How can you read your Bible without becoming a total loon? Is it possible? Some people read the same Bible that you and I do, but end up with the weirdest, half-baked ideas on the planet. Others read it and yawn.Yet the Bible contains the most important words that you and I will ever read in this lifetime. They are the most important written words on the entire planet. So we'd better get it right. If we don't know what something means, we'd better be honest about it. How can we read it and get the meaning that God intended, and not end up with some twisted cult ideas?
1. Read the Text
What does the text actually say? What does it NOT say?
2. Exegete, don't Eisegete
Exegesis is extracting what the text says. Eisegesis is inserting what we want to say. Ask, what did the text say when it was written? What did it mean in the cultural context of its day? Do not read backwards what our culture says something means. For instance, when Jesus said "if the salt has lost its flavor...", don't define that as sodium chloride, that's our language. What Jesus meant by salt was not sodium chloride, but a substance that usually came from the Dead Sea that contained some of what we call salt and also contained white gypsum. That "salt" could lose its saltiness, because the gypsum content became too high as the other leached out. What we call "salt" cannot lose its saltiness. Different meaning today, which we cannot retrofit as some have done trying to claim that Jesus didn't know what he was talking about.
3. Exegete Completely
The exegetical process involves several key components. It's no good just asking, hmm, I wonder what that meant to ...? We need the involvement of God, the author, the text, the ancient audience, the cultural context and finally the modern audience. When God is involved this is revealed exegesis. Some modern exegesis is called rational exegesis, because it leaves God out of the picture. The idea is that somehow God is not rational. So, we have the "God is dead" people and the "resurrection of Christ is a myth" people, who simply don't want to believe that God could or did do such things.
So, start with a belief that God can do anything, then do some really good research.
4. The Plain Sense Makes Common Sense
A golden rule of Bible Study (read "exegesis") is just that. Too often we want to overcomplicate Scripture with some high falutin' theory of numerology, prophecy or some esoteric secret meaning, as if God can't speak plain. He can and he does.
5. Don't abuse the Concordance
Some people think that the concordance means that we can find the keys to one verse in a string of other verses. More often than not, that is a BIG mistake. For instance, Romans 8:8 says that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, yet 1 John 4:3 says that Jesus came in the flesh. Stringing those two verses together could lead to a wacky conclusion. That's really an easy one to figure out, but some other combinations are not so easy. How do we overcome that? Most theologians (read "good Bible students") will tell you to usually stick to one passage of Scripture at a time and its context, because mixing contexts will often get you in trouble.
6. Be Careful of Application
The whole process is technically hermeneutics, but this step of application is most commonly referred to as the hermeneutic. One of America's top 20th century preachers, Haddon Robinson, once said that more heresy is introduced into the church through application than exegesis. Application tends to become law. For instance, the idea of not offending in meat and drink becomes a ban on alcohol, the idea of women dressing modestly becomes a church rule about dressing in "plain" clothes, etc. A good application matches the biblical truths, matches the biblical author's intended purpose, and clarifies the relevant truth rather than twisting it into man-made rules and regulations or heresies.
Proper application cannot, can-not, CAN NOT come without careful exegesis first. Bible Study is irrelevant theory until we have an application for today. Rather than rules, stories of how some have applied the relevant Scripture is a better example.
7. Sit at the Feet of a Bible Scholar
Don't sit at the feet of a back yard know-it-all who got his Bible knowledge from a public library, like I once did. Find yourself a teacher who really knows the Bible, has taken the effort to study at least Greek and preferably also Hebrew, who knows what words like exegesis and hermeneutics mean. Avoid those teachers who are fond of weird and wacky fads, like British Israelism, prophetic over-indulgence, conspiracy theories, or who otherwise think that they know better than most of the church, or if they think they are God's end-time gift, or use grandiose egotistical titles for themselves, or love money. Run far, far away.
Those who are willing to learn from what the Holy Spirit has taught others down through the ages about the Bible are often the most balanced and faithful to the truth.
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