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If You Use a Study Bible, Do it Well

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After taking a few posts to explain both the blessings and curses of study Bibles, I recently wrote about how to get the best out of your study Bible. I gave the following suggestions:

  1. Treat it as a reference work, not as your main Bible.
  2. Go heavy on overviews (book introductions) and historical background.
  3. Wrestle with the biblical text without your study Bible.
  4. Refer to the study notes when you have a specific, impenetrable question—then set them aside again.
  5. Read the articles and genre introductions.

Within a week, two other posts appeared on the internet saying very similar things. I want you to know I’m not the only one holding these opinions.

Exhibit A: Andy Naselli, Assistant Editor for the NIV Zondervan Study Bible. Writing at Desiring God, he gives these tips:

  1. Don’t use poor study Bibles.
  2. Use quality study Bibles.
  3. Don’t use the notes as a crutch or shortcut instead of wrestling with the text itself.
  4. Don’t combine the authority of the God-breathed text with the notes.
  5. Use a study Bible in the same way that you would responsibly use other resources that help you better understand and apply the Bible.

Exhibit B: Justin Taylor, Managing Editor for the ESV Study Bible. Writing at the Gospel Coalition, he makes these suggestions:

  1. Use your study Bible discerningly. (“The most important feature in a study Bible is the horizontal line that divides the biblical text from the biblical interpretation. Everything above the line is inerrant and infallible. Everything below the line is filled with good intentions but may not be true.”)
  2. Use your study Bible for more than just the notes. (“I am convinced that the most underutilized and yet important parts of a good study Bible are the introductions to each biblical book.”)
  3. Use more than one study Bible.
  4. Use your study Bible as an opportunity to interpret the Bible with the communion of saints. (“The best study Bibles don’t present startling new interpretations. They put you in dialogue with the best interpreters—teachers who are gifts of God to the church—to help us rightly handle His Word.”)

There you go. The point is not whether there should be 4 rules or 5, nor how exactly to state the rules. The point is that even the study Bible editors (who want to sell you their study Bibles) don’t want you to over-rely on their study Bibles.

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Disclaimer: Clicking the Amazon links and buying stuff will provide a small commission to help this blog with hosting fees. Get one of these study Bibles, but don’t over-rely on it. And don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Great Deal on ESV Thinline Bibles

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Westminster Books is currently offering 40-47% off all ESV thinline Bibles. If you want one, now is the time to get one. I use the “value thinline” edition as the Bible I preach from. Thin, simple, cheap.

Offer ends Oct 5, 2015.

Check it out.

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Disclaimer: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning that the blog will get a small percentage of the money you spend if you do so after following that link. Thank you kindly!

4 Reminders About the Word of God

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This week’s “check it out” post comes from Collegiate Collective, a blog for encouraging and training collegiate ministers. But even if you’re not involved in campus ministry, Lance Crowell’s reminders get at the foundation of what we believe to be true. When you’re tempted to grow weary or be discouraged in your family, small group, church, or other ministry—remind yourself of these things.

  1. God’s words have the power to change everything.
  2. God’s words do not change.
  3. God’s words are always available and beneficial.
  4. God’s words will be our hope and strength in the days to come.

May these facts never feel like sentimental tripe. May they grip our hearts and strengthen us to press on.

For more explanation, check out Crowell’s full article!

John Piper on a Letter’s Introduction

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John Piper continues his extensive series of videos modeling observation and interpretation of the Bible. In a recent episode, he began to address the opening verses to 1 Peter.

https://vimeo.com/137981364

Piper shows a few things very well:

  • How to learn about the letter’s author from the letter itself.
  • How to learn about the letter’s audience from the letter itself.

It can be helpful to use resources outside the text (such as book introductions in study Bibles) to learn the historical background. But it’s even better to look within the text itself.

Check it out!

The Word Study Fallacy

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Writing for The Master’s Seminary, William Barrick explains the problem of over-occupation with word studies (scroll to page 19 of the doc):

Study of the words alone will not present us with a consistent interpretation or theology. This is one of the misleading aspects of theological dictionaries/wordbooks. One learns far more about obedience/disobedience or sacrifice and sin from the full statement of a passage like 1 Sam 15:22–23 than he will from word studies of key terms like “sacrifice,” “obey,” or “sin” in the text.

He explains briefly why word studies are easy and popular. But he shows with a few good examples that they simply will not do. We do far better to learn how to study passages than to study words.

Check it out!

What are Commentaries Good For?

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Last week, Paul Levy gave some brief but helpful thoughts at Reformation 21 about using commentaries. Here are a few delicious quips:

Commentaries are often answering questions no one is asking.

They help you clarify what you don’t think.

I try to use commentaries only when I’m stuck, and invariably they are not a massive amount of help.

In finding what is the big theme of the letter most commentaries are of little use.

However, on the details of the text they can really help.

Levy’s musings are worth considering. Check it out!

How to Decide Which Parts of the Bible to Follow and Which to Ignore

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How do you decide which aspects of the Bible to follow, and which to ignore?

Justin Taylor posted a video of a young woman posing this question to Dr. John Stackhouse, Religious Studies Professor at Crandall University, New Brunswick. Stackhouse turns the question around to suggest that we should study the Bible closely enough to understand it before attempting to claim there are parts we should ignore.

The two-minute video is well worth your time. Check it out!

Infographic: Kings of Israel and Judah

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If you’re studying Kings, Chronicles, or one of the Prophets, the Good Book Company has an infographic you might want to check out. They list all the kings of Israel and Judah, color-coded to represent the text’s evaluation of their obedience to God. The infographic also shows the Hebrew prophets and where their prophecies fit into the timeline. It’s clean, attractive, and very helpful.

Check it out!

Even the Bible Needed Upgrading

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Though God’s Holy Spirit breathed out the very words of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17), he did so through the skills and creativity of human authors (2 Pet 1:21). And as the generations passed, and the original readers of a Bible book had come and gone, scribes would update the text to make sense for a new era.

This fact is not something Bible-believing Christians should fear or cover up. It does not threaten the doctrines of inspiration or inerrancy. If God can speak through human authors, he can also speak through human editors. Some alleged errors or inconsistencies in the Bible can be reasonably explained through this editorial process.

We understand the practice today. It often takes as few as 10 years for a publisher to release a “revised and updated” second edition of a successful book. This doesn’t necessarily mean the first edition was in error, but that when times change, some things need updating. Important ancient literature worked the same way.

Writing for Bible Study Magazine, Michael Heiser speaks of such evidence of “upgrading” in Genesis 14 and Psalm 51. We could find many further examples where terminology, people or place names, or turns of phrase must have been updated for later generations. God wants people to know him through his word. His word will last forever, and his main points don’t change, but the text must always be translated and explained for each new generation and culture.

Heiser gives two reasons why details may have been updated over time:

  1. To make the stories more familiar to new readers (by avoiding archaic names and terminology they wouldn’t understand).
  2. To re-purpose something already written to “make it preach” to a new community.

Heiser’s brief article gives a few examples and much worth considering. Check it out!

Best Advice: Never Read a Bible Verse

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Writing at the Stand to Reason blog, Greg Koukl explains what he believes to be the most important skill for Bible-believing Christians:

If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I’ve ever learned as a Christian?

Here it is: Never read a Bible verse. That’s right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least.

Koukl goes on to explain a simple method for clarifying the meaning of any verse: paraphrase it in your own words, then read the surrounding paragraph with the inserted paraphrase. Demonstrating this method, Koukl debunks popular but false readings of quotable verses:

  • John 1:3 – “Apart from him” cannot mean “With the exception of Jesus.”
  • Colossians 3:15 – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” cannot mean “Let feelings of peacefulness in your heart be the judge about God’s individual will for your life.”
  • John 12:32 – “If I be lifted up from the earth” cannot mean “If I be exalted before the people.”
  • John 10:27 – “My sheep hear my voice” cannot mean “Mature Christians have the ability to sense My personal direction for their lives and obey it.”

Koukl’s great article will challenge you never to read a Bible verse apart from the paragraph surrounding it. And I highly recommend this practice.

Check it out!

HT: Justin Taylor