Bible interpretation/ Bible study

Click Bible Study

I hope it is helpful for you.

 

Dear Donna,
I guess your question begs another namely,how technical or in depth do you want to get?Are you interested in learning from the original languages?Do you want to read from the church fathers?Do you want to dig from the lay,college or seminary type study?

 

Also your pastor would be able to point you in the right direction.You could also save a bundle of money by going to your church library.

 

Sister Donna,

There are three things that are essential for the study of the Bible.

1) Prayer, prayer, and more prayer!
One must seek to remove any and all pre-conceived notions that he has and seek the face of our Savior. Remember that our Lord's promise in the Gorpel according to John in chapters 14-16. He said that He would send the comforter, who would teach us all things!
2) Diligence.
One must be patient with God's Word. He must also be careful. There are far too many people that mishandle the Word of God. This is exactly what God spoke of through the Apostle; 2Co. 4.
3) Faith.
One must have faith, if step 1 and 2 have been applied, that what he is being shown from the Holy Scriptures it be received as food for his soul. No one else matters. No other person can wear your tailor made clothes like you can.

Some side articles that are useful in Bible study is a good cheap Bible dictionary and a good cheap Concordance. You may be wondering why I say "cheap"? Well it is simple. There are many coverings for the same books, but they have the same information. Most people do not have a need for detailed archeological and historical data. Nor do they need a detailed language analysis expostition. I hope this helps somewhat.

Maranatha,
Rodney

 

Here are six additional principles:

1. Study all relevant scriptures before forming a dogmatic opinion on what one passage means (inductive study rather than deductive proof-texting).

2. Remember that scripture is written for us, but not to us (keep historical context in mind).

3. Keep each verse in its context(grammatical and subject-matter context).

4. Check connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament (the OT points toward the NT, the NT explains the OT).

5. Do not demand a single method of interpretation, i.e. literal, typological, allegorical, but rather let the scripture interpret itself by whatever methods it demonstrates as appropriate.

6. If (after all above) you want to look to commentaries for help, familiarize yourself with different viewpoints from original sources (be sure to actually be able to explain other positions satisfactorily, before you decide to reject them).

I hope these can be helpful,

Tim