marvelous insights to analyze, explain, and apply it for us.
I once led a Bible study attended by a sweet, godly older woman. She had been walking with Christ for decades, and she was very familiar with God’s word. Week after week, however, she left me wondering whether she wanted to study the Bible with us.
We might be studying Matthew, and she’d want to jump to Romans. Or we’d study a Psalm, and she’d try to take us to 1 Peter. Much of our discussion was a tug-of-war between her, wanting us to turn to different passages, and me, asking whether the cross-reference would help us with the passage at hand.
One week, I experimented by giving her the reins. When she wanted to pull us to a new passage, I went with her. Once we got there, she read it, and I asked her what it meant. For her answer, she said it reminded her of another passage. So we went there. After reading it, she took us to yet another passage. This went on until we read a passage that reminded her of the original one, and we ended up back where we had begun.
With each jump, we read the text and treated its message as self-evident. When it made us think of something else, we were off. After an hour of such discussion, one thing was clear: We had not understood the message of any of these passages. But because we flipped so many pages and moved so quickly, some people felt we had accomplished something spectacular.
Now I don’t think cross-references are inherently unhelpful. There are times when they are good and necessary in Bible study. More on this next week.
But I do get nervous when someone treats “cross-references” as a standard step in Bible study. Or when someone wants to leave the current passage without good reason to do so, or without having first put in the time to get the point. In most cases, the original audience didn’t have access to all the cross-references (or the full canon of Scripture). But they still could understand and apply the text’s main point. So should we.
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In this recent Look at the Book video, John Piper shows how to dig in to the Scripture to address apparent contradictions or questions regarding foundational Christian doctrine. He looks at 1 Peter 3 to see whether Peter provides support for the idea that Jesus’ “resurrection” was only spiritual, without involving a physical body.
https://vimeo.com/172817031
mkorsakov (2014), Creative Commons
There must be high demand for Bible outlines, since they show up everywhere. Almost every study Bible outlines each book. Almost every commentary has a central outline. Most sermons and study guides outline their passages. And most introductory essays on books of the Bible share a few key topics: date, author, audience, key themes, and—you guessed it—outline.
We generate and consume Bible outlines in massive quantities, but have you ever considered what goes into creating an outline? How do you know if the outline is accurate or not? And what makes some outlines better or worse than others, at least for specific purposes?
Let’s assume you’re already convinced it’s worth your time to pay attention to structure. (If you need more convincing, see how structure shapes the meaning of a passage and 10 reasons why we should take note of structure.) How does that structure translate into a formal outline? What should you look for in an outline? Why are some outlines of the same text so different from one another?
The first way to make an outline is to summarize what the passage says. This type of outline takes the bare facts of a passage and puts them in order.
For example, here is part of an outline of Job from the Gospel Transformation Bible:
III. The Intervention of Eliphaz (Job 4:1-5:27)
IV. Job’s First Response to Eliphaz (Job 6:1-7:21)
V. The Intervention of Bildad (Job 8:1-22)
VI. Job’s First Response to Bildad (Job 9:1-10:22)
VII. The Intervention of Zophar (Job 11:1-20)
VIII. Job’s First Response to Zophar (Job 12:1-14:22)
This outline contains some important observations. Job’s speeches alternate with those of his 3 friends, who each speak in turn. If you continue through the outline, you’ll see that Eliphaz and Bildad each speak three times, and Zophar speaks only twice. But Job has a response to each one of their speeches.
This outline gives you a straightforward, clear grasp of the text’s structure. Similarly observational outlines for other books of the Bible might go like this:
Luke:
I. Jesus’ Birth (Luke 1-2)
II. Jesus’ Galilean Ministry (Luke 3-9)
III. Jesus on the Way to Jerusalem (Luke 9-19)
IV. Jesus in Jerusalem (Luke 19-21)
V. Jesus’ Suffering and Death (Luke 22-23)
VI. Jesus’ Resurrection (Luke 24)
Proverbs:
I. Introduction (Prov 1-9)
II. Proverbs of Solomon (Prov 10:1-22:16)
III. Sayings of the Wise (Prov 22:17-24:34)
IV. Hezekiah’s Collection (Prov 25-29)
V. Proverbs of Agur (Prov 30)
VI. Proverbs of King Lemuel (Prov 31:1-9)
VII. The Virtuous Woman (Prov 31:10-31)
These outlines tell you exactly what happens in the text, and they’re great for helping you get your bearings in a book. But they don’t say much more than the foundational what.
The second way to make an outline is to describe what the passage means. This type of outline takes the main points of a passage and shows their logical flow.
For example, here is part of an outline of Job (same section as above) from the ESV Study Bible:
B. The friends and Job: can Job be right before God? (Job 4:1–25:6)
1. First cycle (Job 4:1–14:22)
a. Eliphaz: can mortal man be in the right before God? (Job 4:1–5:27)
b. Job: life is futile (Job 6:1–7:21)
c. Bildad: the wisdom of the sages (Job 8:1–22)
d. Job: how can a mortal be just before God? (Job 9:1–10:22)
e. Zophar: repent (Job 11:1–20)
f. Job: a challenge to the “wisdom” of his friends (Job 12:1–14:22)
This outline goes beyond bare observation and shows the flow of ideas from one speech to the next. The chief benefit of such an outline is that it gives you not only the what but also the why. It focuses not only on summaries but also on main points (do you know the difference?). The chief weakness of such an outline is that it’s more likely to be mistaken or even off-center, since it’s not as clearly based on the surface of the text.
In some cases, the observational outline will be more useful. Such cases include the first pass through a book overview, a detailed review to confirm the validity of an interpretive outline, or a quick compass check to find your place in a book (I’m slogging through Isaiah 25 and need to be reminded of the larger sections).
In other cases, the interpretive outline will be more useful. Such cases include teaching or preaching, concisely organizing the main points or train of thought, or moving toward application.
Let’s say you’re studying Mark 15:1-20 to teach to others. You might begin your own study with a simple observational outline:
But I hope you don’t teach the passage that way. That outline doesn’t help anyone to understand why Mark wrote these things. Something like this will be more useful for teaching:
Can you see the difference? Do you see how you can get from one outline to the other? Can you see benefits to each one? Why do you think some outlines are better than others?
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At For the Church, Kristen Wetherell explains 17 benefits to reading the entire Bible. The reasons are below. Click over to her article for more explanation of each one.
Reading the entire Bible is well worth your time. Perhaps you might even like to get in a speed-read before the year is out?
Check it out!
How did we get our Bibles? Not just the books of the Bible, but all the apparatus that comes along with it? Chapter and verse numbers, section headings, and cross-references. Two-column format, study notes, and call-out boxes with key ideas. Why do our Bible look so different from any other book (or collection of books) we read?
Desiring God recently posted an important episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, where Tony Reinke interviews Glenn Paauw, the Executive Director of the Biblica Institute for Bible Reading, a think tank dedicated to studying trends in Bible reading and design. Listening to this interview may be some of the best-spent 30 minutes of your week. Paauw explains how the appearance of the page drastically affects how we read this book—and how we lose the ability to read this book as a book.
I particularly appreciate Paauw’s question: Which of the following is the Bible most like?
Of course, most of us would pass this test with flying colors. We know the Bible is a collection of writings. But without realizing it, we’ve been trained all our lives not to read the Bible this way. Either we memorize individual verses scattered all throughout the Bible (as we’d handle Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations), or we go to the Bible to learn everything it has to say on a particular topic such as marriage or money (as we’d handle The Reader’s Digest Guide to Home Repairs). And the published presentation of the Bible now serves these market expectations, leading us farther and farther away from reading it like a collection of works.
For this reason, recent uncluttered editions such as the ESV Reader’s Bible have become so important. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. I assure you, it will transform your Bible reading experience.
And listen to DG’s podcast to learn more about how the published presentation is changing the way we approach the Bible. It’s well worth your time.
Some commentaries trumpet their contemporary relevance; others excel at close observation or textual analysis. Few bring all these skills together, but Christopher Ash’s recent volume on Job is among their number. Weighing in at almost 450 pages of meaty exposition, this tome gives an intimidating first impression. But Job is a long book, and its 42 chapters each receive just over 10 pages of Ash’s attention. This fact makes Ash’s comments fly swiftly and land hard.
Readers of Job often wrestle with lofty questions about the suffering of innocents, the place of lament, and the problem of evil. Asked from a posture of comfort or philosophical whimsy, such questions are what Ash refers to as “armchair questions.” And he contends that the book of Job deals not with armchair questions but with wheelchair questions—those asked from a position of weakness, desperation, and even devastation. Ash walks through Job’s lengthy speeches with a painstaking interest that never gets tedious. He explains each character’s arguments, stanza by stanza, showing that though humanity’s concerns have changed, they have ever stayed the same. And he shows that Job’s suffering makes most sense as preparing the world for Jesus’ suffering. Because bad things happened to a good man, good things might just happen to bad people—we can be reconciled to God.
Crossway advertises the Preaching the Word series as being “by pastors for pastors,” but don’t let this tagline deceive you. Ash’s writing is straightforward and engaging enough to leave no layperson behind. I’ve read more than 50 commentaries over the years, and Ash’s is one of the very best.
It’s available for $30.15 at Amazon and $29.35 at Westminster Books.
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At the Logos Talk blog, Mark Ward has an excellent piece walking through the observation phase of a study of Psalm 44.
The psalms are a favorite book for God’s people, in part because the study is easier. The meaning of the psalms often, at least, feels plain and practical—even if the application is simply “praise God.” But there is always greater depth in the Bible, and if you want to dig down there you’ll need tools.
I work for a Bible study tool company, but the first tool you should pick up is not necessarily Logos Bible Software. First grab your conceptual tools: observation, interpretation, and application.
We’ll do that in a series of three posts. Today: observation. Next week: interpretation. The next week: application.
Later in the post:
At this stage of the observation process, I don’t want to get bogged down with questions about the meanings of difficult words or phrases—unless they seem necessary for grasping the overall thought-flow of the psalm. Probably the only example of such a phrase in this psalm is “Ordain salvation for Jacob!” in verse 4. This is where Bible background knowledge is likely to be needed. If you’ve read the Old Testament, you probably know that “Jacob” is often a stand-in for the nation of “Israel.” Otherwise this psalm uses fairly simple and straightforward wording. The riches in this psalm are found not so much at the word level but at the structural level. How can I describe such a wrenching shift from praise to despair?
Ward models observation well. Check it out!
