The Reminder
Volume XXXVII, #18: Four Tips to Help You Better Understand Your Bible (pt.2)
4 Tips to Help You Better Understand the Bible By: Wes McAdams
Editors Note: This article has been split into two parts because of length. The first tip is in last week’s bulletin, and the other three are here. I hope you find this article helpful for your bible reading and study.
1. ClotheYourselfinHumility(seelastweek’sarticle)
2. UnderstandtheContext
Understanding what a passage of Scripture means has so much to do with the context. If you take a verse out of its context, it can seem to mean any number of things. However, when you consider it in its original context, it means what the author intended for it to mean.
‣ Cultural/Historical Context – The first part of the context is determining what was going on in that time
and place. We have to try to determine what this passage meant to the person who was writing it and the people who were first reading it. We have to ask ourselves, “Would this interpretation make sense to those people?” We aren’t trying to be historians or scholars, but we are trying to make sure our understanding fits the cultural and historical context.
‣ Literary Context – The other part of context is understanding what comes before and after this passage. First of all, what genre of literature is it? Every genre has its own rules for interpretation. Poetry, historical narratives, letters, prophecies, all have to be interpreted according to their type of literature. And we also have to take into consideration what the author was talking about in that particular book and in that particular paragraph. Ask yourself, “Does this interpretation fit the context?”
3. FollowtheAuthor’sTrainofThought
One good thing to do is outline the book. You need to understand where the story or the argument is headed. If you can’t understand the author’s train of thought, you probably don’t really understand what the passage means. Before you quote a verse to prove a point, ask yourself, “Do I understand what the author was talking about in that book of the Bible? Do I understand how his argument was progressing and what point he was trying to prove to his audience?”
4. CheckYourConclusions
Using a commentary – or asking a respected Christian friend for his or her thoughts – is an important step. You don’t want to cheat yourself out of the joy of discovering what a passage means on your own, but you also want to be careful that you are arriving at good conclusions. If you read and interpret the Bible in isolation, you forfeit the benefits of other people’s study and understanding.You might not understand the full implications of your interpretation until you check your conclusions with someone else. And if you’re the only person who has ever interpreted a passage in a particular way, you are most certainly mistaken. Christians have been studying the Bible for a couple of thousand years; we need to learn from one anther.
Bottom Line: If we are going to apply the Bible to our lives, we must first understand what it means. And if we are going to understand what the Bible means, we must do the hard work of interpretation. Hopefully these tips help you on that journey.
- 20170430_Reminder_xxxvii_18.pdf (108.84 kB)
