Download How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

Schedule
Date
9/18
9/25
10/2
10/9
10/16
10/23
10/30
11/6
11/13
11/20
11/27
Topic
Lecture - Reading the epistles
Col 1
Col 2
Col 3
Col 4
Lecture - Reading the Gospels
Matt 9:1-8 & Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:18-26
Guest Speaker – Fall Feasts of Israel
Luke 13:18-21, 15:1-7, 18:1-8
John 1:1-18
John 6:25-59
Location
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes
How to Read the Bible: Epistles
You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?
How to Read the Bible: Epistles
You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?
Of course….To interpret the Bible literally
is to interpret it is as literature.
R.C Sproul, Knowing Scripture (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1977), 48.
Types of Literature in the Bible
What kinds of literature are found in the
Bible?
Types of Literature in the Bible




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
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History
Poetry
Parables
Letters
Prophecy
Gospels
Wisdom Literature
Greco-Roman Letters

Private, informal letters

Public, formal letters
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament:
Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway,
2006), 222-224.
New Testament Letters

Many have both formal and informal
components
For example:
“Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers
in Christ Jesus.(Rom 16:3)”
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament:
Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway,
2006), 222-224, 226.
Mechanics


Authors in the Greco-Roman world often used a
secretary.
Evidence for this practice in the NT.
For example:
“I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord
(Rom 16:22).”
“See with what large letters I am writing to you with my
own hand (Gal 6:11).”
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament: Introduction to the Art and
Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 227.
Structure – Opening
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of
God,

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

Sender
Recipients
Greeting
Prayer
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are
faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places (Eph 1:1-3).
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament: Introduction to the Art
and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 231-237.
Structure – Opening
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,




Sender
Recipients
Greeting
Prayer
To those who are elect exiles of the
dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, in the
sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to
Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! (1Peter1:1-3)
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament: Introduction to the Art
and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 231-237.
Structure – Closing
• Personal greeting
• Signature
• Summary
• Exhortation
• Blessing, praise
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament:
Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway,
2006), 231-237.
Content and Approach

Authoritative and Loving
For example: 1Cor 4:14-21
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament:
Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway,
2006), 226.
Consider 1Tim 2:8-9
I desire then that in every place the men
should pray, lifting holy hands without
anger or quarreling; likewise also that
women should adorn themselves in
respectable apparel, with modesty and
self-control, not with braided hair and
gold or pearls or costly attire.
Content and Approach
Occasional = written for a specific occasion
-
Specific recipients
Specific context, situation, issue
Applied, practical theology
John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre: Reading Ancient Letters” in Interpreting the New Testament:
Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (ed. D.L. Bock and B.M Fanning; Wheaton: Crossway,
2006), 228-229.
Inductive Bible Study
1.
2.
3.
Observation – What does the text say?
Interpretation – What did the text mean to the
original readers?
Application – What does it mean for us?
Adapted from Roberta Hestenes Using the Bible in Groups (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983), 57-60.
Background Study


Historical context
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Who wrote the letter?
Who received the letter?
What situation or concerns prompted the letter?
Content of the Letter
-
Read the entire letter
Make an outline
Note the topics & themes
Keep logical units together
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 59-62.
Finding the Author’s Purpose
Tools
 Introduction in your own Bible
 Bible study booklets
 How to Read the Bible Book by Book by
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart
 American Bible Society
http://www.americanbible.org/bible-resources
Guidelines for Application
1.
“A text can not mean what it could never have meant to the
author or his or her readers”
2.
“Whenever we share common particulars … with the firstcentury hearers, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to
them.”
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is
not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of
works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8).
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 74.
Guidelines for Application
What happens when the situations are not comparable?


Find the principle.
Apply that principle to comparable situations.
For example
1 Cor 10:23-11:1 – The problem of food sacrificed to idols
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 74.
Types of Literature in the Bible
Two good tools

Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart
Schedule
Date
9/18
9/25
10/2
10/9
10/16
10/23
10/30
11/6
11/13
11/20
11/27
Topic
Lecture - Reading the epistles
Col 1
Col 2
Col 3
Col 4
Lecture - Reading the Gospels
Matt 9:1-8 & Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:18-26
Guest Speaker – Fall Feasts of Israel
Luke 13:18-21, 15:1-7, 18:1-8
John 1:1-18
John 6:25-59
Location
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Friendship Room
Small Classes
Small Classes
Small Classes