Bible Study Methods

Most of the things you will read in this website you may have never heard before, because it is answers that God has given to us about Biblical questions that we have had. Anyone can study this way. Keep praying God will help you find the answer, and He will, He always does.

This approach to Bible study encourages the student to look into God's Word deeper and gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to speak to our hearts and minds, guiding us into the scriptures that we should be studying first and foremost.

Notes for Bible Study (Things to Come 1:173)
oNE of the most profitable methods of Bible study is to read any particular book through with a special object. The same book may be gone through again and again---each time with a different object.
In this way points will be noticed which would not otherwise be seen.

For example, the Acts of the Apostles might be studied to note all the different subjects of preaching. The Epistle to the Hebrews might be read through just to find all the "better" things, and again to find and note all the titles given to Christ. Other books might be read with the view of finding the quotations in it from the Old Testament. Others to find testimonies to the truth of the Old Testament.

Please Note FIVE POSTULATES FOR INTERPRETATION (Things to Come 21:118)
It must be affirmed, and it will be conceded by all Bible Students, that an interpretation of a passage to be satisfactory: --

	Must take all the words in their natural meaning and Scriptural usage.
	Must be uniform and consistent in its translation.
	Must give due weight to the inexorable laws of grammatical construction.
	Must give the passage its logical place in the context.
	Must harmonize the passage with the general teaching of the whole book, and not merely cleverly explain it as though it were an isolated passage.

If an interpretation can comply with these demands, then it may challenge criticism, and commend itself to general acceptance.

In order to arrive at thoughts God intended us get we must have the Holy Spirit. But HOW (you might say) do I Know it is the Holy Spirit and not my "own private interpretation"??

WHO wrote the Bible?? - GOD did!

WHAT are HIS thoughts? Emotions? Intentions?

HOW do we arrive at HIS thoughts for scripture?

Let me share with you a simple thought from Bullinger that Figures of Speech are "the Holy Spirit's own markings of YOUR Bible" (Fig. Of Speech Introduction)

Can you believe it! The Holy Spirit marked MY Bible? Great! Where do I start hearing from Him to "guide us into ALL truth" (John 16:13)?

Figures of Speech guide us into all truth by providing one main clue, EMPHASIS.

My approach to Bible study is very different than most because I incorporate the Hebrew expressions (very similar to English expressions) into the translation I arrive at.

Let me show you an example of the IMPORTANCE of these figures according to Bullinger:

"to translate a Figure of Speech literally is to OBSCURE the very point for which it was used, to LOSE the emphasis it was intended to mark, and to MISS the truth it was intended to teach." (Book of Job p. viii.)

"It is clear therefore, that no branch of Bible-study can be MORE IMPORTANT" (Fig. Of Sp. p.vii)

This issue was so important he practically trashes the Revised version of the Bible calling it a "schoolboys crib" (Things to Come Vol. 9 p. 106 ). The reason for this is that they translate the words literally, instead of, from the sense indicated by the USE OF FIGURES, which "marks the excellence of the Authorized version".

considering a few of his works:

	Figures of Speech book. 1100 pgs (nearly 8,000 passages of scripture cited, 217 figures detailed)
	The Book of Job "No version does justice to the book of Job," due to it’s lack of "idiomatic translation".

Is the Bible so simple that translating is not necessary? Can we read the English and understand where the proper EMPHASIS is? NO! We CANNOT! It is important when translating for anything but especially doctrinal development that the following elements are carefully considered:

Figures of Speech (sometimes are not noticeable in English)

Correct verb tenses (in English are different in Greek)

Please note superficial reading in ENGLISH can lead to complete confusion and mistranslation!!

Additionally another scholar Dr. Robert Anderson immediately before addressing Dr. Bullinger's sermon on "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth" in which he adds ,

"it would be mere quibbling to object that sometimes He uses the language of figure and symbol. Why, is no that precisely the language which children love, and which they understand? This is a further reason why we need not turn to Pundits to interpret it for us. The typology of the Old Testament is the very alphabet of the language in which the doctrine of the New Testament is written; and as so many of our great theologians are admittedly ignorant of the typology, we need not feel surprised if they are not always the safest exponents of the doctrine."

They are indeed a more helpful tips for Bible study within the text by detecting Literary Devices : allusions, recurring themes, imagery, and irony.

Finding parallels to the passage you are studying elsewhere in scripture can reveal hidden truths.

Word context and its usage (first time used, how many times used) can also be extremely helpful.

Even though these and more are helpful they dim in comparison with the FIGURES OF SPEECH and their use.

Here is a website that could be used in conjunction with figures of speech research. It is The Phrase Finder. We can compare and contrast Hebrew phrases with modern phrases to see the common relationship to both.