Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Not long ago, I posted a number of reasons for why we study the Bible. They came down basically to the fact that understanding the Bible accurately enables us to know Christ better and find life in him.
Desiring God just posted a short video interview with D. A. Carson, where he covers similar ground.
You read it here. Now go listen to the man who’s been doing it faithfully for many decades. Learn from his example and draw near to God as you study his knowable word.
Recently, I came across this funny skit from a church out in Oregon. While definitely a caricature, it does well to make a good point: Translation is both difficult and important.
When it comes to the Bible, most of us rely on one of the many English translations available. While many Christians describe themselves as “bible believing,” in my experience few Christians have considered whether what they are reading is a true representation of what was originally said.
The following are two less comical examples of the theological implications that can result from translation errors:
Exinde coepit Iesus praedicare et dicere paenitentiam agite adpropinquavit enim regnum caelorum.
A literal English translation of this would be “Then Jesus began to preach and say: ‘do penance (paenitentiam agite) for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.’”
It would be reasonable for a skilled bible study leader to assume that Jesus preaches penance. Perhaps Christianity is about responding to God’s kingdom by making use of the penitential system of the church? (Your church has one, right?) The most accurate translation of the Greek text of Matthew’s gospel however would likely be “repent”, not “do penance.”
et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit ave gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus
In English, a fair translation would be: “And the angel went in and said to her, “Hail, one that is full of grace (ave gratia plena) the Lord is with you, blessed are you.”
Even the very best OIA leads one to understand that Mary was a vessel who was full of God’s grace. Perhaps grace is a substance, and one can get access to God’s grace through Mary? These ideas actually became popular in the Medieval church, until scholars established that a faithful translation of the Greek refers to Mary as “One who has found favor.”
Your bible translation matters very practically.
The ideas we talk about here at Knowable Word—interpretation, context, the author’s main point—underlie all forms of communication. They don’t often bubble to the surface in our culture’s mass media, however.
This morning, they did. On NPR’s Morning Edition program, a story by Ari Shapiro called Does Truth Matter? began with the common observation that politicians tend to quote their opponents out of context. More interestingly, Shapiro went on to explore whether there’s any use in talking about what the misquoted politician actually meant.
The story provides a secular perspective on some of the key ideas we talk about here, so you might want to check it out.
If you’ve been a Christian for more than approximately 37 seconds, you’ve probably been in a conversation about how you can know the will of God. In my experience, most of these conversations quickly become debates about whether and how God speaks to individuals about specific decisions they’re facing. The answers to those questions are significant and are often correlated with denominational lines, so I won’t presume to give God’s authoritative answer on those questions today.
However, if we go back to the original question of how we can know the will of God, we are indeed able to to speak authoritatively! The Bible tells us plainly in several places. Let’s look at two of them together, found only a few verses apart:
[1] Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. [2] For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [3] For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; [4] that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, [5] not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [6] that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. [7] For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 ESV, emphasis mine)[16] Rejoice always, [17] pray without ceasing, [18] give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV, emphasis mine)
Therefore, here are several things the Bible very plainly says are God’s will for us:
Honestly consider that list. Are you abstaining from sexual immorality, including keeping yourself from adultery, fornication, visiting sexually explicit websites and the like? Do you run to the Lord in prayer so often that it seems to you and others that you pray ceaselessly? Do your friends marvel that you are constantly rejoicing and giving thanks in all circumstances, even the ones that leave others shaken and panicked?
If you’re anything like me, there’s certainly room for growth even in that short list! Praise God that Jesus died so that my hope – and yours – is not in a perfect list, but in a perfect Savior!
Why should we study the Bible? Couldn’t we just listen to God’s voice inside us? Even if we ought to use the Bible, shouldn’t we just read it, expecting the meaning to become apparent? Doesn’t all this “Bible study” stuff get in the way, slow us down, quench the Spirit?
Let me give some reasons why it’s important that we learn how to study the Bible:
Jesus said it himself in John 17:3. He wants what’s best for us, and what’s best for us is for us to know him. He prayed accordingly the night before he was killed.
Jesus said it in Luke 24:44-47. Phillip realized it early on (John 1:45). Peter declared it much later (1 Peter 1:10-11).
Romans 15:4, John 20:30-31, 1 Peter 1:11-12, Rev 1:1. It’s an old book, but it was written with you and me in mind! It wasn’t written to us, but it was written for us.
Paul explained the main point of the Bible in Acts 17:3. Some Thessalonians rejected this message (Acts 17:6-7), but the Bereans eagerly searched it out in the text of the Bible (Acts 17:10-11).
Some parts are hard to understand, and those who are untaught or unstable will distort them (2 Peter 3:16). We must be taught well and given a stable foundation if we are to understand the Bible and know Jesus. Granted, many parts of the Bible are abundantly clear (John 14:6, Acts 4:11-12), yet they, too, are commonly twisted.
Our sin and rebellion against God infects everything about us, even our thinking. No amount of hard work and no foolproof method will guarantee that we interpret the Bible rightly. Countless universities have courses taught by learned professionals who miss the whole point (see #1-3 above).
But when we trust in the Jesus revealed in the Bible, we receive God’s Spirit, who helps us to know Jesus better (1 Cor 2:6-16). Those who believe have access to the very mind of Christ because they have his Spirit.
On this blog, we want to help you know Jesus. We do that by helping you learn to study the Bible. Let’s keep working to master the methods, but above all, let’s keep our focus on Jesus as we do so.
In yesterday’s post, we fleshed out Solomon’s first purpose for writing Proverbs. In so doing, we examined an important component of biblical poetry: parallelism.
We saw the importance of observing Genre here and here. Now that we’ve noticed that we’re dealing with poetry, we can appreciate the implications.
English poetry and Hebrew poetry have some similarities and some differences. Knowing them up front enables us to read the Bible rightly.
English poetry sounds…poetic. It has a bounce, a rhythm. For example:
When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, II.2.30)
Hebrew poetry generally doesn’t have the “bounce.”
To know wisdom and instruction,
To understand words of insight (Prov 1:2, ESV).
Bible translators often format the text differently to signal poetry (lots of white space, parallel lines indented together, etc.). Because of the lack of meter and rhyme, however, translators often disagree whether certain Bible passages are prose or poetry. Just look at the book of Ecclesiastes in a few different versions, and you’ll see that there is little consensus on whether some sections are prose or poetry.
What’s the point?
When you read poetry in the Bible, remember not to isolate individual lines. Instead, we ought to read parallel lines together, for it’s in their parallelism that we get the poet’s intentions. Also, expect lots of figurative and emotive language. The poet wants to communicate a point, but he wants to do so beautifully.
In yesterday’s post, I tried to demonstrate an important principle for how to study the Bible: correlation. Correlation is the process of linking different passages together to understand what the Bible has to say about a topic or idea.
When it comes to correlation, it can be pretty easy to make a number of errors:
How do we correlate various Bible texts accurately?
So there you are, emotionally reading through Genesis 3…
You boo as the serpent comes on the scene, eager to destroy God’s good creation. You cry out to the woman to not listen to him! You cringe as she takes that terrible, terrible bite of the forbidden fruit. You tremble with the first two humans as they try to hide from God as He approaches. You hang your head with them as God questions what they’ve done. For a moment, you feel immense joy and cheer as God pronounces the curses on the serpent and makes the first promise of a coming Messiah (Genesis 3:15). But then something strange happens…
To the woman [God] said,“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;in pain you shall bring forth children.Your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.“(Genesis 3:16 ESV, emphasis mine)
You mourn but nod as you understand the reasoning for childbirth being painful. But then suddenly God seems to say, “And now for the worst part… woman, you’re gonna desire your husband!”
Ummmm… right.
Thankfully, you’re a faithful Knowable Word reader, and you’ve just got done looking at the difficult text of Colossians 1:24. There you saw that even though Paul’s words were initially tricky to understand, you could look at another passage of Scripture (Philippians 2:25-30) that used the same words to help determine Paul’s meaning back in the Colossians passage. So you wonder, “Could a similar technique be used to clear up this odd verse?”
I’m glad you asked.
In this case, you only need to read a short distance further, to Genesis 4:
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:1-7 ESV, emphasis mine)
Note God’s warning to Cain (which he doesn’t heed). He portrays sin as a predator crouching just outside Cain’s door. It desires him, all right, but not in the way a man desire a woman or vice-versa. Rather, this desire is more like the way that a lion desires a sheep. God is telling Cain that despite the ferocity of that predator, Cain must rule over it. The image here is of a lion tamer – at any moment, he is mere moments from catastrophe, yet he commands authority and the beast is subdued. Cain had that very option before him, but he did not “do well”.
So, with that lesson in mind, let’s return to Genesis 3:16. When God tells the woman that her “desire shall be for [her] husband, and he shall rule over [her]”, He isn’t saying that her curse is romantic desire for her husband, but rather that she will find herself, like the predator at Cain’s door, ready to “attack” or “master” her husband, but instead he will rule over her.
Now, that interpretation itself needs further interpretation, and indeed there are a number of views on what that means practically. I think the simplest conclusion is this: the husband and wife in the garden, as well as today, tend to enter power struggles with each selfishly seeking to rule the other. Thankfully, the Scriptures also point us to hope in Christ, the perfect husband who rightfully rules over us, His bride, but doesn’t do so in a harsh or condescending manner; rather, He is the Husband who laid down His life for us, taking on Himself the full punishment that we deserved. Sin was crouching at our door, yet He was the one who went out to do battle with the beast in our place. What sacrificial love!
For further reading on the right role and role model for husbands and wives, consider Ephesians 5:21-32. God is far from silent on the topic of marriage, and He deeply desires that we know Him – and our spouses – still more through His knowable Word.
The Gospel Coalition just posted an excellent article featuring Bible study tips from Sherlock Holmes. It’s well worth the read!
Some Biblical authors are very clear about why they wrote their books. When you study these books, don’t feel the need to be particularly profound. If you don’t get to the stated point, you’re probably missing something.
Please feel free to comment if I missed any.
