By Peter Krol
Jenny Marcelene shared with her kids some of her own insights from studying Revelation. And in this piece she also shares them with us. Revelation is such an important book to be studying when times are tough. Here are four teachings from the book to help our children in the days to come:
By Peter Krol
Tommy Keene exaggerates only slightly: “Everything I need to know about Revelation I learned in the first eight verses.”
By Peter Krol
Westminster bookstore just launched a new website, called WTS Kids, designed to help parents, caregivers, churches, and schools find great Christian books for their children. You can browse for storybook Bibles, theological introductions, topics, or church history. You can find recommendations based on age. You can also subscribe to their blog to get regular articles about teaching the Bible to children.
They have done a great job curating excellent resources, and their prices are usually better than Amazon’s.
Westminster links are affiliate links. If you click them, this blog will receive a small commission. Thank you for helping us continue to find and recommend good resources!
By Peter Krol
A crucial presupposition we must make when studying the Bible is that, while it was written for believers in all ages (1 Cor 10:11), it was not written directly to us. We are reading someone else’s mail.
That means that we must be aware of and alert for idioms. Those turns of phrase that have a unique meaning in a particular culture but would make no sense when translated to another language. For example, if I describe my child’s theater performance as having “knocked it out of the park,” people in another time and place might presume something got broken or that the play was performed in an outdoor venue.
With the Bible, this issue works in both directions. Ancient authors used idioms, for which word studies will be no help. (Imagine looking up “knocked” and “park” up in a dictionary.) And at the same time, we cannot read modern day idioms back into the text, even if the words are the same.
For example, Alan Shlemon explains the fact that when Jesus told Lazarus to “Come out” (John 11:43), he was not inviting him to publicly identify as gay. This may be self-evident to some, but such basic principles bear repeating. We must seek to understand the Bible the way the original audience would have understood it. Only then can we draw legitimate applications in our day.
Shlemon’s piece skillfully draws out this principle with respect to some of the ways people read the text today.
By Peter Krol
Professor Tommy Keene offers sage advice that ought to be stated over and over again: Stop doing word studies.
Word studies are a favorite tool of Biblical exegetes, but usually aren’t worth the time. Why not? Because either (1) the work has already been done for you, or (2) what you are trying to “find” can’t be found using a word study.
In the article, he explains how the work has already been refined over generations—and you have access to the fruit of that work! Then he goes on to explain how word studies can’t give you what you are looking for:
Word studies as described above are not the best tool for this kind of hermeneutical task. There often (but not always) is a depth in the usage of particular words and phrases, but that depth is not a function of the dictionary definition or “meaning” of the word. It is a function of how the word triggers particular cultural moments and concepts and stories and ideas. The best tool for that kind of analysis is cultural engagement. It is to live in and within the historical “intertext” of the word. That’s obviously hard when it comes to interpreting Scripture. For an outdated 80s reference I just need to find dad’s old VHS collection, or figure out which streaming service owns the rights these days. But the Bible is much older. How do we study the “intertext” of Biblical words?
Word studies can be a part of that process, but it’s really just the first step, and an inefficient one at that. They don’t really help you find what you’re looking for because what you are looking for is a function of culture and theology and the inter-connectedness of texts, not word meaning.
Some might wonder, “If I don’t do word studies, then what should I actually do when studying the Bible? I would suggest working on straightforward OIA of the text at hand. Don’t jump to cross-references until you have first grasped the main point of the text at hand. But in addition, as Keene concludes:
So free up your time. Stop doing word studies. What should you do instead? The absolute best thing you can do is immerse yourself in Scripture. Stop picking the Bible apart into little bits and start reading comprehensively. Second, start developing your facility with exegetical tools like Biblical Theology and typology. Third, start reading “around” the Bible. Language is a function of culture and history as well as syntax and grammar; upgrade your understanding of the ancient world and how it works.
Such counsel is extraordinarily wise and ought to be repeated frequently until we start listening. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
I appreciate Scott Sauls’s piece, “Sometimes I Struggle With the Bible,” because I certainly have similar moments.
When I read Scripture, potential distractions abound. So many things seem more urgent and alluring—things like email, text messages, social media, the day’s news cycle, to-do lists, the latest Netflix series or music release, or opportunities to connect with actual, in the flesh human beings.
Boredom can set in…
I also find the Bible perplexing…
But in the end, Sauls shows it’s all worth it. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
The chief question we ask when we apply the Bible is “how should I change?” (Please don’t ask “what does it mean to me?” as that gives people entirely the wrong idea.) Yet even when we pursue an answer to that chief question, it is not difficult to find ways to weasel out of obeying what God has said. Alan Shlemon lists three ways people tend to do just that:
Shlemon concludes:
Though it’s easy to see these erroneous approaches, we can’t be so naïve as to think we can’t also be blinded by the temptation to circumvent the Bible’s instruction. Jesus knew that following him would be difficult. He explained that if we want to be his disciples, we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him (Matt 16:24). None of those steps is easy. That, however, is what we’re called to do.
It would be much easier to dismiss divine commands, but in dismissing them, we dismiss him. He, however, is worthy of our trust. Let us be true to his word and his commands.
Shlemon’s brief piece is well worth your time. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
Barbara Harper took some advice from Elisabeth Elliot, that she’d never find the time for something that matters unless she made time for it. In this blog post, she provides some very practical suggestions for how to do just that.
As Ryan has written before on this blog, you have enough time to study the Bible. Barbara argues the same conclusion, along with much specific guidance to help you make the most of that time.
By Peter Krol
The Logos Word by Word blog has a fabulous piece about how the ancient Greek language works, contrary to urban legend.
There is an idea which floats around in pulpits and Bible studies, and it goes something like this: “Greek is a perfectly precise language which clearly conveys its meaning, and this is the reason why God used Greek for the New Testament.” I do not pretend to know the mind of God regarding why the New Testament is in Greek. But there are some substantial problems in the assertion that Greek is “perfectly precise.” Uncovering these problems…will actually help us interpret the Bible more accurately.
I have heard this folk tale many times, typically espoused by people who do not themselves know Greek. But armed with a Strong’s Concordance, they believe they can get themselves to “the real meaning” of the words of the New Testament, which are “more precise” than English words could ever be.
The same myth is often espoused regarding the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. Such myths simply need to be blown to bits and scattered to the wind. Biblical Hebrew and Greek were human languages that function very much like the human languages that are still spoken today. There are differences, of course, in how the grammar works. But the fact remains that they function like languages and not like computer code. So this article is well worth your time.
By Peter Krol
Because the book of Proverbs is full of practical wisdom, it has been a popular favorite through the ages. Even unbelievers attempt to pilfer its riches for self-help advice in business, finance, and influence. But for those who trust Jesus’ words—that the entire Old Testament was about him (Luke 24:44-47)—Proverbs presents quite a challenge. What does this book teach us about the Lord Jesus?
Here is an article from Nicholas Batzig that provides much help. Batzig discusses numerous strategies by which we may draw legitimate connections between the revelation in Proverbs and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a taste:
When I was in seminary I read through a chapter of Proverbs every day. At some point I realized that many of the Proverbs were couched in the same language as the Ten Commandments. In fact, one could argue that the Proverbs are a commentary on how the Ten Commandments work themselves out in the lives of God’s people and the world at large. If we understand the different uses of the Law in redemptive-history, we begin to understand the relationship between the Proverbs and the believer’s need for Christ. While the Proverbs will function exclusively in a pedagogical manner for unbelievers (i.e. driving them to Christ for forgiveness), they will also continue to do so in the life of the believer.
I believe Batzig is sometimes a little hasty in going to Christ, without first explaining how the original Old Covenant audience would have understood the book. For example, I would not agree that whenever Proverbs speaks of “the righteous person,” it is speaking always and only about the Messiah Jesus (since none of us can be truly righteous). Scholar Bruce Waltke has helpfully shown that the concept of “the righteous” in the Proverbs simply refers to one who is willing to disadvantage themselves in order to advantage others; it did not originally refer to forensic righteousness in the sense that Paul uses the term.
But with that said, Batzig’s strategies and examples remain very helpful for drawing helpful and legitimate connections to the person and work of Christ. If you wish to read Proverbs like a Christian, I highly commend the article.
