Eight Rules for Beginners Reading the Bible

Rule #1: Start with something that is easy to understand/easily applicable and work toward the books that are harder.
- NT: James, Gospel of Mark
- OT: Psalms, Proverbs & Genesis

Rule #2: Be regular/consistent.

Rule #3: Don’t read for quantity, read for quality. Reading the Bible through in a year is great but does little if you don’t learn anything, change anything, or draw closer to God based on what you read.

Rule #4: Read to understand, understand to apply. Learning information by itself isn’t the point. Application is the point. But you first have to understand what it says before you know what to do with it.

Rule #5: Prayer – Ask God for wisdom, insight and understand.

Rule #6: Realize up front that not all your conclusions will be valid – talk with someone you trust, ask questions and compare your findings with other scriptures to try to determine what is right.

Rule #7: When you run into difficulty, don’t go straight to a commentary for help. Wrestle with it on your own for a while first. Commentators are people too and they can make mistakes.

Rule #8: Not everything in the Bible is written for the same reason. Some writings are poetic and some are laws. Some are for instruction and others are general good advice. Not everything in the Bible is a command from God.

What advice would you add?

New Lesson Series Uploaded – What is Church?

We just wrapped up a five week LIFE group series called “What is Church?”. The point of the series was to get people familiar with the basics of our identity as the church/God’s people and our purposes. We used to teach the basics a lot. Sometimes we probably stayed on the basiscs for too long. As a result in many instances the basics have been neglected in recent years so that many new people aren’t really sure about some of the most basic principles of our faith, why we do the things we do, or who we are. This study address what church is all about. Here is the link,

What Is Church?

A Comprehensive List of Scot McKnight’s Commentary Recommendations: The Pastor’s Bookshelf

Scot McKnight often lists his recommended commentaries on various books of the Bible in what he calls the “Pastors Bookshelf”. Here are the ones he has done so far all in one place. This is an invaluable resource for selecting the best of the best commentaries on each book of the New Testament. Thanks Scot for taking the time to assemble this over the last few years. If Scot has already compiled this somewhere let me know.

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts of the Apostles

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians & Philemon

1 & 2 Thessalonians

Pastorals (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus)

Hebrews

James

1-2 Peter & Jude

1-3 John

Revelation

 

Review of the Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament by G.K. Beale

I just finished reading the Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament and it was worth the read. I don’t review every book I read but I try to make sure I review the ones worth reading. There are a few things about Beale’s perspective that I found helpful. First, he has done his homework. He has studied this topic for several decades and over the last few years has put out several resources to help people understand how the New Testament writers understood and used the Old Testament through their direct quotations and allusions to various OT texts. Second, he respects scripture as the inspired Word of God and views God as the ultimate author of scripture. That has implications in his approach that impacts the book in a major way and I found it very helpful (more on that in a minute). Third, at least in this book, he is thorough but concise…a quality few seem to possess.

This handbook is basically a “how to” on his approach in an effort to inform you how to work through this subject on your own with actual texts. Another resource he published recently is his New Testament Biblical Theology is a theology of the NT based through the lens of the OT. I purchased this as well and haven’t read it but it is HUGE and looks exceptionally good (it is expensive). Third is a commentary he wrote with D.A. Carson called Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. This book is more of a verse by verse commentary (where appropriate) of how the NT writers used and interpretaed various OT texts and appropriated them into the NT in various ways and for various purposes. I haven’t seen this book yet but I can only imagine it would be well worth purchasing.

The Handbook begins with a discussion of challenges that have to be addressed in understanding the issues involved in understanding how the NT writers used the OT. Those challenges range from whether or not the NT writers really cared about the context of the OT scriptures they cited down to the very definition of typology. Beale believes that virtually all OT allusions and quotations were used by the NT writers in view of their context. What is more, since God is the ultimate author of scripture (p.24) and had a hand in guiding the process of the production of scripture from start to finish, all scripture is used contextually among authors because underlying it all is God as the ultimate author of Scripture and God certainly understands what He has said in earlier writings contextually (both historical context and literary context).

Beale spends a lot of time on typology and the debate that has surrounded how typology is to be defined. Does typology require the original passage to have understood itself to be a forward looking prophesy in order for it to be understood that way in the NT (authorial intent of a scripture being prophetic)? For instance, Deuteronomy 18 talks about a prophet like Moses who was to come. That passage is a type for Jesus. The text itself is forward looking and looking for future fulfillment.

In chapter 2, Beale writes about direct quotations in the NT of OT passages and allusions (probably the trickiest) in the NT to the OT. Quotations are pretty easy to find. There is usually an introductory formula (as it is written, etc) that identifies the NT writer is purposefully making use of the OT. Allusions are a bit trickier. Beale defines an allusion as, “a brief expression consciously intended by an author to be dependent on an OT passage.” (p.31). How tightly connected to the OT does something have to be for us to understand the NT writer had in mind that they were making an allusion to something in the OT? They can allude to a specific verse, a word, a theme, etc.

One of the best assets in this book are the resources and bibliographies that Beale (and his grad assistants!) have compiled. He frequently makes suggestions of further resources to help you in your study. He recommends NA27′s list of OT allusions in the NT (Nestle-Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition) as well as C.A. Evan’s book Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature as he goes not only into the NT’s OT allusions but also OT allusions in the NT from the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Qumran, targums, and so much more! Another interesting book he cites is H. Gough’s The NT Quotations Collated with the Scriptures of the OT (online at google books) that actually works the other way around by working organizing the NT citations but in the order of the OT. So it would start with Genesis and list any NT citations/allusions.

After the first two introductory chapters just described, Beale lays out his methodology in chapter 3 and spends the rest of the book working through parts of his methodol0gy. Here is how he works through these passages (p.42-43):

1. Identify the OT reference
2. Analyze the broad NT context where the OT reference occurs
3. Analyze the OT context
4. Survey the use of the OT text in early Judaism
5. Compare the texts: NT, LXX, targums, MT, etc
6. Analyze the NT’s author’s textual use of the OT passage (what version is he citing or did he do his own translation?)
7. Analyze the NT writer’s interpretive use of the OT
8. Analyze their theological use of the OT
9. Analyze their rhetorical use of the OT

He spends the rest of chapter three giving more explanation of each of these steps and then spends the remainder of the book giving even more specifics.

Chapter 4 – Works through Step 7
Chapter 5 – Works through Step 8
Chapter 6 – Works through Step 4 (He has a lengthy bibliography in this section that is nearly worth the price of the book)
Chapter 7 is a case study that puts all the steps into action.

Troubleshooting: Bible Class Structure

Hebrews 5:11-6:3 says,

“¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so.”

In a world that is less and less “churched” there is certainly a large number of people who will come through the door and need to be taught the basics. Do we make any effort to reach them where they are or do we just allow them to fall into a random hodge-podge of Bible classes that may not even be close to what they actually need? Then there are the “mature” Christians who have attended hundreds, if not thousands of services. Are they moving along in their maturity? Or are they still going around and around on the basics? I sometimes wonder if the class structure of the typical church has considered any of these things and what things might look like if we did a superb job of meeting people where they are at (whether mature or brand new) and helping them grow from there.

Does your class structure have any of that built in or is it random based on the whims and desires of whoever is available to teach at the moment?

Greek and Hebrew Textual Study Tools Big List

There are all kinds of great tools on the web for studying the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament (the text, textual variants/criticism, etc). I thought it might be nice to start a list of them so that when anyone needs them you can get them all in one spot. I am also going to start a new page on my blog where these will go as well so that it will always be at the top of the blog in the resources there and not get buried by new posts. If you know of any resources that can be added feel free to mention them in the comments and I will check them out. All updates will be on the Textual Study Page.

Manuscripts

Categories of NT manuscripts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categories_of_New_Testament_manuscripts

List of NT Papyri: – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Testament_papyri

List of NT uncials: – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Testament_uncials

List of NT minuscules:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Testament_minuscules

List of NT Lectionaries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Testament_lectionaries

Manuscript comparator – http://openscriptures.org/prototypes/manuscript-comparator/

Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts - http://www.csntm.org

Septuagint Full Text - http://bibledatabase.net/html/septuagint/

Text Compilations:

Textus receptus/Authorized Version interlinear http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm

Textus receptus (parsed) - http://www.unboundbible.org/downloads/bibles/greek_textus_receptus_parsed.zip

Majority text (parsed) - http://www.unboundbible.org/downloads/bibles/greek_byzantine_2000_parsed.zip

Variations between the Textus Receptus and Majority text - http://www.dtl.org/alt/main/variants.htm

NA26 - http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/gnt/

Greek New Testament with Major Variants - http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php

Textual variants:

List of Major NT Texual Variants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_textual_variants_in_the_New_Testament

Interlinear OT (the Leningrad codex) - http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Hebrew_Index.htm

Online Lexicons:

Lidell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?redirect=true&lang=greek

Other Ancient Texts:

Perseus Digital Library - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

CARM – Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

I ran across a ministry and Bible study resource tool that I wanted to pass along. It is called CARM – Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. They have answers to tough Bible questions, answers to Bible difficulties, Greek and Hebrew resources and so much more. They do appear to be Reformed/Calvinist as is reflected in some of the articles just FYI.

 

Updated Jesus 101 Study

I have made revisions to the Jesus 101 study and wanted to let you know that and post the new pdf. This is the evangelistic study of Mark that we put together here at Northwest so that we can start getting more people engaged in Bible study with non-Christians. So far this study has been downloaded 140 times since I posted it last month with an additional 80 requests from the Spiritual Growth Workshop that I sent out via email yesterday! We have given out over 200 hard copies as well!

Bible class archive
Also, an update on the Bible class archive. This is a place where I gather Bible class and small group lessons from a bunch of talented guys and post it for others to download for free. We just broke the 3000 lesson mark! There have been over 55,000 pdf downloads so far! If you are using any of these lessons I would love to get feedback. It is always an encouragement to hear from someone who has used these lessons and were blessed by them.

There is a Difference Between Coming to the Scriptures and Coming to Jesus

Jesus said, ”You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” – John 5:39-40

Have we assumed that deep knowledge of scripture guaranteed connection with Jesus? Is it possible to place scripture above Jesus without recognizing to whom those very words are pointing us? All to often Bible study can become a head game…an intellectual pursuit. It becomes a list of details and stories to be familiar with rather than a relationship. It is like knowing all the stats of your spouses’ life without actually knowing them and connecting with them personally…spending time with them and loving them with everything you’ve got. Sometimes we are a like a microbiologist who has passion for his microscope rather than the actual cell structures he has devoted his life to. How often do we fall in love with the lens rather than the object we are to fix our eyes on through that lens?

John The Baptist’s Baptism Was for the Forgiveness of Sins

You have undoubtedly heard that John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and that the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism was that Jesus’ baptism took it a step further by adding the effect of the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Well, was anyone even reading Mark 1:4? “And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” I have read that verse a zillion times and never picked up on it until this week when a good friend of mine pointed that out.

What is more, Jesus’ disciples baptized people during his ministry. John 4:1-2 says, “Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.” I had always assumed this was the same kind of baptism John was doing and for the same purpose. Was this also a baptism for the forgiveness of sins? If that is what Jesus came to do it would only make sense that it was. Would Jesus baptize in a way less than what John was doing?

Honestly, this should come as no surprise. God constantly forgave sins under the old covenant. The sacrificial system itself came with the blessing of atonement and forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins wasn’t a new idea in the new covenant. The means of that forgiveness certainly changed.

Then Why Did Jesus Have to Come?
When my friend shared this with me, he said the person who pointed this out to him then asked him “Why did Jesus have to die if John’s baptism brought forgiveness?” That is a question a lot of people would ask if you showed them Mark 1:4. I believe that question shows a gross misunderstanding of the ministry of Jesus. They might as well have pointed out the verses in the Old Testament where God said he would forgive their sins and ask why Jesus had to come if God could forgive sins any other way. The Gospel we have preached is too small when people ask questions like that.

Jesus certainly came to forgive sins but Jesus did more than wipe away the bad. Jesus came to bring us abundant life. Jesus came to give us his yoke. Jesus came to show us the inbreaking kingdom and reign of God. Jesus came to be victor of sin and death so that by his overcoming of those powers he would open the door to our having eternal life with God. Instead, we have chosen to boil down the ministry of Jesus to fixing our problem of sin only. We have preached it and taught that so much that people can’t even see why Jesus came once they understand forgivness of sins was already present prior to Jesus Christ. We have a lot of work to do in helping people have a biblical understanding of the message and mission of Jesus Christ and what the Gospel is all about.