Keep Thinking Bigger

One Bible study skill that’s worth developing is the skill of always thinking bigger. By “thinking bigger,” I mean broadening your grasp of the text’s argument.

The books of the Bible were written as books, and not as loose collections of smaller texts. These books are narratives, poems, and letters sent from one person to another person or group of people.

Sometimes, however, we read the Bible like we would read Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. This turns the Bible into a collection of pithy sayings instead of a work of literature. And the problem with this approach is that we can then make the Bible say anything we want it to say. For example, you can find brochures from the Jehovah’s Witnesses that use Bible verses to “prove” that Jesus is not God, the Holy Spirit is not a person, and blood transfusions are immoral.

So to study the Bible competently, you must have a clear grasp of how to read Scripture in context.

• a verse in the context of the paragraph or stanza
• the paragraph or stanza in context of the episode or poem
• the episode or poem in context of the book
• the book in the context of its historical era
• and the era in the context of God’s entire plan of history

So there are really two skills that involve “thinking bigger.”

1. Grasping how your passage fits within the argument of an entire book,
   • which requires you to grasp the argument of your entire book.
2. Grasping how your passage fits within the Bible’s larger theology,
   • which requires you to grasp the Bible’s larger theology.

For examples of the first skill, see our collection of posts showing how context matters. And for examples of the second skill, see the brief series on how biblical theology impacts application.

Here are some additional resources I often recommend to help build these skills. None of these are flawless, but all have something to offer:

• David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (affiliate link)
• Daniel B. Wallace, “Introduction, Argument, and Outline” for every NT book
• Bible Project overview videos on every book of the Bible