A Moment on Bible Study

I want to jot a quick note to everyone about Bible study.  Many times I have encouraged you to study your Bible and make God’s word your own. And, I believe you should with all my heart.  But, there are a few things that, if you know going in, will help you make more sense of more difficult passages, especially the Old Testament.

Before I get too far into this, I would like to point out that the New Testament and the Old Testament are the One Word of God.  Please don’t be one of those who think the Old Testament is not important because we have Jesus. Remember, Jesus is the Word. This means He IS the Old Testament as well as the new.

It is difficult to pin an exact number on the amount of times the New Testament quotes the Old because we don’t know exactly what the writers had on their minds; meaning, they may have had an OT scripture in mind that doesn’t come across as such in the NT.  That being said, there are 302 quotes, 493 allusions, and 136 probable allusions from the Old Testament in the New. That is a total of 933, in other words, a lot!  I feel like this alone is proof that we shouldn’t discard the Old Testament.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Remember, they didn’t have the New Testament as we do when this was written.  All they had was the Old.

Now that that is out of the way…

When we are studying the Bible, we need to remember to whom it is written.  Thankfully, it reaches across the ages and speaks to us today but it was written to be read by the people of that day.

Why, is it important to remember this?  Consider if someone from another time were to come across something written today that said, “We went to the movies and it was so cool!”  That reader would probably think you were cold, not to mention the fact that they probably wouldn't even know what a movie is.  The ideas surrounding Bible writers’ culture and time were different than ours.  Always bear this in mind.  

Another thing to remember is history.  This isn’t a problem for me because I love history but, I know others do not. I’m not suggesting you take a course in Semitic studies, just read a paragraph or two about what was happening during the time in which the passage you are studying was written.  If you are reading Jeremiah, you should know he is preaching to the Jewish people just before they were overthrown by the Babylonians.  Daniel is prophesying from Babylon. You want might read about how he came to be in the king's service.  A little history will help you understand the context.

Don’t forget, Bible writers after Solomon knew when they talked about Israel they were referring to the Northern Kingdom and when they spoke about Judah, it was the South.  They assumed their readers knew this, too.  This is why you will find prophesies that refer to Judah and Israel in the same breath. (Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Hosea 1:6-7 are just two examples)  It would do that passage an injustice to assume Judah and Israel were the same at the time of the writing.

So, this is how I might look at a study of the book of Ruth.

• The Bible says Ruth was a Moabitess.  

• What was Israel’s relationship with Moab? 

• Why did the Bible writer think it was important to mention where she was from? It could have said something like, ‘a far away land’ but, mentions Moab by name. 

• Is Ruth mentioned anywhere else in the Bible?  

• Can I see a parallel with her story and the story of Jesus?  

• Is she related to Jesus?  

• Why include her story in the Bible at all? 

• Is there a verse or passage that stands out that I should remember that applies to my life? (I love, "Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, ' Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?' " Ruth 2:10)

These are just a few questions one might ask going into a study of a particular passage or book and an example of how one might look into the background of it.  I know this barely scratches the surface but I still wanted to mention it.

I often hear people criticizing the Bible for some of the things contained therein but they never stop to think, it was written for that time!  The writers used things that they and the people were familiar with, concepts they knew, cultural references they were aware of.

Still, I am grateful that the Bible does, indeed, transcend time.  It is absolutely relevant to us today.  Just don’t get so hung up on the little things that don’t matter that you overlook the only, true handbook we have to know God.