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Great Advice: Stop Doing Word Studies

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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 For an outdated 80s reference I just need to find dad’s old VHS collection, or figure out which streaming service owns the rights these days.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!

It’s Okay to Struggle With the Bible

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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!

3 Ways We Weasel Out of Obedience

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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:

  1. Claim personal divine revelation that supersedes Scripture. (“God told me to…”)
  2. Claim the Bible is corrupted and/or add other divine revelations. (“Other holy books get it right when they say…”)
  3. Pick and choose which parts of Scripture you’ll uphold. (“We know better today than they did back then…”)

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!

How to Find Time to Read the Bible

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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.

Check it out!

Why Greek is Not Like a Precise Code

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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.

Check it out!

Seeing Jesus in the Proverbs

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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.

Check it out!

How to Apply the Bible’s Narratives

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For a religious book, is it not surprising that the Bible contains way more narrative than instructional material? What are we supposed to do with all those stories? What is their connection to our lives?

Some might say we shouldn’t apply Bible stories; they are only for telling what happened and not what ought to happen. But that doesn’t do full justice to the way the Scriptures themselves make use of the stories (1 Cor 10:6, 1 Jn 3:12, 1 Pet 2:21, etc.).

Christy Gambrell has a helpful piece where she begins to explain how to connect these stories to our lives.

It helps to understand what a narrative is. Narratives are not morality tales, but real stories about real people making real decisions. As such, they’re not necessarily intended to prescribe a pattern for our actions. But they are written for our instruction, showing us truth and helping us live in response to it.

I would not make such a sharp polarization between “prescribe a pattern” and “helping us live in response to” the truth. But Gambrell is helpful in showing that we ought not make a thoughtless, immediate example or non-example out of every Bible character. Reflection must take place to recognize how the narrator makes use of the character, so we might properly appropriate the message in our day.

Gambrell gives two very helpful tactics: respect the narrative genre, and look to what the rest of Scripture says about those characters. I would add another crucial tool: Observe the plot structure to find the main point (somewhere around the climax or resolution. Then seek to apply that main point and not merely the incidental character details along the way.

Gambrell offers much help to get the process started.

Check it out!

Does Genesis Have Two Creation Accounts?

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How are Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 related? Benjamin Shaw states the issue as follows:

One often hears the idea that there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1–2, almost as if it were intuitively obvious. There are certainly differences between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. But the question is whether we have here two separate accounts of creation that have been joined together by some much later editor, or whether we have one unified account with different emphases. The former view came from the skeptical scholarship that arose from the Enlightenment. The latter has, for millennia, been the view of the church.

He goes on to briefly defend the latter “traditional” view. What do you think? Does he make a persuasive case? Does he show it from the text?

Regardless of whether you think Genesis presents one creation account or two, can you do more than simply assert your position? Can you demonstrate from the text itself that your conclusion is how the original author intended the text to be read?

Check it out!

Why Jesus is in the Midst of the Gathered Two or Three

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I’ve written before of the promise of Matthew 18:20 (“For where two or three are gathered…”) in context. Because context matters, and it is abundantly clear that the “two or three” are not the folks who show up to your prayer meeting.

Amy K. Hall recently published a terrific piece making the same point, and I recommend you check it out. Not only because she agrees with me and makes the same point I do. But because she sees something I never noticed about why Jesus promises to be with these two or three folks who represent him. The allusion to 2 Chronicles 19:5-7 is quite remarkable.

Check it out!

Bible Interpretation that Dignifies God as Original Author

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Jacob Toman has a thoughtful post on how to think about Bible interpretation. It is quite common and tempting to interpret the Bible in a way that focuses on “what it means to me.” However:

When we read and interpret the Bible, we should seek to do so in a manner that if we were to have a conversation with God, God would have no corrections for us. This means our interpretation should defer to what God intended in a passage, and also how God chose to communicate that passage, through a historical writer. 

Any meaning that God himself would disagree with, however meaningful it may be to the reader, fails to dignify God or do justice to his truth.

Check it out!