Hand Me the Shovel: How to Study the Bible, Part 2
“Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.”—Psalm 119:34
We have gifts, blessings, in our lives that are easy to take for granted. After last week’s brush with COVID, my health is one of them.
But another gift we can often take for granted is God’s Word. I confess I have not appreciated the fact that I have the very Word of God to help me understand and live life. My jaded and lazy heart misses out on the treasure I hold in my hands.
If I know for certain that just a few feet underground lies all the resources I need to set me up for life, you can bet that I will be begging for a shovel.
And that is what we have in Scripture! We have God’s Word that is sufficient for all of my life. We have a Story that gives us purpose and meaning to our little stories. We are given a hope to sustain us in suffering and help to turn us from our sin.
Yet how many of us reach for that shovel?
I am no seminarian or Bible scholar. I’m just an ordinary housewife. But I have no less need of it just because I’m not in full-time vocational ministry.
For in any given day, how many decisions do I need to make, big and small? How many conversations do I have, with my spouse, children, or friends? How many times do I feel afraid, discouraged, or frustrated? How many times I am tempted to trust my own judgment instead of His?
I need His Word. Not just when I can’t figure out a problem, but to frame my worldview, to understand my purpose, and to live out His destiny for me.
And that’s true for you too.
Here’s the good news. Though scholars have been mining the depths of Scripture for millennia, it’s basic truths, the good news of the Gospel in its core, is something that even a child with minimal education and experience can grasp.
But for those who are willing—even the ordinary lay person—learning the basic skills of Bible study can unlock treasures.
Just hand me the shovel, and let’s learn how to dig.
Where We’ve Been: Gaining Perspective
So far, we’ve been working through the upper crust, the first few inches of dirt as we have observed the passage. Now it’s time to put some muscle in.
Let’s put this back in perspective
I. ZOOM OUT: get perspective in light of God’s Story
a. The book in relation to God’s Story
b. The passage or verse in relation to the book
II. ZOOM IN
a. Skill #1: Observation—the details and facts (read more here)
b. Skill #2: Interpretation—the meaning of those details and facts (WE ARE HERE)
c. Skill #3: Application—the timeless truth (we’ll focus on this in future posts)
III. ZOOM OUT
a. My Story—putting God’s timeless truth into my time and space
Admittedly, interpretation is one of the more challenging stages of Bible study, but not impossible, for the lay reader. For us today, we live in an era where so many generous saints have lent us their expertise to help us in the form of study tools, commentaries, and helps.
All we need to do is use them.
So that’s what we’ll be doing in the next few posts. We’ll be tackling
Interpretive resources and tools (below)
Genre and how this impacts how we read
Basic interpretive guidelines
Understanding words and terms without knowing the original languages,
How to discern when to take things literally or when to take them figuratively
How to zoom out and understand the text in light of the entire Bible again with cross-references
Are you ready?
Observation to Interpretation
One thing to understand about interpretation is how it differs from the first step of observation that we covered previously.
In observation, we are trying to answer the question: What does the text say? What’s actually written?
In interpretation, we are trying to answer the question: What does the text mean? More specifically, what did the original author mean to communicate to his original audience?
While observation required us to put ourselves in the shoes of a detective, interpretation will require us to put ourselves in the shoes of the original author and recipient. Take a trip back in time, if you will.
Interpretation will require us to get out of ourselves to understand the heart of God, the author He inspired, and the people He addressed. At the end of this step, we want to be able to identify God’s main point of this passage.
And because we are human like they are, there is a message for us too. Just hang tight—we’ll get there!
Challenges in Interpretation
I appreciate how Howard Hendricks explains the challenge of interpretation in his book, Living by the Book.
When we tackle this stage, we need to start with the fundamental premise that “meaning” is not our subjective truth but God’s objective truth. What we want to aim for is thinking what He intended to communicate, regardless of who the human author is. In other words, it is “attempting to stand in the author’s shoes and re-create his experience—to thin as he thought, to feel as he felt, and to decide as he decided. We’re asking, What did this mean to him? before we ever ask, What does it mean to us?”
So we need to be careful of several things:
First, confusing interpretation with observation may mean that we stop only at the surface level
Second, making weak observations can weaken our interpretations as our observations are the stones with which we lay a strong foundation of understanding.
Third, inserting ourselves, our understanding of culture, or simply focusing on what it means for me will give us an inaccurate vantage point to understanding.
Fourth, our limited understanding of ancient culture, worldview, language, literary genre, etc. can skew our interpretation.
Last, mistaking application (our third skill in Bible study) for interpretation can lead us to believe that we can make up our own understanding of a passage when there is really only one true meaning to it. We might have different guesses on the original meaning, but only one is right—and sometimes we’re not going to be 100% sure.
Tools for Interpretation
Because interpretation often requires a little more background knowledge or experience with languages that we don’t usually receive in general ed classes, it is helpful to have a few resources and tools on hand to help us, like
A Bible atlas with maps of the geographical area and environment
An exhaustive Bible concordance to help us identify the original Hebrew or Greek word, as well as other helpful statistics like how often it is used in the Bible, different words translated into one English word, etc.
Bible dictionaries or lexicons to help us understand definitions of these original Hebrew or Greek words (this helps us be more accurate and not import our modern American understanding into it). Bible handbooks and encyclopedias can also add more detail, photos, etc.
Bible commentaries—you can use a more general one, or if you really would like to dig in deep, use a single-book commentary from a trusted author. Tim Challies has a great series to help focus on reliable sources.
Optional: Interlinear texts/translations (if you really want to be a geek and you have a little background in foreign languages)
For free resources, I usually use Blue Letter Bible, Bible Gateway, the YouVersion Bible App or The Bible Project.
Though I have yet to splurge yet, Logos Bible software is highly recommended if you are looking for a more robust resource. They have a variety of packages for different levels of need.
The Heart of Interpretation
I realize that by making interpretation less subjective than we would like to think, I do risk sounding narrow minded. After all, who is to say which is the “right” interpretation and which isn’t?
Which brings me to my last point. Because we are limited human beings (a fact we don’t often want to accept), we really don’t know. We can only do our best research and thinking with humility and grace.
Just like in any field of study, there will be very differing interpretations from the very same observations. And that is part of the beauty of learning and studying with others. As long as we all keep our own personal biases out of it until we have done the work, then there is much we can learn from one another.
After we’ve considered the various options, then I believe God will help us to develop our own convictions. When this happens, I need to exercise discernment.
There are some convictions that I build on unquestionable doctrine. And then there are some that are debatable. I need to know the difference.
For those that are debatable, I need to qualify my convictions and not push them on others, if an equally plausible interpretation exists. Careful study will help me to be aware of these and come to my own convictions about them.
Ultimately, we are all finite beings. My responsibility before God is to study His Word to the best of that ability. If, after my study, I pursue a road that He has not explicitly specified, I will trust that He will correct me if I am wrong or give me additional information if I need it.
Until then, I study, learn, and remain open to the Holy Spirit who will guide and counsel me. He will help us understand.
This humble attitude will help us to avoid many of the hazards the Hendricks highlights: misreading, distorting, contradicting, subjectivism, relativism, and overconfidence. It helps us to be careful about reading our cultural versions of Scripture instead of letting it speak for itself. Knowing that the limits lies with us—not the Bible itself—is foundational in the interpretive process.
Remember this and it will protect you from many errors that stem from pride and arrogance.
