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Clear Book Overviews

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One of the most common errors in Bible study takes place when we parachute in to a certain passage, dig around a bit, secure the asset (a nugget of truth for the day), and then pursue extraction. In other words, we study Bible verses and Bible chapters, but not Bible books. But without a larger context, the passage often doesn’t make sense, and we give up in frustration, wondering whether Bible study is something best left to the experts.

The simplest solution usually lies in a good book overview. When you see the Bible as a collection of books, and you work to understand each book within its historical context (identifying the author, audience, occasion, and purpose for the book), smaller passages within the book come alive. For example, “Rejoice in the Lord” (Phil 4:4) takes on a new light when you see it’s one step in the reconciliation process between Euodia and Syntyche (Phil 4:2-9), which itself is a prime example of the joyful unity Paul seeks for the church (the main point of the letter of Philippians).

Without doubt, the best way to become at home within a Bible book is to read the book over and over. When I preach or teach a book, I usually read the entire book at least 5 times before the first session.

But sometimes we don’t have enough time for that much reading. And sometimes, we gain useful information from other sources gathered by others. So I’m always on the lookout for good articles and resources that present useful Bible book overviews.

I recently began following the blog of Jeffrey Kranz, who has given himself to creating clear and helpful overviews of every book of the Bible. I signed up for Jeffrey’s free course, where he sends a weekly email with an overview of one book of the Bible. The first one was on Psalms, and I must say I was impressed.

I thought, “Surely he’ll ignore the fact that the Psalms are organized into 5 books.” I mused, “I’ll check this out this first article, but if he missed the fact that Psalms 1 and 2 set the tone for the entire book, I’m not sure I can trust that he really understands the book.” I wondered, “Will he realize that the sons of Korah shouldn’t even have existed apart from God’s amazing grace (Num 26:11)?” (Okay, I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve just seen too many “Bible overview” articles that are not really very helpful.) But Jeffrey delightfully crossed my expectations on every count. Not only did he include details I expected (always pleasantly affirming); he also gave much information I hadn’t realized, which inspired me to jump back into the Psalms!

I can’t wait to see what he does with the other 65 books of the Bible. I’m happy to recommend this resource to you. If you’d like to receive Jeffrey’s emails, just sign up on his site here.

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Other resources I recommend regarding book overviews:

  • The book introductions found in the ESV Study Bible.
  • Articles at bible.org by Daniel Wallace on every New Testament book. I’ve found nobody better than Wallace at mapping out the occasion and flow of thought of a Bible book, and I consult him every time I study a NT book.

Check ’em out!

Keep the Context Front and Center

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Last week, I read some amazing things in the New York Times:

The president’s announcement was the first official confirmation of his death.

“They were disappointed, frankly, that I didn’t have some breakthrough.”

Minutes earlier, she had fled there for safety as she called 911, telling the operator that her fiancé had thrown her on the bed and hit her in the face and head. She was two months pregnant.

Thousands of people attended hundreds of enrollment events around the country at public libraries, churches, shopping malls, community colleges, clinics, hospitals and other sites.

Are you amazed?

Enrique Burgos (2010), Creative Commons

Enrique Burgos (2010), Creative Commons

The Problem

Though all these quotes came from a single publication with a single editorial board, they also came from a variety of articles, written by different journalists, and spread out over a few days. Each article had a different topic, designed for a different column, reporting on a different sector of the news. But my selection of quotations doesn’t really mean anything to you without more information. You need the context for each one to make sense.

Do you read the Bible like this? Do you find a remarkable sentence or two here and there, memorize them, and base your hope on them? You don’t read anything else in this way. Not newspapers, novels, letters, emails, blogs or textbooks. Sure, sometimes you’ll scan. Other times you’ll highlight key statements that you want to remember. But you won’t limit your reading to isolated sentences.

Do you teach the Bible like this? Do you string together verse after verse to make a point? It’s fine to do so, as long as you’re not doing violence to what those verses meant in context (Paul does it in Romans 3:10-18, David does it in 1 Chronicles 16:7-36, and Jonah does it in Jonah 2:1-9). But Satan can quote isolated statements from the Bible in support of evil intentions (Matt 4:6). Plenty of folks today likewise excel at sampling Bible verses to mix some truth with catastrophic error.

The Challenge of Bible Studies

In a Bible study meeting, you may have 30-90 minutes to dive into a particular text. You’ll look at the details, ask many specific questions, and try to make particular applications. As you work on a small portion of text, how do you keep the big picture (the context) front and center? How do you prevent the group from moving through one isolated text to another, week after week, without ever fitting them together?

A Proposed Solution

These suggestions are not the only ones you could follow, but they summarize what I’ve found most helpful.

1. Do a good book overview

When leading a study through a book of the Bible, I always dedicate the first meeting to a book overview. This overview gives us clarity on the historical context: author, audience, occasion, and structure. But more importantly, it enables us to discuss the entire book’s main point. For example, in my church small group, we’re studying Romans. Our book overview led us to a pretty clear main point: Paul wants to preach the gospel to those who are in Rome (see Rom 1:15-17).

2. Remind the group of where you’ve been

Each week, I make sure to summarize the text’s argument over the last few chapters. This enables us to situate the present text within the book’s flow of thought. For example, our last study in Romans 3:9-20 came as the climax to Paul’s argument that began in Romans 1:18. Before tackling Rom 3:9-20, we briefly reviewed the section up to this point: God’s wrath is revealed against the immoral (Rom 1:18-32), God’s wrath is against the moral (Rom 2:1-16), God’s wrath is against the outwardly religious (Rom 2:17-3:8).

3. Make sure to grasp the passage’s main point

It’s worth it to fight for the main point. By definition, doing so enables you to focus on what God considers most important. Incidentally, it also helps you not to get lost in the sea of sub-points and minutiae that so easily commandeer your attention. As you keep main points front and center, you’ll decrease the likelihood of missing the context.

4. Connect each passage to the book’s main point

Every week, as we study a new section of Romans, we ask, “How does Paul preach the gospel (good news) in this passage?” The key here is to take the passage’s main point and show how it advances the book’s main point. Of course, in Romans 1:18-3:20, there is not much “good” news yet. We’ve had profitable discussions about why it’s so important to understand the extent of the bad news before the good news will seem truly good.

5. End with a book review

A book review is just like a book overview, except that it takes place at the end instead of the beginning. When you’ve completed examining all the book’s pieces, take time to put them back together. You may even need to revise your overview in light of what you saw as you dug deeper through the details. So I find it helpful to dedicate an entire meeting to reviewing what we learned from the book, both themes and applications. This review may solidify the lessons and help people to remember them when they return to this book in their personal study.

Conclusion

When you lead people in careful, contextual Bible study, you’ll be amazed to see that some of your favorite memory verses don’t actually mean what you once thought.

For example, in context, Romans 8:28 doesn’t mean that “all things” you could ever experience work together for the “good” you might hope for. No, Paul is saying specifically that all of “our present sufferings” (Rom 8:18-27) work together for that single good purpose which God predestined from the beginning: that we might be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29). Romans 8:28 offers not so much an alleviating comfort as a promise of crushing, suffocating pain — albeit a pain that will make you more beautiful for having gone through it.

Genesis Overview

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genesis-bibleLast week I explained how to do an overview of a Bible book. Let’s say you’d like to study the book of Genesis. You might begin with the following overview.

Author. Though Christians commonly teach that Moses wrote Genesis, the Bible doesn’t explicitly attribute Genesis to Moses. However, since biblical authors universally treat the first five books of the Bible as “the Book of the Law of Moses” (Josh 23:6, Neh 8:1), we are justified in doing the same. Whether Moses penned the words of Genesis or not, he certainly saw fit to include the book in his collection of laws for Israel.

Audience. According to the ESV Study Bible, “it is reasonable to consider the first audience of the Pentateuch [Genesis through Deuteronomy] to be Israel in the wilderness (either the generation that left Egypt or their children).”[1]

Occasion and Purpose. After reading the book a few times, we can recognize significant themes. To understand the book’s purpose, we take the major themes and ask why this author wrote these things to this audience at this time. For Genesis, I agree with the ESV Study Bible’s assessment that “the theme of Genesis is creation, sin, and re-creation,” involving both “how God created the world” and “the call of Abraham.”[2] When we ask why Moses would give this book to these people at this time, we can identify the book’s purpose as follows: to establish Israel’s national identity by explaining the history of God’s creation and his promises to Abraham and his offspring.

Note that a book’s purpose is similar to its main point. The difference is that the “purpose” is closely tied to the original audience, while the “main point” may be more timeless. I’d state the main point of Genesis like this: to establish the identity of all God’s people by explaining the history of God’s creation and his promises to Abraham and his offspring.

Structure. Genesis 1:1-2:3 opens the book by introducing God, his creative power, and his gracious delegation of authority to humanity. The book then proceeds in two main sections: Early history (Gen 2-11) and the history of Israel’s forefathers (Gen 12-50). Furthermore, the book is structured by ten “These are the generations” statements (Gen 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:11, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 37:2), which outline cycles of creation-fall-redemption-new creation. Humanity repeatedly fails to submit to God’s gracious rule, and God begins again with new generations.

[1] Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008, p.40.

[2] p.41.

The Book Overview

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I have a child who spontaneously asks, “Hey Papa, do you remember that thing? You know, that thing?” When I request more description for “that thing,” the child gets frustrated. But unfortunately, I have no idea what the question refers to unless I can get some context.

Dennis Irrgang (2008), Creative Commons

Dennis Irrgang (2008), Creative Commons

Similarly, if we isolate a chapter from the literature surrounding it, we’ll skew our observations. Thus, the first thing to observe is the whole book in which we find the passage. I call this step “the book overview.”

We could address many issues during the book overview, but I find four most helpful.

  1. Author: Who wrote the book?
  2. Audience: To whom did he write?
  3. Occasion and Purpose: Why did this author write to this audience at this time? What was going on in their lives?
  4. Structure: How does the book progress? What order is there to the stories or ideas?

The best way to answer these questions is to read the book 5 or 6 times and observe the book’s themes. In addition, you can get more background by searching the entire Bible for names of key people and places connected to the book you want to study. For example, when you study First or Second Thessalonians, you should begin by reading passages in Acts that mention Thessalonica. You can also learn about Old Testament prophets from the books of Kings or Chronicles (e.g. 2 Kings 14:23-27 will help acquaint you with the prophet Jonah).

Sometimes there are also details outside of the text that will help answer the overview questions, so you may want to read a good overview article or Bible dictionary. Just make sure the resource gives the most weight to evidence from within the Bible. For example, many commentaries teach that two different people wrote Isaiah 1-39 and Isaiah 40-66. However, the Gospel of John states clearly that the prophet Isaiah wrote both the first part (John 12:39-40) and the second part (John 12:38). A good scholar will trust such evidence from God’s word.

Now all four questions might not have clear answers. We don’t know who wrote the book of Judges. There’s some debate on the precise audience of Galatians. John leaves no doubt about the purpose of his Gospel (John 20:31), first letter (1 John 5:13), and third letter (3 John 9-10), but with the second letter we can only infer a purpose. There’s usually not one right way to outline a book’s structure.

But if we go as far as we can on these questions, we’ll be able to place the book within its historical context.

When my child asks if I remember “that thing,” I ask some clarifying questions. What thing? When did you see it? Where can I find it? Who was with you?

We should do the same with the book overview.

Why Study a Book like Genesis?

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genesis-bibleThe elders of our church just finished a year-and-a-half-long sermon series through the book of Genesis, and I had the privilege of preaching the last sermon.

I titled this final sermon “Why Did We Preach Through Genesis?” and I gave 3 answers:

  1. To build your confidence in the Bible
  2. To build your confidence in the Basics (how to love God, love your neighbor, and make disciples)
  3. To build your confidence in Jesus

Have you doubted whether old books like Genesis are useful to us?  Have you wondered what is the main point of Genesis?  Would you like to understand better how Genesis teaches us about Jesus?

You might enjoy the sermon.  Check it out!

Sometimes the Point is Clear

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Some Biblical authors are very clear about why they wrote their books.  When you study these books, don’t feel the need to be particularly profound.  If you don’t get to the stated point, you’re probably missing something.

  1. Proverbs – to know wisdom, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction, to give prudence, to understand a proverb (Prov 1:1-6).
  2. Luke – to give an orderly account, that we might have certainty concerning the things we have been taught (Luke 1:1-4).
  3. John – so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and have life in his name (John 20:30-31).
  4. 1 John – so you may know you have life (1 John 5:13).
  5. Jude – to encourage us to contend for the faith (Jude 3).
  6. Revelation – to reveal Jesus Christ and show his servants the things that must soon take place (Rev 1:1).

Please feel free to comment if I missed any.

Why We Should Care Who the Audience Is

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In yesterday’s post we considered who the primary audience of Proverbs was.  Why bother?

The main reason is because, although the Bible was written for us (1 Cor 10:11), it was not written to us.  Every book of the Bible was written by a particular person, for a particular group of people, in a particular situation.  We put ourselves in danger of misunderstanding the text if we don’t first understand these historical circumstances.  We must put ourselves in their shoes.

Imagine if I showed you a letter in which I wrote the sentence “You’re making me go crazy.”  How would you read that line if you knew I had written the letter to my child?  To my employee?  My neighbor?  My wife?  My pet snake?  A customer service rep at a store from which I made a significant purchase?

At the office where I work, we maintain a quote board for just this purpose: to catalogue the random statements which, removed from any context, become hilarious.  We have entries on the board like:

  • “Did you forget the pot this morning?”
  • “If you’re gonna die, it’s nice to do it at home.”
  • “I’m going to do number two tomorrow, but it’s going to take me a while, because I haven’t done it in awhile.”
  • “The longer I live, the more I don’t want to.”
  • “I keep trying to say funny things to get on the quote board.”

When it comes to studying the Bible, let’s keep the original audience in mind.  Otherwise, we can miss the point.  For example:

  • Genesis (as a book) was prepared for a nation of people who had just come out of centuries of enslavement and were trying to figure out their identity.  It was not primarily written to people who were examining the origin(s) of all things.
  • Daniel was written to Jewish exiles in Babylon and Persia to help them understand how God could possibly still be in control.  Daniel’s predictions were largely intended to prepare these people, and their converts, for the coming Messiah (King of the Jews).  It worked, since some from that region knew what to look for at just the right time (Matt 2:1-2).
  • Revelation (and it’s rich symbols) was not primarily about 21st century events.  The book would have made sense to believers in churches scattered across Turkey in the 1st century AD (Rev 1:4).  We ought to read it accordingly.

Whenever you approach a book of the Bible, make sure you find out who the original audience was (as much as is possible) and do your best to put yourself in their shoes.

How’d You Do That? (6/17/12)

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We just finished examining a bit of Solomon’s biography and credentials for authoring the book of Proverbs.  We saw that God’s wisdom, God’s promise, and great wealth qualified him for this task.

How did I come up with these principles?

The main idea here is that the narrative books of the Bible often give us key information to help us interpret the didactic (teaching) books.  We learn about Solomon’s story from the books that chronicle his life.  As I studied those sections, I began to draw connections to the Proverbs.  Especially helpful was 1 Kings 3:1-15, where Solomon asks for wisdom, and 1 Kings 4:20-34, where Solomon demonstrates his wisdom.

We can follow this same procedure for other parts of the Bible.

  • When reading Paul’s letters, first check out the biographical information on Paul in the book of Acts.  The most helpful parts are the sections where he ministers in the cities he later wrote letters to.  For example, study Acts 16:11-40 for background on the book of Philippians, Acts 17:1-9 for background on 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Acts 18:1-18 for background on 1 & 2 Corinthians.
  • Consider Acts 14:8-23 and Acts 16:1-3 for information to help you interpret 1 & 2 Timothy.
  • Certain Psalms are connected with events in David’s life.  Psalm 3:1-8 makes sense after you understand 2 Samuel 15:1-37, and Psalm 51:1-19 should be read in connection with 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25.

I’m sure you get the idea.  When you study books of the Bible, first try to understand the author’s life situation and character.  The Bible itself can help you do this.

Why Book Overviews Matter

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When we began the process of adopting our twin sons, the U.S. State Department required numerous criminal background checks.  First, the Pennsylvania State Police cleared us of any misdemeanors or felonies.  Second, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare cleared us of any history of child abuse.  Third, the FBI cleared us of any federal offenses.   In addition, despite our spotless history in the United States, the Ugandan magistrate also required a background check from Interpol.  Once again, our records were so clean you could have disinfected a toilet with them.

Why did they require such thorough investigation into our history?  I imagine it was because we were pursuing a lofty objective with weighty consequences.  How could they not examine every corner of our lives to make sure these precious boys would have a good home with us?

When we study a book of the Bible like Proverbs, we must likewise investigate its background.  Therefore, over a few posts we’ll examine four topics that are foundational for understanding this book: the genre, the author, the audience, and the author’s intentions for his audience.

Stay tuned!