Method | Knowable Word

You Can Get the Main Point

July 14, 2023 By Peter Krol

Have you ever felt like, when asked to state the main point of a Bible passage, all you can do is make a wild guess? Or that the best you can do is pick out something that strikes you as important and label that the main point?

The good news is that you can get the main point. You can search it out and identify it with confidence. You can learn to defend your statement of the main point with evidence from the text. You don’t have to just guess.

What the Main Point is

The main point is the climax of interpretation. This is what all your efforts of observing and interpreting culminate in.

Usually, the main point is a declarative statement, a conclusion. That’s because the author is trying to persuade his audience of something; the main point is that thing.

It’s possible that the main point could be a question or a command; though I’d want abundantly clear and explicit evidence in the text before accepting a question or command as the main point. If someone poses a question as the main point, I suspect the true main point is actually the answer to the question. If someone hands me a command, I suspect that command is the author’s intended application, and we need to do a little more digging to understand what conclusion he’s arguing for in order to produce that application.

Exceptions to statement-main points often arise from particular genres or intentions. For example, I believe that the heartbreaking poem in the fifth chapter of Lamentations is really a question for which the poet has no answer: Why does God forget us? Will he remain exceedingly angry with us? And since the psalms are often recounting the human experience—rather than teaching some particular truth—my mains points for many psalms often look like topics rather than declarative conclusions. For example: The prayer offered in faith (or, three descriptions of impudent prayer)—Psalm 17. Five solutions to overcoming envy—Psalm 37.

I’ve also heard people say that the main point must be a declarative statement about God, but I don’t fully agree. Yes, the entire Bible is the revelation of God in Christ, so we will learn something about God, and especially the person of Jesus Christ, on every page. But if a particular passage is focused on humanity, or creation, or sin, or something else—I’m most interested in following the author’s lead and not requiring his point to center a particular object (i.e. God).

How to Get the Main Point

My posts over the last few months have all been directed at helping you with this skill. All Observation and Interpretation skills matter, but some skills get more significant results than others. So really work those key skills! Especially:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

If you nail these skills, the main point often presents itself in vibrant color. But if you struggle with observing the structure, asking and answering interpretive questions, and tracking the flow of thought, then getting the main point will always feel like staring at a Magic Eye painting. You know: the 2D images, that pop out into 3D if you cross your eyes.

In a future post, I’ll give some examples to show how these particular skills often carry much weight in helping us to identify the author’s main point.

Don’t Fail to Capture the Train of Thought

July 7, 2023 By Peter Krol

One of our greatest failures in Bible study is our tendency to treat the text atomistically.

We look for inspirational words or sayings, while failing to grasp how the author used those words or sayings to persuade his audience of a message. We love to grade the behaviors of Bible characters. We distract ourselves with endless word studies. We fail to grasp the context.

For example, we treat Daniel and post-conversion Paul as “good” and Jacob and Samson as “bad.” We think of “Immanuel” as little more than a prediction of Messiah. We apply “don’t be anxious about anything, but … make your requests known to God” as a generic encouragement for the Christian life.

But how much changes when we form a habit of boarding a passage’s train of thought!

The Train’s Value

When you observe well, and you ask and answer good interpretive questions, you are going somewhere. These skills are not merely academic exercises. They have an end goal: to determine the author’s main point.

And the way you pull together all of your observation and interpretive work is by capturing the author’s train of thought in the text.

If we fail to capture the train of thought, it will be very difficult either to get to the main point, or to have much confidence that what we’ve got is in fact the main point. We’re left with only guessing, or landing on whichever atom in the text excites us the most.

So please understand: the value of the train of thought lies in its power to surface the author’s main point. When we have captured that train of thought, we are well on our way to mastering the text. Which, frankly, is primarily a matter of clearing out the rocks and weeds so it can master us.

The Train’s Capture

By “train of thought,” all I mean is: How does the author get from the beginning of the passage to the end of the passage? How does he shape his message in such a way as to bring his readers along with him, to persuade them?

We can capture this train only after we’ve gotten lots of good answers (from the text!) to our interpretive questions. We then investigate those answers with further questions. We circle around and around, back and forth between observation and interpretation, like a cyclone—all funneling into the author’s single main point.

As we follow this process, we start to see the shape of the author’s argument. The author wanted to persuade his audience of something, and our task is determine what that was so it can shape our hearts and lives as well.

Because the train of thought has to do with the text’s shape, in your notes it will typically look like an outline. But it’s not simply an outline of the contents. It’s not a list of what the passage says. It is a list of conclusions—or sometimes a list of commands—that capture what the passage means.

The train of thought can be an outline as simple as this, for Ephesians 2:1-10:

You were one thing – 1-3
But God has made you another – 4-6
So that his grace would be evident to all – 7-10

Here are three more quick examples I’ve given from other texts. And here are two examples drawn from narrative texts. See our interpretive book overviews for examples of what it looks like to follow the train of thought over entire books of the Bible.

In your Bible study, please do not fail to capture the train of thought.

What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Nehemiah

July 3, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

Along with Ezra and Esther, the book of Nehemiah is tucked between larger historical books of the Bible and Job. It lacks the big, sweeping themes of something like 1 Samuel or the memorable figures of Joshua and Judges. Like Ezra, it contains a lot of lists (see chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12); additionally, through one lens it can be viewed as a book about a construction project, which isn’t the most compelling topic! There are many reasons Christians might not read or study this book.

But if you skip this book, you’ll miss a lot!

Instruction in Prayer

The book of Nehemiah offers loads for us about prayer, beginning with the example of Nehemiah as one who prays—frequently!

When Nehemiah heard about the sorry state of Jerusalem, he wept and prayed (Neh 1:4–11). There is also a famous prayer of confession in Nehemiah 9:6–38. In addition to these extended prayers recorded for us in Scripture, we read of smaller, shorter prayers of Nehemiah (Neh 2:4; 4:4-5; 4:9; 5:19; 6:9; 6:14; 13:14; 13:22; 13:29; 13:31). We don’t always know the words of these prayers, but what we do know is that Nehemiah consulted often with the Lord.

We can also learn from the content of Nehemiah’s prayers. Specifically, Nehemiah asks God to do what he promised. When Nehemiah is praying for favor with the king, he cites God’s commands and promises to Moses as the basis for God to answer (Neh 1:8–9). Also, during the corporate confession of sin, Nehemiah reflects on God’s covenant dealings with his people (Neh 9:32–37). It is on this basis that Nehemiah tells God, “we are in great distress” (Neh 9:37).

Finally, the longer prayers in chapters 1 and 9 show Nehemiah offering corporate confession of sin. In our highly individualistic world, this explicit understanding of God’s people as a collective is a good correction.

Instruction About God’s Word

Nehemiah uses the Scriptures frequently as a source of rebuke and recalibration. I’ve already written a whole article about the truths of God’s word in Nehemiah chapter 8, but that’s not the only place in this book we could turn for such instruction.

The confession in chapter 9 follows the prolonged public reading of the law in Nehemiah 9:3. When the people pledge themselves in covenant with God in chapter 10, they promise “to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Neh 10:29). Finally, when reforms were needed in chapters 12 and 13, the people looked to God’s law for the standards they were to keep (Neh 12:44, Neh 13:3).

As this new worshipping community was being established, it was crucial to have God’s word at the center. The same, of course, is true for modern Christians.

Instruction About Money

There is explicit teaching about the use and misuse of money in Nehemiah chapter 5. There was a famine in the region (Neh 5:3), so times were difficult. The nobles and officials were charging interest to their Jewish brothers, and as a result some sons and daughters had been taken as slaves to pay off debt. Nehemiah rebuked those who would profit off of their countrymen and cause additional financial hardship (Neh 5:6–13).

We see more of Nehemiah’s approach to money in the same chapter. Nehemiah had not been taking the food allowance from the governor to which he was entitled, in contrast to previous governors (Neh 5:14–15). Instead, Nehemiah provided food for 150 people at his table (Neh 5:17–18). In all of this, Nehemiah was conscious of not laying too heavy a burden on the people (Neh 5:18).

Conclusion

The book of Nehemiah reminds us how central Jerusalem was to the people of Israel. This was the city of the temple, where God had promised to dwell with his people. So the rebuilding of the city walls and gates after their destruction by Babylon is more than just a boring construction project. This work was crucial to the ongoing identity of Israel as the worshipping people of God.

In addition to learning about God’s provision in the face of opposition, Nehemiah teaches us about prayer, Scripture, and money. This book is more than worthy of our attention.

How Would They Have Applied It?

June 23, 2023 By Peter Krol

In recent posts, I’ve been trying to help you get the most out of the interpretation phase of your study. We’ve considered different uses for different types of questions, the power of implicational questions, and the best place to find answers to your questions.

Another Angle

Another way to think of the value of implicational questions is that they help us to grasp how the original audience would have applied the text. When we ask our questions with the original audience in mind, we’re more likely to land on the true message and proper application of the text.

Our understanding of a text will be strongest—and therefore our application will hit home with greatest force—when it is very closely connected to the author’s primary intent for his audience.

So we do as much as we can to put ourselves in the shoes of those who first read this text, and to consider what this passage calls them to believe, love, or do.

To do this, we must pull together all of our work in observation and interpretation so far. All our questions and answers, along with our work on the context: historical, biblical, and literary.

An Example

In Proverbs 31:1-9, King Lemuel’s mother offers him wise counsel for kings and rulers. She tells him what not to do with his strength (Prov 31:3) and mouth (Prov 31:4-5), and she promotes what he ought to do with his mouth (Prov 31:8-9a) and strength (Prov 31:9b). There is a time an place for forgetting (Prov 31:6-7), but during one’s exercise of kingly rule is not it (Prov 31:4-5).

Thus far my observation, with some progress on definitive, rational, and implicational questions. But how would the original audience have applied this poem?

It may be tempting to go directly to contemporary application, considering how we make use of our own strength and mouth, and whether we employ them to wise, selfless, and just ends. Such time would certainly be profitable, but perhaps a less direct route will lay an even stronger foundation for application.

The book of Proverbs is something of a manual for training up nobles and rulers in Israel. When Solomon speaks to “my son” in chapters 1-9, he is speaking not only to his direct heir but also to all the youth among the nobility (see where Prov 4:1, 24:21, etc., where the “sons” are either plural or are not in direct line to the throne). So if we apply every passage directly to the Christian “everyman,” we lose something of the book’s focus on training leaders.

The people of Israel hearing Proverbs 31:1-9 may not have immediately considered how they used their own strength or mouth. After all, many of them would be in the category of those for whom it would be appropriate to forget their poverty (Prov 31:6-7)!

Instead, upon hearing this text, they would be far more inclined to consider what sort of king they need to rule them in wisdom. They might expect their king to take this poem more personally than they themselves do. And if he wouldn’t, they would keep waiting and watching for another such king to arise.

Such consideration of the original audience helps us to see Christ more clearly in the text. And since we have been united to him through faith, it remains appropriate to apply the text to us today. But having gone through Christ to get to application, we’ve ratcheted up the urgency and persuasiveness.

One Caution

In order to determine a text’s implications on the original audience, we must be able to identify who that original audience is. Such identification is quite tricky for narratives, for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that we often don’t know who the precise audience was. It would be difficult to nail down exactly which generation was the first audience for Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, or Esther. We can’t be too precise about the audience for some of the gospels, as we’re not told. In all such cases, we must remain fuzzy, though it still helps to know “these people needed a king,” or “these people must have been Jewish Christians.”

The second reason the identification is tricky is that we often confuse the text’s audience with the text’s characters. So when studying the sermon on the Mount, we might find ourselves putting ourselves in the shoes of those who were present, listening to the sermon as Jesus preached it. But instead, we ought to put ourselves in the shoes of those reading the book that Matthew wrote.

So the implications of the text on the characters within the text might help you to understand the text. But what’s even more significant is to grasp the implications of the text on those who first read the text.

Conclusion

When you can clearly answer the question of “how would they have applied it?” you’ll be far more likely to get a strong answer to “how should we apply it?”

How to Find Answers to Your Questions

May 26, 2023 By Peter Krol

When we study the Bible, most of interpretation consists of asking and answering questions. The questions themselves arise from our curiosity over our observations. But the answers? Do you know where to find those?

The Most Important Place to Look for Answers

At this point, conventional wisdom lists a number of resources and reference works that ought to be in a Christian’s library. I’ll get to such a list soon, but don’t let it distract you from the better portion.

The most important place to seek answers to your questions is in the text itself. Some of you reading this find this conviction self-evident and obvious, and you have already made a habit of seeking answers in the text. But for many others, it will take more practice. Seeking answers in the text itself is a habit that must be formed, and sometimes bad habits are very slow to die.

For example, I recently listened to podcast discussing the creation account of Genesis 1. The teacher based most of his instruction on the proposition that Genesis 1 is in the form of poetry. His evidence for this assertion arose from the assessments of scholars, comparisons with other ancient texts, and his philosophical framework regarding eastern vs. western worldviews.

The problem was that he never supported his primary assertion with evidence from the text itself. Now I’m open to discussing the question of the genre of Genesis 1. And all of the external evidence certainly matters. But that which trumps all of the external evidence is internal evidence from the text itself.

Genesis 1 does not present clauses in parallel lines like other Hebrew poetry does.
Genesis 1 does not use similes, metaphors, or emotive language the way other poetry does.
The Hebrew syntax of Genesis 1 uses verb forms and verb sequences standard to the narratives of Scripture. The same sort of syntax employed in most of the rest of the book of Genesis, which is clearly (and commonly agreed to be) made up of narratives.

Such evidence from the text supports a conclusion that Genesis 1 presents itself as narrative (even historical narrative), just as the rest of the book does. Now this evidence in itself does not guarantee that the events of Genesis 1 must be in a strict chronological sequence, since biblical narratives often rearrange chronology in order to communicate a particular message. But the evidence does strongly suggest that we ought to read the chapter as narrative and not as poetry.

Answers Addressed in the Text

So when your noble curiosity generates questions regarding your observation of the text (questions such as, what genre or text type is this?), your best instinct to cultivate is an instinct that searches the text itself for the answers. Search and search and search.

Let your questions drive you deeper into observation. Let observation and interpretation swirl round and round like a cyclone, in ever tighter loops.

You may be surprised to find how many of your questions can be answered within the text, if you only learn how and where to look. When such examination of the text becomes habitual, you will improve dramatically at being able to defend your conclusions and persuade others.

Answers Assumed in the Text

One obstacle for us today is when the biblical author assumes the answers to your questions. He wasn’t writing to you or me. He had his own audience. So he wasn’t trying to anticipate your questions, but those of his own audience.

This means that there is quite a bit of background information that’s not stated explicitly but nonetheless affects interpretation. For example, the author of Genesis 1 presumes prior knowledge of which “God” is the one engaging in the work of creation. Is it Yahweh, Astarte, Baal, Zeus, or last season’s winner of American Idol? Learning from external reference works about the author and audience of Genesis would help to clarify the answer to this question somewhat quickly.

For another example, comparisons to other ancient creation stories will yield great benefit. What makes this God in this story different from the Gods of Gilgamesh’s epic, or Enuma Elish? Some of these contrasts would have been obvious to those living in ancient times, but we can miss them on account of centuries of distance.

How to Determine When an Answer is Assumed

In the name of “the answer is assumed,” we run the risk of justifying just about any conclusion we can find in a reference work. How do we determine whether the answer is truly assumed, or we are simply importing it where it doesn’t belong?

This process isn’t a perfect science, but the key issue is: Do you have good reason to believe the original audience would have made this assumption? The more reason you have to believe that, the stronger will be the answers you find in reference works.

So ask: Would the original audience already have the necessary background knowledge? Would they have truly been familiar with this parallel text, cultural artifact, body of knowledge, etc.?

If so, then it makes sense to look up your answer in a commentary, study guide, or Bible atlas. We have a wealth of tools available to us today to help us get into the mindset of the original readers. Let’s make good use of them.

When to Let it Go

But if you can’t find the answer addressed in the text, and you don’t have good reason to believe it was assumed, you probably need to make like Elsa and let it go.

Resist the urge to close the knowledge gap simply with systematic theology, denominational tradition, or prior experience. Theology and tradition are important, but they fit best not while interpreting (answering interpretive questions) but while correlating (after determining the author’s main point). We must understand the present passage on its own terms, in light of its original audience, first, before we attempt to connect it to teaching found elsewhere in the Bible.

One exception to the principle in the previous sentence lies with certain implicational questions. Because implicational questions bridge the gap from interpretation into application, they often work best after we’ve determined the main point. So it may make sense to make use of reference works to help draw out those implications and stimulate our own reflection concerning them.

So how do we find answers to our interpretive questions? By shoving our noses back into the text for deeper observation. When further observation suggests that the answer would have been assumed and self-evident to the original audience, we’re then justified in pursuing external resources to help us better understand the mindset or culture of that audience. However, if we don’t have good reason to believe the answer is either addressed or assumed in the text, we’re best off letting the question go until another passage takes it up. There’s no shame in setting aside a particular question for a brighter day.

Emphasizing What the Bible Emphasizes

May 22, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

About a decade ago, I knew a couple that had a very strong, specific view on creation. They read piles of books and articles, and almost every conversation with them circled back to this topic. For them, the trustworthiness of other authors and Bible teachers was always passed through the grid of agreement on this one doctrine.

This issue was a single, steel track that ran through their relationships. Regrettably, I began to avoid conversations with them because every interaction ended the same way.

Though it may be with a different issue, you may know people like this. It’s possible that you may be a person like this!

The Issue of the Moment

When one doctrine or application or book of the Bible dominates someone’s thoughts and conversations, it is not necessarily a bad thing. From my experience, these are often legitimate spiritual matters, and it may be that God is at work changing a person’s mind and heart.

As humans, we are often creatures of the moment, and what we are learning or struggling with or rejoicing over can become our center of spiritual gravity. All other issues fall into orbit.

A few years ago I began studying Lamentations and thinking deeply about lament. This affected me profoundly, and God taught me much through it. This was a reorienting lesson, and I brought it into many conversations. Looking back, I’m guessing my friends and family were eager for me to get past the just-learning-about-it phase.

When our issue of the moment begins to dominate our thoughts and conversations—to the exclusion of other healthy, worthy topics—what is missing is balance and proportion.

The Bible’s Emphases

As we mature as Christians, we should learn to distinguish between an emphasis and an exclusive emphasis. God wants us to learn about lament, and he also wants us to practice lament—but this is not a good summary of the Bible or our lives as Christians. This is not what we should focus on to the exclusion of all else.

There are at least three commitments that will keep us from losing sight of the big picture of the Bible.

Connect every passage to the Bible’s big story. Regardless of how powerful and affecting a portion of the Bible is, we should work hard to put it in the context of the whole Bible. Rehearsing the main story of the Bible regularly is a safeguard to a single-issue obsession.

Talk about the Bible with your friends. Good friends will offer encouragement and correction as needed. Dialog with our friends about what God is teaching us will give opportunities for pushback—both in terms of content and emphasis.

Regularly exposure yourself to lots of the Bible. If our Bible intake is limited to what we are studying deeply, we may end up imbalanced in our emphases. If you are a part of a good church, this can include the weekly preaching and other Bible-focused classes. Reading and listening to the Bible (in addition to studying it) will remind us of what God emphasizes in his word.

The Power of Implicational Questions

May 19, 2023 By Peter Krol

Last week, I introduced three types of interpretive questions and their various uses. Of those three types, I find that implicational (or “so what”) questions tend to be the neglected second cousins of the bunch. Because people often don’t know what to do with them, they fail to give them a try.

Perhaps you’d like to see what power longs to be unharnessed by them.

Easy to Ask, Difficult to Answer

When I teach Bible study skills, people sometimes have difficulty coming up with implicational questions, but that’s usually because they’re thinking too hard about it. They believe their questions ought to be awe-inspiring and profound.

When it comes down to it, implicational questions ought to be the easiest to ask, because they all sound almost exactly the same.

So what are the implications of [state the observation]?
So what are we to understand from [observation]?
So what should we conclude about [observation]?

But though they’re easy to ask, implicational questions can be some of the most difficult to answer. They require us to learn how to think and draw inferences. They require us to reason from one proposition to another. They expect us to get into the shoes of the original audience and hear the text the way those people would have heard it.

Because of the ease of asking but difficulty of answering, we often forget to even bother asking them. Most of our interpretive questions fall into the rational category, and we camp out in exploring the passage’s “why.” And please don’t get me wrong: The “why” is the heart of interpretation, so we ought to camp out there.

But the implicational questions provide that crucial bridge from interpretation into the beginnings of application. So if you find yourself having interpreted the text, but you’re still confused about how to apply it, perhaps you ought to try some implicational questions. Utilize their power to advance your study.

An Example from Proverbs

I was recently studying the theme of truth or guidance in the body of the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 10-31), and I came across the following gem:

Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence,
but a false witness utters deceit.
Proverbs 12:17

If I want a thorough picture of Proverbs’ teaching on the topic of truth, I must grapple with this verse. But doesn’t it sound elementary? As though it’s not doing anything but defining terms?

To speak the truth means you give honest evidence.
To be a false witness means you utter deceit.

Does the Bible really need to tell us this? Isn’t it like saying good people do good things? Or lazy people do lazy things? Isn’t that self-evident? Why did God even need to say it?

The more I thought about the verse, the more I realized my rational questions were getting me nowhere.

Why is this here?
Why does it contrast truth with a false witness?
Why does a truth-speaker give honest evidence?
Why does a false witness utter deceit?

These questions all had the same basic, elementary answer, which is that a person’s actions derive from that person’s habits or nature. But this point is rather obvious and could have been made in any number of ways. Why make that point in this way on this particular topic of truth-speaking in court?

When I finally tried out some implicational questions, however, I started getting somewhere.

So what are we to conclude from a truth-speaker’s giving honest evidence?
So what is implied by the fact that a false witness utters deceit?
So how should these self-evident truisms shape my perception of the world or people around me?

Such questions are easy to ask but difficult to answer. I had to slow down and consider them extensively. And as I did, the more I realized that saying “a false witness utters deceit” was somewhat like saying “boys will be boys.” Or better yet: “haters gonna hate.”

Yes, we understand intuitively that a persons actions derive from that person’s nature. And our world is filled with people who say that their word is their bond, but who keep acting in deceitful and underhanded ways. Actions truly speak louder than words.

So when a person utters deceit, it is appropriate to grow wary of them and begin to perceive them as “a false witness.” And when a person consistently gives honest evidence, it is only natural for them to acquire a reputation as a “truth-speaker.”

So considering the implications of the verse helped me to understand that it may be here, at least in part, to teach us that our words will always catch up with us. I may be able to deceive some people some of the time, but I’ll never be able to deceive all the people all the time. My deceit will catch up with me, and people will take notice. Or alternatively, my integrity will catch up with me, and people will take notice.

When I’m faced with a situation where I might be tempted to lie sinfully, I ought to consider not only the present consequences but also future ones. What I say right now will affect my reputation going forward. It will affect whether or not people can trust me. Can I live with that, in light of the choice presently facing me?

Bridge to Application

I’m sure you can see I’ve now transitioned into application. I still have only principles and general ideas. But it shouldn’t be too hard to take those principles, remember Jesus, and get specific.

Different Uses for Different Questions

May 12, 2023 By Peter Krol

When we observe a text, we collect all the raw materials for interpretation. And that which drives interpretation forward is the asking of questions. To interpret well, we must be intensely curious and investigate our observations as fully as possible.

But the asking of questions ought not be a complete free-for-all. Different kinds of questions have different uses. Let’s take advantage of those differences.

Spinning Cyclones

The OIA method of Bible study is not intended to be strictly linear. It’s not as though you follow a list of 12 steps from number 1 through to number 12, such that you end up with a clear and relevant set of answers from your text.

No, the method is much more like a funnel or cyclone. The sort of funnel or cyclone you get when you drain a sink filled with water. It spins round and round until the substance all makes it through the access point.

In a similar way, observation and interpretation ought to cycle round and round, back and forth, until you’ve mastered the text to the point of grasping the author’s main point. So good observation will naturally raise questions you’ll want to explore. And those questions generally ought to be answered by further observation. Such observation raises more questions, which require deeper observation. And on and on, back and forth—or more precisely: round and round, in tighter and tighter circles—until you have zeroed in on the big idea. The chief message. The main point.

Crossing Bridges

With that said, I find it helpful to recognize the role our interpretive questions can play to help us cross bridges between observation and interpretation, and between interpretation and application. Keep in mind that this is not a straight-line process, but more of a cyclone. Yet your questions still help you to constantly cross those bridges from one aspect of your study to the next, in ever tighter spirals as you get close to the main point.

How do different types of questions help you to cross those O-to-I and I-to-A bridges?

In his seminal work Methodical Bible Study, Robert Traina puts interpretative questions into three categories: definitive, rational, and implicational. In my book Knowable Word, I sought to simplify his schema into the three categories of “what,” “why,” and “so what” questions.

Definitive or “what” questions build a bridge from observation to interpretation.
Rational or “why” questions make up the primary work of interpretation proper.
Implicational or “so what” questions build a bridge from interpretation to application.

How the Bridges Work

The most important thing to remember about all interpretive questions is that the questions should be about your observations. They are not random questions, nor are they merely intuitive insights. You don’t come up with your questions by staring at the ceiling, nor by going off on a mountaintop and thinking really hard.

You don’t have to be particularly insightful to ask great questions. You only have to be intensely curious about what you observe.

Here’s a simple example from the brief episode in Luke 18:15-17. I observe a clear contrast between the disciples’ rebuke of the children or parents, and Jesus’ call to invite them (“…they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him…”). Now with that simple observation, I can utilize different kinds of questions to different ends.

“What exactly is being contrasted here?”
- This definitive or “what” question helps me to define the contrast. Is Luke contrasting only the words or also the attitudes? Is the rebuke/call directed at the infants, the parents, or both? Is the rebuke/call directed to the bringing of the infants, or to the desire for Jesus to touch them (Luke 18:15)?
- By defining precisely what Luke is contrasting, I’m able to move from observation into interpretation proper.
“Why does Luke contrast these things?”
- This rational or “why” question helps me to interpret the observation. Having seen and defined what it says (the contrast), I can now explore what it means. Why it’s here. What role it plays in Luke’s message.
“So what should we conclude from this contrast?”
- This implicational or “so what” question helps me to move toward application. It doesn’t do all the work of application for me, but it yields some initial ideas or principles that will help me get more concrete and specific later.
- By recognizing the observation’s implications, I’m well suited to discern how the text would have landed with the original audience—getting me one step closer to the author’s main point.

Different Uses

Let your questions work for you. If you are observing lots of great stuff and you’re not sure what to do with it, try some definitive questions to make sure you’ve got the right information. If you’re struggling with what it all means, you can’t go wrong with more rational questions; just keep asking “why?” And if you can perceive the message but you struggle with application, ask some implicational questions to ensure you’ve figured out how the message of the text should have impacted the original audience.

The right question at the right time might be just what you need to get you unstuck and moving forward.

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Studying the Bible is not Code Breaking

May 8, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

The Bible is not a secret code.

Written Plainly

Some Christians act like the Bible is written in a mysterious language, accessible only to a select few. Bible study is left to the brilliant, the professionals who can teach the rest of us.

I remember a time when some people were convinced that the key to understanding the Bible was in the numbers. Biblical numerology would unlock the real meaning of the text and make everything clear. Now, I’m rather fond of mathematics, but this never added up.

You may have run across similar approaches to the Bible. If you look at just the right map, do just the right word study, count the letters in Greek and Hebrew, then you’ll know the truth. Then you’ll be on the inside.

Friends, the Bible is knowable. It is understandable. We need no advanced degrees or initiation rites to grasp the message of God’s word.

God Wants to be Known

The point of a code is to pass a message in such a way that if the wrong people see the message, it will look like gibberish. Only the tiny few intended targets will be able to transform the text into something understandable.

When we treat the Bible as code we make God out to be someone who is hiding, who does not want to be known, who is shielding his real identity from the world.

But this is NOT what God is like!

God wants to be known; he wants to be worshipped and understood. If in no other way, this is clear through the incarnation of Jesus.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:14–18)

Jesus came to make the Father known. God does not hide who he is from the people he wants to know him.

The Bible is Deep

This does not mean that the Bible is trivial or obvious. While we can grasp the most important truths of the Scriptures with simple reading, the Bible repays diligent, faithful study. The more we spend time with God’s word, the more we understand and delight in God himself.

The Bible is a pool shallow enough to provide refreshment and keep us from drowning. But it is also so deep that we will never reach the bottom.

The Easy Way Out

Paradoxically, treating the Bible as a code might, for some people, be the search for an easy path. After all, for people that can break a code, everything is made plain. For those without the key, there is no way of understanding. We might as well throw up our arms.

God calls us to the slow, gradual, longterm renewing of our minds and hearts by his word. This is not the task of a computer and an algorithm, it is the joyful work of a life.

How to Approach the Bible

We read and study the Bible to know God and walk with him. We are not looking for secret knowledge or a golden ticket. Rather we labor to learn and remember what is clear, work to understand what is less clear, and apply all of it through the help of the Spirit. And, because we forget so easily, we read and reread.

How do we understand the Bible? We approach it the way we take in any other communication: we observe what it says, interpret its meaning, and apply it in our lives.

Understanding and transformation are available to all in God’s word. Won’t you give yourself to it?

Against Springboard Studies

April 24, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

How can a Bible study go wrong when the entire focus is on the Bible? How can a Sunday school class or sermon be steeped in God’s word and leave us feeling empty?

Springboard Studies

Some Bible studies are springboard studies. The Bible study leader reads the passage and identifies connected biblical themes. Then the group time becomes an opportunity to teach on or discuss those themes.

I call these “springboard studies” because the leader takes the given passage as a jumping-off point—a springboard—to a different discussion. Springboard studies have the appearance of being faithful to the text of Scripture because the group is reading numerous Bible passages and talking about theology and doctrine. However, at the end of the hour, participants rarely have a good idea about the meaning of the discussion’s “text of origin.”

This is common for teachers, speakers, and preachers, too. People serving those in those roles should read on with their domain in mind.

What Drives Discussion?

Springboard studies can be lively and engaging. This is often because the leader jumps from the passage to a topic about which they are passionate or interested. As such, the leader puts a lot of energy into defending a doctrine or explaining some theological development close to their heart.

The problem with this approach is that it almost by definition misses the main point of the passage. People attending the Bible study may leave with a better sense of the leader’s allegiances and theological preferences but without an understanding of why the original text was written.

Bible interpretation is hard work, and we often need to fight to understand what the author was trying to communicate. But if a Bible study group claims to be studying a certain book of Scripture, the goal should be to observe, interpret, and apply that text.

Building a Theological Framework

Please don’t misunderstand me. Theology and doctrine are of great importance, and we sometimes build portions of our theological frameworks on the smaller points or assumptions of the Biblical authors. (Although, it is worth asking how devoted we should be to doctrines which are not the main points of any Bible passage.)

My issue is with Bible studies (or sermons) that claim to be expositional, verse-by-verse examinations of Scripture passages which may better be described as “inspired by the text.”

How to Avoid Leading a Springboard Study

Springboard studies come about, in part, because we don’t think the Bible is interesting or important enough to hold our attention for 45 minutes. So we map a word, phrase, character, or scene from the Bible onto something “more relevant” that will sustain a longer conversation. As though merely having a conversation—any conversation at all—were the goal of Bible study!

The main way to avoid leading a springboard study is to let the text of Scripture drive the discussion. After observing the passage, we fire every related question we can think of at the text. The Scripture in front of us may not have answers to all (or many) of these questions, but the work of interpretation is to keep asking and answering questions until we identify the author’s main point.

There is an important place in the church for classes, lectures, and conversations about Biblical topics which are not rooted in a single passage. But let’s not confuse this with Bible study.

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