For today, I’m simply going to share my church notes. On Wednesdays we have mid-week service at my church. Today we talked about “How to study your Bible”. These are my notes.

My church notes for today

Objectives:

• to reveal to you that the Bible can be studied and understood
• to inform you of the rules of Bible interpretation
• to furnish you with tools to aid your Bible study
• to inform you if the barriers that exist In Biblical interpretation

To reveal to you that the Bible can be studied and understood

Eph 3:1-4 emphasis on vs 4. the scriptures should be easily understood

2 Cor 1:13 – Paul hoped that they understood the letters he sent.

2 Tim 2:15 is another one.

Rules in Bible interpretation

1. Rule of literal interpretation

When the plain and obvious sense of scripture makes common sense, we should seek no other sense

When to bypass literal interpretation

• when the text asks you to. Examples Eph 5:30-32, Gal 4:22-25
• when it is obviously figuratively. Examples John 10:9, Matt 5, John 6:41
• when the literal meaning goes contrary to the context. Examples Matt 11:12
• when it makes no sense when interpreted literally. Eg. Luke 14:26, Matt 5:30

2. Let scripture interpret scripture

Eg. Philippians 4:13, Matthew 6:33

3. The law of first mention

The law states that the first mention of any fundamental law or institution usually presents the general conception of the subject and how it is used throughout scripture. Eg. The word worship was first mentioned in Genesis 22:6 to mean sacrifice

4. Examine quotations in the light of both contexts

An example is Psalm 69:25, same is seen in Acts 1:20

Another is Psalm 110:1

This point was talking about corroboration of accounts in the scripture. The death of Judas from different accounts was used as an example. We were asked to read Apostle Emmanuel Iren’s (commonly referred to as Pastey amongst CCI members) thread on the death of Judas. The preacher asked us to do so because we were running out of time and he had to cover much more.

Here’s the link to Pastey’s tweet from the assignment: https://twitter.com/pst_iren/status/1586002706136981505?s=20&t=WbUdITqK0nTQR0J8icTw9w

6. Study the exact grammar and meaning of word as used in the texts. Eg, the word knowledge can be interpreted from 6 Greek/Hebrew words.

Barriers to Biblical interpretation

• Figures of speech. Simili, eg. Wise as a serpent, Metaphor eg. Luke 13:32, Go and tell that fox, Hyperbole eg. John 21:25
• Language
• Culture eg. Giving a holy kiss was acceptable in their culture and some cultures too, but not necessarily in Nigeria (where I currently live)
• Context

Bible study tools

• Bible app (eg. Bible Ticarta), E-sword
• Commentaries: Albert banks, Matthew Henry

I couldn’t get more tools because I couldn’t write and listen fast enough.

We were also given another assignment.

Assignment: Examine 2 Cor 9:8 and especially study the word ‘sufficiency’.

That’s it. I hope you learned something today.

As usual, be a light in your space 💫