I taught my first Bible class when I was sixteen and an elder pulled me out of the high school class because the third grade teacher hadn’t shown up.  I had no material and no prep time.  Why he chose me when there were plenty of able-bodied adults in a congregation of 150, I still don’t know, but the children and I got through the ten plagues with a combination of raucous laughter and wide-eyed amazement—them at God’s power, and me at having survived those forty-five minutes.

            I’ve been teaching ever since, from the baby class when mine were that size—and don’t let anyone tell you a one year old can’t learn anything—all the way up to middle school—another place we seriously underestimate the capabilities of our children.  I wrote a workbook for them called “Did You Ever Wonder?” exploring all those things you wonder about in Bible class but are afraid to ask.  It was given to someone else to teach once, who said, “There’s no way these kids will get this,” even after I had taught it twice myself.  So the book came back to me and I taught it yet again to a group who “got” every bit of it. 

            I’ve taught at least one women’s class everywhere I have been.  That’s a group not only underestimated, but which often underestimates itself.  Most of the material for women, a sister I recently met said, is “spun sugar.”  In some places women’s studies are limited to being a good wife and mother, which leaves a lot of women out.  Yes, those things ought to be taught, and recently have not been.  It has become too popular to follow the mainstream media and disparage the men, which is exactly why I have written a study for wives.  It too is deeper than the standard work on the subject, because women can dig just as deeply as the men.  Their minds are just as capable of complex reasoning.  They must be or they couldn’t run their homes.  That’s exactly who I cater to in my classes—meat eaters who are tired of milk, or even the glorified milk called custard.  Women are not spiritual invalids.

            I have had to drop my children’s classes since 2005.  Children need dependable continuity, and with my health issues and increasing disability, I cannot be counted on.  Adults can understand if an emergency arises, if a weak body just cannot manage on a particular day, or if a medication wreaks havoc instead of comfort.  Children can’t.  I nearly cried when a recent group graduated that I had never taught.  But such is life; things change, and most of the time people get along just fine without you.

            Along the way I have had some wonderful students, and it seemed good to tell you about them, so they will get the thanks they deserve, but also so you can learn from them yourselves how to be a good Bible class student.  Don’t think that this is self-serving.  By emulating these women, you will get far more out of your classes, and so will your classmates.  People who disrupt classes, even accidentally, are hindering others, not helping, and we all know how Jesus felt about people who cast stumbling blocks in front of others, particularly the babes. 

            So please join me for the next few Mondays.  I hope what you learn from these remarkable women will help far beyond these few weeks.

Help me to understand what your precepts mean.  Then I can meditate on your marvelous teachings, Psalm 119:27, NET.

Dene Ward

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            A long time ago, Keith was teaching the high school on Sunday morning, something in Judges or Kings as I remember.  He had a young visitor, a visiting preacher’s daughter.  All of a sudden she asked in a less than respectful tone, “What are you doing teaching from the Old Testament on the Lord’s Day?  You should always teach from the New Testament on Sundays!”  Of course, her father, in a meeting later that week, taught that Psalm 58:6, Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah, meant that as soon as a child started losing his baby teeth he had reached the age of accountability, so what can you expect?

            I can remember a time when the Old Testament was never taught, when in fact, a lot of folks never even carried it. They kept only a thin New Testament in their coat pockets, because “the Old has been nailed to the cross—we don’t need it any longer.”  Don’t ever think that knowledge of the Old Testament is now totally unnecessary   How did the apostles teach about Jesus?  They taught from the Old Testament.  They quoted prophecies extensively and showed how the man Jesus fulfilled them all, and thus was not some ordinary man.  Read practically any sermon in Acts and that will become clear.  If they do not quote the Old Testament, they allude to it clearly.

            When Paul spoke to Timothy about his upbringing, from a babe you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is Christ Jesus, 2 Tim 3:15, he was talking about the Old Testament.  No one had even started writing the New when Timothy was a small child.

            Though teaching facts is essential and the first kind of teaching any child can understand, in the long run teaching facts is not the job of the educator.  When all a child knows is facts, his knowledge will always be limited.  When you teach a child principles, he will be able to teach himself facts for the rest of his life.  When I told my children what to do or not to do, I expected them to eventually use the principles I had taught them to figure out circumstances I had not been able to specifically prepare them for.  When they did not, I was disappointed, and usually said something like, “How many times do I have to tell you?  You are smarter than this.”  God spent thousands of years preparing us with principles we can use now.  Does He have to tell us everything again?  Aren’t we smarter than that?

            Most any element of the New Testament can be better understood and become more meaningful if you understand its parallel in the Old.  I once tried to make a point about the Lord’s Supper by pointing out something about the Passover feast.  After all, Jesus instituted this feast during a Passover meal using elements from that meal, and Paul says plainly in 1 Cor 5:7, For our Passover has been sacrificed, even Christ.  The person I was speaking with totally dismissed my point because the New Testament did not say it word for word.  Here was a person who truly had not comprehended the relationship between the testaments and how God had prepared not only the Israelites, but all of us who will take the time necessary to study, for the full glory of the gospel.

            The more you know, even things that seem like meaningless details, the more you will comprehend, the more it will touch your heart, the harder you will try to live up to the wonderful blessings we have in Christ Jesus, the fulfillment of the Old Testament. . 

So the law has become our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  For the things written aforetime were written for our learning that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope, Gal 3:24; Rom 15:4.

Dene Ward

For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar.)

For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar.

            We just spent a week with the grandkids.  When it comes to food, they are just like mine were at that age.  They prefer their oranges out of a can, their macaroni and cheese out of the blue box, their chicken cut into processed squares, and their potatoes long and fried.  Forget the complex and strong flavors of Parmagiana Reggiano, feta, and blue—they want American cheese, thank you.  And all their sauces must be sweet—about half corn syrup.  True, these two enjoy olives—but they need to be canned and black.  A strong, briny kalamata is summarily thrown across the table.

            Children have immature palates.  For the most part strong flavors are out and bland ones are in.  Sugar, salt and fat make up their favorite seasonings.  And it must be easy to eat.  When you can barely hold a spoon and get the food on it and into your mouth, you prefer things that are solid without being hard and which fit the hand.  We would never give a child a fresh artichoke to eat, with instructions like “Peel off the leaf, dip it into lemon juice and melted butter, put it between your teeth and pull it out of your mouth, scraping the good part off as you pull, then discard the leaf.” 

            One day they will understand the pleasure of different tastes and textures.  Their palates will become educated to appreciate different foods and even different cuisines.  Even the pickiest of childhood eaters usually learn as adults to eat new things, if for no other reason than to be polite or keep harmony in the home.  When a woman spends hours a day cooking, she wants more than a grunt and food being shoved around the plate in an attempt to disguise the fact that very little of it was eaten. 

            But sometimes people become set in their ways.  They decide they don’t like something, even if they have never tried it.  They won’t entertain the possibility that their palates have changed, and so won’t keep trying things as they become older.  When I was a child I hated every kind of cheese, raw onions, and anything that contained a cooked tomato.  Now I eat them all.  Imagine if I had never found that out.  No pizza!

            What about your spiritual nourishment?  Are you still slurping down canned oranges and packaged mac and cheese?  Do you still think instant mashed potatoes are as good as real ones, and Log Cabin as good as real maple syrup?  What if the Bible class teacher taught a book you had never studied before?  Would you learn with relish or complain because you actually had to read it instead of relying on your old canned knowledge?  What if he showed you a different interpretation of a passage than you usually hear?  Would you chew on it a little and really consider it, or just dismiss it out of hand because it wasn’t what you already thought you knew?

            Keith and I have both experienced complaints from people because our classes were “too deep” or “too hard” or “took too much study time.”  Really?  It’s one thing to have an immature palate because you are still a babe.  It’s another to have one because you haven’t grown up in twenty, thirty, forty years of claiming discipleship. 

            The spiritual palate can tell tales on our spiritual maturity in every other area.  Jesus expected his disciples to mature in just a few short years.  “Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?” he asked Philip (John 14:9).  If we don’t know his word, we don’t know him.  If we don’t know him, we have no clue how to behave as Christians.

            An educated palate for spiritual food is far more important than whether you have learned to like liver yet.  Become an adventurous spiritual eater.  You will find this paradox: though you become hungrier for more, you are always satisfied with your meal.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14.

Dene Ward

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Today I have asked my husband Keith to tell you how he does a textual study.  This is primarily useful in the New Testament epistles, and a bit more complicated, but still doable for the average Christian if you set aside the time, grab plenty of paper and pencil, and put your mind to it.  --dw

            It is possible to read a passage of scripture over and over until it is nearly memorized and still not understand it—I have done that. God reasons with us through his Word and expects us to use analytical thinking to understand Him, and He did mean us to understand Him.  You don’t bother to communicate with someone you don’t want to understand you.

            A paragraph is one unit of thought in written language and a group of paragraphs make up a segment that communicates a larger thought. The ASV (available online) has the best paragraphing. Often, modern translations chop some paragraphs into smaller pieces to make them more like sound bites and thus chop up God’s chain of reasoning. Also, verse and chapter numbers interfere with reading; if possible, use a Bible computer program to remove them and print out the text you wish to study so you will be able to read it as any other book you study. I was amazed how much that improved my comprehension.

            To analyze a paragraph, first read it a few times quickly. Jot down the one thought it brings to your mind. Now, read it more slowly and write down the major phrases using the Bible words. Leave out non-essential words, condensing the phrase as much as possible and still have the sense. I know we are taught that no word from God is non-essential, but we are not saying that; we are studying and making our own notes to be able to better understand the message from God. Using this method Eph 1:17 becomes, “[praying] that God give you a spirit of wisdom & revelation in knowledge.”

            It helps to take a blank sheet and write these phrases out.  Don’t even try to keep your paper neat at this early stage. You will be doing a lot of crossing out, circling and inserting.  We will often wish to stack some words that are parallels, such as wisdom and revelation are in the verse above. Or, we may list some to show their relationships as in Rom 8:18-27 where there are 3 who groan: creation, ourselves and the spirit.  We will not be doing an outline so much as we are creating a graphic. Once we have written all the phrases from a given paragraph, we may scratch some out and scribble them in other places to show a relationship or to create a list, but we keep them in Bible sequence. Then, we may draw lines from one phrase to another and write in some of our own words to clarify a relationship; colored pencils work well for this. All this will take several more readings of the paragraph.

            At the end of this process we have a graphic that shows the relationship of each phrase to the main thought of the paragraph. That main thought should be in Bible words. Do not be surprised if it is not the same as the one you jotted down at the beginning.  That is the excitement of discovery.

            At first, this process will be tedious and slow. The rewards are many: You will understand more than you thought possible; you will have one or more charts available on your graphic that you can use to teach someone else; these charts can be used to create PowerPoint presentations.

            Now do the next paragraph, and the next, and the next. Use a separate page for each paragraph and only one side of the page. Now, review them and see which paragraphs cluster together to make one point. For example, the paragraphs of Rom 1:18 to 3:20 all fit together to show that all men are in sin and need the gospel. A conclusion stated forcefully in 3:9 and 3:23.

            Another example:  The paragraphs from 1 Cor 8:1 to 1 Cor ll:1 seem to have no cohesiveness as Paul moves from eating meats to pay of the preacher to the Israelites in the wilderness to the Lord’s Supper & back to eating meats. Many have accused Paul of going off on tangents but that usually means they do not understand his purpose. That whole section concerns the need to give oneself up to benefit others. He proves his rights to be paid in order to say that he did not use his right that he might not hinder others, threatens those who do not give themselves up with the punishment of the Israelites, and then ends by saying we should all imitate him just as he imitates Christ, the supreme example of giving up oneself for others. So certainly, the one who is mature can eat meat without worshipping an idol, but he should give up that right if its exercise could cause a brother to stumble.

            At this point you are probably thoroughly confused.  It would help if I were there with you and could lead you through one paragraph personally, but I am not.  So you will need to attack this article in a similar way you might your chosen text.  Read it again and again.  Try to follow the instructions one at the time as you read your passage.  Eventually you will understand, and practice will improve your ability to do these things.  Such study is a delight in itself as we discover God’s truths and see new light. But that is a small thing in comparison to the joy we can have in showing them to others.

Keith Ward

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            In our last two articles, we talked about doing word studies, which can easily branch out into topical studies.  How about studying a certain passage of scripture?

            Events are much easier, so start with something in the gospels.  Begin by setting the scene.  Ask yourself who is there, where are they and what is happening?  What happened immediately before this event?  Was there a time lapse or is it the same day?

            Obviously you should gather all accounts of the same event from the other gospels.  But just reading them will not do you much good.  I have found that listing all events and dialogue in columns next to one another makes the differences more obvious.  Then make separate lists of things found only in one gospel, or of the differences, no matter how small, in similar accounts.  Each gospel writer had a different audience in mind, and thus a different purpose.  Often knowing those will make the differences more sensible to you.

            Start out every study of a passage by reading it several times.  As you read, note repeated phrases and words.  Pay attention to lists.  Sometimes they are hidden and you have to actively look for them.  For example, when I studied John 8:12-59, reading it through about three times, I began to notice several things happening again and again.  Finally I wrote down four headings:  accusations Jesus made about the Jews; questions the Pharisees asked Jesus; accusations the Pharisees made about Jesus; personal claims Jesus made about himself.  Then I went back and read the passage again making each list.  Do not try to make all of these lists in one reading.  Read through once, listing the first item, accusations Jesus made about the Jews.  Then read through once more for each other list you are trying to make.  If you try to do this in one reading instead of one for each list, you will miss some, guaranteed!  When you have finished this task, you will know in detail what that passage says because you have probably read it 7 or 8 times, and you will have a much better grasp of the tension and danger surrounding Jesus at that time.  It will also open your eyes to Jesus’ feelings about those people, which may surprise you.

            You can do similar things to passages in the epistles.  But you must be ready to spend some time at it.  Sometimes it takes me five or six readings to pick out the lists I am looking for.  Knowing the theme of each epistle will help.  Repeated words and phrases may be your key.  Another hint:  go by paragraph, not chapter.  Some chapter breaks are notoriously bad, but the paragraph breaks are usually well thought out.  If you are using a Bible that is un-paragraphed, look for the paragraph sign (that two-legged backwards “P”).  Many Bibles have them now.  If you don’t have one, find one in a used bookstore.  The 1901 ASV, the NASB, the ESV are all usually paragraphed the same way.  Where they differ, the original paragraphing in the ASV is far superior to the others.

            I am not a fan of typing this out on the computer until I am ready for my final product, like a lesson or an article, or maybe a notebook I am compiling my studies in.  Actually writing things in longhand on a piece of paper helps my memory, just like taking notes in a class does.  Your mind is saying the words again, and your hands are forming them.  It could be that being brought up with a computer will make it work for you, but if you are having a difficult time retaining things, go back to pen and paper, and see if it doesn’t make a difference.

            So your assignment this time is an expositional study.  Read and read and read; then start writing.  Don’t be afraid to alter the method, especially if the text you have chosen does not quite fit the plan.  (But don’t do anything that will limit the number of times you read the passage!)  At first it will be difficult to figure out what you should be writing, but it will get easier, and you will learn more than you ever have before.

            A book my husband highly recommends is Independent Bible Study by Irving Jensen.  However, this book is out of print and hard to find.  Sometimes you can find used copies on the Amazon or Alibris websites.  Next week, he will tell you himself how he studies passages of scripture using his own variation of Jensen’s method.  I am not the scholar he is, but I have dabbled in the method a little and hope someday to become more adept at it.  Perhaps you could start with my suggestions, then work your way into his method as well.  A student never finishes learning to learn.

If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:4-5

Dene Ward

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            I gave you an awful lot of information last week so I thought it would be helpful to show you an example of a word study and what it can do for you.

            In case you haven’t already figured this out, serious Bible study takes preparation.  You don’t just sit down, open the Bible and start reading.  A couple of years ago I decided to do a study on faith.  It took me weeks to complete the research and then a year or so afterward to actually finish the study.  But on the way I made some wonderful discoveries that have seriously changed my attitude and my life.  Follow along with the directions I gave you in last week’s post and watch how this developed.

            First I bought a large loose-leaf notebook and a brand new pack of notebook paper.  You cannot be a tree-hugger and study the Bible seriously.  You need paper and a lot of it.  I opened the concordance and wrote down every passage I could find containing the word “faith.”  I left room next to each passage for a later note, then wrote the next passage on the next line.  I did not write on the back of any sheet—you must be able to shuffle papers, lay them out, and look at them all at once, and you cannot do that if you are constantly turning them over.  You will inevitably forget to do so once and miss something, or you will check the same side twice and waste time.  In this case I did not want to delete any passages at all as I showed you how to do last week.  The study was too important, so I wrote them all down, and when I finished I had 20 sheets of paper.

            Next, I looked up and read every one of those passages, including a few surrounding verses, and wrote a short phrase from the pertinent verse to remind myself at a glance what it said.  That much alone—the writing down, looking up, and reading--took me three weeks.  I am talking about 6-8 hours a week, but tell me you don’t spend that much time either watching television or sitting at the computer.

            The next step was organization.  I looked over the phrases several times.  Do not try to do any of this with shortcuts.  The point is to study the scripture not to see if you can avoid reading it.  Eventually I came up with several categories.  Now it was time to get out more paper and write those categories down and the verses that fit in them, this time leaving more space after each word because I was getting really close to beginning the deep part of the study.  My categories included things like:

> Positive verbs associated with faith

> Negative verbs associated with faith

> Things that take more faith to handle

> Things that make faith grow

> What increasing faith can lead to

> Things that faith is NOT

> Synonyms and metaphors for faith

> Things that a person who has faith WILL do

            And that’s not even half of them.  I found other ways to organize the passages as well, like all those passages that include “O ye of little faith” and “such great faith.”  It became obvious that I would need to study some chapters as a whole, like Romans 4, James 2 and Hebrews 11—the word “faith” was sprinkled throughout them.  I also needed to study the life of Abraham and Sarah in depth, and I discovered that hope was so bound up in faith that it needed a quick study as well.  When I finished the sorting, about a month later, I had already learned more than I ever knew about faith, but then I was ready to really start digging on each individual verse or passage. 

            That’s where you do the meat of your work.  Don’t forget things like context and purpose.  Write down the obvious things the passage tells you.  Later, you will make common sense, “necessary” conclusions.  You may find connections between passages that show up best in a quickly scratched out chart.  Depending upon the word you are studying and the number of passages on your list, it could take as long as a year to finish this final part.

            Now write out a simple conclusion for each group of passages.  If you cannot do that, you did not learn anything from those passages.  Now you have completed your word study.

            You may have a special reason for the study you are doing.  Maybe you are just curious about something.  Maybe a friend has asked a question.  Maybe the preacher made a statement you didn’t understand.  My study eventually became a 15 lesson, 65 page workbook for our women’s Bible class, and going over it yet again to teach I learned more, grew more, and understood more about faith than ever before.  If ever you get a chance to share what you have discovered, the same thing will happen for you. 

            I hope this example has helped make sense of some of the things I have shown you in previous articles.  Next week: expository studies.

Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law, Psalm 119:18.

Dene Ward

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            I feel like I should have come up with a much more exciting title for this one, because what I am about to share with you is what changed my Bible study life all by itself.  I got “hooked” on Bible study when I saw what can be accomplished with this method.

            I think it all started when my husband Keith blew up one of my little bubbles, one of those arguments you hear all your life and repeat without even bothering to check out.  You know, the one that goes, “The word ‘reverend’ is only used once in the Bible, in Psalm 111:9, and it refers to God, so no one should be called ‘reverend.’”  While I believe that concept is true, the argument is false.  Let me show you why.

            In the back of your Young’s Analytical Concordance are the two things that make it different, and much more useful, than any other concordance.  Right after page 1090 is the Index-Lexicon to the Old Testament.  It runs 56 pages.  The Index-Lexicon to the New Testament follows that.  These two listings contain not only every word listed in the concordance, but also every English word or phrase each Hebrew or Greek word is translated by, and the number of times it is used that way.  The Old Testament Index-Lexicon will show you why the above argument is false. 

Look up “reverend” in the front of the concordance.  You will find it on page 814, and sure enough, there is only one scripture using that Hebrew word yare, Psa 111:9.  But wait a minute—that is the only place that Hebrew word is translated “reverend.”  That does not necessarily mean that is the only time yare is used.  Look in the back, in the Hebrew lexicon.  You will find yare on page 53 of that section, in the middle of the last column.  Look at all the ways that word is translated into English.  Next to each English word or phrase is the number of times it is used that way, including “be afraid” 76 times and “fear” 242 times.  If my math is correct, yare is not used just one time in the Bible, but a grand total of 375 times! 

But the argument might still work if all those verses only refer to God.  So I took turns going back to the front of the concordance, checking each English word or phrase that yare is translated by.  I looked down each list until I found yare, then started reading the passages.  I did not have to read all 375 before I found several that referred to men, including righteous men like David, who would not have allowed that word to be used of them if it were a sin.  Some of those verses were Deut 7:19; Josh 4:14; Judg 6:27; 2 Sam 12:18; 1 Kgs 1:50; 3:28.

            So the argument that “reverend” is only used once in the Bible is a spurious one.  It is an accident of the English language (and the King James version at that).  It simply would not work if you were a Hebrew reading it in your own language.  Any argument that depends solely upon the English language is an invalid one.  Now let me hasten to add, I do not believe it is correct to call men “reverend.”  But Jesus gives us a perfectly good statement in Matt 23:8,9 to take care of that.  But be not called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all of you are brethren.  And call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in Heaven.  Jesus’ statement is a concept.  It does not merely apply to “rabbi” or “father,” but to any title that separates a man above his brethren.  In fact, I might be bold enough to say, it can apply to the way some people use the term “Brother” (with a capital B), applying it only to our preaching brethren.  Jesus said not to elevate men in this way, and Paul echoed that in 1 Cor 4:6.  If one Christian is a brother, all are.  I do not need to misuse a scripture to take care of that situation or the “reverend” problem.  If I have been teaching my friends the old “reverend” argument, and they discover this error, my credibility is lost.  Will they ever listen to me again?  Paul says to “handle aright the word of Truth,” 2 Tim 2:15.  It is just as wrong to misuse scripture as it is to elevate a brother.

            So here is your assignment this week.  Choose a word from a reading you have been doing.  (If you can’t find one, try “ponder” in Luke 2:19.  It is an interesting study.)  Look it up in the front of the concordance.  Find the group containing your verse, then write down the Hebrew (OT) or Greek (NT) word.  Now look it up in the correct lexicon in the back.  Write down all the different ways that word is translated into English, leaving space under each.  Now turn back to the front and start looking up each English word or phrase, finding the correct Hebrew or Greek word group, and write down all the verses that contain that word, again leaving space.  Now get your Bible.  Go through each verse, making note of everything that verse tells you about that word, simply by how it is used--do not make comments or assumptions.  Now look over all of your notes and start compiling verses into categories.  Then organize your categories.  You will know more about how the Holy Spirit uses that word than any man could ever tell you in any dictionary.  Now you can make educated comments and assumptions.  In fact, you can probably write a whole lesson on the word!

            Here’s a helpful hint:  Sometimes there are too many passages, as in yare, where there are nearly 400.  If that is the case, using the verse snippets in the concordance, delete the repetitious passages.  If that still leaves too many, then try using every second or third passage at random.  You should still have enough to make a good word study.

            I can hear people saying now, how do you find time for this?  Answer:  I seldom watch TV.  I limit my pleasure reading to about a half hour in the evenings, and that not every evening.  If there is time for 6-8 hours of TV (or facebook) a week, there is time for 6-8 hours of Bible study a week—you simply have to make a choice.  And this is fun!  Once you get into it, you won’t even think of it as giving up something.  This will take its place, and do you a whole lot more good.

Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, John 6:68.

Dene Ward

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            When I was a child, everyone used the King James Version. The preacher quoted numerous verses in his sermons and woe to him if he skipped a word or got one wrong—there would be a line waiting to tell him about his mistake.

            I think it is wonderful that we now have and use more translations than the old KJV. They shed light on the meanings of many passages and because they are easier to read, allow one to connect thoughts more readily throughout a lengthy passage.

            Yet I respect the old-timer’s insistence on getting it exactly right. I fear we have lost that, and this is a grave danger. God communicated to men in words, “These words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart” (Deut 6:6).  Just as no man can know the thoughts of another except through his words, men cannot know God except by the words He speaks.  This is so important that Jesus himself said that, “Not one jot or tittle” would pass away until all God’s word was fulfilled (these are equivalent to the dotting of an “i” or the crossing of a “t”.)

            If the words are changed, if the translators are careless or are concerned about supporting their own beliefs, we lose the WORD that God sent to save us, the words that tell us about Jesus. Our parents were right to insist on accuracy!  God sent Peter to Cornelius to tell him “WORDS whereby [he] would be saved” (Acts 11:14). Peter writes that “Ye should remember the WORDS which were spoken” (2 Pet 3:2). We need to adopt the attitude of concern for exactness with every word of God that our parents and grandparents had, while embracing the benefits of having many translations.

            How careful should we be?? When he rebuked the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection, Jesus based his argument on the tense of a verb (Mt22:31--33). He quoted Ex 3:6 where God told Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” These three had been dead and buried hundreds of years at the time of Moses yet God spoke of them in the present tense. Now that is being precise, and is the only proof Jesus ever gave that there is a resurrection.

            “The pen is mightier than the sword” -- words have started wars, led to freedom, to discoveries and great deeds. But all these pale in comparison to the power of God’s word.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, Rom 1:16. 

For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb 4:12.

Keith Ward

 

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            My favorite Bible study tool is a concordance.  It contains only scripture, so you do not have to worry about comments with elements of Calvinism, Premillenialism, or other prejudices.  But you do have to learn to use it to get the most out of it.  In the past I used one just to find passages, but now I can build whole lessons with just a concordance and a Bible.

            I prefer Young’s Analytical Concordance.  (Yes, I hear some of you preachers snickering, but this is not for preachers.)  There are things you can do with it that you cannot do with any other concordance on the market, and you can usually get one for about $13-14.  Yes, it is built on the King James Version, but that and the original 1901 American Standard are the two safest versions out there.  I usually start my studies with them, then branch out to other translations to get a little more insight.  By starting with something you can trust, you will be less likely to fall into error caused by a mistranslation or, as some versions seem to be, a commentary in disguise.

            The first step in using a concordance is just to get acquainted with it.  Think of a word in a verse you know, but cannot find.  Let’s say you wanted to find the passage that talks about being able to do anything “through Christ who strengthens me,” but you do not know where it is except somewhere in the New Testament.  Pick the least common word in the phrase because that will give you fewer choices to have to look through.  “Strengthen” fits that description.  Look up “strengthen” in your concordance.  I find that word on page 940. (All my copies of Young’s appear to be the same—the difference in size and price has to do with the thickness and quality of paper and binding.)  Under that word you will see several groups of words.  Each group has either a Hebrew or Greek word, and its anglicized (English-lettered) version, followed by every passage that translates that particular Hebrew or Greek word by the same English word, and a snippet from that verse.  Immediately you can skip over the ones in the Old Testament because you know it is a New Testament verse. Finally in group 18 you see endum, the anglicized Greek word, and the two passages that use that word, translating it “strengtheneth,” including Phil 4:13 and the snippet, “through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  That sounds a lot like what you want, so you check it out and, sure enough, it is the passage you had in mind.  Sometimes it isn’t and you just have to keep looking, but if you have the word right, you will eventually find the passage you are looking for.

            That’s really handy, but not what you would call a deep Bible study, right?  Exactly.  There is much more you can do.  We will start with some simple things that are still interesting and useful. 

First, I am sure you can see the value in knowing what other verses have to say about the same word.  So you can actually choose a word in a verse, then after you find the word in the concordance, look up every other time that word is used and translated by the same English word.  You will learn a lot if you just jot down a point from each verse.  Primarily, you will learn that some of our simplistic definitions are wrong!  “Faithful” does not mean “full of faith.”  In fact, we do not even have to look that one up in the concordance to figure that out.  What do we mean when we talk about someone’s husband not being “faithful?”  We mean he was not true and loyal to her.  Now look up that word in the concordance and every passage using it, and see what I mean.  Try the same thing with “godliness,” often defined as “a short form of ‘god-like-ness’” (as if it were actually written in English to begin with).  You might be surprised at what you learn! 

            Here’s another interesting use for this wonderful tool.  Many times in English we have different words for what is essentially the same thing, but the new word adds a little something to the meaning.  How about “bread?”  What if I say “loaf” instead?  “Baguette?”  “Biscuit?”  “Bagel?”  See what I mean?  It is all bread, but there is something different about each.  The same is true in Hebrew and Greek.  Look up “queen” in your concordance.  You will find several different Hebrew words for that one English word.  Read the verses and make some notes.  You will find that one of those words seems to indicate a woman of royal lineage, another seems to refer to queen mothers, and still another is used when the woman is simply the king’s wife, but not of royal parentage.  Doesn’t that make you wonder about some other things?  What were David’s wives called?  How about any other queens of God’s people?  What was Jezebel called?  Look up every passage using “queen” and you may be amazed.  You may even find some that do not refer to women at all.  Before you know it, you have spent two hours studying and have some little tidbits of information that probably no one else has ever bothered with—not even your preacher.

Yes, we can get into more serious word studies, and I plan to show you how to do a comprehensive one next time.  But for now, try some of these things.  The more you use your concordance, the easier it will get. 

And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading. Nehemiah 8:8

Dene Ward

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The older I get, the more amazed I am at how many errors I was taught, and simply accepted without question.  Was it mere laziness on my part or just no knowledge of how to study?  I know which answer I prefer, but it is probably not the right one.  Now I have gotten to the point that I actually prefer to do my own discovering.  If I hear something from someone else, the first thing I want to do is check it out--especially if it sounds too perfect.

            Why do we need to study?  Here comes the first mistake you will often hear:  Because the Bible says, “Study to show thyself approved.”  Wrong!  That word, “study,” which is in the King James translation, is a King James era word that does not mean “study” as we know it, to open a book and read.  It means “work hard” or, as my American Standard translates it, “give diligence” and can be applied to anything, not just sitting down with a book. 

            I have developed a passion about not misusing scripture.  That’s what the Devil does, especially in Matthew 4 when he tempted the Lord, so I do not want any part of it.  There are better passages, correct passages, we can use, notably, Acts 17:11: Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.  Do I want to be “noble” in God’s sight?  Then I’d better start studying my Bible and not accepting what I have always heard, even if good old brother So-and-So said it. 

            One of my biggest areas of study is in the use of words.  Do words really matter?  If Paul can make an argument based upon the number of a noun, Gal 3:16, and Jesus can make an argument based upon the tense of a verb, Matt 22:31,32, you had better believe they matter.  And remember, Jesus was quoting from a translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, not from the original Hebrew scriptures, so yes, we can make arguments that specific about the scriptures, even if using a translation.

            And precisely because of that, I worry about our culture, with the way people look condescendingly on those who are concerned about such things as bad grammar and poor communication skills, as if they were petty and obsessive and other more crude terminology.  The more I read, the more horrified I become.  I have read no less than three novels in the last year using “ahold,” as in, “I could not get ahold of her.”  It was not always in dialogue passages, where dialect would excuse it; it was used as if it were an actual word.  How many of us hear (or say) every day, “Hopefully, the weather will hold out”?  The weather will not do anything “hopefully,” much less hold out!  It cannot hope.  And then we have people who make adverbs out of any noun they find by adding “wise” to it.  Weatherwise, trafficwise, newswise. So now we have, “Hopefully, things will hold out weatherwise,” instead of “I hope the weather holds,” which is not only better English, but fewer words!

            And what does that have to do with anything scriptural? Our use of words can affect those we talk to about their salvation, for one thing.  We have gotten so careless that we often use words incorrectly, leaving false impressions about the truth, and what we really believe, and those words can be dangerous:  We have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls…Acts 15:24.

            I may surprise you with the application I make here.  We often use words like “Trinity” and “Synoptic Gospels,” sometimes just to look intelligent (at least that was my excuse), without knowing their full theological import.  What denominations believe about those words is NOT what you and I believe about them.  Look them up before you use them in front of your friends and neighbors.  Most people have access to a Zondervan Bible Encyclopedia, either at home or in the church library.  And most people have access to the Internet.  You can find anything on the Internet.  So what does Trinity involve in the theological sense?  Not just the oneness in mind, thought, and action of the Godhead (which I prefer as the scriptural word), but such notions as the Eternal Sonship, implying that Jesus derived somehow from the Father.  It also completely denies the scripture, “This day have I begotten thee” Acts 13:34, by stating that Jesus was always the Son. The reading gets really heavy and you probably will not finish it, but you will see that you do not believe what the average denominational minister does when he says “Trinity.”

            As to “Synoptic Gospels,” all we usually mean is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are similar, and John is different.  However, the whole doctrine states, among other things, that since Matthew, Mark and Luke are so much alike, they must have been taken from one another, with Mark obviously coming first (Markan priority), and they were certainly not written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  And that is just the beginning.

            So words are important, both how you use them and where.  Just because you can spout a dictionary definition of a term does not mean you fully understand the ramifications of that doctrine.  Be careful that you know what you are talking about, and be careful of your companions when you use certain words.  In our assemblies we can sing, “Blessed Trinity” and know exactly what we mean.  In our Bible classes we can talk about the Synoptic Gospels and know that we all believe Matthew wrote Matthew, but out in the world you cannot. 

            So here is your first assignment:  look up some of these things; and other phrases you may have wondered about.  Find the five basic tenets of Calvinism (TULIP).  That is what most of your religious friends believe.  Look up “the imputation of Christ’s perfect life.”  Make some notes.  And above all, be careful how you say things.  God decided the best way for Him to communicate with us was through his Word.  Our carelessness and laziness can easily be translated “irreverence.”   

Oh how I love your law.  It is my meditation all the day, Psalm 119:97.

Dene Ward