Knowable Word - Bible study help

What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About

December 14, 2018 By Peter Krol

A few weeks ago, I reviewed What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About. This companion volume completes the set. Does it deliver on the bold promise implicit in its title?

Strengths

This volume takes the same format as its partner, giving minimal attention to historical background and focusing its efforts on the theological messages of each New Testament book. It roughly groups the books by author (thus putting Acts together with Luke, and discussing John’s epistles and Revelation along with his gospel) so as to emphasize, as you’d expect, what the authors cared about in writing these books.

The writing is comprehensible. The visuals are attractive and relevant. The biblical text is ever-present. This overview would be a useful text for a Bible overview course for adults or teenagers.

Weaknesses

While there is much to commend this book, I believe it takes the minor weakness of the Old Testament volume and magnifies it.

That is, the contributors often don’t “show their work” very well. While this was the case for only a few of the OT entries, I felt it was the case for a majority of the NT entries. It was more difficult for me to find chapters where I believed the author not only stated his conclusions, but proved them from a literary analysis of the text. The best examples are Huffman on Luke, Kelly on Acts, Guthrie on Hebrews, and Cate on 1 &2 Peter.

I would not say the remaining chapters are in any way bad. They might be great. It just wasn’t clear in many of them whether the key points represented what the NT author really cared about, or whether they more represented what the contributing scholar really cared about.

I don’t find any chapters to be communicating things that are not in the text at all. Instead, they simply present a select number of themes without showing why those themes are any more important than a number of other themes that could be mentioned.

Conclusion

I am grateful to Kregel Academic for sending me a complimentary copy of this volume in exchange for an honest review. I am glad to add it to my library, and I will likely make good use of it with teenagers and adults in my home and church. But I am more enthusiastic about the rich big-picture thought and literary analysis presented in the OT volume than that which I find in this one.

You can check it out at Amazon.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, you will support this blog at no extra cost to yourself. Thank you for enabling us to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible.

Share or follow:

How Bible Reading Will Change Your Life

December 12, 2018 By Peter Krol

Trevin Wax makes an important point in his article “Routine Bible Reading Can Change Your Life.” Speaking of the perennial guilt many people feel when they consider trying once again to pursue a plan of regular Bible reading:

“Why do so many Christians start with a strong commitment and yet lose their way when reading the Bible? One reason may be that we have too high of an expectation of what we will feel every day when we read. We know this is God’s Word and that He speaks to us through this Book, and yet so many times, when we’re reading the assigned portion of Scripture for the day, it all feels so, well, ordinary…”
“I sympathize with Christians who feel this way. We’re right to approach the Bible with anticipation, to expect to hear from God in a powerful and personal way. But the way the Bible does its work on our hearts is often not through the lightning bolt, but through the gentle and quiet rhythms of daily submission, of opening up our lives before this open Book and asking God to change us. Change doesn’t always happen overnight. Growth doesn’t happen in an instant. Instead, it happens over time, as we eat and drink and exercise. The same is true of Scripture reading.”

He goes on to explain why these things are so. Check it out!

Share or follow:

50 Observations About the Christmas Story

December 10, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

Filios Sazeides (2018), public domain

Christmas is coming, and during this season many preachers rightly turn to Luke 2 and the first two chapters of Matthew for their sermons. This is fitting, as the Incarnation is a cataclysmic, earth-rattling truth to be studied and declared through all the earth.

And yet, because we hear and read this story every year, it can become familiar. Our eyes can glaze over despite the glory before us.

Let’s get back to the story in the Bible. We’ll look closely at Matthew 1:18–25. We’ll practice observation, the first step in the OIA (observation, interpretation, application) Bible study process.

Getting Ready

If you haven’t studied the Bible before, don’t worry—this ride is open to everyone. No advanced degrees or long resumes required.

For the sake of space, this post will only be concerned with observation. This is the essential first step in Bible study, like gathering wood for a fire. But it is also incomplete. In the same way that a pile of logs won’t keep you warm, the purpose of observation is to lead to interpretation and application. What you’ll find below is a good start but a terrible end.

If you haven’t already, check out all of our posts on the OIA method of Bible study, but especially these two (and the links contained therein) on observation.

The Christmas Story in Matthew

If you’d like to observe this passage on your own, here’s a printable version of Matthew 1:18–25 to use.

Observations 1–3

The first one is easy. The genre of this passage is narrative. Matthew couldn’t make this more clear (Matthew 1:18).

Let’s make some observations about context. Matthew begins his Gospel with “the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). He traces the lineage from Abraham to David, from David to the deportation to Babylon, and from Babylon to “Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

So, when Matthew refers to “Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:18), there is a relevant context—the preceding genealogy! Additionally, when Joseph is called “son of David” by the angel (Matthew 1:20), that is a reference to earlier in the chapter as well as portions of the Old Testament.

Observations 4–13

Repeated words are some of the most helpful things to notice. I used e-Sword to find this list of the ten most common words in this passage: his (6 times), he (5), her (5), from (4), Joseph (4), son (4), Jesus (3), Lord (3), name (3), and she (3). Interestingly, “his” refers to Joseph only once and to Jesus five times, while “he” refers to Joseph four times and Jesus only once.

Observations 14–22

As I look at verses 18 and 19, I notice the following.

Matthew refers to “his mother Mary,” a reference back to verse 16.
The verbs used for Mary in verse 18 are passive: “had been betrothed,” “was found to be with child.”
The verbs used for Joseph in verse 19 are active: “being,” “resolved.”
Matthew emphasizes that Mary was found pregnant before she and Joseph “came together.”
Mary “was found to be with child” — yes, that sort of thing becomes obvious after a while in a pregnancy!
Mary was found to be with child “from the Holy Spirit.” Perhaps that refers to what is written in the subsequent verses.
Several words are used to describe Mary and Joseph’s relationship: “betrothed” (18), “husband” (19), and they would need a “divorce” (19) if their relationship were ended. But the angel tells Joseph to “take” Mary as his wife (20), which he does (24).
Joseph’s character is specifically commended in verse 19: “being a just man,” “unwilling to put her to shame.”
The mood of verse 19 is matter-of-fact, this divorce was going to happen.

Observations 23–33

Now we move on to verses 20 and 21.

There is a massive change in the story with the transition word “but” at the beginning of Matthew 1:20. The angel’s appearance to Joseph in the dream turned the plot.
The angel addresses Joseph as “son of David” (20).
A Bible character receiving instruction from God in a dream reminds me of several characters in the Old Testament, including Jacob and Joseph.
The angel gives Joseph two commands in the dream: “do not fear to take Mary as your wife” (20), and “you shall call his name Jesus” (21).
Since the angel tells Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, he must have been afraid to take her as his wife. His consideration of divorce must not have been only for the sake of propriety.
The angel gives Joseph a reason not to be afraid: “for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (20).
The angel gives Joseph a reason to call the child’s name Jesus: “for he will save his people from their sins” (21).
The angel does not tell Joseph how this saving from sin will occur.
The angel refers to “his people” in the context of who Jesus will save. This raises a question about who those people are.
The word from the angel must have provided Joseph with both comfort and a lot of questions.
Joseph does not speak to the angel or give any response within the dream.

Observations 34–44

Now, to the next two verses (22 and 23).

Matthew wanted his audience to understand the prophetic fulfillment of Jesus’s conception and birth (verse 22).
God governed the world so that his prophet’s words would be fulfilled. Matthew writes that “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken” (22).
God spoke by the prophet Isaiah.
The quote from Isaiah begins with “behold,” the same word we also find in verse 20.
The quote comes from Isaiah 7:14.
The context of the quote in Isaiah (chapters 7 and 8) is quite political. Also, the name “Immanuel” shows up two other times.
In the quote, the virgin will conceive and the virgin will bear a son. There may be a connection between this, what we read in verse 18 (before they came together), and what is in verse 25 (Joseph “knew her not until she had given birth”).
The angel said that Joseph will call his son’s name Jesus (21), but in the quote it says “they” will call his name Immanuel.
The names Immanuel and Jesus are not the same. Yet Matthew says that what happens here fulfills the prophecy. (I’ve written about this elsewhere.)
Matthew interprets the name “Immanuel” for his readers.
The Isaiah passage was not spoken to Joseph, it was only included by Matthew for his readers.

Observations 45–48

Here are my observations from the final two verses of this passage (24 and 25).

Joseph obeyed the angel of the Lord (verse 24), which is consistent with what we know of his character (verse 19).
Matthew records three responses of Joseph (verses 24–25). The first (“took his wife”) and third (“called his name Jesus”) correspond explicitly to the commands of the angel (see verses 20 and 21).
The middle action (not knowing Mary until she gave birth) does not correspond to a command of the angel. But it may be relevant to explore connections here (see above).
There are three mentions of naming in this passage: verse 21 (Jesus), verse 23 (Immanuel), and verse 25 (Jesus).

Observations 49 and 50

Here are two final observations on this passage as a whole.

Joseph is the main character of this passage.
This is a clear unit of text. There is an introduction at the beginning (verse 18) and a concluding sentence at the end (verse 25). The next verse (Matthew 2:1) begins a new section of the narrative.

What Comes Next

Don’t stop here. Add your own observations to mine and continue on with interpretation. There is a lot of gold to mine in this passage.

Share or follow:

The Most Important Tool for Observing the Structure of a Narrative Episode

December 7, 2018 By Peter Krol

I’ve spent a few weeks showing both why structure matters and how to observe it. My focus to this point has been on macro-structure—structure across entire books or large subdivisions—because that is the part I’ve seen most people neglect in their Bible study. And there is great value in doing this well.

In this post, however, I’ll narrow my focus to distinct episodes in a single genre: narrative. How do you observe the structure of a narrative scene? And how does that structure convey the author’s meaning?

What We Learned in Grade School

For years, I spent so much time trying to be ingenious when observing structure that I missed something I learned in grade school. And I’ve recently come to see that thing I missed as the most important tool for observing the structure of a narrative.

That tool is the essential plot structure that nearly all narratives follow.

Do you remember learning, in school, terms such as setting, conflict, climax, and resolution? Those are the building blocks of narrative plot structure.

Setting (or Exposition) is what sets the scene for the action to take place. Setting can include an introduction of characters, a description of time or location, and even some basic action that sets up the body of the story.
Conflict is the story’s heartbeat. Tension enters the story in the form of man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. technology, man vs. himself, or man vs. God.
Rising Action narrates how the chief tension moves the story forward and builds through the episode.
Climax is the point at which the conflict is dealt with or reversed in some way.
Resolution (or Falling Action) describes the consequences of the climactic reversal.
New Setting (or Denouement) is the situation in which the characters find themselves as a result of living through the conflict and its climax. This new setting often sets up the next episode.

With these building blocks, we can quickly outline nearly any narrative episode. (Exception: Sometimes a single episode serves no other purpose than to elaborate the setting or to introduce the book or subdivision. If there is no conflict and reversal, we’ll need other to use other tools to observe the structure.) And there might be some gray area as to where exactly the setting ends and conflict begins, or which precise statement constitutes the exact climax. But if we get ourselves in the right ballpark, we will do well.

Putting the Tool into Practice

Let’s outline the narrative in Mark 2:1-12 of the healing of the paralytic.

Setting (Mark 2:1-5): Jesus teaches in Capernaum after some days. So many people listen to his teaching that a group of friends can’t get in the door. They open a hole in the roof, lower their friend, and Jesus forgives his sins. Someone could argue that the struggle to get into the crowded house introduces conflict (man vs. environment), but the fact that the story doesn’t climax with their entry to the house suggests Mark wants a different conflict to grab our attention.
Conflict introduced (Mark 2:6-7): Scribes vs. Jesus. Scribes question Jesus in their hearts: God alone can forgive sins!
Rising action (Mark 2:8-10): Jesus knows their thoughts, bluntly addresses them, asks a few questions, and reasons that though it would be easy to say “your sins are forgiven” (since you can’t see or touch the evidence to verify that forgiveness took place), it would be harder (i.e. more objectively falsifiable) to say “rise and walk.” Will he have the chutzpah to go there? Maybe he will! To make them know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive, he speaks…!
Climax (Mark 2:11): “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” The point of conflict was whether Jesus had authority to do what he had done. He now puts that claim of authority on the line by doing that which is more objectively falsifiable.
Resolution (Mark 2:12a): The paralyzed man immediately rises, picks up his bed, and walks out in plain view of all. The proof is presented; the gauntlet has been thrown down.
New setting (Mark 2:12b): All are now amazed and glorifying God, as they’ve now seen something they’ve never seen before: A man with divine authority to forgive sins.

Let me give another example from Exodus 13:17-14:31, the crossing of the Red Sea.

Setting (Ex 13:17-22): God leads the people along a certain route.
Conflict introduced (Ex 14:1-4): God commands the people to turn back and camp between Migdol and the sea because Pharaoh will think they’re helpless. God will harden his heart so he can get glory over Pharaoh. Striking: The primary conflict is not between Israel and Pharaoh; it is between Israel and God! Will they trust him, even when he makes their situation harder than they expect?
Rising action (Ex 14:5-28): Pharaoh indeed responds as God foretold, and God indeed hardens his heart. Pharaoh pursues the people, and they see their impossible predicament. They cry out to God through Moses, and Yahweh wants them to move forward instead of crying out. He holds Egypt back long enough to set up walls of water for them to race into. Then, through Moses, he crashes the water down on Egypt’s chariots.
Climax (Ex 14:29): If the chief conflict is between Israel and God (will they trust him through the painful circumstances?), the reversal happens in verse 29 when the people walk on dry ground through the sea. In doing this, they obey God’s command to “go forward” (Ex 14:15). It’s tempting to place the climax at Ex 14:28, when the waters drown the Egyptians; but the Egyptians were not the chief antagonists in the narrator’s framing of the story.
Resolution (Ex 14:30): Yahweh saved the people that day (summary statement), and Israel saw Egypt dead on the shore.
New setting (Ex 14:31): The people who were struggling to trust their God have now seen his great power. They have learned to fear Yahweh and to believe both Yahweh and his servant Moses.

Sometimes the exact boundaries of the different plot components will be fuzzy. But the clearest points should be 1) when conflict is introduced, and 2) when that conflict climaxes in a reversal. If you can find those two things, the rest of the pieces fall into place.

Why This Matters

We will typically find the narrator’s main point at the point of climax or resolution. The climax presents the reversal he seeks to portray. The resolution draws out the implications of that reversal. So we must look there for the main point.

Observing the narrative’s plot structure in this way helps us to avoid placing too much weight on unimportant details. For example, in Mark 2, we ought not make much (either interpretation or application) of the fact that Jesus saw the friends’ faith and thereby forgave the paralytic’s sins (Mark 2:5). That’s only part of the setting, or the set up for the actual main point: Jesus’ authority to pronounce forgiveness. For another example, in Exodus 14, our application will focus more on developing trust in God than in necessarily expecting to be rescued from hard circumstances.

And outlining a narrative’s plot structure enables us to answer the age-old question of whether a particular narrative is meant to be prescriptive or descriptive. Identify the conflict, climax, and resolution, and you’ll be close to the main point. Grasp that main point, and you can have confidence in what the author wants us to get from his narrative. Perhaps it may be a descriptive point; perhaps it may be more prescriptive.

Putting Micro-Structure and Macro-Structure Together

And when you combine the micro-structure (plot arc) with the macro-structure of the larger division, you are approaching mastery of the text and a profound grasp of the narrator’s intentions.

For example, you might notice that the story of the paralytic is preceded by 4 healing episodes (Mark 1:21-28, 29-31, 32-39, 40-45) and that it is followed by 4 controversy episodes (Mark 2:13-17, 18-22, 23-28; 3:1-6). The paralytic story is itself both a healing and a controversy. The first two healings take place on a Sabbath, and the last two controversies take place on a Sabbath. The passage begins with Jesus having more authority than the scribes (Mark 1:22), and it ends with Pharisees and Herodians taking counsel to destroy him (Mark 3:6). There is therefore a clear chiastic (symmetric) arrangement here (A-B-C-D-E-D-C-B-A), with the paralytic story sitting at the prominent hinge point in the center.

So Jesus’ divine authority (perhaps even his specific authority to forgive sins) must be a major component of the message of the full section that goes from Mark 1:21 to Mark 3:9. Append Mark 1:16-20 as an introduction and Mark 3:7-12 as a conclusion, and you’ve got your hands on Mark’s first major literary division.

I’m grateful for a few Simeon Trust preaching workshops, which alerted me to the importance of these plot devices in outlining a narrative’s structure.

Share or follow:

Parts of the Bible are Not Inspired

December 5, 2018 By Peter Krol

Mike Leake makes a great point at his blog: Some parts of your Bible are not inspired by God.

Leake primarily has the punctuation in mind, as the original manuscripts had no punctuation.

…if we believe that the only original manuscripts are fully inspired, authoritative, and without error it means we do not believe the verse divisions or punctuation in your Bible falls under that category. Those were not present in either the original Hebrew or the Greek. Those were added much later.

Leake gives an example where shifting a comma might adjust the way we read a verse. Such discussions are not contrary to a belief in the inspiration or inerrancy of Scripture. Things such as comma placement are translators’ decisions. If you compare different translations, you’ll often see a variety of choices on such matter.

We also should keep in mind that verse divisions, red letters, paragraph breaks, footnotes, page formatting, and section headings are also translation or publication decisions, not components of the original manuscripts. If the context and train of thought of the text take you across some of these contrived boundaries, make sure you allow it to do so.

Check it out!

Share or follow:

How Structure Conveys Meaning

November 30, 2018 By Peter Krol

What is the difference between the following statements?

Because the Bible is the authoritative word of God, I must submit every area of life to its instruction.
God doesn’t just want me to work on the Bible; he wants the Bible to work on me.

The first statement is obviously more precise. But I bet most would consider the second statement more inspirational. More memorable.

And why is this? Because structure conveys meaning. In this case, the structure of the sentence itself packs a persuasive punch. The sentence makes use of a “concentric pattern” or “chiasm” to drive its point:

Me … work … Bible

Bible … work … me

The symmetry of the phrases catches your attention. You can feel the hinge in the middle that unwinds until the tension finally lands with force on the final “me.” The very structure of the sentence conveys additional inspirational or persuasive meaning that goes beyond what the first, more precise, statement could ever communicate.

Biblical authors do this very thing, when they embed their primary emphases, their authorial intentions, within the very structure of the texts they compose.

Observe the Structure

Before we can talk about interpretation, we must first develop the skills to observe the structure. I wrote on this topic a few weeks ago, so I just want to underscore the need to do this well.

Get your chapter and verse divisions out of the way. Drop the extra headings that most Bibles put in. Get a reader’s version, use software such as Logos, or print a numberless manuscript from Bible Gateway. Get yourself looking at the naked text so you can actually observe the literary signposts the author drops in like paint blazes on a wilderness trail.

Identify the constituent units. Then take note of how those units are arranged. If your structural observation is poor, your interpretation won’t be any better.

But once you’ve discovered the units, and you’ve mapped their arrangement (typically parallel, symmetric, or linear—again see the previous post for explanation), you are ready to consider what this structure communicates about the author’s intended meaning.

But how do you do that? David Dorsey (chapter 4) explains 3 main ways that structure conveys meaning.

George Pankewytch (2014), Creative Commons

Overall Structure

Sometimes historical narratives follow a linear pattern to simply communicate the progress of time. But at other times, they follow a cyclical pattern to communicate, through the structure itself, the spiraling up or spiraling down of the protagonists’ fate. For example, Judges gives us 7 cycles of Judges, following the pattern established in Judg 2:11-19, which clearly spiral downward into greater fallenness. But the book of 1-2 Samuel gives us 3 main overlapping narrative arcs: Samuel’s, Saul’s, and David’s. Those three arcs advance from one degree of glory to another, yet all three are ultimately tragic in their shape (narrating a rise, a peak, and then a fall).

Another example of the overall structure conveying meaning is the book of Lamentations. Hebrew poetry often works in parallel lines with parallel stresses (A-B-C/A-B-C). For example, “Serve (A) the LORD (B), with gladness (C)/Come (A) into his presence (B) with singing (C)” (Psalm 100:2). But scholars of ancient literature have pointed out that laments cut this pattern short. The second line loses one of the stresses, yielding a 3-2, or something like an A-B-C/B-C pattern. For example: “O my God (A), I cry by day (B), but you do not answer (C)/and by night (B), but I find no rest (C)” (Psalm 22:2).

Lamentations takes this pattern of laments and drops it into the book’s overall structure. Not only do we see a 3-2 pattern in almost every verse (for example: “She (A) weeps bitterly (B) in the night (C)/with tears (B) on her cheeks (C)” (Lam 1:2a). But we also see this pattern across the chapters.

Chapter 1: long acrostic with 66 lines

Chapter 2: long acrostic with 66 lines

Chapter 3: long acrostic with 66 lines

Chapter 4: shorter acrostic with 44 lines

Chapter 5: even shorter acrostic with 22 lines

The whole book takes on the 3-2 shape of lament that visually and audibly peters out by the end, leaving the sadness hanging heavily.

Structured Repetition

When you observe matching units in parallel or chiastic structures, you should investigate why and how they match. Do they present a comparison or contrast? Is a promise in the first section fulfilled in the second? Does one section better explain the other? Is some sort of reversal taking place?

The Gospel of Mark divides into two main divisions: 1:1-8:30 and 8:31-16:8. The first verse outlines the structure: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The first half of the book concludes with Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8:29). The second half concludes with the centurion’s confession that Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 15:39). By comparing the closing sections of each half of the book, we see that Peter gets part of Jesus’ identity (chapter 8), but he doesn’t understand all of it (chapter 14-15). By the end, Peter is denying that he even knows this man (Mark 14:71), while a Gentile military officer grasps something remarkable about the nature of Jesus’ suffering. “When the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said…” (Mark 15:39).

The parallel between Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2 and his prayer in chapter 4 leads us to question the sincerity of his repentance in the belly of the fish.

When you observe these repetitions, these matching units, you are well prepared to ask “Why” and better uncover the author’s intentions.

Positions of Prominence

The final way structure conveys meaning is through positions of prominence.

This is neither mechanical nor foolproof, but often the most prominent part of a parallel structure is the end. And the most prominent part of a chiasm is the center.

Don’t apply that principle woodenly, but you should at least investigate the matter.

For example, Mark 6-8 follows a parallel structure, surrounded by an inclusio (bookends):

Intro: When Jesus sends out the twelve, Herod fears John the Baptist has risen from the dead. But others think he’s Elijah or one of the prophets (Mark 6:7-29).

A. Feeding a multitude (Mark 6:30-44)

B. Crossing the sea (Mark 6:45-56)

C. Disputing with the Pharisees (Mark 7:1-23)

D. Discussing bread with a follower (Mark 7:24-30)

E. Healing a malfunctioning sense—deafness (Mark 7:31-37)

A. Feeding a multitude (Mark 8:1-9)

B. Crossing the sea (Mark 8:10)

C. Disputing the Pharisees (Mark 8:11-13)

D. Discussing bread with followers (Mark 8:14-21)

E. Healing a malfunctioning sense—blindness (Mark 8:22-26)

Conclusion: When Jesus questions the twelve, they claim people think he’s John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets. But Peter (who used to be deaf and blind—Mark 8:18) now sees clearly enough to know “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29).

What is Mark’s point here in chapters 6 through 8? Jesus is healing his disciples’ own deafness and blindness so they can hear and see who he is.

And what is my point with this little exercise? If you find yourself fretting over why Jesus would call someone a dog (Mark 7:27), what the disciples failed to understand regarding the number of baskets of leftovers (Mark 8:19-21), or why it took Jesus two tries to heal the guy’s blindness (Mark 8:23-25), you need only take yourself to the position of prominence. In this case, the end of the parallel sequence gives us the author’s emphasis and intention: to help Jesus’ disciples perceive who he really is. When we get this, the rest will make more sense.

Conclusion

Observing structure is hard work. But it bears fruit thirty-, sixty-, and a hundred-fold when it comes time to interpret the author’s meaning.

Disclaimer: Amazon link is an affiliate link.

Share or follow:

Should We Read the Bible Literally?

November 28, 2018 By Peter Krol

Writing at Stand to Reason, Greg Koukl addresses the common question of whether we ought to read the Bible literally. He demonstrates the complexity of the question, highlighting the fact that nobody reads anything literally 100% of the time. In the process he shows how important it is to grasp the author’s intentions. We must read a Bible text the way the author would have wanted us to read it.

Koukl addresses some common objections and then ends with practical tips on how to best understand metaphors.

His counsel is both sound and practical, and I commend it to you. Check it out!

HT: Ron Malone

Share or follow:

Logos 8: The Speed We Need

November 23, 2018 By Peter Krol

I use Logos Bible software every day. I am impressed by the sheer power of what it can do. It does for my Bible study what an automobile does for my personal transportation: It gets me where I want to go, when I need to go, by whatever route makes most sense at the time.

With Logos installed on my laptop, my iPad, and my smart phone, the only time I use a physical Bible any more is when I want to sit and read at length. Now I could also do that with Logos, but why would I when there are so many fantastic reader’s Bibles these days?

The good people at Faithlife gave me a complimentary upgrade to Logos 8 in exchange for an honest review. So this review will focus on the new features in this version of the software. If you’d like to see what I think of Logos in general, see my reviews of earlier versions:

Speed

The biggest and best improvement is the speed of the software. This has always been my biggest complaint, and I’m far from the only one to have lodged it. Logos has typically been slow and ponderous, like an obese Moabite king oppressing the people of Benjamin.

They claim Logos 8 is 10 times faster than Logos 7. This doesn’t make it quite as zippy as Jehu, the maniacal charioteer. But it does make it such that I no longer have to find something else to do between the time when I click to open Logos and the time when I can get down to business.

There’s not much more for me to say, but this is quite a big deal.

Markup

A new feature called “Canvas” enables you to take a text and mark it up however you see fit. You can color-code repeated words. You can move clauses around to visualize sentence structure. You can underline, circle, draw arrows or insert graphics.

I’m not the most visually-oriented guy, but this feature shows much promise for those who want to mark up their text

Workflows

The feature that has my greatest interest is “workflows.” Workflows are templates for common tasks—such as studying a passage, preparing a sermon, etc.—that simplify your process. I used to look things up myself, find the right Scripture and supplemental resources, record my notes haphazardly, and move toward a finished product on my own.

But now, I can set up a workflow to capture all the steps I always try to follow. Logos then takes me through the template, step by step, each time I come to a new passage.

Logos 8 comes with quite a few built-in workflows, including basic Bible study, character study, word study, topic study, passage exegesis, and expository sermon preparation. I find these built-in templates to show off the power of what Logos 8 and its workflows can do. But I also find these built-in templates rather unhelpful for the proposed tasks. The biggest issue is that the built-in workflows are doing a great job showing off all Logos 8 can do! In the process, they take you far and away from the text and into the bowels of research and commentary about the text.

But have no fear, Logos 8 enables me to create a custom workflow that does what I want it to do. The “Inductive Bible Study” workflow in Logos 8 is way too quick to bring in commentaries and cross-references—without offering enough help to first wrestle through the text and its train of thought.

So I created my own custom workflow called “OIA Bible Study (Focus on the Text).” This workflow walks straight through the Bible study principles in Knowable Word, presenting a series of questions that require you to toil over the text.

If you decide to use Logos 8, you can find my workflow here to try out for yourself. And if you don’t like it, Logos 8 lets you create your own.

Conclusion

If I knew 20 years ago what I know today, I would have acquired Logos Bible software at the start of my career as a missionary and preacher. This exceptional tool has proven to be a faithful companion and a valued guide. Perhaps it can serve this role for you as well.

Here is a link if you would like more information.

Share or follow:

Teaching Bible Study to Teenagers

November 21, 2018 By Peter Krol

In answering a question about how to train teenagers to study the Bible, John Piper highlights a critical goal:

…the goal of this teaching is a lifelong habit of mind and heart to approach the Scriptures in a certain way. In other words, being able to do a particular technique is not the goal. Trying to reproduce Piper lab experiences is not the goal. But the habits of mind and the habits of heart that you inculcate, or that you build into your children while working through those techniques — that’s the goal.

I would explain that goal to my children. I’d say, “That’s what we’re after here. I’m not trying to make a little John Piper out of you (or a little whatever out of you). I just want to build into you certain habits of mind and habits of heart so that you will approach the Scriptures fruitfully for the rest of your life.”

Piper describes the importance of creating a cultural setting where you can develop habitual skills with your teens. Then he proposes 7 skills to focus on:

Define the terms.
Find the propositions.
Clarify the relationships.
Determine the main point.
Compare texts.
Face reality.
Apply the text.

The OIA method provides a simple way to package such skills so they sink in and are memorable. Then Piper concludes:

Keep in mind the aim is not to master a technique like arcing or lab with John Piper. That’s not the aim. The aim is lifelong habits of mind and heart that humbly and eagerly ask and answer questions from the Bible.

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. May the Lord give us and our teens grace to pursue and acquire such lifelong habits.

Check it out!

Share or follow:

OIA Bible Study is Not Just for Adults

November 14, 2018 By Peter Krol

You might like to know we’re not the only ones who promote OIA Bible study. And we’re not the only ones who believe this method works not only for adults but also for children. Over at the Gospel Coalition, Shawna Duvall winsomely explains that “Inductive Bible Study is Not Just for Adults.” While I have a minor quibble with her use of the term “inductive,” she explains briefly and compellingly how to teach the OIA method to children.

And she gets this just right:

We’re a resource-rich generation with a trove of family-focused, theologically sound materials. But while such supplemental materials are valuable, many parents and caregivers still feel inadequate when it comes to simply opening the pages of Scripture with their children.

With our own kids, my husband and I have utilized a simple Bible study tool: observing, interpreting, and applying the text. This inductive method is already widely trusted and familiar in the church today. In our family, it provides a framework basic enough for our younger kids to grasp and yet is able to grow with them, even into adulthood.

I particularly appreciate the hand motions Duvall describes to help children remember the purpose of each step.

Check it out!

Share or follow:

« Previous Page