Tag Archives: Bible study

Teaching to the test

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There’s an expression used in discussing education: “teaching to the test.” With more and more states using standardized achievement tests, the fear is that teachers will only teach the things that are going to be tested, rather than trying to give the students a well-rounded education.

It’s my opinion that the same thing happens in our Bible study. On a personal level, we can find ourselves focusing on certain parts of the Bible that address the topics we feel are most important. At a congregational level, we can find churches that emphasize certain aspects of doctrine or that emphasize relational topics. Some concentrate on proper worship. Others look at the marks of a true church. Some focus on the gospels, others stick to the epistles. Some churches neglect the Old Testament; others neglect the central doctrines of the New Testament.

What we see to be most important will shape what we study and what we teach. Some will focus on head knowledge, others on correct behavior.  Some will emphasize grace, others will focus on personal responsibility.

How do we ensure that we maintain balance in our teaching? How can we teach “the whole counsel of God,” avoiding the neglect of biblical topics? Do you have any suggestions?

Choosing a Bible version

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signA few years ago I got into a discussion on the Internet about Bible versions. One man who worked as a missionary in India insisted that it was possible to perfectly translate something from English to Hindi then have someone else translate it back into English without changing a word from the original. All I can guess is that he didn’t speak Hindi and was easily fooled by his translators.

There is no direct correspondence from one language to another. Some are closer than others, like Portuguese to Spanish. The best a translator can hope to do is communicate the same idea in the target language as that in the original.

That’s where the tension between literal translation (“word by word”) and dynamic equivalence (“thought by thought”) comes in to play. In Bible translations, we have everything from Young’s Literal Translation to paraphrases like the Living Bible or the Message.

Here are a few of my thoughts on selecting a version:

  1. For the majority of us, it really shouldn’t come down to choosing just one version, at least for serious study. We should use multiple versions, especially with the number of versions available online today.
  2. For devotional reading, you need a version you can understand. I recommend switching versions now and again to avoid letting one translation’s rendering shape our interpretation.
  3. Whatever version you choose, go for one with good footnotes that show you when the translators have chosen an interpretive translation over a literal one.

What are some of the prime considerations that you would add?

P.S.—For some fun, check out the Lost in Translation web page.

{Photo by Andrew Beierle, sxc.hu}

Top Ten Proof Texts

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tenOur discussion this week got me thinking about proof texts. Verses like “Faith comes by hearing” that are quoted out of context to prove a point totally different from that of the original text.

Let’s consider that verse #10 in our Top Ten List of Common Proof Texts. Here come 9 more (quoted from the KJV, of course):
#9: Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store… and hold onto that money until Paul can take it to Jerusalem.

#8: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth… which obviously refers to distinguishing Old Testament from New, even if the New hadn’t been written yet.

#7: Not forsaking the assembly [which I can’t really quote since I can’t find those words in ANY version]

#6: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book… which refers to the whole Bible… oops, did I just add to the words of that verse?

#5: Now we know that God heareth not sinners… spoken by an uninspired man in a conversation with other uninspired men… but who’s counting?

#4: Abstain from all appearance of evil… not like that Jesus guy who was always hanging around with sinners and was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.

#3: Let all things be done decently and in order… which means, of course, do everything the way it was done in the 1950s, not like that chaos Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14.

#2: Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross… referring to the Old Testament because, well, because we want it to and it will help us win arguments!

#1: Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God… meaning that I can condemn anybody who doesn’t agree with me about some doctrinal point, whether it’s a teaching about Christ or not!

OK, that’s my Top Ten. What can you come up with?

B&B Friday: Ryken’s Bible Handbook

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978-0-8423-8401-8I do a radio program in Spanish called Lea La Biblia (Read the Bible). In that five-day-a-week program, among other things, I offer a 3-4 minute tip on Bible study. After doing several dozen programs, I realized that I needed some sources for new ideas about what to present. One of the sources I found was Ryken’s Bible Handbook (I know, I should provide you a link to somewhere where you can buy it and I get some money, but the book is pretty widely available, and I’m guessing you can find it on your own.) [I first found this book from a review by the Internet Monk. You might look at that to gain further perspective on what this book is like.]

The book was written by Dr. Leland Ryken, Philip Ryken, and Dr. James Wilhoit. In this handbook, they try to focus on the different literary genres present within the Bible, the idea being that you don’t read poetry the same way you read prose, and you don’t read a letter the same way you read legal code.

The handbook offers a fact sheet on each book, maps and charts, a discussion of the form of each book, key places and characters, key doctrines, tips for reading or teaching each book, and a discussion of the main themes in each book. One section that I found interesting was the discussion of how each book contributes to the Bible’s story of salvation in Christ. There are also additional articles that aren’t book specific, like “The Covenant” and “Apocalyptic Writing.”

If you’re looking for a book that can give you a fresh perspective on Bible study, I think that Ryken’s Bible Handbook could be a welcome addition to your library.

(Google Books has the book here, including a limited preview. If you’re not familiar with limited previews, they are a wonderful way to actually be able to read several pages of a book to see what it’s like.)

[Disclaimer: I didn’t get any money nor free books nor even a free Dr. Pepper for writing this review.]

Respecting the weave

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threadsThe Latin word for “weave” is texere; we can see that root in words like textile. The word for “with” is com. Put the two together and you get a word that is extremely important in Bible study: context. The imagery for the word context is that of a woven fabric; lifting a thread out of that fabric tears the weave, ruins the fabric, and leaves the thread as weak version of its former self.

I remember selling men’s clothes back when I was in college. I didn’t know much about it when I started. I remember one day I was giving a woman a pair of pants that had been altered. She noticed a thread sticking out of the pants. Being the helpful salesman, I reached for a pair of scissors to cut the thread off. The woman who was working with me screamed from across the room “No!” I didn’t realize that these pants were woven, and the thread that I was about to cut was an integral part of the weave. Had I clipped that thread, it would have continued to unravel, ruining the pant. Luckily the other saleswoman was there to save the situation.

We must remember that the verses of the Bible are not pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that can be removed and put together as we wish. They are threads woven together by the Holy Spirit; surely we don’t think that we are wiser than He as to how they are to be arranged. One of the worst things that we can do when studying a topic is to use a concordance to find all the verses that speak to that topic and then only study those verses. A concordance is a wonderful tool for identifying passages to be studied, but we must go to each text and study it in its context lest we teach something that is not true.

A verse out of context can lose all meaning. Remember the old saying: “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.”

{photo by Dariusz Rompa, sxc.hu}