Bible Study - Prerequisites of Bible Study

PREREQUISITES OF BIBLE STUDY


I. Authority of the Bible
A. Basic facts
1. Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic (derivative of Hebrew found in Ezra and Daniel, also language spoken by Christ). The New Testament was written in Greek.
2. Written by 40 writers over a period of 1,500 years.
3. Contains 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
(Catholic Bible has 7 extra Books called the Apocrypha, however, these were not added to the Canon until the Council of Trent in 1540 A.D. These books contain historical inaccuracies and questionable doctrine not found anywhere else in Scripture)
4. Bible claims inspiration and claims to be the Word of God and the complete truth to man.
5. Accurate record of history.
6. Contains fulfilled prophecy.
7. Predicts the future of the world.
8. Bible says you can't add or take away (Rev. 22:18,19) or you will destroy its unity and finality.
B. Reliability
1. Historical reliability of any document are based on three things:
a. The number of available manuscripts. Before the printing press the
Bible has the most (13,000) manuscripts of any document. The next
document numbered only 200 and they were all copied from one copy.
b. Time interval between original and 1st copy. The Bible has manuscripts
within 100 years of the original and other documents the average is 1,000
c. Internal evidence. Were there eye witnesses to the events taking place.
2. External evidence of reliability
a. History. The Bible is the most accurate historical record there is.
b. Archeology. There is yet to be any discoveries that contradict the
Bible.
C. Revelation - The communication of God's truth to man. Heb. 1:1
1. Is the truth. Jn. 17:17; 16:13; 8:32
2. Is complete and final. Heb. 1:1,2; Jude 3; Rev. 22:18,19
(All cults have extra-Biblical and continuing revelation)
D. Results - Does it accomplish anything?
1. Experience of salvation. 2 Tim. 3:15; I Pet. 1:23
2. Exercises the senses to discern between right and wrong. Heb. 4:12; 5:13,14 Right and wrong are not based on feelings, culture or education but on the Word of God.
3. Effectiveness in prayer. John 15:7
4. Enablement for victorious Christian living through the power of the Holy Spirit. I Pet. 2:2; Jn. 15:3; Ps. 119:11; 2 Tim. 3:1
E. Testimony of Jesus - Lk. 24:44; Mt. 23:35; Jn. 10:35; Mt. 5:18
(jot or yod is the smallest Hebrew letter, looks like an apostrophe.
The tittle is a mark on a letter to distinguish it from another letter.)


II. Inspiration of Scripture

If we don't believe the Bible and what it claims about itself then we have no reason to believe anything it says. Either it is ali inspired (jot and tittle in the original) or it is false and we have no hope.

A. Definition
1. Inspiration is not the same as revelation. Revelation is truth or facts
that God has made known to man. Inspiration refers to the written record
of those facts. Since the Scripture is complete neither of these are taking
place today.
2. The Scripture is inspired and not the writers (II Tim. 3:16) and it is the guarantee that what was written was without error and has power in and of itself. Rom. 1:16
3. The word inspiration is actually "God breathed". He "breathed" the very thoughts,
words and form of the words into the writers.
B. Nature of inspiration
1. Inspiration is not the result of human research or the products of the
writers own thoughts. II Pet. 1:20,21 compare I Cor. 2:13
2. The writers did not always understand what they were writing. I Pet. 1:10; Dan. 12:8,9
3. The "breathing" of God's word in man by the Holy Spirit so that they were speaking or writing the very word of God. II Sam. 23:2; Jer. 1:9; Ezek. 2:2 Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1; Amos 7:14-16; I Cot. 2:13
C. Christ's testimony
1. Old Testament - Lk. 24:44; Jn. 5:39; Nk. 7:10-13; Ht. 5:18; 24:35
2. New Testament - Jn. 15:27; 14:26: 16:12,13; Lk. 10:16; Jn. 17:20
D. Others testimony
1. Paul quotes from both Deut. and Luke and calls them both Scripture. I Tim. 5:17 2. Peter speaks of the writing of Paul as Scripture. II Pet. 3:15
E. Results of Inspiration
1. It has no errors because of God superimposing His thoughts on the writers.
2. Infalible or not capable of leading into error rightly understood. They
are incapable of teaching deception and therefore has final authority.

(It was not until the 1700's that people began question%ng the inspiration of Scripture and now there are probably many who don't believe in the inerrancy an~ infallibilityfin the ministry.)

III. Other prerequisites of Bible Study
A. Regeneration. A person must be a believer in order to understand Scripture. John 3:3; I Cor. 2:10-14 For an unbeliever to try to understand spiritual things is like a deaf man trying to judge the quality of music. He can't.
Also one must be willing to study. II Tim. 2:15; Jude 3


IV. Tools for Bible Study

A. Bibles - Since there are many translations of the Bible in English it is
important to try to find the translations that are close to the original in
meaning.
1. Some of the more popular ones are:
King James and the New King James; New American Standard; Tyndale; Revised Standard; Thompson Chain Reference
2. It would probably be good for Bible Study to stay away from the paraphrased Bibles.
3. There are also topical Bibles which lists all verses under one topic as the Nave's Topical or Bibles in chronological order as the Narrated Bible.
Dictionaries
1. Much like a regular dictionary except a Bible dictionary has more explanation on the entries.
2. List: Ungers, New International, New Bible, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Wycliff, Zondervan. Vine's Expository is a good Greek (in English) dictionary.
Concordance
1. Takes every word in the Bible and lists it in alphabetical order in the phrase it is found in. It also gives the Hebrew and Greek words and meanings.
2. List: Strong's, New American Standard, Young's Analytical, Crudens.
Commentaries
1. Good tool for additional information such as cultural or historical background and cross-references. Keep in mind when using commentaries that you are simply reading another persons interpretation of Scripture. It is good when using commentaries to compare several and use your o~m judgment as to which bast fits with the text.
2. List: New Bible CoI~mentary, Layman's, Matthew Henry, Tyndale, Wycliff
and volumes of individual book commentaries.

V. Methods of Bible Study
A. Word Study - taking a word or phrase and following it through the book or Bible to gain understanding of how it is used.
1. Example: Take an important word and use a concordance to look up Scripture where that word is used and pick the verses which appear to be most useful for your study and compare. You may want to stay with one particular x~iter to see how he uses it or go throughout the x~ole Bible. You can also use this to come up with a systematic doctrine study.
2. Contextual - Using the surrounding verses and paragraphs in order to get the exact meaning. Be careful of taking verses out of their context and giving them a meaning other than what the writer meant. Remember no verse stands alone but Scripture interprets Scripture and there is only one interpretation. 1. Points of contextual interpretation.
a. The immediately preceding and following verses, better yet, paragraphs.
b. The entire book or letter in order to get the general theme.
c. Context of the entire Bible and what it has to say on the subject.
d. Historical Context will have a bearing on your interpretation. Many of the promises of the Bible simply were not meant for us because of the historical situation. Questions of where, when, why, to whom and by whom are always important to ask.
e. Cultural context means we have to find out what the culture of the day has to do with sacrificed to idols, the dress and customs of the time.



Application - applying what we have learned to our life and growing from it.
1. All this study is useless to us if we are studying only for knowledge or for any other reason than our spiritual growth or to help others grow. It should all lead to a further knowledge of and understanding of Jesus Christ. For Jesus says in John 17 that eternal life is knowing God and His Son, not in how many Scripture verses we know or anything else. hay God use your Bible study to accomplish the only thing He wants to accomplish and that is transforming us into being more like His Son. II Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2