Knowable Word - Bible study help

The First Commentator to Plead His Case

May 6, 2022 By Peter Krol

My fourth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not read only one commentary, but shall invite a plurality of voices into the conversation.

Is this because I think you have no limits on your time, or that you must become a professional researcher in order to study the Bible? No, it is simply because our Bible study is part of a conversation that has been going on for thousands of years. We were created to live and learn in community, and therefore, having a single influence on your study is counterproductive to your study.

Let me give two reasons.

The First to Plead His Case Seems Right, Until…

Consider Proverbs 18:17:

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

Unless you are among the most naturally skeptical of learners, if you read only one commentary on a passage, you will be inclined to presume the commentator you read is right. Especially if that commentator engages with other commentators and points out all the places where they are wrong. It is simply part of being a creature with limited knowledge that “the one who states his case first seems right.”

Nobody chooses to write a commentary—or gets a contract to write a commentary—because they believe they have all the wrong ideas about their subject matter. No, they write it because they believe they are right, and that they have something to add to the historic conversation that ought to be considered by others! So they are going to write with as much clarity and confidence as they can muster regarding their interpretive conclusions.

But if you read at least two commentaries, it will help you to recognize that there could be a variety of perspectives out there. And each of them could be argued cogently. And each of them is worth considering and discussing. In the process, it will help you to demystify the priesthood of experts that is so easy to presume.

Demystifying the Presumed Priesthood of Experts

I am deeply grateful for those God has raised up in the church, who are experts in various topics. I’ve been in churches that had medical and legal experts, who counseled church members or leaders on particular medical or legal matters. I’ve been in churches with construction experts, who can take care of building and property maintenance and improvement with tremendous skill. My church sent an agricultural expert overseas to assist the preaching of the gospel with strong agricultural education in a third world country.

So I have no philosophical concern with the existence or use of experts. However, sometimes we can get ourselves stuck in a presumption that the experts are always right. In our Bible study, that means we confer upon Bible experts a mystical status of priestly knowledge unavailable to the masses. If the expert says something, it must be true. And reading only one commentary may reinforce that presumption, since what you read will most likely sound credible and persuasive (see Prov 18:17 again).

But there is a reason medical patients are often encouraged to get a second opinion. There is a reason businesses often have not a single lawyer but a legal team. There is a reason a corporation or government launching a major project invites multiple bids from a plurality of contractors. And there is a reason why nearly any group of experts in the same field will find many matters within their field about which to violently disagree (just peruse a scholastic journal from any field to witness a wealth of in-house debate). That reason is the self-evident fact that a variety of experts will have a variety of perspectives which lead them to a variety of conclusions and suggest a variety of methods or applications.

We ought to take this thinking with us into our personal Bible study and commentary reading. A second opinion is usually more valuable than the first opinion, regardless of which opinion you end up agreeing with. Either you will be rescued from hastily jumping on the first commentator’s train, or you will find even greater confidence and grounds for sticking with that first one. And the variety of strengths and weaknesses of the various commentators will result in your final conclusions being wiser, more nuanced, and more robust.

Test Everything

In conclusion, this sort of sifting, evaluating, and refusing to believe the first opinion (automatically), is what the Apostle Paul wants the Thessalonian churches to do.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thess 5:20-22)

There is a sense in which commentaries are one form of New Testament prophecy, in that they proclaim the word of God. We ought to test them, every one. Hang on to whatever is good, helpful, and true in them. Reject whatever is false, misleading, or evil in them.

But you’ll limit your ability to do that unless you consult a second, third, or fourth opinion on a matter. And, as commentator Tremper Longman III says: “Sometimes the reader will be right and the commentaries will be wrong.”

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3 Common Mistakes in Bible Reading

May 4, 2022 By Peter Krol

As a reader of this blog, you are most likely somewhat committed to personal Bible reading. That is a wonderful commitment, but are you aware of some of the most common mistakes we can make, so that you’re prepared to avoid them?

Wyatt Graham has a helpful post explaining some pitfalls he regularly sees:

We read without hearing from God.
We don’t read through a whole book of the Bible.
We forget about the divine author.

He makes some terrific points along the way, such as:

Biblical books communicate ideas. Each of the four Gospels presents Christ from four different angles. Paul’s letters have a purpose. And so on. Like any book that we read today, if we do not understand its beginning, middle, and end, we miss the point.

Check it out!

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Introducing a New Way to Read the Book of Exodus

April 29, 2022 By Peter Krol

The Risk of Reader’s Bibles

Last week, I spoke with a Vice President of major Bible publisher, who informed me that some reader’s Bibles have not yet provided an adequate return on the investment required to publish them. I do not know if this situation is widespread across many publishers, or many versions of reader’s Bibles. But I was deeply saddened to hear that even one of my favorite reader’s Bibles has not yet proven “worth it” to its publisher.

So please indulge me with a brief commercial, advertising my favorite reader’s Bibles. Though I list them here in the order of how much I like them, every one of these reader’s Bibles would be worth your investment.

NIV Sola Scriptura (4 volumes)
ESV six-volume (without chapter and verse numbers)
ESV one-volume
CSB one-volume
ESV gospels

I have little doubt the CSB five-volume would also be worth your investment; I just have not yet acquired it for myself. There is even a way to introduce your children to the concept of a reader’s Bible. Publishers have taken great risks to present God’s word to us in these non-traditional ways, and they ought to win medals for having done so. I believe a reader’s Bible is the best prescription I can give for increasing your delight in God’s word.

I don’t think I can overstate the value of clearing out the clutter that has accumulated over centuries in presenting God’s word in printed form. Though a reader’s Bible may appear novel and jarring—on the page, it really does not look like the sort of Bible you are accustomed to reading—we must remember that even our “traditional” Bible presentations are nothing like the original manuscripts would have appeared to the original readers. The New Testament was written with all capital letters, no punctuation or spaces, and certainly no headings, verse numbers, or cross-references. Modern versions of the Bible have drifted far from the original look and feel. So why not continue finding new ways to present the Scripture in ways that increase the reader’s joy in this glorious literature?

Introducing Exodus: A Novella

With that purpose in mind, I am thrilled to introduce you to a passion project I’ve been working on for some time. With the help of a professional book layout designer, I have developed a version of the book of Exodus designed to look in every way like a modern novella. Exodus is one of the greatest narratives in the history of the world, but the drama of it can be lost amid the standard double-column format, distracting verse and chapter numbers, and myriad footnotes or study notes.

But what if we could read this glorious narrative the same way we read our favorite novels? What if the book was presented in a way that visually presents the gripping plot arcs, follows the highs and lows of the action, and encourages you to keep turning the pages to read? And read. And read. What if the visual design encouraged you to spend an entire afternoon in this divinely inspired, deeply engaging story of redemption? And yes, I’m including all the laws and tabernacle details when I use such adjectives as “greatest,” “glorious,” “gripping,” and “engaging.”

DOWNLOAD EXODUS: A NOVELLA

I present to you Exodus: A Novella. Exodus is one of the best, true stories you could ever read, and here it is presented in a format that underscores why the world has been so captivated by it. You won’t find any verse numbers or footnotes, though a few names are translated in brackets to reveal wordplays. There are chapter numbers, but not the traditional ones. Instead of 40 “chapters,” somewhat arbitrarily determined, the Novella has 7 chapters, following the narrative’s natural literary divisions. It has page numbers, part titles, and page headers, just like the average novel you might pick up today. But unlike the average novel today, this spirit-inspired text is guaranteed to change your life again and again.

My biggest regret is that I was unable to secure permission from a Bible publisher to use a popular translation. So you’ll have to live with my own translation of Exodus, which has been a work in progress for nearly 20 years. In no way do I insinuate that my translation is any “better” than the ones you are used to; it is simply a fact that copyright laws prevent me from using most of the translations you might be familiar with. I didn’t want to delay the project any further by pursuing permission from every Bible publisher out there, so I moved forward with my own text. But if you are a Bible publisher and would be interested in permitting me to use your translation for this purpose, please feel free to contact me to work out the details.

While I’m on the topic of copyright, I’ll mention that I’m licensing Exodus: A Novella under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. This means that you are free to print, copy, adapt, and distribute this work in any way you like, as long as you credit the work to the original creator and distribute it under an identical license. So, no need to request permission if you’d like to print it out, give it away, or do something else with it.

DOWNLOAD EXODUS: A NOVELLA

Here is a preview of the Table of Contents and prologue (what you might know as Exodus chapter 1).

If you’d like to download and read the complete novella, click the button and enjoy!

DOWNLOAD EXODUS: A NOVELLA

Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, we will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for enabling us to offer you more Bible study resources at no cost!

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How to Approach Books of the Bible You Don’t Like

April 27, 2022 By Peter Krol

What do you with a book of the Bible you don’t particularly like? Or one you find terribly confusing, boring, or out of reach?

Rebekah Matt has some very helpful advice: Study it. Sounds simple enough, and she gives some very useful suggestions for how to go about the task.

Several months ago, I deliberately chose my least favorite book in the Bible for the women’s Bible study group at my church… I had a theory that a deep study using reputable resources would give me a new appreciation for why God had included this particular book in his Word. At the same time I was deciding to tackle this unliked (by me) book, I discovered that my friend Sara had been doing a Bible study at her own church on a different book, the one that’s the butt of many Bible reading plan jokes: Leviticus.
It was perfect timing for my as yet untested “study-it-to-love-it” theory. Sure enough, Sara and the other women in her Bible study had been having a very positive experience with Leviticus.

She then tells the story of recently diving into her own least-favorite book she had previously and intentionally avoided.

Check it out!

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Context Matters: My Cross to Bear

April 25, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

Perhaps you’ve heard people talk about the crosses they bear. They might mention chronic pain, their role as a long-term caregiver, or trauma they’ve suffered at the hand of another. Your friend might carry a heavy burden, but if they believe that God is in control, they may affirm his call to follow Jesus with this weight on their back. “That’s just my cross to bear!”

For Christians, the cross brings to mind specific events and theological realities. Does the Bible speak about followers of Jesus also bearing a cross? Does it describe that cross-bearing in this way we commonly hear it?

Context matters. Many words and phrases may sound religious, but we should take care in our speech. When we learn to read the Bible carefully—and not just as a grab bag of holy words—we’ll find that God’s call on our lives is more comprehensive than we may have assumed.

Not in Scripture

Let’s dispense with one question up front. Referring to an acute challenge as a “cross to bear” is not in the Bible. God tells us a lot about suffering and burdens, but we don’t find this specific phrase in Scripture.

By itself, that doesn’t mean this saying should be discarded. The phrase “in the world but not of the world” is nowhere in Scripture, but it captures some important truths in a helpful way. Perhaps the same could be true of “my cross to bear.”

The closest we come to this phrase in Scripture is a sentence in Luke.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25–27)

Let’s consider this passage in its context in Luke.

Discipleship in Luke

As Peter has pointed out, Jesus starts to head toward Jerusalem in Luke 9:51. Until he arrives, Jesus talks about the nature of his kingdom and, by extension, the nature of discipleship.

Jesus teaches about the cost of following him (Luke 9:57–62). The 72 disciples are sent out and they return (Luke 10:1–20). He teaches his disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1–13) and about the folly of anxiety (Luke 12:22–34). He uses parables and metaphors to teach about God’s kingdom (Luke 13:18–30).

In the immediate context of Luke 14:27, Jesus is speaking about the cost of following him. Specifically, he mentions three requirements—anyone who neglects these cannot be his disciple.

Disciples must, having come to him, hate their family and their own life (Luke 14:26).
Disciples must bear their own cross and come after him (Luke 14:27).
Disciples must renounce all that they have (Luke 14:33).

In the midst of these requirements are two stories about the need to count the cost (a landowner building a tower, a king engaging in battle). Disciples of Jesus must know what they are getting into.

Jesus has used the language of the cross before.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:23–24)

The cross was a Roman instrument of torture and execution, so Jesus did not invoke it lightly. Those who heard would have known exactly what Jesus meant when he brought up a cross.

Jesus called his disciples to hand their lives over to him. To save their lives, they were to lose their lives for his sake. They were to renounce everything, including their closest family members.

Both Good and Bad

There may be a good intention behind the phrase “my cross to bear.” A person might be striving to be faithful in the midst of God’s difficult providence. If they know this responsibility is part of God’s calling on their life and they’ve handed their lives over to God, they embrace this burden as a disciple.

And yet, using this phrase could have the effect of compartmentalizing Jesus’s call. Referring to a particular aspect of one’s life as a cross to bear may soften the blow of Jesus’s expectation that in every aspect of our lives we are to bear our cross and follow him. We do not just give up our comfort, time, or opportunities—we are to renounce everything.

This call from Jesus is heavy, but we must not forget it is also joyful. We only need to turn the page in Luke to see the celebration we are welcomed to as repentant sinners following King Jesus (Luke 15:1–32). Jesus calls us to bear our cross, but that is not any one particular duty or condition. Bearing our cross means giving control of everything—family, possessions, vocation, life—over to our wise Master.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, click here.

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The Glories of Grammar

April 22, 2022 By Peter Krol

Eight years ago, I attended the Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference for the first time. Afterward, I shared my reflections on the best and worst parts of it, which mostly had to do with how imitable the various speakers were in their presentations. This past week, I attended the final T4G and wanted to share with you my favorite moment of the event.

This pastor’s conference has had many highlights over the years of its existence. One of the most talked-about benefits of attending is all the free books attendees receive (this year I got more than 20). But free books are not enough to justify the cost of traveling to Louisville, Kentucky, renting a hotel room, and being apart from family for a few days. No, the primary draw for me, as for many others, is the extravagant time spent in God’s Word under the the instruction of world-class teachers and preachers.

And my favorite moment of the event came during John Piper’s talk on the connection between Christ’s grace to forgive our sin and Christ’s grace to help us kill our sin. Piper’s talk was masterful, and I commend to you the entire thing. He set out to explain why it is a failure to understand and preach grace if we understand or preach only the forgiveness of sins and not also the holiness that results in the Christian’s life. This is like reminding people constantly of what they have been saved from without giving them something else to live for. It neglects the fact that Christ’s precious blood paid not only for our sins but also for our holiness. Piper demonstrates the idea from the text of 1 Peter 1 and 2.

At the end of the talk, Piper gave five reasons why preachers often fail to preach this message today. Why so many tend to stop at the grace of forgiveness without the accompanying grace of transformation. And his first reason is simply that we might not even be aware of the connection between these two aspects of grace. We may have failed to see it in the scripture because we haven’t yet paid close enough attention to it.

Then my favorite line comes around 38:30 in the video: “Nobody ever showed you how to read the Bible by looking for in-order-thats and becauses and therefores and participles, and you missed GLORIES because you missed grammar!”

And Piper is spot on. There is unbelievable glory here, if we would only have someone to teach us how to look for it.

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Piper for helping me to see this particular point, which was my highlight of the conference. May it encourage you to continue seeking Christ’s glory through observing even the fundamentals of grammar.

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Do Bible Translations Matter?

April 20, 2022 By Peter Krol

Of course they do, otherwise most people reading this blog would have no access to the Scriptures. But Ryanvda has some excellent points to consider on the matter, as he answers a number of questions he regularly hears on the topic. On one level they really matter, and on another level they really don’t.

When we compare a bunch of good Bible translations, at that level, which one we pick does not really matter all that much. For example: If you compare the NIV with the ESV with the CSB, no outright winner emerges. We might have preferences (the CSB for me!), and those preferences might even stem from certain convictions – but for the most part, we are choosing between pretty healthy translations!

Check it out!

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God’s Word Fulfilled in the Book of Kings

April 15, 2022 By Peter Krol

Once I complete my New Year’s speed read of the entire Bible each year, I have made a practice of pursuing Joe Carter’s brilliant Bible reading plan: Choose a book of the Bible, read it 20 times in a row, choose another book of the Bible, read it 20 times in a row, repeat. For the last few months, I’ve been simmering in the book of Kings (treating 1 Kings and 2 Kings as a single book).

On my first few trips through the book, I began to notice that the fulfillment of God’s words appeared to be an important theme. So during my 7th time through it, I created a list of every time the text draws attention to God’s words coming to fulfillment. I included a few other counter-cases (such as counterfeit prophecies that are not fulfilled, and conditional promises of God that go unfulfilled when the conditions are not met), but mostly stuck to tracking verse references for the prediction and for the prediction’s occurrence.

Here is what I found:

83 specific examples of God’s words being fulfilled. (This averages to nearly 1.8 fulfillments per chapter!)
11 of those examples are fulfilling words spoken earlier in history, recorded in other books of the Bible.
72 of those examples have both the prediction and the fulfillment narrated with the book of Kings.
8 counterfeit examples, where someone makes a prediction, in the name of either themself or Yahweh, that does not come to pass.
2 examples of Yahweh’s predictive word being recorded, but the fulfillment itself is not narrated.

When I read a book of the Bible 20 times, my end goal is to draft a concise statement of what I perceive to be the book’s main point. I am not yet ready to do that for the book of Kings, but I imagine this overwhelming theme of God’s word being fulfilled will play a major role. Since the first few and last few examples have to do with God’s promise to be with the king and people if they walk faithfully with him, the thrust of the book does appear to be an explanation of how the exile should not have been a surprise to anyone. The ejection of the kingdom from the land could have been prevented and was in full accord with the word of God to his people over centuries.

If you are interested, you can find my complete list in this document.

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The Main Reason for Studying the Bible

April 13, 2022 By Peter Krol

Trevin Wax has quite a thoughtful piece called “Don’t Miss the Main Point of Bible Study.” In it, he addresses the common temptations to study the Bible for education or daily inspiration. Such things are worthless, unless they draw us nearer to the Lord to behold his face, that we might break forth into exultation of his glory.

The task of Christian theology isn’t one of invention or establishment; it’s about discovery and explanation. We’ve stumbled across something real, and as we behold with awe the wonders of this reality we seek to expound on it faithfully, trusting that what we’ve seen will change us. “We are changed into the one we see,” said Gregory the Great.

Wax is right. This is something we must not miss. Check it out!

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How Should We Handle the Unnamed in Scripture?

April 11, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

Names and titles are important in the Bible. Paying attention to these details is a key step during the observation stage of Bible study.

Adam named his wife “Eve” because “she was the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). As God made his covenant with Abram, he changed his name to Abraham, “for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5). The angel told Joseph in a dream that his son should be named Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). In these examples we have an explanation for each name, but there are scores of other named figures in the Bible where the name sheds light on some part of their story.

But, as you may have noticed, not every character in the Bible has a name.

If names are so important, why does it seem like some names in the Bible are missing? And, practically, how should we approach passages in which unnamed characters play a key role?

Let’s take a look at two examples.

The Redeemer in Ruth

My pastor just finished preaching through the book of Ruth, so we were confronted by the unnamed redeemer in chapters 3 and 4. Ruth and Naomi are aware that Boaz is a redeemer for Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband. However, there is a closer redeemer—a closer relative—who should receive the option to redeem Elimelech’s land and family name before Boaz is given the opportunity. (See Ruth 3:9–13; 4:1–6.)

For a character that spends so much time on the page, it seems strange that this redeemer isn’t named. And yet, this seems like an intentional choice by the author. Boaz tells this relative that when he serves as a redeemer for Elimelech, he will acquire Ruth, and any children he has with Ruth will bear Elimelech’s name (Ruth 4:5). This man refuses, saying he does not want to “impair [his] own inheritance” (Ruth 4:6).

This closer redeemer refused to lay down his concerns for another. He wanted to preserve his own name and inheritance. So, the author of Ruth serves up some poetic justice by omitting his name from the Biblical record. (This same reasoning may lie behind the fact that we know so few of the names of those building a tower in Babel in Genesis 11.)

The Believing Criminal

While not occupying as much of the biblical story as the reluctant redeemer in Ruth, some of the people who played important roles at the crucifixion are also unnamed.

Jesus was crucified between two criminals. One criminal mocked Jesus, but the other showed evidence of faith in Jesus as the king who could save. Jesus responded, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Wouldn’t it be nice to have the name of this believing criminal?

However, Luke gives us all the information we need about this man: He is a convicted criminal who confesses Jesus. Luke’s Gospel is full of Jesus extending invitations to the poor and the forgotten, to those outside the boundaries of polite Jewish society. The religious leaders put Jesus to death, and the last person to trust Jesus before he dies is a condemned criminal. We don’t need his name, because Luke has made his point: Jesus is the king and savior of the world, welcoming all who believe.

Why Are Some Unnamed?

When a character in the Bible is unnamed, one of two things is true. That name is either unknown by the biblical author or withheld from us. But since God is sovereign over the writing and preservation of his word, we can be confident that we are not lacking anything we need.

Those who are named in the Bible, are named for a reason. And those who are unnamed in the Bible, are unnamed for a reason. Though we may be missing their names, we often still know the most important things about them—their actions, their characteristics, or their roles. The biblical authors use these details instead of names to contribute to their main point in writing.

When we lack a name in Scripture, we shouldn’t react with frustration, grumbling, or speculation. It’s a good excuse to sharpen our observation skills as we try to understand how the biblical author is using this character in the story.

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