What exactly is involved when it comes to studying the Bible? Isn't reading it just enough?
Studying the bible can look slightly different for each person, but it all comes down to expanding your understanding of biblical themes, language, and concepts through research and consumption of theological texts (by "text" I'm referring to all forms of content from written, audio, and video). This takes intentional, and allocated time and focus. And you may not be able to do it regularly or as much as you'd like. This post outlines a lot of what I think is involved in studying the Bible. Its all a part of expanding your Bible roadmap and how well you know the layout of it all.
I'm planning on expanding on this all as well, so it definitely isn't a complete picture of what is it takes to study the Bible.
I call this my "Sweet Bible Study Venn Diagram I Made to Look Real Smart":
Let me break down each of these areas.
1. Author
Someone wrote each book of the Bible, how well do you know them?
The more you know the author and their story, the more you can understand what they're trying to say and how they do that. For example, the more you get to know Christopher Nolan and how he likes to direct movies, the more you start to understand how he films with minimal CGI which can help you appreciate a lot more of the practical cinematography.
This is where you can read biographies and studies of the authors to understand them. NT Wright has some fantastic books on Paul and his background, this adds a lot to how your read his letters and his own journey on understanding the reality of Christ. Another example is as you read the about the stories of King David and his journey, a lot of the Psalms he wrote can have a lot more depth.
Get to know the authors.
2. Audience
What is the background and the history of the people that the text is meant for?
This can shape the way you read the text. Filling your imagination of the culture, geography, and background of those who would've initially gotten these texts can enrich how you learn from the Bible. Historical texts are great for this. Anything by Mary Beard about Ancient Rome is a great starting point to understand the world of a lot of the New Testament.
3. Text
The bible itself can have its own complexities.
Firstly, it wasn't written in english but in multiple ancient languages. Very often these languages don't have an exact match to modern languages, so require interpretation.
Secondly, it was written across many centuries long ago. There are various cultural and historical implications that we may not understand if we were alive then.
Thirdly, the way we interpret this text can differ depending on our own cultural background. This is why we have multiple translations. Translators do a great job at using the most available data to interpret the original texts in a way that would make sense to modern readers. It is always a good idea to re-read the bible using different translations to see how the original languages have been interpreted.
Think of this as getting to know someone through photos only. You may not be able to meet them in person, but the more photos and images you have from different angles will make it easier for you to build up an idea of what they look like.
4. Relationship Between the Author and the Audience
How well the author does or doesn't know their intended audience can have profound implications on how they written what they need to say.
The Apostle Paul played a big role in the founding of the church in Corinth and his letters to them are incredibly blunt and candid. But it seems that Paul hadn't met the church in Colosse based on Colossians 1:3-4:
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
This doesn't change the message of the author, but will give you an idea of the intention the author has with what they're trying to communicate.
5. How the Audience Would Have Received the Text
Believe it or not, many of the people in the bible didn't have the You Version Bible app on their smart phone. In fact, most of what we read in the bible was verbally announced to audiences of people. A lot of the Old Testament stories were oral traditions passed down to various generations. In the case of the New Testament letters, many of them would have been passed around to various churches as well. Imagining how these audiences get ahold of these messages fills in your imagination of what it must've been like for them to grow and learn.
6. Author's Literary Context
In S02 Episode 09 of the Bible Study Magazine Podcast, Abraham Kuruvilla says:
Learning what the author is saying is one thing, but learning what the author is doing with those words is something else.
Once you start to get to know the author and the complexities of the text itself, you should then start to build your understanding of their own literary style. What genre are they writing? Not understanding the genre of the book you're reading can contribute to a lot of confusion. The law books are written very differently to the history books, what are also written very differently to prophetic books.
What else has the author written in the bible? What is their writing style? Each of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are different due to their literary context.
7. Intended Message From the Author
With all of this information, it's only now that we can start to piece together the intended message of the biblical texts.
John Hilber describes it like this:
"...communication draws not only on dictionary entries but on the “encyclopedic” notions that people hold on a given topic and to varying degrees are shared between the parties in any act of communication..."
-Hilber, John W.. Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation: A Relevance Theory Approach (p. 10). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
It requires understanding all these elements to fully appreciate what is being said. We're then able to ascertain the principles behind the text with all of this information in mind, and then look to see how to can be applied to us today.
This whole process is called hermeneutics, and it's a massive aspect of studying the Bible.
Wow. That's uh, that's a lot going on there...
You may be saying "wow, this looks like a lot of work", and you're right! It is a lot of work! Thankfully there are many academics, scholars and authors who've done the hard work for us in bringing all of this together based on their own research. We have the ability to learn from their contributions to build our own personal theology based on their study.
So does this mean you should become a bible scholar to fully understand what the bible has to say?
Absolutely not!
If you believe that the bible is a meditation literature, then you can definitely read it and have the Holy Spirit speak to you through it. But studying it will add a lot more colour to it than you had before.
Obviously there are certain temperaments and personality types that'll be more inclined to this sort of endeavour than others, but that shouldn't stop you from learning in your own way. In future posts I'm planning on sharing how to use some great tools to study the bible, and how to gather your thoughts and use them for learning.
I'm hoping that this helps clarify what I mean by studying the Bible, and also appreciate the work that goes in to it all as well. And in this age of easy access to learning and information, we're primed to grow from it like never before!