Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Study Method

  • Asking Questions of a Biblical Text

    An excellent technique for digging deeper into a Bible text is to formulate questions about the text, and then look for answers to those questions. I discuss this briefly in my essay Reading the Text Precisely.

    A starting point for this is simply to ask basic fact questions about the text. Many difficult and angry debates about the meaning of a text result from one or more persons not carefully reading what the text says. Very frequently, a person is making a very good point, but the text they are quoting doesn’t explicitly support that point. Asking fact questions about your text can prevent you from making this error. In your sharing, you can also help defuse such arguments by suggesting that all parties go back and look at the text. That may not make you agree, but it will help clarify what you are discussing.

    Here are some good example questions:

    1. Who is speaking in this passage?
      We have a narrator who tells us what God observed (v. 5) and how God responded (v. 6). Then we have the words of God, reported by our narrator, saying God’s attitude and God’s intention to act (“I will wipe . . . humanity from the face of the ground”). Then we have the narrator again to inform us that Noah found grace (v. 8 ).
    2. What is God’s response?
      God repents or is sorry.
    3. What does God promise to do?
      To destroy human beings and all living things.
    4. Who finds grace?
      Noah.

    There are a few more possible questions and some of these are bound to seem overly simple to you. But it is a good idea to make sure that you notice precisely what the passage says.

    In addition, you need to look at questions about the meaning of the text from different perspectives. Let’s take as an example my previous entry on Genesis 6:5-8. Frequently when I am teaching from this passage the first question from the study group deals with God’s justice, and whether God would actually kill that many people. Were they all absolutely evil? Was there no way to save them? Those questions show a personal perspective–What is God telling me today from this verse? But you have to first ask what the passage meant originally, and then follow the track through.

    I can identify at least three viewpoints on this passage, and Bible students should be able to think of a fourth pretty quickly. First, we have Noah himself, to whom God first addresses these words. Noah is inside the story and things are happening to him. The second perspective is that of the Israelites, for whom the story was written. Whether you believe this was written by Moses himself, or produced later and compiled, it was still intended to address the people of Israel, presumably about some situation(s) that they faced. Finally, we must look at what this story means to us. (If you’re wondering, a fourth view that might be helpful would be that of Jesus (Matthew 24:38-39), who used the flood as an illustration of the last days, which also might suggest looking at the text from the perspective of one living in the very last time events.)

    In the first instance, we can ask what Noah’s situation might have been when God approached him. If we take the story as it stands, we might expect that Noah felt besieged and hopeless. It is possible that he was threatened by violence. You can ask yourself just what was Noah’s situation when God sent the flood. It’s OK to speculate on that, and in fact that is much better than to simply make an assumption without thinking about it. I find that most people assume a world that is carrying on quite nicely, but God doesn’t like it, and is upset about a little bit of bad behavior, so he gets Noah to go build an ark. Noah has no problems, builds it, and escapes.

    But supposing instead that there was a world on the edge of cataclysmic destruction. We don’t know what they were up to, but they could have been about to die in a plague, or they could have been about to wipe themselves out in wars, and take Noah with them. It’s not impossible to imagine that the flood, with the ark itself, simply saved one righteous family from a destruction that was going to happen one way or another. I don’t necessarily mean that they were going to bring a flood on themselves. They could have merely been about to go kill Noah and his family and then wipe each other out in wars over a period of time. Sometimes the application of a limited amount of violence (and the flood was limited, even though those limits were pretty broad) can be used to prevent even greater violence and destruction.

    With that thought in mind let’s move forward to the time of the Israelites who would be reading this story for the first time. I don’t care if you think they first read it during the Exodus itself, during the time of the judges, the monarchy, or even after the exile. A similar message can be heard. The crowd can go massively against God, and can get into sin (think “behavior that is destructive of self and of others) beyond the point of no return. God will judge and intervene at some point, but God will also provide a way of escape. Even if there is only one righteous family that needs rescue, God will provide a way of escape. Can you see how that message might have been heard as one of grace under those circumstances? (Consider Abraham’s argument with God over Sodom. He talked God down to 10 righteous people–if there were only 10 righteous people, then God would save Sodom. Do you notice that there are less people than that who are saved in the flood? God’s grace doesn’t require a certain number.)

    To look again from our perspective, what does this tell us? Well, ask how we are similar to the Israelites and how we are different? How much must the message change for this text to apply to your community, your church, your world?

    In reading a Bible story, ask the questions in that order, starting with the people who are inside the story, then looking for those for whom the story was first written, then looking at how your situation is similar to and/or different from the situation of those in the story or its first hearers/readers. You’ll be amazed at how often the story becomes directly relevant.

    I think there is much more that can be said about the presentation of the flood story, and I intend to do so as I continue my series, but I think these few notes on asking questions points the way to a deeper understanding.

  • Genesis 6:5-8: Cause of the Flood

    I’m trying to take this passage in smaller chunks than I usually do so that I don’t end up with so many incredibly long posts.

    We’ve been watching the deterioration of the human race throughout these chapters. Genesis 3 gives one view of the start. Chapter 4 carries that story forward. If viewed in conjuction with Genesis 11, Genesis 5 hints at the problem. Genesis 6:1-4 again expands on the theme. Alden Thompson, in his book Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God? titles his second chapter “Behold it was very good – and then it all turned sour” in which he discusses this theme. (Bias warning: Alden Thompson was one of my undergraduate professors and I publish his book.) However one debates the details of Genesis 3 and the nature of the first sin, one thing is incredibly clear. Genesis presents a clear picture of increasing separation from God and from God’s will.

    Thompson says,

    To summarize the argument of this chapter, we can say that God did create a good world. In this world he placed free creatures. They chose to rebel and align themselves with the Adversary. His attacks on God set the stage for demonic rule, a rule which a freedom-loving God chose to allow as necessary evidence in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. The Old Testament gives ample evidence of the impact of the demonic rule. At the same time, however, it testifies to God’s patient interest in his own people, a people through whom he hoped to demonstrate to the world that there is a God in heaven who is the source of everything good. God had much that he wanted to show and tell his people. As soon as they were ready, he passed on the good news. The tragedy was that they were so seldom ready. Yet God was still willing to watch and wait. That is the glory of the Old Testament and the glory of our God (pp. 31-32).

    Now I’m extremely interested in the broader topic of God’s commands for violence, and with moral issues that are raised by stories like the flood, but that is not the focus of this passage, so I’m going to try to stick more to what this particular passage says first and then discuss these broader implications in another post. I believe that the paragraph I quoted above is a good summary of the message here. Let’s look at the scripture passage:

    5And YHWH saw that the evil of humanity was great on the land, and the whole thrust of human thought was only evil continually. 6And YHWH was sorry that he had made humanity on the land, and it made him sad in his heart. 7And YHWH said, “I will wipe humanity which I created from the face of the ground, from human beings to cattle, to creeping things, to the birds in the sky, because I’m sorry that I made them!” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHWH. — Genesis 6:5-8

    There are several points to see in these verses. Let me break them out into bullet points:

    • The total deterioration and evil of humanity
    • God’s sorrow, leading to his statement that he’s sorry (or repents) that he’s made them
    • The universality of the proposed punishment or cleansing
    • The favor that Noah found, later attributed to Noah being found righteous (Genesis 7:1)

    Modern theology is concerned with two things that the text does not emphasize, first the violent and massive destruction that God carries out here, and second with God repenting or being sorry. But as far as the story is concerned, God is not to be questioned as to his cause–it’s assumed to be an adequate reason for the destruction. Further, God’s “repentance” is a common feature of the Hebrew scriptures, and does not cause the Bible writers the type of discomfort it seems to cause us.

    In addition, this is a good summary of the gospel (if we can deal with the destructive God issue), the good news about God: Big trouble is coming, God offers grace, people are saved.

    One note: The Hebrew word nicham won’t give much help to those who are uncomfortable with God’s repentance or God being sorry. It does mean what it appears to mean, and it appears frequently with reference to God in Hebrew scriptures. Thus I’m going to leave the two issues–God’s repentance and God’s violence–for further discussion, as I think that the solution to the two problems is quite similar.

  • Bible as Conversation

    Daniel has an interesting post on E-Merging suggesting that we view the Bible as a conversation. He says:

    In real conversations, one participant doesn’t just sit back and agree with everything being said. There are tensions and resolutions, and some questions are simply left unanswered.

    I think this is an excellent approach to Bible study and is quite compatible with my notion of participatory Bible study, in which you get into, participate in, the story of God’s interaction with people.

  • Psalm 104: Presenting the Message

    Psalm 104 has a distinct message about God’s creation that has stuck with me strongly since I first studied the passage in graduate school. I have previously posted links to my prior study of the text and structure of this Psalm, done more than 25 years ago. I’m starting from that point now.

    When we deal with translation, the message can be presented in many ways. In this case it is presented through poetry. Previously, I worked with Psalm 46, showing how it has been presented in various ways, such as in Martin Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” I then tried to convert the message of the Psalm into the form of an Italian sonnet, at which I can be said to be no better than rank amateur.

    My point, however, is not to demonstrate my skill in transforming Biblical passages, rather it’s to suggest that we need to transform passages in various ways. For example, the message of Psalm 46 could be presented as:

    • A story built around the concept of God as our protector and defender
    • Multiple poetic forms
    • A hymn, as has been done, and in turn that hymn has been musically transformed many times
    • A praise song, or series of praise songs
    • A devotional or even theological essay
    • A drama presented at church

    I did some similar work with the story of Susanna from the apocrypha of Daniel. You can follow the links to related material there.

    All of this falls under the “Share” portion of my Bible study method. I think that Bible students are often the weakest at sharing, but that sharing can be one of the strongest aspects of your approach to Bible study. Thinking of different ways of sharing the message makes you think more about what the message actually is, while getting reactions from others tests the accuracy of your read of the message. Too often our idea of understanding the Bible is reducing it to theological propositions, and then sharing those propositions with others.

    Now don’t get me wrong here. Extracting theological propositions from your Bible study is not a bad thing. It’s just not the only thing. And sharing your theological propositions is not a bad thing either. But just as the Bible uses different ways of sharing, so you can use different ways of sharing. Consider that sharing part of your process of Bible study. It’s a way of exercising your understanding to discern good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).

    So what about Psalm 104? Well, I think this is a good illustration of precisely this point. Elsewhere, I’ve written about the two creation stories of Genesis–1:1-2:4a & 2:4bff. Now there are a number of approaches to these stories. Some people think they turn up a major Bible contradiction, and thus claim the fact that there are two creation stories as a challenge to the Bible’s inspiration and authority. Others defend against this charge by challenging the idea that there are two stories, thus preventing any contradiction.

    I have another suggestion: The story of God’s creation is much too broad and has way too many implications to be comprehended in any single telling. In Genesis 1, the theme is power and authority. God speaks and it happens. But at the same time God can seem very distant and other in that passage. Now these are part of the doctrine of God–transcendance. But what about God’s presence and care for us, immanence? Well, Genesis 2 and even the story of the fall in Genesis 3 present a God who is with us. Combine them, and we get a better picture of God than we would have had with either one. The stories, rather than contradicting, present two very different perspectives on one topic that’s large enough to allow both to present us with the truth of God and creation.

    But there is yet more that God needs to present to us. In reading Genesis 1-11, one could get the impression of a generally receding God, one who is getting more and more distant from us. That would be a sort of gradual deism, God the creator who is no longer present. Enter another perspective–Psalm 104. God is here, God is present, God is concerned with everything. At the same time God is ultimately powerful. (It would be good to go read Psalm 104 from your favorite Bible version about now.

    God’s power is shown in the first 8 verses. God is absolutely sovereign. God’s word sets the boundaries. The very foundations of the world (or the universe, as I understand it) are set by him. This part ties closely with Genesis 1–God of the powerful, absolute word.

    But then we turn in verse 9 to God’s attention to detail. Everything is beautiful. Everything works together. This culminates with the beautiful exclamation:

    (24) How marvelous are your works, O Lord!
    You made them all wisely.
    The earth is full of your created things.

    This is the detailed attention, the God who is present, providing food for everyone. It may be hard for us to comprehend this, but for God, who is infinite, there is no prioritizing. He can be the powerful God who sets the earth on its foundation and commands the water to be in a particular place, while at the same time being concerned with the food for a single particular lion, or a nesting place for a particular bird. We can’t manage that, because for every bit of attention we give to one thing, something else suffers. But not so with God. And here we have this theological principle about God presented in poetic form.

    But then we get down to the continuing nature of God’s presence.

    (27) All of them look to you,
    To give them their food on time.

    (28) You give to them, so they may gather;
    You open your hand, so they may be satisfied with good.

    (29) You hide your face, and they are disturbed;
    You bring their breath to an end,
    And they return to their dust.

    (30) You send forth your breath, and they are created;
    So you renew the face of the ground.

    It’s not just that God created, it’s that God creates. God is the ever-present creator. Every single move of every single subatomic particle is under God’s control. He doesn’t miss a thing. He doesn’t have a priority list. You are in no danger of falling off God’s radar screen, because nothing ever falls off of it.

    That’s why I call Psalm 104 the third creation story. There are a few other passages, but I think this one neatly ties together Genesis 1 and 2 and gives us the perspective of a God who is constantly present.

    Now the question I’m going to continue with in future posts on this topic is this: How do you share that concept in different ways? How do you catch the right way for you to really comprehend this and apply it? How can you find the right way for a friend?

  • The Impact of Context

    The other day I was reading an article on the practice of prophetic ministry–I’m not going to say where; it was in print and not on the web–in which the author claimed that a prophet does not have to get it right. In fact, he said, a person with the gift of prophecy may get it wrong early in their career as they are “practicing.” The reason I’m not concerned with the specific source here is that I’ve heard this a number of times amongst those involved in the modern prophetic movement.

    Before I go on, let me note that I do believe that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit continue to the present. I don’t, in principle, have any problem with someone exercising the gift of prophecy today. I write a bit more about this in the pamphlet Spiritual Gifts: Prophecy. But I do think that the modern prophecy movement has become very careless with the concept of “the word of God” and runs a serious risk of driving people from the church.

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  • Biblical Criticism Resources

    Since I’m talking so much about critical theories in my discussion of Genesis 1-11 (now on chapter 6), I wanted to call some attention to material I have already posted concerning Biblical criticism. The best starting point for this information is the following pamphlet from the Participatory Study Series:

    That pamphlet provides answers to some of the basic questions that many lay people have about Biblical criticism. I sometimes criticize conservative scholars for ignoring critical study and methodology, although many do take it into account, such as the authors of the New International Commentary on the New Testament, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, or the Apollos Old Testament series. Liberal scholars and teachers, on the other hand, often seem to simply assume critical results without giving people the chance to evaluate the methods and any assumptions behind them.

    To help lay people understand better what is being said when people present conclusions from critical scholarship, and do so very likely with excessive confidence, I wrote a series of entries over on my Threads blog. Some time I’ll gather them together and make them more accessible, but in the meantime, here’s a list.

    While it is not part of the criticism series, I have continued discussion of Isaiah 24-27 here on this blog, and intend to continue working slowly through that section of Isaiah.

    The main point here is, as always, to evaluate claims for yourself, and not simply accept what others feed you.

  • Hebrews 12:1-12: The Lord’s Discipline

    (Note: I’m going to introduce this passage as a whole, but when I do a verse by verse study, I’m going to divide it in two–12:1-4 and 12:5-12 simply for convenience.)

    If you follow the participatory study method, then you may notice that I’m presenting the last step first. You’ll find that this happens quite often, as you share insights that you get from a passage with someone who has not yet studied it. It doesn’t hurt to hear someone else’s interpretation before you have done your study, but you should try to go back to the passage with an open mind, and not let someone else determine the meaning for you. You may well come back to the same result, but you need to come to your own understanding. A great deal of the value in Bible study does not come from the resulting information; it comes from struggling with God as you study.

    Hebrews 5:14 refers to those “who through practice have exercised their understanding to distinguish good and evil.” You are exercising your understanding when you do Bible study. You are also exercising your understanding when you use the knowledge gained in real life. The key here is being active. A pew-sitting understanding of the Bible is not of much use.

    Let me recommend that you come to chapter 12 after re-reading the book of Hebrews for yourself. “The whole book?” you ask. Yes, the whole book. It’s not that long. Use an easy reading version such as the CEV or the TNIV and just roll through it. Then narrow your focus and start reading word by word.

    And here we come around to the topic of chapter 12, and of these 12 verses in particular. Hebrews is an active book, and it’s also a book that challenges one to action. That doesn’t mean it contains no theology in the theoretical sense. It is, in fact, one of the most packed books in the Bible. But the focus and the goal is always on what you’re going to do about it. “How then shall we escape after neglecting such a tremendous deliverance” (Hebrews 2:3)?

    As we approach chapter 12, we have just completed chapter 11, the Honor Roll of Faith. We were presented with a group of people there who had great faith, and that great faith helped them to remain faithful through great difficulties and persecution. There’s was a faith in action.

    Thus our author starts with the challenge of this crowd of witnesses. We need to get rid of the stuff that is holding us back and move on forward. But the example he ultimately holds up is Jesus. Jesus saw the cross ahead of him. He even prayed that he could avoid it if possible. But he knew where he was going, he knew the reward, and he endured it faithfully until he came out to the final goal. His faith and trust in God brought kept him faithful in the time of trial. You should keep in mind what has already been said about Jesus as our brother in chapter 2.

    Then our author continues by telling us, in effect, that the experiences of this life are discipline from the Lord for his children. If you aren’t being disciplined, you aren’t growing, and you’re being treated not as a child, but as a stranger. The Greek word here allows a translation of either illegitimate or low born, such as a slave. Since the person clearly considers himself a son, but is not, probably illegitimate, or “not real sons/children” as many translations use, is a good translation. (I’ll discuss this a bit further when I go verse by verse.)

    The clear message is that if your life is going hard, you should not assume that there is something wrong with your spiritual life. God may be disciplining you to prepare you for greater service and for the kingdom of heaven. If things are going well, on the other hand, don’t make the assumption that all is right with your spiritual life. If you’re not tired and your muscles don’t ache, you may not even be running the race at all!

    There are Christians today who believe that faith will make your life easy and help you get rich. God does own the cattle on a thousand hills, and he does care for you. But his purpose is not for you to live comfortably. His purpose is to discipline you and make you a better person than you are. Faith doesn’t make life easy; it helps us be faithful through the difficult times. Don’t get depressed when things are hard. Keep running the race. God is preparing you.

  • Christian Carnival CXXXVIII: The Kingdom Beacon Herald

    The Christian Carnival CXXXVIII has been posted and for the first time I’ve submitted an entry from this blog.

    Go! Read! Enjoy!

  • Translation and Knowing God

    Paul at Grace rant . . . what? says he has gotten back to reading his Greek New Testament. I congratulate him on this spiritual discipline, and I do believe studying the Bible in its original languages can be a spiritual discipline, but I do think some of his additional thoughts deserve some reconsideration.

    He says:

    The trend in scripture translation is to make it more accessible. For example, The Message, The New Living Translation, and the New Century Versions all purport to render the scriptures in a more affable format. I use these translations often in sermon preparation, but I have begun wondering if this really is a good way to digest the scriptures. I mean, isn’t God worthy of us really struggling to find the meaning of the words on the page? . . .

    There are some serious problems here, I think. I have a great respect for study of the scriptures in the original languages. I took both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biblical and cognate languages. There is much to be gained from deep study of the Bible, and the effort that is required to read it in the source languages helps one get into those spiritual depths. But at the same time, the Bible was not inaccessible to the people who first received it. When the New Testament was written in Greek, Greek was the common language. It was the accessible language, much like the English languages that Paul mentions in his quote.

    And while there are some variations, such as Hebrews and Luke-Acts, the New Testament is largely written in everyday language, not complex language.

    And shouldn’t we too know that thousands of Greek manuscripts offer divergent phrasing on nearly every passage in the New Testament? Oh, and isn’t it noteworthy that the Greek language’s vocabulary is much more complex and that translators have to make very important theological decisions about which word they think is the correct word from a Greek word that may or may not be the original word?

    It is quite true that it’s valuable to know all of these things. But it’s also important to know that this complexity is not merely a feature of Greek; there are always variations to deal with in translation from one language to another. It’s not that Greek is more complex than English, though an argument might be made that it is, it is that English and Greek express things differently. Greek was not complicated to people who grew up speaking it. Certainly translators have many theological issues to decide as they translate–to translate is to interpret–but those decisions can be aided by context and by reading multiple English translations.

    But the level of work involved in understanding it is a function of time, and not one of the text. In other words, reading the Bible in Greek requires additional work today, and that is a good spiritual discipline, but it is not a function of the Bible itself.

    I think that the struggle of knowing God is very real, but it is not a matter of struggling to understand the words of scripture. Making the scriptures more accessible doesn’t remove the struggle of knowing God, it just opens the door to more people to get involved in trying to know God. Because of translations they can do so with the same ease as early Christians could, because they can access the information in their own language.

    By all means use the discipline of studying the Bible in Greek or Hebrew if you know those languages, but realize that it is simply a discipline for you; language is not a barrier God intended between people and the word.

  • Goals in Bible Study

    Very frequently in life, once you find out the right question to ask, the answer becomes obvious. You can waste a great deal of your time trying to find the answer to the wrong question. In Bible study, this is even more true. The question(s) you take into your study will frequently determine the answers you take back out. You can even force the text to answer questions it was never intended to answer, and if you do so, you’ll find that you are getting unreliable answers.

    I maintain in my study guide on Revelation, that one of our problems in understanding Revelation is the questions we bring to the problem. We go in expecting it to tell us the precise sequence, geography, and dating of events, and we come out with many different answers. I suggest that if God desired to inform us, through John’s vision, about the precise sequence of events in the end times, then he failed miserably. Since I don’t think God fails to accomplish what he intends, I tend to start looking for a different intention.

    There is one key question, however, that I’d like to address right now is for whom you study the Bible. Are you looking for the things that talk to the other guy, or are you looking for things that address you in your need and your condition?

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