Brief Insights on Mastering Bible Study

Michael S. Heiser (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is scholar-in-residence at Logos Bible Software. An adjunct professor at a couple of seminaries, he’s written numerous articles and books, including The Unseen Realm and I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible.

• STUDY HABITS1.Read the Bible with a critical eye---it can take it.2.Thinking is better than memorizing. 3.Bible reading is not Bible study.4.Bible study is a discipline, not a ritual event. 5.Insist on being a slave to the text---let it be your master.6.The goal of Bible study shouldn’t be a spiritual buzz. 7.Deuteronomy 29:29 is no excuse for intellectual laziness in Bible study.8.When you read about a place in the Bible, look up what happened there.9.Read journal articles.10.Look up cross-references. 11.Bible study isn’t like marriage. 12.“Study” is a verb. 13.The aim of Bible study is the meaning of the text, not a defense of what you think about the text. 14.Ignorance is not a gift of the Spirit. 15.Use a variety of methods in Bible Study. 16.Questions are not answers. 17.The guidance of the Spirit is neither a remedy nor an excuse for lackluster Bible study. 18.Attention to detail and clear thinking are not antithetical to loving Jesus.19.Bible study is about discovering the meaning of the text, not deciding how to apply the text.20.Don’t allow anyone to protect you from the Bible. 21.Believe that God will help you.22.Believing what the Bible says isn’t Bible study. 23.Five minutes is a long time. 24.Listening to a sermon isn’t Bible study. 25.It’s never too late to start studying the Bible.UNDERSTAND WHAT THE BIBLE---AND WHAT YOUR PARTICULAR BIBLE---IS26.The Old Testament came before the New Testament. 27.Read the Preface to your Bible translation. 28.There’s no such thing as “Holy Ghost Greek.” 29.Learn about Hebrew poetic parallelism. 30.The order of the books in your Bible is not chronological.31.The traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament did not fall from heaven.32.Learn something about philosophies of Bible translation. 33.Get to know the features of your study Bible.34.Pay attention to the formatting of your Bible translation.35.Font style matters. ACCURATELY INTERPRET THE BIBLE36.Prayer doesn’t guarantee your interpretation is accurate.37.All interpretations are not equally plausible. 38.Some things in the Bible are clearer than others---by design.39.Don’t be shaken by your lack of omniscience.40.Lots of things in the Bible really can’t be understood by children. 41.Don’t ignore footnotes. 42.Context is king. 43.Impressions are no substitute for data. 44.Words don’t mean anything by themselves. 45.Don’t confuse correlation with causation.46.What is meant by “literal” interpretation of the Bible needs interpretation. 47.The meaning of an original language word is not determined by the sound of that word in a different? language.48.“Level of detail” is not a key to Bible interpretation.49.The proper context for interpreting the Bible is the context that produced the Bible.50.Most passages in the Bible don’t have three points to communicate.51.The meaning of a word does not come from its constituent parts. 52.Non-literal doesn’t mean “not real.” 53.Be open to non-literal interpretation---the biblical writers used it on occasion. 54.Total objectivity in Bible interpretation is a myth.55.If it’s weird, it’s important.56.You can’t understand the Bible without understanding the worldview of the people who wrote it. 57.What a word meant before the writer lived isn’t an indicator of what it meant to the writer. 58.A word in a given verse never simultaneously means all the things it can mean. 59.Genre is another word for context. 60.It’s okay when Bible study produces more than one possible interpretation. 61.Pay attention to how biblical writers interpret other biblical writers.62.Tracing concepts through the Bible is more profitable than word study.63.The Bible really can mean exactly what it says. 64.Draw both positive and negative conclusions about what a verse or passage teaches.65.Affirm the obvious without extrapolating to the unnecessary. BIBLE STUDY TOOLS66.Lea

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