How To Study The Bible

Okay. Let's see. Quick review. What's that? Oh. Oh. Yeah. With inkwells? Yeah. Over the years, I've seen some of those old ones with the inkwells, and it's funny. All of them have a little bit of ink around the inkwell, but anyway. Yeah. We're able to get the ink out? It's going to be my Bible study desk. Oh, that's good. It's great fun. Remember last week we looked at when it comes to observations, many. Interpretations, one. And applications, many. And as we proceed on this morning, we'll be taking a look at a couple of more scripture passages and then looking at this interpretations principle section that we had before.

And what I want to pass on to you here is some, I don't have a handout per se, but some scratchy paper. And you might as well take two or three sheets or something like that because you may end up needing more of it, right? And you have to test it, make sure it's scratchy paper, okay? But anyway, anybody need a pen? Everybody covered on a pen?

Okay. Now, since you have inadequate table space, I'll have you take your Bibles out and look these up as well. Make sure we got the context. Okay, so we look at these. Let me scoot this down. This will be a scoot up as we go kind of thing. 2 Timothy 2.15. Do you have a collision with some furniture? No? Okay. Oh, okay.

Second Timothy 2.15 is one frequently quoted and pointed to.

I have it here in two versions for a reason which will become apparent. I'll read it first in the King James. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And then in the New American Standard, you'll notice some differences there. See that? What I want to do is to take a look at that because this is going to be kind of a guideline verse on our learning how to study the Bible, right? Because this is telling us about this looking at the Bible. So the first thing we want to look at is that word study.

Like a lot of words in the King James, since it was translated some 400 years ago, Like a lot of words in the King James, the meaning has shifted over time. The word study 400 years ago didn't mean study, like in reading. It meant to be diligent. Just like in King James you'll see the word conversation. We think of conversation as talking. 400 years ago that same word meant lifestyle.

So here's this word study, which really means to be diligent. And so they would have said, you know, be diligent based on the way, you know, they use that word study if they had been translating it. Then the next thing, well, let's take a look here. The Greek word is spudazzo and it sounds sort of like an Italian dessert or something like that. But it means to be eager, to make every effort, to be diligent, okay? That's the idea behind that. So as you read that, don't think it's saying study is in the form of reading, but instead it ends up with the same message anyway.

It means be diligent about your handling of the Word of God. And that's what we're doing here this morning and each Sunday. We're being diligent about the Word of God. We're looking at the Word of God in order to continually come at it and say, okay, what is this saying?

The next one, where it says approved, that's dakimasu, is the word. Tested and approved. It's more than just approved, it also means tested. It means tested and approved. If something was not approved, they would call it adakimasu, not approved. It's been tested and not approved. But this says, to show yourself approved unto God.

Now, in the next word we flag there, orthotomonta. Not sure what kind of dessert that sounds like, but ortho, you may have heard that word in medical terminology or elsewise. It just means straight. And the two words together mean straight cut. Now here's the reason I bring it up.

What was Paul's occupation aside from being an apostle? A tent maker, exactly. So you can imagine, and what did he do? He spent hours and hours and hours, even while he was preaching the gospel, doing what? He spent hours and hours making tents. And the first thing he did, in order to make sure everything came together right, he went and cut all the pieces out. This word that he uses here, that's translated accurately handling, or in the King James, rightly dividing. That's the word the tent makers would use when they were cutting out the parts. Okay? Make sure you cut out the parts, he's saying, the parts for the tent, so that when you put the pieces together, they all fit perfectly. You see the picture?

He's using an analogy because, he's writing this to Timothy, right? Timothy had spent lots of time with Paul, We know that from our studies before, and here he is using an analogy with Timothy that Timothy must have gotten quite familiar with, and that is cutting the parts out according to the pattern so that when you put all these pieces together, now they fit and you're constructing the tent.

So you get the sense there, he's saying, be diligent to present yourself approved, and that's tested and approved. In other words, you've been tested and approved as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling or cutting straight the Word of God. In other words, look at it carefully so that when you put it all together, you end up with a good tent.

The parts and pieces fit together. So he's giving Timothy kind of an analogy. He says, when you put the Word of God together, it all makes sense. You fit it together properly. That's his message to Timothy. But to do that, what does he tell him first? Be diligent. So that's what we're doing here this morning. We're learning about what is this diligence all about. So that when we end up with the final result, what does the Word of God mean? That we end up with a good tent. We end up with a good final product.

Yeah? From where did you get that transversion? The computer. You said something different? These things speak, exhort. Oh, that's Titus. That's Titus. Oh, Titus. Yeah, okay. It's in the pastoral epistles, a different one. But it's awkwardly similar. What's that? This verse. Awkwardly similar! It's tantalizingly similar. Alright, let's take a look at another one. The next chapter over here in 2 Timothy. And by the way, here's 2 Timothy. is what? It is Paul's last letter that we have at all. His last writing. And by that time, he's saying, hey, I'm just about done. I'm paraphrasing, but he's saying he's close to the end. I'm just about spent.

And so at that point in time, he's writing stuff that he figures this stuff really counts. It's like anyone near the end of their life, they're going to say, hang on, I only got so much time, I'm going to say, What really needs to be said, this is what really counts, because that's what matters. So he's writing to Timothy. Here's the next chapter here, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. He's talking about Scripture again. Funny how he gets to the end of his life, and what is he doing?

Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. Verse 16, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work. The first thing we have in English is inspired by God. Those four words in the Greek is one word. It's called theopneustos. And it just means God breathed. All scripture is God breathed. Let me move this up a tad because our Greek words are going to drop off otherwise.

Oh, while you're there, it's not quite... Oh, focus? Yeah. Okay. It's getting worse. Is it better? Yes. Okay. It is frustrating when you can't quite see. You ever see those t-shirts where the letters are all foggy? Oh, it's terrible. Anyway, thanks for pointing that out.

Okay, all right. Yeah. Okay, here's elegmos. And that one is correction or conviction, okay? And that's for reproof. It's funny, the next one says for correction. But for correction, that word there, epinorthosis. Sounds like a disease. Anyway, what it means is to restore to straight. Remember the other word where it started off with ortho? Straight? Well, here it comes up again. This is restore to straight.

It means something was crooked, you're now going to restore it. So that's what's translated correction, and that's part of what we're looking at, too, is Scripture is intended by God. Remember, this is God breathed, right? Scripture is intended by God, to help set us straight. What does that imply? We might be crooked. Scripture is intended to help set us straight, to put us on a straight path.

The next word, real interesting, paedia. What do you call a doctor who takes care of kids? Pediatrician, right? Pediatrics is a related term you hear, and it has to do with kids. This is actually the word child training, and it basically has the idea of essential education.

So that's this training in righteousness word. Now, why would he use that? It's because in the verse just before it, he talked about how Timothy had been trained up at home in the Word of God when he was younger. So that's why he can bring it into this next verse here. It's for that child training. Let me move this up here, hopefully that will be helpful. The next one is Arteas.

What he does is he makes a play on words that escapes us in English, because in English it doesn't quite come through, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Arteas is that word translated adequate, and exartizo is just the verb form of the adjective used above. So it's a play on words in the Greek.

But basically it means complete and adequate. Completed and made adequate is the verb. And here's how the word is used. In other documents that they have found from that same period of time they would use this word artios to describe like a boat that was completely outfitted. or a wagon that was completely outfitted, or some kind of a written document that had everything. If you got everything in the document, yes, they'd say it's Arteas.

So that's the idea. It's something that's completely outfitted, it's adequate, it's got all that you need. You get the impression there? Here it's God-inspired for all these purposes, the end result being that you're completely equipped. a boat or piece of equipment, a wagon, anything that needs everything on it in order to be functional.

So that's the idea that he's conveyed here to Timothy in these two passages we looked at here. Any questions before we move on from there? Now let's take a look at, you got your binder here? This is chapter four. We're looking at these interpretive principles. And we're going to kind of step our way quickly through these this morning in order to get an overview and then go over it in more detail. But before we do that, let me just kind of preface it with one thing. Remember, what's our three steps we have?

Observation, interpretation, and application. What these are going to do is to help us look at what are the things I need to be observing. Okay? Because I think that's where a lot of people, they look at the Bible and say, well, what am I supposed to look at? What's important?

It's just like, suppose I had somebody who'd never seen a car driven, and I just handed them the manual that comes with the car. Have you ever seen those? Now, can you read that and drive the car? Not a good idea, okay? It takes something else, doesn't it?

And that's what we're going to do here is in order to really glean everything that's in the Word of God, we want to make sure we've got all the principles down right and we understand them. So let's walk our way through these, okay? The first one, there you see listed, it says, listen to your teacher. And the way it says that is approach your study with a teachable, expectant attitude desiring to be taught of God. Now is it possible that you approach the scripture even with a skeptical attitude and you might get something out of it? Is that possible? Sure, it's possible.

Let me give you a few examples. C.S. Lewis, classic scholar, he started looking at the scripture with the intent, he says, look, I'm an expert on history. I'm going to disprove the resurrection. And he started reading through the Bible, and he ended up with what conclusion? I believe it, right? Here's another instance. Josh McDowell, another skeptic. And he ended up, boy, after I examined the evidence, hey, that's convincing. And he ended up with the idea that I don't believe this stuff. Here's another one. Here's another one.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum was raised a Russian Jew. His plan in life was to be a rabbi. He began writing a treatise which was intended to disprove that Jesus was the Messiah. Being a Jew, that was of course the thing to do, right? And as he studied it more and more, guess what he concluded? Jesus was the Messiah. So now he's going about convincing people of just that.

But those are just a few quick instances. It is possible to come up with the opposite from what we're saying here and arrive at a biblical conclusion. That's not a good place for us to start. What we want to do when we approach the scripture is to essentially say, what does God want to tell me? What's God's message in this for me? That's our first principle, because ultimately if we're resistant to that idea, or even if we just start off without that as our intent, we may fall short of what God has completely put in here. After all, what do we read in there? This is God breathed. When God breathes words, we'd better be listening. Okay, let's look at the next one. Discover the writer's intent.

Have you ever talked to somebody who did not want to hear what you were having to say? They... well, anyway, if you've raised kids, you know what I mean. Anyway, the discover the writer's intent principle is what we're doing is we're not in there to say, I want to prove my point. we're in there to say, what did the writer intend to say? The reality is that goes along with this idea of one interpretation. Generally speaking, when we're talking, we do not intend to say six different things. That's a real creative person, or else at least mysterious. But when we're talking, generally speaking, we've got one intended meaning, one intended communication, and that's what we're searching for. We need to keep that principle in mind when we're looking at the scripture What did the author intend to say? Now let's take a look at the next one. Interpret literally.

There were, especially starting around the third century and then on after that, a lot of Bible scholars who had this idea that everything in Scripture is just a big analogy. One of them, for example, came up and said that Job's seven sons, that was an analogy of the twelve apostles. Everything in scripture, just unbelievable analogies drawn out of it, just constantly making analogies.

The opposite position is the one that Dr. David Cooper phrased, and he said, if the plain sense makes sense, don't seek any other sense. If the plain sense makes sense, don't seek any other sense. That is, we don't go around looking for some weird, mysterious analogy unless that's what it's intending to convey.

We're going to look at, first, what does it literally mean? It doesn't mean that we will ignore figures of speech because we all use them. If I say, boy, she drives me up a wall, I'm not talking about we get in a car and she drives up the wall. But we use figures of speech to convey and communicate something literal. That's the way we use our figures of speech. So we need to be careful that we don't come to scripture with the idea that we're going to go off on some figurative tangent, when the reality is the intent is to convey something literal. So recognize figures of speech, but don't use those as an excuse for going off on an allegorical tangent. The next thing there is observe the context.

The example I used previously was, you know, Judas went out and hung himself, go thou and do likewise. If we just grab verses here and there out of context, we end up with a different than intended meaning. And unfortunately, that kind of thing happens constantly. Can you think of some examples, verses that are grabbed out of context? There, yeah. They just yank that out of context Sounds like a sort of a genie-in-the-lamp kind of thing, doesn't it? Just grab it out of context. There are lots of other passages that real commonly get yanked out of context, and that will be important for us to take a look at.

At the end of Mark it will say, those who are my disciples, and it will give various kind of miraculous things that they will do. And what you'll see is most of those are listed in the book of Acts as having to do with apostles. And if you look at, you know, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, I think it's 12-13, that these are the signs of an apostle. And it talks about miracles and things like that. Yes, if you look at scripture in context and in the whole, you get a better sense of what that's talking about. Some churches have taken that to say we've got to go around handling snakes or you're not faithful.

I don't think that was the intent, right? So context is critical. As a matter of fact, in real estate, what are the three principles? Location, location, location. In interpretation, the three principles are context, context, context. Next one, relate to the historical and cultural setting. Now, why is that important? Why does that matter? Right. Learning how they used words in that particular culture can be absolutely critical to understanding what is meant. Let me see if I can give you a good for instance. Here's an example.

You remember the Jews came up to Jesus and they asked him the question, what about divorce? If we just look at that answer without understanding the history behind it, we may miss out. And it parallels, believe it or not, remember here's Joseph and Mary. And Mary said, or, you know, the Lord has made me pregnant and what does he say? He planned at that point in time, this is before the angel appeared to him, he planned to put Mary away quietly. Now, let me get you some historical background.

The Jews at that time had two ways that you could get a divorce. One was according to the teachings of a guy named Shammai And that said, unless it was the biblical grounds for divorce, you can't get one. The other one was according to Hillel, and Hillel said, you can get divorced for any reason you want. So, let's go back to the context.

In the case of Joseph and Mary, where Joseph didn't want to make a big scene, and he was going to put Mary away, which one would he pick? You can get divorced for any reason you want. because he didn't want to make a big scene because in the court of Shammai it would have come up in court. Have you got a biblical reason? It would have been this big thing and it would have shamed Mary.

So instead he said, I'll do it in the court of Hillel where they'll let me have a divorce for any reason I want and then I won't have to bring this issue up. I'll divorce her quietly. You get the point? So now you have a better understanding of what does it mean to divorce her quietly? Well, it's because he had a choice. Between the two approaches, you could pick which court you got divorced in. And he said, I'll do the quiet one that won't put Mary to shame.

Obviously we know that the angel came to him and the whole outcome was different. But it gives us a little understanding as to what does that mean. Or when Jesus was asked the question, why would the Jews ask him the question? Because they were trying to get him to pick between one and the other. Because then he'd be on one side and then the other side.

But anyway, that's the value in understanding the history. You come to a better understanding of what does this mean? What is this saying in context? Alright, and we'll get into more of that in detail. Consider the literary mold. Now what do I mean by that? What's the literary mold? Yeah? Sure. Understanding the cultural plethora of available scripture. That's correct. And you can trust scripture totally, but how do you trust what other sources there might be for that culture?

I think one of the things that I try to do is cross-check several of them to make sure that it makes sense, if possible. Sometimes it will be pointed up in a commentary. There's also one book called A Bible Background Commentary where it doesn't interpret the scripture. It just gives you the background for all the verses.

Now, something I'll be doing here in the next few weeks is I'll be giving anybody who wants it a CD. They'll have hundreds and hundreds of these resources for free. A lot of them have been written. Alfred Edersheim, for example, wrote several books, I think four major books on the culture of the time, of the New Testament, and they're all in the public domain. Anybody can have them. And that's just one case in point.

Vine's word studies in the public domain, that'll be on the disc. A.T. Robertson's word pictures, That will also be on the disk, so you'll have that all for free. There's lots of resources available and you don't have to pay anything for them because they're public domain or they've been copyrighted but put out for free distribution as long as you don't charge for it. So the point is, to get back to your question, check out different sources to cross-check each other so that you make sure that they're doing their homework and understanding it right.

The other thing is a lot of times there are things elsewhere in the Bible that give you background as to what does this mean. One of them I'll be looking at in the main service is what is legal terminology? You can see in other contexts in the Bible how a word is used. And sometimes words show themselves up as legal terminology in some other context clearly noted from the the scriptures itself.

Does that answer your question? Consider the literary mold. In Psalms, for example, it says that God holds me under his wing. That does not mean that God is a chicken, right? What is it doing? It's using poetic language. So the literary type matters, doesn't it?

If I have something that is historical, I'm going to read that with a different eye than if I look at something that's more just a letter. Example, when Paul says, you know, do this, don't do that, I listen to it very carefully and I look at it and if he says to do something, I better do it, and if he says not to do something, I better not do it. If I look at stories in the Old Testament, I can find historical accounts of things that I look at and say, boy, I don't want to do that. And you think of lots of Old Testament stories of people who did things wrong.

So I look at the type of literature that it is. Is it a letter, directed, that I can apply to my life? Or is it some historical account where I need to be discerning as to, is this a good thing to do or not? Is this how I ought to be thinking or not? You do the same kind of thing when you look at a newspaper. When you look at a newspaper, you look at the front page, right? And you look at that with one eye.

Now, when you turn over to the classifieds, you don't look at the same way, do you? You look at that and you say, oh, that's classifieds. I don't read that the same way. You don't look at the headline, the classifieds, and then start looking for more detail. You understand by looking at it, oh, that's a different literary mold. And then I turn over to the comics. I definitely don't read the comics the same way I read the headlines, right?

You get the idea there? So different kinds of literature should be looked at in different ways. So I'm going to look at it and I'm going to say, well, is this poetry? Is it poetic language? Is this historical? Is this prophecy? Is this a letter? So each of those different categories I'm going to learn to look at in a different way and on the basis of that, interpret it differently. Just like I would look at different sections of the newspaper and read those differently because I recognize, oh, that's a different kind of writing than this other.

So that's the idea there. Observe the author's scope and plan. Where is the author going with this? That's one of the principles of context. If I look at a verse and I say, well, what does he mean by that? Instead of just looking at that, maybe I need to get a sense of where is he going with what he's talking about here. What's the direction that he is writing in? Let's take it for instance.

The book of Galatians. What's Paul's big issue there in the book of Galatians? Legalism, the law. People had come in and they were trying to sell, okay, Jesus is good, all that's great, but you've got to get under the law if you're really going to be right. And guess what, there's people still doing that now, right? Now, by understanding where Paul's going, we have a better sense of why he says what he says, don't we? He barely gets through saying hi before all of a sudden he's saying, if anybody comes up with a different gospel, may he be condemned.

And here he is in the middle of it, twice he says, you foolish Galatians. That's strong language. Why would he talk like that? It has to do with the direction he's going with this whole thing. If you read Philippians, he's just overflowing with thanks. He's going in a different direction, isn't he, in that? So we need to understand what direction is the writer going? What are they trying to say?

And then we'll understand how the little details fit. It's just in the same way when you drive from here to some other place you're going to go on the places in between. It's going to make sense, the path that you're taking, or at least I hope it is. The direction you're going is going to make sense. It's going to make logical sense. And you're going to do the same thing as you read through a passage. You're going to be looking at, where is this author heading?

Therefore, when I look at some particular little detail, it'll make sense with the overall flow of where he's headed. So that's the next principle to keep in mind. Compare scripture with scripture. Carol asked the question about how do we find out some of this cultural stuff.

Not all of it may be immediately apparent in the Bible, but the reality is that there is often a pattern, and frequently you'll find the same author uses a lot of the same words. The same author using the same words again. Same phrases, as it turns out. the idea of being sealed with the Holy Spirit? Who writes that? Which author of the New Testament talks about being sealed with the Holy Spirit? Paul. Paul does three times. And no other New Testament author. So if I want to understand that seal with the Holy Spirit, what does he mean by that?

If I can see it in one place, I have two other places where I can see it. and look at what's the pattern of his use of that phrase. As we talked about in our Revelation study in the main service, here's John using, he says that Christ has this two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and he uses that ramphia, that barbarian's sword. And it's interesting, John is real consistent. Every time he's talking about Christ with a sword out of his mouth, he uses that same Greek word. and it's consistent all the way through, and other places in the New Testament it rarely shows up. Calling Christ the Lamb only shows up multiple times in Revelation and in the Gospel of John.

So guess what? I find the pattern of that same author is consistent. I can compare Scripture with Scripture to get an understanding of what something means. If something is obscure in one place, let's say you look at something and say, boy, I'm not quite sure what that means. I can look at another place and compare it and say, ah, now it makes sense because I've got some other context where that same word or phrase is used and now it explains it more. So I can use the clear places to explain the ones that are less clear.

Study word meanings and grammar. One of the things about studying scripture is we're going to zero in on what do the words mean. Remember just like we were doing with the overheads here. We want to zero in and get a clear understanding of what do these words mean. Sometimes it's just a matter of looking up.

Maybe you need to look it up in a dictionary. Maybe it's a matter of learning different parts of speech so we get a sense of how does this fit together. Is this a verb or an adjective? Is this a noun? Is it a thing? Is it a pronoun? Is it a personal pronoun? All those kinds of things we want to take a look at because that helps us get a clear understanding of what it's talking about.

Remember, God speaks in human terms. Sometimes people will look at something and they'll say, well, that sounds kind of strange. It sounds like God's a human being. But sometimes what's happening is the Lord is saying, how can I communicate to these people in terms they'll understand? So what does he do? It'll talk about God's voice. It'll talk about God's heart. It'll use things that we understand as human beings. And so the Lord conveys things to us in ways that we can understand.

And then the last principle there, use the original languages. And we'll be taking a little bit of a look at it this time, but as time goes on we'll be looking at it more This is, in this binder, actually just part one. The next part, the next quarter, will be going a little bit deeper and then the third and the fourth quarter will be actually digging into Greek. We'll look specifically at Greek here in order to be able to study more in depth. But the original languages can sometimes help you understand better what was the author saying. and so it can be a valuable tool.

All right, now, next time, Chapter 5. You can read all of Chapter 5. It's only about four pages. But one clarification I want to make before you dive into that, it says the four major steps involved in the interpretive process, and it basically gives you four instead of three, what he has done is to break observation into two steps. So it's not in conflict, he's just taken the second step, observation, and made it part one and part two. Anyway, read that over. I think that again will help you ask the right questions about how do we come to a proper interpretation of a passage. Any questions? You all with me?

Okay, let's pray. Lord, how marvelous that you have laid out your word, and indeed it is God-breathed. Lord, that is just an unfathomable truth, but we do give you thanks. We just pray as we continue on here. We pray for hearts and minds of diligence that we might fully understand your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.