What tools do we need to really understand and apply a passage of Scripture. I’ve already mentioned the Stuart and Fee book which I have found to be very helpful (although you really have to use your noggin!). They summarize our tasks as exegesis (understanding the Scriptures) and hemeneutics (applying the Scriptures). I would like to look at the exegetical task in this post. One way to summarize the tools needed for Bible study is to think of a telescope and a microscope.
The Telescope: Bringing the Bible closer
When we study the Bible we need a way to “bring it closer” to us. What are some of the distances we have to overcome? First, there is time. Everything in the Bible is more than 1000 years old and much of it is many thousands of years older than that. We have to overcome the time gap to appreciate what the original message was to the original recipients. There is also the culture gap. These documents were written within very different cultures from ours. You have nomadic tribes, the Roman civilization, and a myriad of cultures-within-cultures, like home churches in Ephesus and Crete.
What are some of the tools we can use like a telescope to bring the ancient word into the 21st century? Thankfully we have a lot of resources: study bibles, Internet web sites, archealogical studies and more. What tools do you find most useful when you are trying to understand the ancient peoples and cultures of the Bible?
The Microscope: Looking at details
Many of our questions about the Bible come from using a microscope when we should be using a telescope. We first need to look at the big picture and try to get into the historical setting of a book before we start picking at the linguistic components of a passage. Imagine that you are Philemon and you’ve just received a letter from Paul. How are you going to approach that document? You will read the whole thing! Probably several times. Will you get hung up on the chiasmus of verse five? Or the ambiguity of verse six? Of course there were no verse numbers in Paul’s letter. And also a lot of things that are ambiguous for us wouldn’t have been for Philemon since he didn’t have to overcome any of the “distances” that we do. But I believe that the overall intent of Paul’s letter is as clear to us as it was to him. Only when we start looking at things microscopically do we get ourselves in trouble.
Having criticized the microscope I still feel it has a legitimate place in increasing our understanding of the Biblical text. By looking at a word in the original language we can often overcome the limitations of our own language and gain a fuller understanding of key terms in the Bible.
What are some tools that can help us get a microscopic view of the Bible? Again, study bibles and other aids have much to offer. Interlinear Bibles can be a great help. Most important is a Bible dictionary and concordance. What tools do you use most often for looking at the Scriptures under a microscope?
So before you grab that microscope, get out your telescope and try to bring the Bible closer to you. Many of the questions you would have if you were using your microscope will be resolved if you have an understanding of the big picture.
Let’s hear from you!
What are your favorite telescopes and microscopes?
