What are Other Approaches to Study the Bible?
The Bible is God’s revealed testimony to mankind. Here we encounter His divine plan for all people who turn to Him for redemption through Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross. God’s Word is a manifestation of His divine love and grace, as He reveals His heart and mind to human beings. He does this along with His unfolding sovereign plan, purpose and timing in all of history, the present and the future.
While there are many ways to approach Scripture, there is no single unique method that can be used to understand God’s revealed will. Why? The reason for this is that the Bible is not only unique in its complexity – provided we are dealing with the divine nature of a fully personal God, who desires a personal relationship with all people, no matter who it is. As such, only the Bible reveals God’s divine plan of salvation – in and through Jesus Christ – in order to provide eternal security, as manifested in and through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is this Third Person of the Trinity that draws us near to God, and He does this through us, as we read and study the Bible.
So, while there are numerous approaches and methods in existence, not all of them are viable. In this article, we are exploring some – which are all both, Bible-based and Christ-centred, and can be used in various settings (individual and group study). In that way, we can engage, unravel and discern God’s personal plan for our lives. The purpose of this article is to outline several helpful approaches – in two parts – that can assist any person, who is serious about studying the Bible.
Before beginning any Bible study, it is crucial that we designate specific and purposeful quiet time – involving a place, plan and prayer. As we set our hearts and minds on God’s Word, which (as mentioned) reveals His divine nature and will (Isaiah 55:8-9) – we must make a commitment, set goals and dedicate quality time, in order to facilitate and accomplish a fruitful Bible study. Hereby, the place should be as quiet as possible, free of any noise, distractions or other hinderances (1) that may interrupt studying. Likewise, having a plan is important, in order that we can utilize our God-given time to the utmost. Reading and studying the Bible should never be an afterthought, but rather be our number one daily priority, since then and only then, will we be able to learn, understand and grow in our knowledge of Scripture – and more importantly, also be able to grow in our personal relationship with Christ. So once we have all this in place, along with a good Bible translation, e.g. NASB, NKJV, ESV, or a paraphrase such as NLT, we are always wise to surrender ourselves to Jesus in prayer, before beginning. Here is a short prayer that can help us and may be used like this:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I (we) come to you in prayer and thanksgiving,
asking you to help, guide and direct me (us),
in reading, studying and learning your Word,
through the Person and Power of the Holy Spirit.
Please help me (us) to understand your Word,
and also help me (us) grow in my (our) personal relationship with you.
Thank you for your help.
In Jesus Name I (we) pray. Amen.
In this segment, we are considering a common biblical study approach – called inductive Bible study. At the centre of this method are four parts: Observation, context, interpretation (exegesis) and application – see Appendix A on how to put it all together (2).
This approach is beneficial in that it can be used for any part of the Bible, and can be utilized as a basis – as needed – in conjunction with other methods. Every observation begins with asking the questions: Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why?, and How? The initial observation is very important and requires time as well as effort, yet done in a focused manner, along with considering the author (who at times is unknown) and especially the socio-cultural background, helps to establish a basic preliminary context. This leads to the critical explanation or interpretation of the biblical text (exegesis) which requires care and additional tools (such as commentaries, concordances, Bible dictionaries or study guides) – see additional references for proper biblical interpretation (3), avoiding exegetical mistakes (4), doing theology well (5) – and see Appendix B on how to conduct a more advanced biblical exegesis (6). The application requires prayerful insight and guidance of the Holy Spirit, whom we must always consult first. As He speaks into our heart, we may consider how a passage applies to our life and the lives of others. Based on what we learn the key is to ask – How will we respond? What does God want me to do differently based on my study?
Keeping the inductive approach in mind – as basic point of departure – in this second and final segment, we are looking at other viable ways to explore and study the Bible. Hereby, building on the inductive strategy, we can study the Bible book-by-book (7). This makes sense in that we can move from the Old Testament (OT) to the New Testament (NT) and its complete narrative. As such, we can get a better grasp on the entire biblical story, learning about God’s revealed will and testimony in the Bible: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation. Studying in that way (from Genesis to Revelation), we become aware of who and what the Bible is about, namely Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross on our behalf.
Hereby, the books to study in the OT can be grouped into the narrative of Israel (Genesis to Esther), the writings of Israel (Job to Lamentations) and Israel’s prophets (Isaiah to Malachi). The redemption of mankind and God’s plan for salvation as prophesying about Christ, lead us into the NT with His arrival in the gospels and the beginning of the Christian church in Acts. The Epistles and Revelation expand upon God’s redemption and point to the consummation of His eternal plan at the second coming of Christ. So, in order to understand and grasp the magnitude of God’s divine plan, we may opt to study the 66 books of the Bible in chronological order (as far as can be discerned) as an alternative to the common evangelical arrangement of the books.
With this, we can creatively expand and explore the Bible utilizing additional approaches (8) such as verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, thematically, topically and biographically – see Appendix C for recommended Bible study tools. There is virtually an unlimited way of combining different methods in order to prepare a regular, consistent and guided approach, to help us engage God’s Word on a daily basis, making a commitment that will help a person (and even a group of people) to grow in understanding Scripture and developing in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thereby, we are getting ready for missional, evangelical, discipleship or other God-given forms of ministry, fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
In conclusion, as we have seen, there are numerous ways to study and engage the Bible. Several approaches may be better suited for some, while others may benefit from different ones. Also, some approaches can be more fruitful for individual study, while others may be best for group study. Regardless of the methods – what should be first – is the purposefulness of every study by establishing a regular time, quiet place, having a plan and always starting with prayer. The more time we dedicate to Bible study, the more we will grow in our personal relationship with Christ, along with following the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit. With His help we can mature in our Christian walk of faith, listen for God’s voice speaking into our hearts and working in and through us in ways we may never have imagined.
Remember, God desires a relationship with us more than we do, since He is a personal God and loves us in ways we cannot fully understand. Hereby, the most direct way God speaks to us is through the Bible, which is His Word along with the Holy Spirit leading us into a growing a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, lastly, keep in mind that God desires all people to come to Him (Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) in repentance and receive His divine grace, mercy and eternal salvation. As such, regardless of what approach(es) you select to study, the most important thing is that you open and read the Bible. This is not an attempt to earn your salvation by good deeds, which does not work (since the Bible tells us this in Ephesians 2:8-9), but rather the outworking of a repentant, humble and surrendered heart bent toward God. Open the Bible and your heart, as you ask and welcome Jesus Christ into your life, and see what He does. One thing is certain, He will never leave you, nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). May God bless you, your Bible study and help you grow in Christ. Amen.
Notes
(1) Brown, Gregory. “Lesson 10: The Bible Is Unique In How You Study It–Hindrances To Studying Scripture.” Accessed April 28, 2023.
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-10-bible-unique-how-you-study-it-hindrances-studying-scripture
(2) Adapted from Arthur, Kay. How to Study Your Bible. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2010. (p.22). Adapted from Sproul, R. C. Knowing Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2016. pp. 49-50.
(3) Davis, James. “Lesson 6: Principles of Biblical Interpretation.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-6-principles-biblical-interpretation
(4) Barrick, William D. “Exegetical Fallacies: Common Interpretative Mistakes Every Student Must Avoid.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://drbarrick.org/files/papers/other/tmsj19a.pdf
(5) Carson, D. A. “How to Read the Bible and Do Theology Well.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-bible-and-theology-don-carson-nivzsb/
(6) Adapted from Blomberg, Craig. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010. pp. 269-283.
(7) Fee Gordon D and Douglas K Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.
(8) Warren, Rick. Dynamic Bible Study Methods: 12 Approaches to Searching the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1981.
Appendix A
Putting it All together (Inductive Approach)
I. The text (pre-Observation & Observation)
a. pre-Observation
i. Select a passage to study.
1. Who is the author of the passage?
2. What is the socio-cultural background of the author?
3. Read the passage over in several translations (Note discrepancies in translations)
4. Use 1., 2. and 3. to help establish the context (II.)
b. Observation (What does the passage say?)
i. Ask questions to establish as many facts as possible:
1. Who wrote it? Who said it? Who are the main characters? To whom is the author speaking? About whom is the author speaking?
2. What are the key events? What are the major ideas? What are the major teachings? What are these people like? What does he talk about the most? What is his reason in saying that?
3. When was it written? When did this event occur? When will it happen? When did he say it? When did he do it?
4. Where was this done? Where was this spoken? Where will it occur?
5. Why was there a necessity for this to be written? Why was this stated? Why was so much or so little space devoted to this specific teaching or event? Why was this reference quoted? Why should they do or say something like this?
6. How is it done? How did it occur? How is this truth explained?
ii. Record the following:
Questions or problems that arise, as you ask above 5W and 1H questions:
1.
iii. Parallel or related passages that come to mind:
1.
2.
Adapted from Arthur, Kay. How to Study Your Bible. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2010. (p.22).
II. The Context
(Every text has a context and the interpretation is dependent on identifying the context.)
a. Where does the text start and where does it end?
i. Starts
ii. Ends
b. What comes before and what comes after the text? What, if any, impact might this have upon the interpretation and analysis?
i. Paragraphs before and after?
ii. Chapters before and after?
iii. Books before and after (position within the biblical canon)?
c. What is the historical context of the passage? (Use a Bible Dictionary, the Introduction to a commentary, or the Introduction to the particular book in a study Bible.)
i. Where does it fit in biblical history?
ii. What were the prevailing political, social and economic conditions behind the passage? (This step could be done more thoroughly outside of class.)
iii. Who wrote the passage?
iv. Why was it written?
v. To whom was it written?
d. What is the literary context of the passage? Consider genre – Does it occur in an historical narrative, wisdom literature, Gospel, letter, or poetic book?
III. Interpreting the text (exegesis)
a. Note important grammatical features—questions, statements, commands, etc.
identify key words and phrases.
c. Do word studies (See Appendix B, under Word Studies).
d. Theological issues
i. What does the text tell us about God?
ii. What does it tell us about mankind?
iii. What questions or problems does the passage raise or answer?
IV. Applying the text
a. Read different legitimate commentaries.
i. Where do the commentators agree or disagree? ii. Where do you agree or disagree with the commentators? Make any adjustments in your interpretation.
b. Think through applications.
i. To whom does the text apply? All people of all times or specific groups?
ii. What in the text does not apply to twentieth century hearers? iii. What in the text does apply?
iv. To what areas of life should the text be applied?
c. My personal responses:
i.
ii.
Adapted from Sproul, R. C. Knowing Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2016. pp. 49-50.
Appendix B
Checklist for Biblical Exegesis
Textual Criticism
List any important textual variations worth studying. Examine the external evidence for every reading.
__ Select the reading with the best support (based on combining age, reliability, and quantity of manuscripts).
Look at the internal evidence for each reading.
__ Identify the transcriptional evidence (which readings are more likely to have scribal modifications).
__ Identify inherent evidence (readings the original author plausibly wrote).
__ Select the reading most likely to have initiated the others.
Translation and Translations
Translate the text.
__ For a literal translation, seek formal equivalence or use the NASB, NRSV, or ESV.
__ For a fluent and understandable translation goal aim for dynamic equivalence, or use the NLT, or GNT.
Historical-Cultural Context
List the author, date, audience, location and circumstances of the author, location of audience, and circumstances of audience for your passage.
List and explore central concepts in your passage that will be meaningfully clarified by further recognizing ancient Jewish and/or Greco-Roman culture and history.
Literary Context
Read the passages immediately preceding and following your passage.
Assess how they influence the interpretation of the text. Devise a likely outline of the entire biblical book.
__ Locate your passage along with its immediate context in the book’s overall narrative flow to determine other implications for interpreting your passage.
Note any figures of speech, other literary devices that have an interpretative impact.
__ Use narrative criticism for your passage, if needed to explain plot, portrayal, narrative time, climax, and others.
Word Studies
Isolate uncommon, controversial, or theologically significant words.
Determine the meaning of each word.
__ Consider the Septuagint, classical Greek, Hellenistic or Koine Greek, and the New Testament.
__ If a word is used repeatedly in the author or book under scrutiny, pay special attention to these usages.
Choose the meaning that best fits in the context of your passage for each word.
Grammar
Identify uncommon, controversial, or theologically vital grammatical constructions.
List the solution range to each suggested by grammarians, commentators, etc.
Assess the arguments for and against the alternatives in order to isolate the most probable categorizations within the immediate contexts.
Interpretive Problems
Articulate the remaining, more artificial, exegetical difficulties.
Establish which combination of the above steps permits a solution to each of these issues, and engage exegetical study, as necessitated.
Narrow down a preferred solution by process of elimination with several plausible solutions remaining.
__ Look for the most settled, plain exegetical decisions in order to omit less likely options.
Create a probable order for the remaining options, if a straightforward answer is not available.
Outlining
Identify the amount and location of complete sentences within your passage.
Use every sentence as the key point of an outline.
__ If more than one sentence exists, representing a main outline point, you can sort these thematically, chronologically, or episodically. Using subdivisions, move to the individual sentence level.
__ If there are not enough sentences to uniquely represent a main outline point, sub-segment them by their natural divisions, or multiple sentences. Isolate key sentence parts organized around independent clauses, then dependent clauses or prepositional phrases.
__ Subdivide in accordance with natural sentence divisions.
__ Separate where sentences form independent clauses, and at the level for dependent clauses or prepositional phrases.
Write the key points and subpoints in your own words, include applicable verses found in each part.
Theology
List and group systematic theology types relevant to your passage.
Verbalize what your text contributes to an understanding of each of the doctrines on which it touches.
If obvious contradictions with other biblical passages emerge, reconsider your understanding of the text and of the other passages, if needed.
__ Review a cross section of scholarly solutions to the apparent contradiction.
__ Alter your systematic theological combination that best resolves the problems.
Application
Establish the application(s) of your text as was originally intended. If an application is unclear, given a different contemporary context, find and resort to the cross-cultural theological principle(s) on which each application is based.
__ Do not exceed the level of abstraction, beyond the need of uncovering these principles. If possible, using cross-cultural principles, identify applications, that converge with the matching aims of the applications initially sought.
Adapted from Blomberg, Craig. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010. pp. 269-283.
Appendix C
Essential Research Tools for the Whole Bible
1. Five good Bible translations (KJV, NASB, ESV, NRSV, NIV).
2. An analytical concordance, e.g. Young’s concordance.
3. New Bible Dictionary.
4. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology.
5. A Bible Atlas, e.g. The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (2009); Zondervan Atlas of the Bible by Rasmussen (rev. 2010).
6. Geerhardus Vos’s Biblical Theology is outstanding.
7. Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992) for more scholarly research.
8. Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in this Text? [JETS 12/01; JBL Fall 01], for contemporary literary theory and the denial of definitive textual meaning.
9. Klein-Blomberg-Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (2004).
10. Vanhoozer, ed. Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed.
11. Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. John Beck (2011), or Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, eds. Leland Ryken et al. (IVP, 1998) (optional).
Adapted from Evans, John F. A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works: 10th Edition. Vol. 10th edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2016. (p.469)
References
Arthur, Kay. How to Study Your Bible. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2010. (p.22).
Barrick, William D. “Exegetical Fallacies: Common Interpretative Mistakes Every Student Must Avoid.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://drbarrick.org/files/papers/other/tmsj19a.pdf
Blomberg, Craig. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010. pp. 269-283.
Brown, Gregory. “Lesson 10: The Bible Is Unique In How You Study It–Hindrances To Studying Scripture.” Accessed April 28, 2023.
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-10-bible-unique-how-you-study-it-hindrances-studying-scripture
Carson, D. A. “How to Read the Bible and Do Theology Well.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-bible-and-theology-don-carson-nivzsb/
Davis, James. “Lesson 6: Principles of Biblical Interpretation.” Accessed April 28, 2023. https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-6-principles-biblical-interpretation
Evans, John F. A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works: 10th Edition. Vol. 10th edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2016. (p.469)
Sproul, R. C. Knowing Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2016. pp. 49-50.
For Further Study
Blomberg, Craig. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010.
Fee Gordon D and Douglas K Stuart. How to read the Bible for all its worth: a guide to understanding the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982. Accessed April 28,2023.
https://archive.org/details/howtoreadbiblefo00feeg
Fee Gordon D and Douglas K Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Accessed April 28,2023.
https://archive.org/details/howtoreadbiblebo0000feeg
Sproul, R. C. Knowing Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2016. pp. 49-50.
https://archive.org/details/knowingscripture0000spro
Stewart, Don. “How Should We Go about Studying the Bible?” Accessed April 28,2023.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_542.cfm
Walsh, John. “All the Stories of the Bible.” Accessed April 28,2023.
https://bible.org/series/all-stories-bible
Warren, Rick. Dynamic Bible Study Methods: 12 Approaches to Searching the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1981. Accessed April 28,2023.
https://archive.org/details/dynamicbiblestud0000warr
AMEN.
Bible-Based & Christ-Centred 