Grasping God's Word

The process of interpreting and grasping the Bible is similar to embarking on a journey that consists in a series of steps.

The journey begins in the world of the Bible and the original audience of the passage being studied and ends in our world and our life as we apply the message to our own situation.

Step 1: Grasping the Text in Their Town

Question: What did the text mean to the biblical audience?

Read carefully and observe to see as much as possible in the text. Try to summarise what the passage meant to the original audience in one or two sentences.

Step 2: Measuring the Width of the River to Cross

Question: What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?

Some of the differences to consider will be: time, language, culture, situation and whether in the Old Testament (covenant) or New Testament (covenant). Look at this stage to find rather than minimize differences.

Remember for some passages, the river will be wider than for others.

Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge

Question: What is the theological principle in this text?

This is most difficult step. Find the theological principle or principles in the text. These principles should be generated from the text and not be brought to the text by us. What is the message of the passage that comes across the river of time, culture, situation etc?

The principle must be related to the meaning found in Step 1. In what ways are we the same as the original audience, despite the differences between us?

The principle should be: 

• reflected in the text
• timeless
• not tied to the specific situation
• not culturally bound
• in line with the rest of Scripture
• relevant to the original and the present-day audience

Step 4: Grasping the Text in Our Town

Question: How should individual Christians today apply the theological principle in their lives?

This step is about exploring how the principle(s) we have identified apply to the church and our lives today.

What are the implications of the principle identified for what we believe as Christians? What our church should be like? How we should think and act as followers of Jesus?

__

The method of Bible study described here is taken from the very helpful book, Grasping God's Word, by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hayes. Much more detail on this approach to Bible study can be found by consulting this work.