Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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A Resource for First-Time Bible Readers

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bible on table

John-Mark Smith (2016), public domain

Here at Knowable Word, we’re passionate about the Bible. This blog exists to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible.

We love hearing about people starting to read and study the Bible. We want everyone to learn what God says about himself and how he can be known and worshiped.

But we recognize that many people haven’t read the Bible before. They didn’t grow up with the Bible in their house, they didn’t go to church—they are simply unfamiliar with this book that we love.

We’ve created a resource with these people in mind. This document is a one-page handout for first-time Bible readers. Feel free to print copies to distribute at your church, your ministry, or to your friends as you invite them to read the Bible.

When printed and folded in half (or printed two-sided and cut in half), this resource would fit nicely inside most pew Bibles. If your church is giving Bibles away, consider including a version of this document to help first-time Bible readers get started.

Check it out: First-Time Bible Reader Page

This was first published in 2018.

The Old Testament is More than a Prelude

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Daniel Stevens found from studying Hebrew that the Old Testament is far more than a prelude building up to the New Testament.

It is not just that the Old Testament historically led to the New Testament as a kind of prelude, but rather that the one God who speaks in both Testaments intended them to belong forever to the church as a single body of Scripture. That is, while it is important—necessary even—to read the Old Testament as that which went before the coming of Christ and his gospel in all its historical rootedness as God interacted with Israel, it is just as necessary to read it alongside the New Testament as God’s present word to the church. God spoke in the Old Testament, yes, and in that historical speech, God still speaks.

That is fundamentally what the New Testament authors knew; and that is the key to seeing, as they did, the many-splendored revelation of God in Christ that reverberates through every page of Scripture, Old and New.

The whole Bible is the word of God for us. It all speaks of Christ. It all speaks to us because in it God has spoken to us.

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Steep Discounts on Logos Resources

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Logos Bible Software is holding their annual March Matchups, where you can go and vote on which commentaries and Bible background resources you like the best. The farther a particular resource makes it through the bracket, the steeper the discount put on it.

Go ahead and vote. And if you are a Logos user, you can find some outstanding resource series at terrific prices. Even those that lost their matchups are well discounted. I highly recommend the New Studies in Biblical Theology, Church History Magazine, and Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.

Check it out!

Disclaimer: Logos links are affiliate links. By clicking them and buying stuff, you’ll provide this blog with a small commission at no extra cost to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Reading the Bible Like Jesus

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Matthew Harmon thinks we should should read the Bible the way Jesus did, since obeying him should include obeying his instruction regarding the Scriptures.

If Jesus Christ is the fullest revelation of God, it makes sense that he’d be the person we look to for guidance on how to read the Bible. Not only should we have the same view of the Bible that Jesus had, but we should read it the way he read it.

And perhaps among other things, that at least means that we should view the Bible as:

  1. Fulfilling the Two Great Commandments
  2. A Narrative That Points to Him

Check it out!

The Value of Historical Context from Colossians

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One of the best ways to identify historical context is from the Bible itself. In this post, Kenneth Berding shows us how many historical details are simply bursting off the page in Colossians chapter 4.

Berding shares nine things that we simply would not know if Colossians 4 weren’t in the scriptures:

  1. Colossians and Philemon were sent by Paul at the same time (4:9)
  2. Aristarchus was a “co-prisoner” with Paul (4:10)
  3. Barnabas had a cousin (4:10)
  4. Paul had a co-worker named Jesus (4:11)
  5. Colossae’s pastor was Epaphras (4:12-13)
  6. Luke was a doctor (4:14)
  7. Demas used to be a valued co-worker of Paul (4:14)
  8. Paul also sent a letter to the Laodiceans (4:16)
  9. Archippus had a ministry in the church in Colossae (4:17)

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Follow the Bible’s Larger Story

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To help guide you to stronger, more delightful Bible reading, Stephen Kneale offers four guiding principles:

  1. What does this say about Jesus?
  2. How does this fit with/relate to other passages?
  3. Read it knowing God ordained events as part of his story
  4. Let the clear interpret the less clear

Kneale writes:

Though we affirm the perspicuity of scripture and the fundamental clarity of its essential message, the ever-present issue when reading the Bible is this: how do I know I am reading it rightly? It is all too easy to read ourselves into the story when it isn’t necessarily about us, miss the main point of a passage or just badly misread what is said altogether. Whilst utter interpretative perfection is unlikely to any of us, there are some helpful guiding principles that can keep us on the right track with any passage of scripture.

While these are not the only principles that could or should guide your Bible reading, they represent some good habits to develop as you go.

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Rediscovering Joy in Bible Reading

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I appreciate this brief reflection by Simon van Bruchem about “Finding Joy in Bible Reading.” Among other things, he suggests:

It will help if we consider what we are doing when we read the Bible. It is not like a textbook we have to wade through in order to pass an exam. It is not something we have to do out of expectation or duty. It is something we get to do; a privilege, a blessing.

Countless people through history would have loved to have the access to God’s word that we enjoy today. We can read and we have it (most of the time) in our own language. We can afford it; we can get access for free on our phones or the internet. We have it in audio form and have so many books that help us understand it. What a blessing this is!

He discusses the fact that we love hearing from the people we love. In the pages of Scripture, we hear from the lover of our souls.

Check it out!

Piper’s Advice on Commentaries

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We don’t want you to become commentary junkies. And neither does John Piper. While there are certainly people out there in danger of arrogant isolation, refusing to consider the opinions of others recorded in Bible commentaries, Piper’s world is a bit different:

Now, in the world I live in — where I function at Bethlehem College and Seminary and Bethlehem Baptist Church and Desiring God — and the circles I go in, there aren’t many people who are falling off the horse on the first side, who say, “I never read commentaries. I never read books about the Bible. I just read my Bible, I pray, and that’s all I need.” I don’t know anybody like that in my sphere. That’s not the world I live in. I’m sure they exist; I just don’t have anything to do with them.

In my sphere, the error is almost always on the other side, the other direction. And therefore, I have devoted most of my life to encouraging people not to be dependent on commentaries and books about the Bible but to give assiduous attention to the biblical text directly — for themselves. When it comes to church leadership, I see more danger in becoming an inauthentic second-hander than in spending too much time assiduously thinking for yourself about what the Bible text is teaching.

My experience within my own circles has been similar to Piper’s. Which is why we want to help you learn how to study the Bible for yourself. By all means, don’t avoid commentaries altogether. The question is not whether but when.

And Piper can help you think that through further.

Check it out!

The Real Reasons Most Don’t Read the Bible

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This thought-provoking piece by Ava Ligh warrants considerable reflection. In addressing the question “Why don’t we read the Bible more?” Ligh suggests that the most commonly-given answer — that we don’t have time — is not the real answer. (My co-blogger Ryan would agree.)

Instead, Ligh suggests that:

The real reasons we don’t read the Bible go unexamined because we consider them unacceptable. The Bible feels boring and like a waste of time. I’ve had this confirmed by the college students to whom I minister. It’s boring for those who have grown up in Sunday School and feel they already know all the stories and key verses and that there’s nothing new to learn. It feels like a waste of time for those who find the Bible difficult to understand. 

Note: that doesn’t mean the Bible is a boring book but that we are bored readers. There is a difference. (Again, I suspect Ryan would agree.)

For that reason, Ligh explains three common misunderstandings of the Bible that tend to produce bored Bible readers.

  1. The Bible is to be applied.
  2. The Bible is a collection of isolated teachings.
  3. The Bible should be instantly understandable.

Ligh corrects each misunderstanding with a thoughtful and cogent alternative that ought to spur us on to greater delight in this Book of books.

Check it out!