Some Resources for Bible Study

I'm sure most of these are familiar to everyone, but here are on-line resources I have compiled at my Joy of Bible Reading blog.

Bible Gateway: "A free service for reading and researching Scripture online--all in the language or translation of your choice! We provide advanced tools you can use to search the Bible by keywords or verse, as well as other tools to enhance your study of the Bible."

Crosswalk.com: Bible study tools

Bible Reading Plans

The Resurgence Greek Project: A resource to assist in the "study of the Bible in the original languages no matter what your current background in Greek and Hebrew."

Bible.org: "Providing thousands of trustworthy resources for Bible study."

NIV Study Bible.

Monergism: Expository Sermons from Genesis to Revelation.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown.

Hermeneutics and Biblical Meditation

John Piper writes: "The final procedure in Biblical exegesis is to meditate upon the Biblical author’s intention — especially in relation to things he and the other Biblical writers have said elsewhere."

J. Hampton Keathley offers a practical study of Biblical Meditation.

Derek Brown share Thoughts on Biblical Meditation sharing some helpful quotes from Don Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

Mike Hildebrand in Discovering Biblical Meditation points out that "meditation is much more than just quietly thinking about God."

Bible memorization can assist us in meditating on the Scriptures. You can download a copy of Andrew Davis' An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scriptures (pdf).

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Hermeneutics

Daniel Wallace says concerning The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics:

The Spirit’s work is primarily in the realm of conviction rather than cognition. At the same time, even this area needs some nuancing. One’s convictions do impact one’s perceptions. Thus, it seems that the Holy Spirit may be said to aid our interpretation, even if his role were limited to that of conviction.

He also offers three caveats at the end of his article:

1. Don’t view the limits of exegesis as the interpretation of a text. Ultimately, the goal of exegesis is not interpretation, but transformation.

2. Don’t assume that because you pray, are spiritual, etc., that your interpretation is right. Laziness in the study is no excuse for a poor interpretation. Further, even if you are not lazy, an inaccessible interpretation must still be judged an improbable interpretation.

3. Don’t isolate your study from your worship. Those in seminary especially should take very seriously the mandate for those who would be ministers of the Word: Study! Exposition that is not borne of hard study produces a warm fuzzy feeling that lacks substance. It is candy for the soul. At the same time, if your study is merely a cognitive exercise rather than a part of the worship you offer up to God, it will have a cold and heartless effect. Eating a rock may be a way to get your daily minerals, but who would want to take their minerals in such an indigestable form?

New Testament Use of the Old

Some different perspectives on how the New Testament writers interpret the Old Testament:

The New Testament Use of the Old Testament by Robert L. Thomas (pdf).

When interpreting the OT and NT, each in light of the single, grammatical-historical meaning of a passage, two kinds of NT uses of the OT surface, one in which the NT writer observes the grammatical-historical sense of the OT passage and the other in which the NT writer goes beyond the grammatical-historical sense in his use of an OT passage.

Apostolic Hermeneutics and an Evangelical Doctrine of Scripture: Moving beyond a Modernist Impasse by Peter Enns.

Despite protestations to the contrary, grammatical-historical hermeneutics does not account for the New Testament’s use of the Old. However self-evident grammatical-historical hermeneutics may be to us, and whatever very important contributions it has made and continues to make to the field of biblical studies, it must be stated clearly that the Apostles did not seem overly concerned to put this principle into practice. Of course, it is equally clear that at times NT writers interpret the OT somewhat literalistically, and I have no desire to dispute this. But when the smoke clears, the overall picture remains: apostolic hermeneutics, apart from the expenditure of significant mental energy and denial of plain fact, cannot be categorized as being “essentially” grammatical-historical. A proper understanding, therefore, of apostolic hermeneutics must begin elsewhere, and that starting point is to engage very directly—with all its attendant doctrinal implications—the “hermeneutical-historical” context of the New Testament authors. So, to complete the analogy: in the same way that grammatical-historical exegesis is vital for our understanding the words of the biblical authors, a hermeneutical-historical approach is vital for our understanding of the hermeneutics of biblical authors. In other words, we must extend what is implied in grammatical-historical exegesis, the principle that original context matters, to the world of apostolic hermeneutics.

The guys at Expository Thoughts have a series on The Relationship of the Testaments. From the post on Apostolic Hermeneutic:

... the New Testament writers’ use of the Old Testament was a function of divine inspiration, and not simply a matter of human interpretation carried out in accordance with divinely revealed hermeneutical principles. In other words, when the apostle Paul quoted or alluded to the OT in his epistles, he wasn’t applying God-given hermeneutical principles to various passages in the Old Testament; he was being superintended by the Holy Spirit in such a way that he wrote precisely what God was pleased to communicate through him. The NT writers, then, do not claim a superior hermeneutical approach to the OT; they claim inspiration. For those who are not able to claim inspiration, this method cannot be employed.

My Blog Collection: Book Reviews

Some book reviews, recommendations and mentions:

1. Scot McKnight on Contagious Holiness by Craig Blomberg.

2. John Frye on Eat This Book by Eugene H. Peterson.

3. Justin Taylor on Can We Trust the Gospels? by Mark D. Roberts.

4. David Wayne on Leading with a Limp by Dan Allender.

5. Glenn Penner on Charm Offensive by Joshua Kurlantzick.

Friday Fun - A Day Late

I'm a Montreal Canadiens fan. As I've mentioned on my family blog, sometimes it feels like this:


Thanks to Mike for a link to Montreal Canadiens Goaltenders. My favorite Canadiens' players have been goalies. Go Habs!

Hermeneutics: Application

We sometimes say that a Bible text has only one meaning but many applications. But that doesn't mean any application is legitimate. D. A. Carson in Must I Learn How to Interpret the Bible? looks at what "parts of the Bible are binding mandates for us, and what parts are not." His six main points are:

(1) As conscientiously as possible, seek the balance of Scripture, and avoid succumbing to historical and theological disjunctions.

(2) Recognize that the antithetical nature of certain parts of the Bible, not least some of Jesus' preaching, is a rhetorical device, not an absolute. The context must decide where this is the case.

(3) Be cautious about absolutizing what is said or commanded only once.

(4) Carefully examine the biblical rationale for any saying or command.

(5) Carefully observe that the formal universality of proverbs and of proverbial sayings is only rarely an absolute universality. If proverbs are treated as statutes or case law, major interpretive and pastoral errors will inevitably ensue.

(6) The application of some themes and subjects must be handled with special care, not only because of their intrinsic complexity, but also because of essential shifts in social structures between Biblical times and our own day.

Scripture Interpreting Scripture

One of the principles of hermeneutics is to interpret Scripture with Scripture. A cross-reference Bible can be helpful to trace the unity and interrelatedness of the Bible.

Unfortunately, this can be abused when we fail to first interpret a passage on its own terms. If we rely primarily on a supposedly "clearer" verse to interpret an "unclear" verse, we run the risk of making the Bible fit our theology.

Context Is King

The first component of inductive Bible study is observation - taking note of what the Bible text says. And as this presentation from Precept Austin points out, context is an important part of what we observe.

Begin your study by establishing the context which lays the foundation for subsequent interpretation. Context is the setting in which a passage occurs or simply what precedes and what follows the text you are studying. Thus context includes those verses immediately before and after the passage, then the paragraph and book in which the passage appears, then other books by this author, as well as the overall message of the entire Bible.

Establishing the context forces the reader to examine the biblical writer's overall flow of thought. The meaning of any passage is nearly always determined, controlled, or limited by what appears immediately beforehand and afterward in the text. Context is "king" in interpretation. Since context always "rules" in interpretation and Scripture must always be interpreted in light of its context, the first step in the study of any book of the Bible is to get an OVERVIEW of the book you are studying. Why? Because when you get an overview of the entire book, it will help you discover the context.

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason has one of the best explanations of this principle in practice in his article Never Read a Bible Verse.

The Hermeneutic Process

Here's another look at the hermeneutic process in an article written by Don Closson. The steps in the process:

- A first step should be to determine the literary genre of the passage. A passage might be legal, narrative, polemic, poetry, wisdom, gospel, logical discourse, or prophetic literature, each having specific guidelines for proper interpretation.

- Identify the use of figurative language in the passage. Various forms of Hebrew poetry, simile, metaphor, and hyperbole need to be recognized if the reader is to understand the passage's meaning.

- After a passage's literary type is determined and figures of speech are identified, we can begin to focus on the content of a section of Scripture. Four levels of study are recommended. Word studies come first. Words are the building blocks of meaning, and by looking at the root origin or etymology of a word; its historical development over time; and the meaning of the word at the time of its use in Scripture we can gain insight into a passage's meaning.

- Syntax is the way in which words are grouped together within phrases, clauses, and sentences.

- The next level of study should be context. First locate the beginning of an idea and its topic sentence. Start with the paragraph, and then consider the chapter and the entire book. Determine who is being addressed, who is speaking, and what the occasion is.

- Finally, ignoring the cultural context of a passage is one of the greatest problems in Bible interpretation. By culture we mean the behavior of a people as reflected by their thoughts, beliefs, social forms, speech, actions, and material artifacts.

The Lord's Prayer

I have been patterning my morning prayers after the "Lord's Prayer." Here are some links on the Lord's Prayer (I will be adding to it as I find more articles):

Justin Taylor posts some excerpts from Packer's Praying the Lord's Prayer.
- Packer: The Seven Activities of Prayer.
- Packer on the Questions of the Lord's Prayer:

The Lord’s Prayer is offering us model answers to the series of questions God puts to us to shape our conversation with him. Thus:

“Who do you take me for, and what am I to you?” (Our Father in heaven.)

“That being so, what is it that you really want most?” (The hallowing of your name; the coming of your kingdom; to see your will known and done.)

“So what are you asking for right now, as a means to that end?” (Provision, pardon, protection.)

Then the “praise ending” answers the question, “How can you be so bold and confident in asking for these things?” (Because we know you can do it, and when you do it, it will bring you glory!)

Dana Olson writes on "The Lord's Prayer Strategy" in 3 Ways to Organize Your Prayers.

Honor the King
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Mt. 6:9).

Increasingly So
"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt. 6:10).

What Do I Really Need?
"Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Mt. 6:11–12).

Make Your Escape Routes Clear
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Mt. 6:13).

A flash movie of The Lord's Prayer.


I've posted before a summary of Daniel Henderson's teaching on the "4/4 Time" pattern of prayer.

Piper on Biblical Exegesis

The booklet Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Original Meaning of Scriptural Texts is available on-line (pdf).

God has spoken to us in written, human languages. We cannot grasp the meaning of language unless we understand the language conventions which a Biblical author employed. Therefore, we must make every effort to deal with the Bible grammatically (and historically since an author’s specific use of language is determined by his situation in history).

There is a section outlining a procedure for exegesis. I think one of the highlights of the booklet is what Piper says about propositions.

Words begin to convey determinate meanings only as they are seen to be parts of a proposition. Propositions are the basic building blocks of a text. The third step in reading a text is to understand each proposition. Obviously, from what we have seen, the second and third steps relate to each other, not sequentially, but reciprocally. Each is pursued simultaneously and is an aid to the attainment of the other.

A proposition is a simple assertion about something. The word “Jesus” conveys no determinate meaning when I say it alone. But, when I say, “Jesus wept,” a very clear meaning is conveyed because this statement is a proposition. In order to understand propositions, one must know at least the rudiments of grammar and syntax. Propositions only have meanings because they are put together according to established rules. You cannot communicate if you disobey all the rules. “Paul carried the basket” and “The basket carried Paul” are two propositions which use exactly the same words but convey very different meaning. There is a syntactical rule in English that says the subject of such a sentence precedes the verb. A new set of rules has to be learned when we want to read the Greek New Testament. Whether you are reading the Greek or English New Testament, you must attend to the appropriate rules of grammar if the meaning of an author’s propositions is to be understood.

Much of God’s Word remains unheard today because some devout people think it is unspiritual to look for subjects, objects, modifiers and antecedents in a Biblical sentence. And others, alas, have never even been taught that there are such things.

Greek New Testament

Available on-line at The Resurgence Greek Project.

Hermeneutics and Bible Translations

Generally speaking, Bible translations follow a dynamic equivalence (more "idiomatic") model or a formal equivalence (more "literal") model - an explanation of the terminology.

Which kind of Bible translation do you use when you interpret the Bible?

Fee and Stuart think that dynamic equivalence is the best translational theory (How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, p. 36). On the other hand, Leland Ryken favors a more literal translation because "a good translation preserves the full exegetical or interpretive potential of the original biblical text" (The Word of God in English, p. 140).

Personally, I vote for both (although I usually teach from the NIV). Or as Fee and Stuart end up saying: It's good to use several good English translations. No doubt most know about Bible Gateway - it's a superb resource for examining different translations.

Finally, here is a survey of different Bible translations. And a more exhaustive list of English Bible Translations.

Fee and Stuart on Hermeneutics

I think one of the best books on how to interpret the Bible is Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Here is an excerpt from chapter one. I like this statement:

The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get at the "plain meaning of the text." And the most important ingredient one brings to this task is enlightened common sense. The test of good interpretation is that it makes good sense of the text. Correct interpretation, therefore, brings relief to the mind as well as a prick or prod to the heart.

Of course, the working out of how we do interpretation is more complex than that statement might make it out to be. But the basic goal or aim really is that simple.

In connection with the book, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary offers a free on-line course taught by Dr. Stuart on Studying the Bible for All Its Worth. The topics covered include:

1. The Need to Interpret
2. What Is a Good Translation
3. Studying the Epistles
4. Hermeneutics
5. Old Testament Narratives
6. The Book of Acts
7. One Story, Four Perspectives
8. Getting the Point
9. Interpreting the Law
10. Old Testament Prophecy
11. The Prayers of God´s People
12. Gaining Wisdom
13. Lake of Fire, Streets of Gold

This is a great resource for personal study or for ministry training in the church.

Gospel Coalition's Statement on Hermeneutics

Recently a new organization called the Gospel Coalition has come together, with a desire to be "robustly centered on the gospel." In their Foundational Documents (pdf), they have a theological vision for ministry that addresses hermeneutics:

How should we read the Bible? (The hermeneutical issue)

a. Reading ‘along’ the whole Bible. To read the Bible ‘diachronically’ is to read along its historical and narrative arc. It is to discern the basic plot-line of the Bible as God’s story of redemption as well as the themes of the Bible (e.g. covenant, kingship, sanctuary) that run through every stage of history and every part of the canon, climaxing in Jesus Christ. In this perspective, the gospel appears as creation, fall, redemption, restoration. It brings out the purpose of salvation, namely a renewed creation.... [God] providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.

b. Reading ‘across’ the whole Bible. To read the Bible ‘synchronically’ is to read across its declarations, summons, promises, and truth-claims. It is to discern its categories of thought (e.g. theology, Christology, eschatology) and arrive at a coherent understanding of what it teaches summarily. In this perspective, the gospel appears as God, sin, Christ, faith. It brings out the means of salvation, namely the substitutionary work of Christ and our responsibility to embrace it by faith.... Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

How this reading of the Bible shapes us. (1) Many today (but not all) who major in the diachronic, biblical-theological way of reading the Bible dwell on the more corporate aspects of sin and salvation. The cross is seen mainly as an example of sacrificial service and a defeat of worldly powers rather than substitution and propitiation for our sins. Ironically, this approach can be very legalistic. Instead of calling people to individual conversion through a message of grace, people are called to join the Christian community and kingdom program of what God is doing to liberate the world. The emphasis is on Christianity as a way of life to the loss of a received status in Christ. In this imbalance there is little emphasis on vigorous evangelism and apologetics, on expository preaching, and on the marks and importance of conversion/the new birth. (2) On the other hand, the older evangelicalism (though not all of it) has emphasized a synchronic approach and has been weak on the diachronic way of reading the Bible. As a result it was more individualistic, centering almost completely on personal conversion and safe passage to heaven. Also, its preaching, though expository, was sometimes moralistic and did not emphasize how all biblical themes climax in Christ and his work. In this imbalance there is little or no emphasis on the importance of the work of justice and mercy for the poor and the oppressed, and on cultural production that glorifies God in the arts, business, etc.—both of which are forms of world-fabric-care and repair in light of the ultimate renewal of creation. (3) We do not believe that in best practice these two ways of reading the Bible—Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology—are at all contradictory, even though as they are commonly deployed today, many pit them against each other. We believe that on the contrary the two, at their best, are integral for grasping the meaning of the biblical gospel. The gospel is the declaration that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has come to reconcile us by his grace and renew the whole world by and for his glory.

The Need for Hermeneutics

From D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (p. 13):

"Almost twenty years ago I rode in a car with a fellow believer who relayed to me what the Lord had 'told' him that morning in his quiet time. He had been reading the KJV of Matthew; and I perceived that not only had he misunderstood the archaic English, but also that the KJV at that place had unwittingly misrepresented the Greek text. I gently suggested there might be another way to understand the passage and summarized what I thought the passage was saying. The brother dismissed my view as impossible on the grounds that the Holy Spirit, who does not lie, had told him the truth on this matter. Being young and bold, I pressed on with my explanation of grammar, context, and translation, but was brushed off by a reference to 1 Cor. 2:10b-15: spiritual things must be spiritually discerned-which left little doubt about my status. Genuinely intrigued, I asked this brother what he would say if I put forward my interpretation, not on the basis of grammar and text, but on the basis that the Lord himself had given me the interpretation I was advancing. He was silent a long time, and then concluded, 'I guess that would mean the Spirit says the Bible means different things to different people.'"

A History of Hermeneutics

Graeme Goldsworthy in Hermeneutics and Christ traces a history of hermeneutics from the apostolic hermeneutics to an evangelical approach. He seeks to show that "what we think about the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, will run parallel with what we think about the inscripturated Word of God, the Bible."

June Topic: Hermeneutics

For the next month, I'll examine basic issues of biblical hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the discipline of interpretation. It involves exegeting the text (discovering its original, intended meaning), and applying the scriptures to the "here and now."

Here is The Chicago Statement of Biblical Hermeneutics. The first affirmation is this:

WE AFFIRM that the normative authority of Holy Scripture is the authority of God Himself, and is attested by Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church.

WE DENY the legitimacy of separating the authority of Christ from the authority of Scripture, or of opposing the one to the other.

And the final affirmation is this:

WE AFFIRM that the only type of preaching which sufficiently conveys the divine revelation and its proper application to life is that which faithfully expounds the text of Scripture as the Word of God.

WE DENY that the preacher has any message from God apart from the text of Scripture.

What Do You Think?

When the Pharisee, in Luke 18:11, stands at the Temple and prays, "'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector," is that similar to Christians today saying, "There but for the grace of God go I."

My Blog Collection: Book Reviews

I came across several book recommendations and reviews recently. I'll be adding some of these to my wishlist on LibraryThing. Before I get to them, here's a post by Al Hsu on How Many New Christian Books Are There? (about 6000 per year).

And here's a post by Colin Adams on Wrestling with Reading.

Now, here are the book reviews (and one preview):

Albert Mohler on The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden.

Andreas Köstenberger on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham.

Putting Jesus in His Place by Robert Bowman and Ed Komoszewski (HT: Justin Taylor).

Matthew Lee Anderson on Kingdom Triangle by J. P. Moreland (HT: Brian Trapp).

Albert Shepherd on The Children of Hurin by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Friday Fun

I've been saying that I want to rebuild my children's bikes. Sheldon Brown's Online Cycling Encyclopedia should give me all the information that I need (HT: Mike Bells).