Method | Knowable Word

The Whole is Not Less Than the Sum of the Parts

August 11, 2023 By Peter Krol

I agree with the conventional wisdom that the whole of something is greater than the sum of the parts. But that yields a crucial implication we might easily overlook: the whole must then not be less than the sum of the parts.

In other words, the “whole” and the “parts” are not independent categories, with no relationship to one another. If we focus on the parts with no grasp of the whole, we’re on the wrong track. And at the same time, if our understanding of the whole has nothing to do with the parts, we’re likewise not where we wanna be.

What does this have to do with Bible study?

closed brown wooden door — Photo by Xain Sheikh on Pexels.com

The Main Point is the “Whole”

Perhaps the most important step in the Bible study process is to determine the author’s main point. Without grasping that, we’re swimming in a sea of detail, subject to being blown in uncertain directions. For example, by failing to grasp the main point, Jehovah’s Witnesses can use the Scripture to “prove” that Jesus is not God, and evangelicals can use the Scripture to claim that Christ’s strengthening is for athletic or business performance.

Observations are the “Parts”

The parts of the passage are the things we notice first. The things we must take note of when we open the text and examine it. We can observe repeated words, logical connectors, names and titles, subjects and main verbs, genre, mood, and structure. There are many, many details to observe in a passage. So many, that we may never exhaust them in a given study.

Whole Greater Than Parts

The purpose of observation (noticing what it says) is to eventually move into competent interpretation (figuring out why it says it). The peak of interpretation is figuring out the author’s main point. Until we get to that main point, we have not yet grasped the text’s own message. We might discern some truth in the text, but we haven’t grasped the truth of the text.

Therefore, the author’s main point is more important than any particular observation or group of observations. This is why our connection to Christ works best from the main point and not incidental details. This is also why our application will be strongest when it flows from the main point and not from incidental details.

The whole (main point) is greater than the sum of the parts (any particular observations).

Whole Not Less Than Parts

However, we must remember that the main point is not something of our own invention. The main point is not something altogether different from the detailed observations. Every detail is there on purpose. The author chose to include some details and exclude others in order to communicate his main idea. So my concept of the main point must be related in some way to any and every detail in the text.

The following maxim helps me to “check my work” on the main point:

If the main point really is the main point, you should be able to make any observation and I must explain how it contributes to that main point.

What I mean is that if my conception of the main point is truly the author’s main point, then I must be able to explain any (perhaps every) detail in light of its role in communicating that main point. So I can put my main point out there for testing by inviting others to push back with concrete observations of the text. “If you think that’s the main point, then how do you explain…?”

This is quite a fun discussion to have in small group Bible studies. Once the group has come up with a provisional main point, invite group members to assault that main point with observations. Together, they can test and evaluate the strength of the proposed main point.

An Example

For example, I proposed a few weeks ago that the main point of Ephesians 4 is that diversity shouldn’t divide the church, but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do. Someone may come along and ask: “If that’s the case, then why does he quote Psalm 68 in Eph 4:8? And what’s with all the talk about Jesus ascending and descending in Eph 4:9-10?”

And I’d respond: “That’s a great question!” And then I’d explain:

The quote of Psalm 68 (and its explanation in the next two verses) is there to provide reason or motivation for the main thesis of Eph 4:1-3, that Christians should express their calling by living in unity.
The first reason given to motivate obedience is the one-one-oneness of Eph 4:4-6, perhaps highlighting the unity of the diverse Trinity (Spirit … Lord … Father).
The second reason given to motivate obedience is the gracious gifts of Christ to his church. Jesus came down and went up (like the Ark of the Covenant in Psalm 68) to “fill all things,” so that all things would be united in him (larger thesis from Eph 1:10). He now brings diverse people together by giving them the spoils of his victory: their church leaders past (apostles, prophets) and present (evangelists, shepherds and teachers). Those leader-gifts now equip the people for works of service to build one another up in love.

So the quote of Psalm 68 supports the main point by providing a crucial piece of evidence from the Old Testament that exposes the need for the Messiah to give gifts that will serve the end of church unity.

Try This at Home

When you study a passage and come up with a proposed statement of the author’s main point, test your work by prodding it with a few random observations. Can you explain how the parts fit together to create that whole? Because though the whole is greater than the parts, it certainly is not any less than the parts. The whole must bud organically from the parts.

Why Summaries are Not the Same as Main Points

August 4, 2023 By Peter Krol

I want you to understand that you can get the main point of a Bible passage you’re studying. That’s why, in addition to providing some techniques, I’ve given you a number of examples from different text types in the Bible.

Before we move into application, there’s one last thing you should know about main points: They are not the same as summaries.

one black chess piece separated from red pawn chess pieces — Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Definitions

An accurate summary may be the climax of observation, but a main point is the climax of interpretation. A summary states what the passage says; a main point states what the passage means. A summary describes what happens; a main point captures the text’s essential argument.

A summary of Prov 31:10-31 might be “a description of a virtuous woman,” but the main point is to show what sort of woman is worthy of praise.

A summary of Luke 18:1-30 might be “parables and conversations about prayer, righteousness, and the kingdom of God,” but the main point is that the kingdom of God comes when people humble themselves, receive it as children, and leave some things to gain everything.

A summary of Ephesians 4 might be “unity in the body of Christ, and the new life,” but the main point is that diversity shouldn’t divide the church; but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do

Uses

Why does this distinction matter?

Sometimes folks who study the Bible mistake the main point for a summary. They put in the work of analyzing a text and they can outline its contents. But it’s dangerous to then take those contents and attempt to apply them, because they have little rational basis for applying them in one way and not another.

A summary is most helpful when you need to find something or remember where it’s located in the Scriptures. (“There’s a great parable about two men who prayed to God from a desire to be righteous before him. Let’s take a look at Luke 18 to see how that worked out for them.”) But a main point is crucial when it comes time to provoke change unto Christlikeness.

We’re on shaky ground if we apply only select details of a text to our lives. It’s shaky because it’s possible to go in nearly any direction with application. Using only the details enables us to steer the ship of our own lives on a heading most pleasing to us.

But the best way to express submission to the Scripture and the Holy Spirit who inspired them is to grasp the author’s main point. Then there’s nowhere to hide and we must give account to the one who exposes our every thought, word, and deed.

That’s right: A clear grasp of the author’s main point is the best way to ensure your application is clear, direct, and organically arising from the text and not from your own invention.

An Example

For example, Genesis 1 clearly teaches about the creation of the world. There’s your summary of the chapter: The creation of the world. But until we can explain—from the text!—why this chapter narrates the creation of the world in the way it does, we have not yet grappled with the author’s agenda. His message. His main point.

So if all we come away with is “the creation of the world,” then we can apply the text in all sorts of ways. We can expect folks to line up with a particular view of how the creation took place. We can promote it as something to be taught in schools. We can debate the findings or usefulness of scientific theories based on their relationship to the details of Genesis 1.

Please note: I am not saying that any of those applications are necessarily bad things to do. I would argue only that they are somewhat ancillary to the author’s main message. Therefore, we’re in danger of putting most of our attention on things other than the thing the Lord wanted us to get from this text. And the Lord Jesus tends not to look favorably on those who ignore the “weightier matters” of his word in favor of secondary matters, however true those secondary matters might be.

In my book Knowable Word, I argue that the main point of Genesis 1 is that God’s creative work sets a pattern for human dominion of the earth—a pattern of illuminating, shaping, and filling. Every detail in the text moves the reader in this direction. I would argue that God certainly did the creation the way he describes it in this chapter; this is neither theological poetry nor historical fiction. However, the mechanics of the act of creation are not the main thing; the main thing is the pattern set for humanity.

Once we recognize the author’s intent to establish a divine pattern for human dominion—for the way life on earth was designed to work best—we’re ready to develop robust application for any community, anywhere in the world. We’ll understand how this pattern becomes the template for evaluating what happens to humanity in the rest of Genesis, and the rest of the Bible. And we’ll take greater delight in the Lord Jesus who lived out the pattern on behalf of his people and now transforms them to follow him in it.

Better Than a Wild Guess: Poetry

July 28, 2023 By Peter Krol

I’ve argued that you can get the main point; you’re not reduced to making a wild guess every time you study a passage. A few key skills will be most helpful:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

Last week I gave some examples of how this works from narrative and discourse texts. Now let me show you some brief examples of poetic texts.

Proverbs 2

This chapter of Proverbs functions almost like a discourse, with tight logical reasoning.

If you listen and search for God’s wisdom – Prov 2:1-4
Then you will find it – Prov 2:5
For God loves to give it out – Prov 2:6-10
It will guard you – Prov 2:11
- From the way of evil men – Prov 2:12-15
- From the forbidden woman – Prov 2:16-19
- For the way of the good – Prov 2:20-22

The thesis clearly comes in the first five verses. The rest of the poem supports that thesis with a variety of reasons and consequences.

The main point: The Lord delights to grant a delivering wisdom to those who listen and search for it.

Proverbs 31:10-31

It’s easy to get lost in the details of this famous poem. However, my colleague Tom Hallman, who recently preached the most helpful sermon I’ve ever heard on this text, demonstrated beautifully how the structure and train of thought communicate the poem’s main point.

You can find Tom’s extended outline (color-coded!) in this Google Doc. The outer frame of the poem (Prov 31:10-12, 27-29) sets up a large chiasm—a structure where the second half mirrors the first half in reverse order. But instead of continuing a single, long chiasm, he embeds two shorter chiasms in the middle.

The main ideas of each of those embedded chiasms are brought together in the poem’s conclusion (Prov 31:30-31).

The repeated idea that keeps coming up is how this woman is to be praised. And the woman in view is not a young woman, a potential marriage partner. She is an older woman, having lived a life of wisdom. This poem is not a checklist for a potential spouse but a lifetime achievement award for a woman of wisdom.

Check out the linked doc for details. The structure and train of thought demonstrate that the poem’s main idea is to show what sort of woman is worthy of praise.

Try This at Home

I admit that the Prov 31 example gets a little complex. And Tom told me he didn’t see all this himself. He noticed a few things, and then tracked down and assimilated the helpful insights of others. It took him some time to sharpen his observation and interpretive questions and answers.

But I hope all of these examples give you some hope that this can be done. You don’t have to make a wild guess at the main point. Keep observing. Keep asking and answering questions. Nail down the structure as best you can, and figure out how the author moves from the beginning to the end. Where does he draw conclusions or highlight particular ideas?

Please know that I am not offering these main points as definitive or unquestionable. These main points are only the best I can do with my current understanding of those texts. But they are open to debate or sharpening.

Some of my favorite small group discussions take place when others challenge what I thought was the main point. When folks do that well, through careful observation and interpretation of the text, we all win.

As you improve in these skills, you’ll gain both facility and confidence at identifying the main points the Spirit of God wishes to communicate through the Scripture.

Better Than a Wild Guess

July 21, 2023 By Peter Krol

I’ve argued that you can get the main point; you’re not reduced to making a wild guess every time you study a passage. A few key skills will be most helpful:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

Let me show you some brief examples of how this works.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Luke 18:1-30

This passage consists of four brief scenes:

A parable: God’s elect ought to never stop praying for justice against adversaries – Luke 18:1-8
A parable: Everyone who exalts self will be humbled; those who humble self will be exalted – Luke 18:9-14
A conversation: Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it – Luke 18:15-17
A conversation: Whoever leaves some things for the kingdom of God will gain everything – Luke 18:18-30

According to context and flow of thought, this passage sits within the section of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, where Jesus is answering the question: When will the kingdom of God come (Luke 17:20)? So the parable about praying (Luke 18:18) is not about just any prayer, but about the prayer for the kingdom to come, and with it to bring justice for God’s people (Luke 18:5, 7, 8). It’s all about the timing of the kingdom: “Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7).

The following three scenes then flesh out the answer to a crucial question. Even if the kingdom were to come, would the Son of Man find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8). That answer comes in three pieces. The kingdom of God comes when people:

humble themselves,
receive it as children, and
leave some things to gain everything

That’s what true faith looks like.

So what is the main point being communicated through this structure and train of thought? The kingdom of God comes when people humble themselves, receive it as children, and leave some things to gain everything.

Ephesians 4

The chapter has two units of thought, each beginning with a command to “walk” (Eph 4:1, 17).

The first section issues a call to unity (Eph 4:1-3) along with two reasons why diversity shouldn’t divide the church:

Eph 4:4-6: The unity of the diverse Trinity
Eph 4:7-16: The gracious gifts of the ascended Christ

The second section explains what to do when diversity does end up threatening unity (17-24) with a series of four case studies (25-32) that demonstrate the exact process laid out in 22-24.

Eph 4: 17-24: Don’t be like the Gentiles, but put off the old humanity, renew your mind, and put on the new humanity
Case studies that demonstrate all three steps:
- Eph 4:25: Lies
- Eph 4:26-27: Sinful anger
- Eph 4:28: Theft
- Eph 4:29: Rotten speech
- Eph 4:30-32: Concluding summary

The main point: Diversity shouldn’t divide the church, but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do.

Ephesians 5

The “therefore” in Eph 5:1 signals the conclusion to the previous chapter, which becomes the thesis for the following chapter. The repetition of “walk,” along with shifts in metaphor then signal the supporting arguments.

Eph 5:1: Thesis: We ought to imitate God. We do that by:
- Eph 5:2-6: Walking in love
- Eph 5:7-14: Walking in light
- Eph 5:15-21: Walking in wisdom
  - Eph 5:18: One aspect of wisdom is being filled with the Spirit.
    - Eph 5:21: One aspect of being filled with the Spirit is submission to authority.
      - Eph 5:22-6:9: Three case studies in such submission.

According to the logic and grammatical signals, Paul continues drilling his argument down to a finer and finer point. But as we study (or teach) what he says about marriage, parenting, or slavery, we ought not miss the fact that these are all, ultimately, examples of how to walk in wisdom in imitation of God.

The main point: We imitate God by rooting our lives in his love, his light, and his wisdom.

Conclusion

Next week, I’ll give a few more examples from poetic texts.

You Can Get the Main Point

July 14, 2023 By Peter Krol

Have you ever felt like, when asked to state the main point of a Bible passage, all you can do is make a wild guess? Or that the best you can do is pick out something that strikes you as important and label that the main point?

The good news is that you can get the main point. You can search it out and identify it with confidence. You can learn to defend your statement of the main point with evidence from the text. You don’t have to just guess.

What the Main Point is

The main point is the climax of interpretation. This is what all your efforts of observing and interpreting culminate in.

Usually, the main point is a declarative statement, a conclusion. That’s because the author is trying to persuade his audience of something; the main point is that thing.

It’s possible that the main point could be a question or a command; though I’d want abundantly clear and explicit evidence in the text before accepting a question or command as the main point. If someone poses a question as the main point, I suspect the true main point is actually the answer to the question. If someone hands me a command, I suspect that command is the author’s intended application, and we need to do a little more digging to understand what conclusion he’s arguing for in order to produce that application.

Exceptions to statement-main points often arise from particular genres or intentions. For example, I believe that the heartbreaking poem in the fifth chapter of Lamentations is really a question for which the poet has no answer: Why does God forget us? Will he remain exceedingly angry with us? And since the psalms are often recounting the human experience—rather than teaching some particular truth—my mains points for many psalms often look like topics rather than declarative conclusions. For example: The prayer offered in faith (or, three descriptions of impudent prayer)—Psalm 17. Five solutions to overcoming envy—Psalm 37.

I’ve also heard people say that the main point must be a declarative statement about God, but I don’t fully agree. Yes, the entire Bible is the revelation of God in Christ, so we will learn something about God, and especially the person of Jesus Christ, on every page. But if a particular passage is focused on humanity, or creation, or sin, or something else—I’m most interested in following the author’s lead and not requiring his point to center a particular object (i.e. God).

How to Get the Main Point

My posts over the last few months have all been directed at helping you with this skill. All Observation and Interpretation skills matter, but some skills get more significant results than others. So really work those key skills! Especially:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

If you nail these skills, the main point often presents itself in vibrant color. But if you struggle with observing the structure, asking and answering interpretive questions, and tracking the flow of thought, then getting the main point will always feel like staring at a Magic Eye painting. You know: the 2D images, that pop out into 3D if you cross your eyes.

In a future post, I’ll give some examples to show how these particular skills often carry much weight in helping us to identify the author’s main point.

Don’t Fail to Capture the Train of Thought

July 7, 2023 By Peter Krol

One of our greatest failures in Bible study is our tendency to treat the text atomistically.

We look for inspirational words or sayings, while failing to grasp how the author used those words or sayings to persuade his audience of a message. We love to grade the behaviors of Bible characters. We distract ourselves with endless word studies. We fail to grasp the context.

For example, we treat Daniel and post-conversion Paul as “good” and Jacob and Samson as “bad.” We think of “Immanuel” as little more than a prediction of Messiah. We apply “don’t be anxious about anything, but … make your requests known to God” as a generic encouragement for the Christian life.

But how much changes when we form a habit of boarding a passage’s train of thought!

The Train’s Value

When you observe well, and you ask and answer good interpretive questions, you are going somewhere. These skills are not merely academic exercises. They have an end goal: to determine the author’s main point.

And the way you pull together all of your observation and interpretive work is by capturing the author’s train of thought in the text.

If we fail to capture the train of thought, it will be very difficult either to get to the main point, or to have much confidence that what we’ve got is in fact the main point. We’re left with only guessing, or landing on whichever atom in the text excites us the most.

So please understand: the value of the train of thought lies in its power to surface the author’s main point. When we have captured that train of thought, we are well on our way to mastering the text. Which, frankly, is primarily a matter of clearing out the rocks and weeds so it can master us.

The Train’s Capture

By “train of thought,” all I mean is: How does the author get from the beginning of the passage to the end of the passage? How does he shape his message in such a way as to bring his readers along with him, to persuade them?

We can capture this train only after we’ve gotten lots of good answers (from the text!) to our interpretive questions. We then investigate those answers with further questions. We circle around and around, back and forth between observation and interpretation, like a cyclone—all funneling into the author’s single main point.

As we follow this process, we start to see the shape of the author’s argument. The author wanted to persuade his audience of something, and our task is determine what that was so it can shape our hearts and lives as well.

Because the train of thought has to do with the text’s shape, in your notes it will typically look like an outline. But it’s not simply an outline of the contents. It’s not a list of what the passage says. It is a list of conclusions—or sometimes a list of commands—that capture what the passage means.

The train of thought can be an outline as simple as this, for Ephesians 2:1-10:

You were one thing – 1-3
But God has made you another – 4-6
So that his grace would be evident to all – 7-10

Here are three more quick examples I’ve given from other texts. And here are two examples drawn from narrative texts. See our interpretive book overviews for examples of what it looks like to follow the train of thought over entire books of the Bible.

In your Bible study, please do not fail to capture the train of thought.

What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Nehemiah

July 3, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

Along with Ezra and Esther, the book of Nehemiah is tucked between larger historical books of the Bible and Job. It lacks the big, sweeping themes of something like 1 Samuel or the memorable figures of Joshua and Judges. Like Ezra, it contains a lot of lists (see chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12); additionally, through one lens it can be viewed as a book about a construction project, which isn’t the most compelling topic! There are many reasons Christians might not read or study this book.

But if you skip this book, you’ll miss a lot!

Instruction in Prayer

The book of Nehemiah offers loads for us about prayer, beginning with the example of Nehemiah as one who prays—frequently!

When Nehemiah heard about the sorry state of Jerusalem, he wept and prayed (Neh 1:4–11). There is also a famous prayer of confession in Nehemiah 9:6–38. In addition to these extended prayers recorded for us in Scripture, we read of smaller, shorter prayers of Nehemiah (Neh 2:4; 4:4-5; 4:9; 5:19; 6:9; 6:14; 13:14; 13:22; 13:29; 13:31). We don’t always know the words of these prayers, but what we do know is that Nehemiah consulted often with the Lord.

We can also learn from the content of Nehemiah’s prayers. Specifically, Nehemiah asks God to do what he promised. When Nehemiah is praying for favor with the king, he cites God’s commands and promises to Moses as the basis for God to answer (Neh 1:8–9). Also, during the corporate confession of sin, Nehemiah reflects on God’s covenant dealings with his people (Neh 9:32–37). It is on this basis that Nehemiah tells God, “we are in great distress” (Neh 9:37).

Finally, the longer prayers in chapters 1 and 9 show Nehemiah offering corporate confession of sin. In our highly individualistic world, this explicit understanding of God’s people as a collective is a good correction.

Instruction About God’s Word

Nehemiah uses the Scriptures frequently as a source of rebuke and recalibration. I’ve already written a whole article about the truths of God’s word in Nehemiah chapter 8, but that’s not the only place in this book we could turn for such instruction.

The confession in chapter 9 follows the prolonged public reading of the law in Nehemiah 9:3. When the people pledge themselves in covenant with God in chapter 10, they promise “to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Neh 10:29). Finally, when reforms were needed in chapters 12 and 13, the people looked to God’s law for the standards they were to keep (Neh 12:44, Neh 13:3).

As this new worshipping community was being established, it was crucial to have God’s word at the center. The same, of course, is true for modern Christians.

Instruction About Money

There is explicit teaching about the use and misuse of money in Nehemiah chapter 5. There was a famine in the region (Neh 5:3), so times were difficult. The nobles and officials were charging interest to their Jewish brothers, and as a result some sons and daughters had been taken as slaves to pay off debt. Nehemiah rebuked those who would profit off of their countrymen and cause additional financial hardship (Neh 5:6–13).

We see more of Nehemiah’s approach to money in the same chapter. Nehemiah had not been taking the food allowance from the governor to which he was entitled, in contrast to previous governors (Neh 5:14–15). Instead, Nehemiah provided food for 150 people at his table (Neh 5:17–18). In all of this, Nehemiah was conscious of not laying too heavy a burden on the people (Neh 5:18).

Conclusion

The book of Nehemiah reminds us how central Jerusalem was to the people of Israel. This was the city of the temple, where God had promised to dwell with his people. So the rebuilding of the city walls and gates after their destruction by Babylon is more than just a boring construction project. This work was crucial to the ongoing identity of Israel as the worshipping people of God.

In addition to learning about God’s provision in the face of opposition, Nehemiah teaches us about prayer, Scripture, and money. This book is more than worthy of our attention.

How Would They Have Applied It?

June 23, 2023 By Peter Krol

In recent posts, I’ve been trying to help you get the most out of the interpretation phase of your study. We’ve considered different uses for different types of questions, the power of implicational questions, and the best place to find answers to your questions.

Another Angle

Another way to think of the value of implicational questions is that they help us to grasp how the original audience would have applied the text. When we ask our questions with the original audience in mind, we’re more likely to land on the true message and proper application of the text.

Our understanding of a text will be strongest—and therefore our application will hit home with greatest force—when it is very closely connected to the author’s primary intent for his audience.

So we do as much as we can to put ourselves in the shoes of those who first read this text, and to consider what this passage calls them to believe, love, or do.

To do this, we must pull together all of our work in observation and interpretation so far. All our questions and answers, along with our work on the context: historical, biblical, and literary.

An Example

In Proverbs 31:1-9, King Lemuel’s mother offers him wise counsel for kings and rulers. She tells him what not to do with his strength (Prov 31:3) and mouth (Prov 31:4-5), and she promotes what he ought to do with his mouth (Prov 31:8-9a) and strength (Prov 31:9b). There is a time an place for forgetting (Prov 31:6-7), but during one’s exercise of kingly rule is not it (Prov 31:4-5).

Thus far my observation, with some progress on definitive, rational, and implicational questions. But how would the original audience have applied this poem?

It may be tempting to go directly to contemporary application, considering how we make use of our own strength and mouth, and whether we employ them to wise, selfless, and just ends. Such time would certainly be profitable, but perhaps a less direct route will lay an even stronger foundation for application.

The book of Proverbs is something of a manual for training up nobles and rulers in Israel. When Solomon speaks to “my son” in chapters 1-9, he is speaking not only to his direct heir but also to all the youth among the nobility (see where Prov 4:1, 24:21, etc., where the “sons” are either plural or are not in direct line to the throne). So if we apply every passage directly to the Christian “everyman,” we lose something of the book’s focus on training leaders.

The people of Israel hearing Proverbs 31:1-9 may not have immediately considered how they used their own strength or mouth. After all, many of them would be in the category of those for whom it would be appropriate to forget their poverty (Prov 31:6-7)!

Instead, upon hearing this text, they would be far more inclined to consider what sort of king they need to rule them in wisdom. They might expect their king to take this poem more personally than they themselves do. And if he wouldn’t, they would keep waiting and watching for another such king to arise.

Such consideration of the original audience helps us to see Christ more clearly in the text. And since we have been united to him through faith, it remains appropriate to apply the text to us today. But having gone through Christ to get to application, we’ve ratcheted up the urgency and persuasiveness.

One Caution

In order to determine a text’s implications on the original audience, we must be able to identify who that original audience is. Such identification is quite tricky for narratives, for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that we often don’t know who the precise audience was. It would be difficult to nail down exactly which generation was the first audience for Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, or Esther. We can’t be too precise about the audience for some of the gospels, as we’re not told. In all such cases, we must remain fuzzy, though it still helps to know “these people needed a king,” or “these people must have been Jewish Christians.”

The second reason the identification is tricky is that we often confuse the text’s audience with the text’s characters. So when studying the sermon on the Mount, we might find ourselves putting ourselves in the shoes of those who were present, listening to the sermon as Jesus preached it. But instead, we ought to put ourselves in the shoes of those reading the book that Matthew wrote.

So the implications of the text on the characters within the text might help you to understand the text. But what’s even more significant is to grasp the implications of the text on those who first read the text.

Conclusion

When you can clearly answer the question of “how would they have applied it?” you’ll be far more likely to get a strong answer to “how should we apply it?”

How to Find Answers to Your Questions

May 26, 2023 By Peter Krol

When we study the Bible, most of interpretation consists of asking and answering questions. The questions themselves arise from our curiosity over our observations. But the answers? Do you know where to find those?

The Most Important Place to Look for Answers

At this point, conventional wisdom lists a number of resources and reference works that ought to be in a Christian’s library. I’ll get to such a list soon, but don’t let it distract you from the better portion.

The most important place to seek answers to your questions is in the text itself. Some of you reading this find this conviction self-evident and obvious, and you have already made a habit of seeking answers in the text. But for many others, it will take more practice. Seeking answers in the text itself is a habit that must be formed, and sometimes bad habits are very slow to die.

For example, I recently listened to podcast discussing the creation account of Genesis 1. The teacher based most of his instruction on the proposition that Genesis 1 is in the form of poetry. His evidence for this assertion arose from the assessments of scholars, comparisons with other ancient texts, and his philosophical framework regarding eastern vs. western worldviews.

The problem was that he never supported his primary assertion with evidence from the text itself. Now I’m open to discussing the question of the genre of Genesis 1. And all of the external evidence certainly matters. But that which trumps all of the external evidence is internal evidence from the text itself.

Genesis 1 does not present clauses in parallel lines like other Hebrew poetry does.
Genesis 1 does not use similes, metaphors, or emotive language the way other poetry does.
The Hebrew syntax of Genesis 1 uses verb forms and verb sequences standard to the narratives of Scripture. The same sort of syntax employed in most of the rest of the book of Genesis, which is clearly (and commonly agreed to be) made up of narratives.

Such evidence from the text supports a conclusion that Genesis 1 presents itself as narrative (even historical narrative), just as the rest of the book does. Now this evidence in itself does not guarantee that the events of Genesis 1 must be in a strict chronological sequence, since biblical narratives often rearrange chronology in order to communicate a particular message. But the evidence does strongly suggest that we ought to read the chapter as narrative and not as poetry.

Answers Addressed in the Text

So when your noble curiosity generates questions regarding your observation of the text (questions such as, what genre or text type is this?), your best instinct to cultivate is an instinct that searches the text itself for the answers. Search and search and search.

Let your questions drive you deeper into observation. Let observation and interpretation swirl round and round like a cyclone, in ever tighter loops.

You may be surprised to find how many of your questions can be answered within the text, if you only learn how and where to look. When such examination of the text becomes habitual, you will improve dramatically at being able to defend your conclusions and persuade others.

Answers Assumed in the Text

One obstacle for us today is when the biblical author assumes the answers to your questions. He wasn’t writing to you or me. He had his own audience. So he wasn’t trying to anticipate your questions, but those of his own audience.

This means that there is quite a bit of background information that’s not stated explicitly but nonetheless affects interpretation. For example, the author of Genesis 1 presumes prior knowledge of which “God” is the one engaging in the work of creation. Is it Yahweh, Astarte, Baal, Zeus, or last season’s winner of American Idol? Learning from external reference works about the author and audience of Genesis would help to clarify the answer to this question somewhat quickly.

For another example, comparisons to other ancient creation stories will yield great benefit. What makes this God in this story different from the Gods of Gilgamesh’s epic, or Enuma Elish? Some of these contrasts would have been obvious to those living in ancient times, but we can miss them on account of centuries of distance.

How to Determine When an Answer is Assumed

In the name of “the answer is assumed,” we run the risk of justifying just about any conclusion we can find in a reference work. How do we determine whether the answer is truly assumed, or we are simply importing it where it doesn’t belong?

This process isn’t a perfect science, but the key issue is: Do you have good reason to believe the original audience would have made this assumption? The more reason you have to believe that, the stronger will be the answers you find in reference works.

So ask: Would the original audience already have the necessary background knowledge? Would they have truly been familiar with this parallel text, cultural artifact, body of knowledge, etc.?

If so, then it makes sense to look up your answer in a commentary, study guide, or Bible atlas. We have a wealth of tools available to us today to help us get into the mindset of the original readers. Let’s make good use of them.

When to Let it Go

But if you can’t find the answer addressed in the text, and you don’t have good reason to believe it was assumed, you probably need to make like Elsa and let it go.

Resist the urge to close the knowledge gap simply with systematic theology, denominational tradition, or prior experience. Theology and tradition are important, but they fit best not while interpreting (answering interpretive questions) but while correlating (after determining the author’s main point). We must understand the present passage on its own terms, in light of its original audience, first, before we attempt to connect it to teaching found elsewhere in the Bible.

One exception to the principle in the previous sentence lies with certain implicational questions. Because implicational questions bridge the gap from interpretation into application, they often work best after we’ve determined the main point. So it may make sense to make use of reference works to help draw out those implications and stimulate our own reflection concerning them.

So how do we find answers to our interpretive questions? By shoving our noses back into the text for deeper observation. When further observation suggests that the answer would have been assumed and self-evident to the original audience, we’re then justified in pursuing external resources to help us better understand the mindset or culture of that audience. However, if we don’t have good reason to believe the answer is either addressed or assumed in the text, we’re best off letting the question go until another passage takes it up. There’s no shame in setting aside a particular question for a brighter day.

Emphasizing What the Bible Emphasizes

May 22, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

About a decade ago, I knew a couple that had a very strong, specific view on creation. They read piles of books and articles, and almost every conversation with them circled back to this topic. For them, the trustworthiness of other authors and Bible teachers was always passed through the grid of agreement on this one doctrine.

This issue was a single, steel track that ran through their relationships. Regrettably, I began to avoid conversations with them because every interaction ended the same way.

Though it may be with a different issue, you may know people like this. It’s possible that you may be a person like this!

The Issue of the Moment

When one doctrine or application or book of the Bible dominates someone’s thoughts and conversations, it is not necessarily a bad thing. From my experience, these are often legitimate spiritual matters, and it may be that God is at work changing a person’s mind and heart.

As humans, we are often creatures of the moment, and what we are learning or struggling with or rejoicing over can become our center of spiritual gravity. All other issues fall into orbit.

A few years ago I began studying Lamentations and thinking deeply about lament. This affected me profoundly, and God taught me much through it. This was a reorienting lesson, and I brought it into many conversations. Looking back, I’m guessing my friends and family were eager for me to get past the just-learning-about-it phase.

When our issue of the moment begins to dominate our thoughts and conversations—to the exclusion of other healthy, worthy topics—what is missing is balance and proportion.

The Bible’s Emphases

As we mature as Christians, we should learn to distinguish between an emphasis and an exclusive emphasis. God wants us to learn about lament, and he also wants us to practice lament—but this is not a good summary of the Bible or our lives as Christians. This is not what we should focus on to the exclusion of all else.

There are at least three commitments that will keep us from losing sight of the big picture of the Bible.

Connect every passage to the Bible’s big story. Regardless of how powerful and affecting a portion of the Bible is, we should work hard to put it in the context of the whole Bible. Rehearsing the main story of the Bible regularly is a safeguard to a single-issue obsession.

Talk about the Bible with your friends. Good friends will offer encouragement and correction as needed. Dialog with our friends about what God is teaching us will give opportunities for pushback—both in terms of content and emphasis.

Regularly exposure yourself to lots of the Bible. If our Bible intake is limited to what we are studying deeply, we may end up imbalanced in our emphases. If you are a part of a good church, this can include the weekly preaching and other Bible-focused classes. Reading and listening to the Bible (in addition to studying it) will remind us of what God emphasizes in his word.

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