I chose to write my discussion about option two, which dealt with the importance of word study, and how important word study is to the understanding of a passage of the Bible. Understanding words within their original meaning and context can be extremely beneficial in understanding the Word of God, the Bible. Our textbook explains to us how important word study is to study a passage of scripture, as well as explaining five different ways in which word study can be accomplished.
Before one can look at how to study words, he/she first needs to understand why we need to conduct word studies. The first reason that we need to study words in the Bible is because the meaning of words changes over time (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 145). The second reason
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When choosing words to study, choose less common words that are theological, and that you may not know the meaning of, so that your word study can be productive in learning more about the words used in God’s word (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 146). The second step is to locate each place that the word is used within the Bible. The best tool to use to locate every place where a particular word is used is a concordance (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 146). Also, when finding places in the Bible where a word is used, look at whether the word is Hebrew or Greek. If the word is derived from the Hebrew language, look in the Old Testament, if the word is derived from the Greek language, look in the New Testament (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 146). The third step in word study is to compile a list of meanings that you believe could be the actual meaning of the word that you are studying (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 147). Again, a concordance is a great tool to look up words in their original language and see the meaning of a word in its original form (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 147). The fourth step in word study is to determine what the word actually means (Cartwright & Hulshof, p. 147). After determining where the word is found in Scripture and compiling meanings to the word, you need to look at the word in its context (Cartwright & Hulshof, p.147-148). By examining the word within the context of a verse, you can
The authors also go into great detail to discover the meaning of some of the better, but sometimes hard to define, boundary descriptions in the Bible. The authors attribute some of the difficulty in defining these boundaries due to the fact that the authors of the texts they are found in used vogue terms of their own time.
It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4).
By comparing and contrasting these texts we are able to get a better understanding
Michael Joseph Brown, unveils new ways to read and examine the Bible in his book, titled “What They Don’t Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies”. Although quite technical, the guide, not book, really goes into depth on the process of studying the Bible and its documents. Brown has a new and refreshing way of giving the reader this information that is necessary in a small group, or for a Biblical scholar. This guide is not meant solely for the biblical scholar and talks in detail about the difference between these two, because some may link the two together. Published by the Westminster John Knox Press, WJK for short, this book gives straight forward answers on the best way to thoroughly understand Biblical text. As you read on you will find out more about how they differ and why they appear so similar from an outside perspective. Brown has taken a wide variety of information, and made it into something interesting and extremely useful for the reader. In his own words, “What I have done is to ‘translate’ some foundational concepts in biblical studies into an idiom more people can understand” (xiii)
loved us so much that he did that for us so that is the least that we could
Harris, Stephen. Understanding The Bible. 6 ed. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2002. Print.
Mounce, William D., gen. ed. Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
...e, it is very important to consider all passages that are relevant to the scripture before making any final conclusions.
Authority of Scripture reconciles the community with God and can transform our lives. To participate in the fuller blessing of understanding, it is important to view Scripture with historical and literary sensitivity, interpret theocentrically, ecclesially, and contextually. I realize each of these can be overwhelming to the average person who is seeking direction for a specific concern in their life. Therefore, Migliore reminds us, interpreting Scripture is practical engagement in the living of Christian faith, love, and hope in a still redeemed world. When we listen carefully to the voices of the past, from a worldwide culture, and guided by the Holy Spirit, we will open ourselves to those transformational opportunities.
The Bible student, laymen, or pastor will find the principles presented by Fee and Stuart helpful despite the weaknesses presented. The author’s contribution on how to interpret each of the different genres is especially beneficial. The Bible Student will have more knowledge of how to interpret God’s Word when finished with the work. Fee and Stuart achieve their goal helping the reader not only with interpretation, but with application.
The desire to study God’s word to obtain a personal connection is a pursuit for many believers. Beginning a course to study and engage with the word at a collegiate level can be overwhelming and intimidating. Even though one may read the word countless times during their lifetime, understanding the reading material academically and historically is a different concept to master. Personally, I was apprehensive about my overall ability to retain the information and comprehend the context of the scientific and historical aspect of God’s word. However, Tarwater wrote in a manner that was engaging and invited me into the historical importance of the words and understanding God. From beginning to end, Tarwater
... In order to understand the Bible we must read it as the Psalmist says “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Psa. 119:97). However there some suggestions to cope with the study of the Bible in effective manner. The Bible was written a long time ago before us. That is why we need to deal with some back grounds, context, and theology differs with our time. Some hermeneutics principles can help us how to work in the better frame of interpret the Bible, such as the literary context, historical context and how to compare Scripture.
power. The reasons for studying the Bible will also be discussed along with scriptures and