Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Andrea Crocker has a fine piece on her blog reminding us that the word of God is more reliable.
I would guess that most readers of this blog will quickly assent to these abstract statements. But when it comes down to it, do we live as though they are true. Let Crocker’s insights provoke you to greater love for Christ and his word.
Many thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s 90-day Bible reading challenge! And again, many thanks to Lifeway for sponsoring the grand prize of a five-volume CSB Reader’s Bible. This year we had 25 entries that met the qualifications for the drawing. And the winners are:
More than half of this year’s entries read the Bible in canonical order. The next most common reading order was chronological.
15 folks read the ESV. The second most common translation was HCSB. And one person read the 1560 Geneva Bible!
Here’s what some folks had to say about the experience:
It was a different experience. I am used to reading the Bible in a year. I plan to read this way more frequently, as it helps to relate texts to others, but I prefer to read at a lower speed.
It added so much context and meaning when I would read about the history of Israel’s kings one day and then the next day read about the prophets and prophecies that applied to them. It added a lot of context that I am usually missing when I read the prophets. Furthermore, reading quickly allowed me to notice more of the quotations and allusions of the Old Testament in the New Testament.
I enjoyed it immensely. Some passages like Proverbs were difficult to read through so quickly but Job, for instance, makes a lot more sense when read in large chunks. Elihu’s speech, for example, shows up in stark contrast to the others this way.
I would say overall I enjoyed it. It helped me to see the bible as one book as opposed to many smaller ones. It gave me a better idea of God’s overarching story. It also surprised me how much I liked certain books I disliked the last time I did this. I guess that’s why you always keep rereading?
5th year in a row! The Holy Spirit is still showing me themes I don’t think I would see without doing this each year.
Thanks again to all for participating. I trust it was profitable even for those who found it difficult or uncomfortable. May the Lord use this time of saturation in his word to influence the rest of this unusual year for the sake of his kingdom.
Today is your last chance to enter the drawing for a reader’s Bible! Winners will be notified by the end of this week. See here for official rules. Entries that do not follow the guidelines will not be accepted.
Though we can’t pinpoint the precise year or month of Habakkuk’s writing, we know he delivered his brief book of prophecy near the end of the southern kingdom of Judah, probably before (or some of it very shortly after) Nebuchadnezzar’s first assault in 605 BC. Habakkuk’s book is unique among the prophets in that it doesn’t present a series of speeches for the general public. Instead, it records Habakkuk’s own wrestling in dialogue with the God of Israel.
The book has two explicit headings, marking two main sections:
In the first main section, we can follow the subsections by observing the pronouns and direction of the dialogue:
In the second main section, we can distinguish stanzas based on the shifts between first person (I, me) and second/third person (you, God) pronouns:
Habakkuk’s first question (Hab 1:2-4) could be paraphrased as either “When will they change?”—referring to the people of God behaving wickedly—or “When will you change, God?”—so as to not allow your people to continue in evil. In either case, Habakkuk sees destruction and violence, where he expects to see God’s law and justice. The result is an unacceptable perversion.
Yahweh’s answer (Hab 1:5-11) is so utterly unbelievable, that he expects Habakkuk to be astounded by it (Hab 1:5). He will, in fact deal with his people’s violence. And he will do it by bringing an even more violent and godless nation against them. In other words, the answer is neither that God’s people will change nor that God himself will change. The answer is that Habakkuk’s situation will change, and much for the worse.
This provokes Habakkuk’s second question (Hab 1:12-2:1), which is more of a protest. Habakkuk appeals to God’s eternity (“Are you not from everlasting?”), holiness (“my Holy One”), and covenant promises (“We shall not die”)—all in his opening verse (Hab 1:12). He trusts that God is in control by the word of his power (“you have ordained them…established them”). He appeals also to God’s righteous purity (Hab 1:13) and jealousy to be worshiped (Hab 1:16). So Habakkuk believes that God would not be true to his nature if he simply lets the Chaldeans have their way. Surely this cannot be a permanent state of affairs (Hab 1:17). Habakkuk stands in confidence to see how God will receive his protest (Hab 2:1).
Yahweh’s second answer covers quite a lot of ground. He assures Habakkuk that things will certainly change—but not until well into the future (Hab 2:2-3). He calls the righteous—in this case, Habakkuk—to trust his promise, even when everything looks and feels awful (Hab 2:4-5). Then he speaks of a time when all evildoers, everywhere, will be upended. He does this by pronouncing five curses on the wicked (Hab 2:6-8, 9-11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-20) and highlighting two stark conclusions:
The larger point of God’s responses to Habakkuk is that neither God himself nor the people around Habakkuk are the ones who must change. The one thing that must change is Habakkuk himself. The book’s chief question is: Will Habakkuk respond to God’s word with a heart of trust, even if it means things will get terrifyingly disastrous in the process?
Habakkuk 3 provides the answer to the book’s main question: Yes! Yes, he will. And in so doing, he shows all who come after him what it looks like to have faith in God’s righteous and holy promises.
In the first stanza (Hab 3:2), Habakkuk confesses that there is something even more fearful than an attacking Babylonian horde; it is the work of God to rectify all that is wrong. Habakkuk’s hope is no longer that wrath will not befall the people of the land, but that in the midst of such wrath Yahweh will not forget to show mercy. Habakkuk clings to God’s promise to make everything right once again, though it may yet be long in the future.
The second stanza (Hab 3:3-15) could easily be further subdivided into a third-person stanza (Hab 3:3-7 – he/his) and a second-person stanza (Hab 3:8-15 – you/your). But for the sake of this book overview, they stand together as a lengthy reflection on the splendor and power of Yahweh to do what he says he will do. He is not only able, but also willing, to do whatever he must to both save his people and crush his enemies (Hab 3:13).
In the third stanza (Hab 3:16-19), Habakkuk confesses how terrifying it is to live between promise and reality, to live by faith (Hab 3:16). Yet he chooses to stand fast in faith, finding joy in God’s salvation and strength in God alone. No matter how much everything around him falls to pieces (Hab 3:17-19).
When the Apostle Paul was looking for a banner to wave, a motto to rally under, for introducing the glorious good news of Christ’s righteousness available through faith, he could find nothing more suitable than Habakkuk 2:4: “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). That’s not because he needed a tweetable phrase from a random Old Testament text. It’s because that phrase captures the entire thrust of Habakkuk’s book of prophecy.
This is what it means to live by faith: We cannot change our circumstances. We cannot change the people around us. And we cannot coerce change from God. But, especially when our knees knock and our lips quiver, the one thing that must change is us. We can bank everything on the God who is both willing and able to do all he has said he will do. So in faith we look back on the death and resurrection of his Son (Rom 1:16-17). And in faith we also look forward, through whatever suffering and trial we now face, to see faith’s founder and perfecter (Heb 10:36-39, 12:1-3).
This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.
I really appreciate Mike Leake’s reflection on the nature of spiritual doubt and how it ought not get in the way of our Bible study. Perhaps your doubt has so terrified that you that you’ve sought to shoot or strangle it instead of allowing it to motivate your wrestling with God’s words.
Truth is never scared of a microscope. If something is true then it’s true down to it’s very core. You don’t have to be afraid to ask difficult questions.
If you conduct your ministry primarily in Spanish, or you know someone who does, you may want to know that a number of our blog posts have been translated into Spanish. We keep that list updated as more translated posts are published. You can always find a link to that page at the bottom of our resources page.
I’m especially grateful to Kevin Halloran, who recently translated the post 10 Reasons to Avoid Sexual Immorality, from my series on Proverbs 1-9, for his blog Anchored in Christ.
I was recently invited to be the guest on the Theological Ministry Podcast, to discuss how we, as parents or teachers, can train our children and students to study the Bible for themselves. I really enjoyed the conversation with hosts Ben and Tony and thought you might enjoy listening in. The episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud.
Don’t forget we’ve got a Bible reading challenge underway. There’s still time to finish reading the entire Bible within 90 days, and you could enter to win a free CSB Reader’s Bible, Five-Volume Collection or a one-volume reader’s Bible of your choice.
Reading must be completed by March 31. See this post for the complete rules. We’ve got twelve entries so far! Once you’ve completed your reading, you may enter the drawing with this form.
Entries that do not meet the guidelines (for example, reading period longer than 90 days, reading period is outside the allowable dates, or form is submitted before the reading has been completed) will not be counted in the drawing.
When I decide to review a product, it’s normally because I’ve already decided the product will be useful for Bible study. The ESV Panorama New Testament is a little different, however. While I was fascinated by the idea of this new product, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work practically. But I wanted to see for myself.
The ESV Panorama New Testament is an oversized printing of the full New Testament, appearing almost like a coffee table book. The font is the same size as a standard book, so a lot of text fits on each page. All of the standard extras are here (chapter and verse numbers, section headings, page numbers, and beginning and ending verse references in the top corners), but no additional study helps are present (cross references, footnotes, study notes, etc.). The idea is to get more of the Bible on each page spread so you can read or study large portions at a time without the distraction of page turns.
The promo video promises that this format “gives a wider perspective on the context of each passage.”
Of course, I am all in favor of making it easier for people to keep context in mind as they read and study the Bible. But can a giant-sized book do that? I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t sit and read my coffee-table books for hours on end. They’re typically helpful for browsing or showing something off. But not for lengthy reading or careful literary analysis.
And yet I am deeply grateful to Crossway for their constant creativity in finding new and unexpected ways of delighting in God’s word. They have taken many risks, publishing things we just haven’t seen before, without assurance of dramatic sales. They rocked my world with their first reader’s Bible. And then the six-volume set? They took us to the third heaven, an experience that compelled not one but two reviews from me.
Since then, Crossway delighted us with many other glorious experiments. Scripture journals. Journaling Bibles. Reader’s gospels. But what about this coffee table monstrosity? I can imagine showing it off to people who visit my home, but not sitting and reading. Not attempting deep OIA study. Perhaps I’ll witness Crossway’s hull finally running aground on a deliciously ambitious but failed experiment.
I’ll begin with the good news, which is that it works. It really works. The video makes the book seem larger than it really is. And because of its thinness, it weighs very little and is not hard to hold on a lap. It lies quite flat on a desk or tabletop, and I had no trouble using it for extended reading.
There is something pretty remarkable about seeing the entire book of Colossians, to give one example, on a single page spread. The layout gives the reader permission to read and keep reading. I imagine that with repeated reading, repeated words and ideas would pop off the page, and this volume is well designed for marking up such things.
There is plenty of space in the margins, between columns, and at the bottom of the page for extensive annotations. And I am very grateful for the exclusion of study helps. This edition of the New Testament focuses you almost exclusively on the text itself. A lot of text at once. And the psychological effect of seeing so much text at once is truly remarkable.
Ten of the New Testament books are too long for a single page spread. I appreciate that the typesetting for those books doesn’t simply run to the end of the margin and continue on the next page. Instead, they set up only complete chapters, such that whenever you turn a page, you’re always at the beginning of a new chapter on the left-hand side.
I applaud the self-consciousness here to avoid having a page end mid-thought or mid-sentence. And in some cases, it still works. For example, it is glorious to see the entire Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) on a single page spread. Perhaps this will help people read it as a single sermon. In addition, having each page break line up with a particular chapter break has another welcome effect, that of causing a variety in the amount of blank space at the bottom of each spread. All pages have plenty of space down there; because of the page break, some have even more than “plenty,” making this Bible even more likely to be useful as a markup Bible.
However, I’m disappointed that the primary factor in breaking each page is the chapter division. This intriguing volume could be even more successful at what it sets out to do if it simply discarded chapter and verse numbers (like a true reader’s Bible), and instead worked to put page breaks at more natural literary divisions (which are quite often not at our Bibles’ chapter breaks!).
The argument in favor of retaining chapter and verse numbers likely rests with the need to be able to find or reference specific passages. That need could be mitigated if the chapter and verse numbers were in the margins, outside the text block (like line numbers in a Shakespeare play), and if the paragraphing and page breaks were not so dependent on them.
Finally, if this Bible truly sets out to give a wider perspective on the context of each passage, I think it would do that better without section headings on each paragraph or group of paragraphs. Perhaps just a heading on each larger division, like those found in the Six-Volume Set, would be sufficient. But the sheer amount of text on each page spread makes this criticism far less urgent than in most other editions of the Bible.
I am pleasantly surprised by this edition. At this point, I can envision making great use of the ESV Panorama New Testament as a markup Bible for careful study. I plan to use it for this purpose for some time to come. At least, until they come out with a reader’s version (no chapter or verse numbers). Or if they make a whole-Bible version (including the Old Testament as well).
I really like what Crossway has done here, and I think the risk pays off handsomely. Do consider giving it a try. Available at Amazon.
Crossway sent me a complimentary review copy in exchange for an honest review. They didn’t even ask whether I expected to like it or not. Amazon links are affiliate links; if you take the risk of clicking them, this blog will receive a small commission, though not a handsome one.
One common challenge in Bible study is figuring out how much text to study. Whether it’s for personal study, small group discussion, or a sermon selection, students of the Bible have a number of things working against them in making this choice.
First, ancient literature didn’t have typesetting, headings, or subheadings in the same way modern literature does. If you pick up the latest bestselling fiction, chapters are clearly marked. If you prefer non-fiction, you have not only chapters, but clear section headings to break up units of thought. Having no such conventions, ancient literature had to embed its literary markers within the text itself.
Second, modern presentation of Bibles is not always all that helpful. For about 8 centuries, we’ve been stuck with a system of chapter and verse numbers that were designed primarily to help us find things and not to mark off literary units. But most people reading a Bible will presume the chapter and verse divisions should be treated like modern chapters and subheadings, when they ought to function more like line numbers in a Shakespeare play.
Add to that the common publishing practice of adding headings over segments of text, which may or may not be sensitive to the innate literary markers, and readers have a lot to sort through (and learn not to rely on) before they can begin observing.
So I regularly hear folks asking how to figure out how much text to study at once. Ryan wrote a great piece on this question, which you can find here, where he argues we ought to study complete units of thought. That then begs the question of how to identify complete units of thought. Ryan’s piece offers much help to that end.
And a reader of the blog, Barbara Johnson, recently put me on to another wonderful piece by Jason DeRouchie that goes into greater depth on this crucial topic of identifying units of thought. Perhaps you’ve read some of my interpretive book overviews, and you wonder what I mean by “literary markers” and why I begin each piece with them. I am simply trying to show the literary conventions, found within the text itself, that mark off the author’s units of thought.
DeRouchie can help:
The limits of the passage could be a quotation, a paragraph, a story, a song, or even an entire book. The process of establishing literary units is not random, for the biblical authors wrote with purpose, logic, and order, creating groupings and hierarchies of thought to guide understanding. As a biblical interpreter, consider whether there is a clear beginning and end to your passage. Are there clues in the content and/or the grammar that clarify a passage’s boundaries? … Determining the boundaries of a passage can help you lead a Bible study, plan a series of Bible studies, or plan a preaching series. Before you can do any of these things, you have to know where to start and where to end. This blog post offers some basic guidelines for establishing the boundaries of literary units.
He then gives 5 primary steps to help you establish these boundaries, with much insight into each step:
This is very helpful material, which will help you to grow into a more literary student of the Scriptures, acquiring an appropriate sensitivity to the shape of the text before you. I highly commend DeRouchie’s article.
