Inductive Bible Study Method Overview

             So, interpreting the Bible is not like reading the sports page in the local newspaper. The Bible is much harder to understand. The reason the Bible is hard to understand is that was written to people who lived thousands of years ago. Those people had an entirely different culture than we have today, and because of that people usually miss the main point of what a particular bible passage is saying.

            To come to an accurate understanding of the Bible, you need a method. Of course, everyone has heard of the method of just letting the Bible fall open and pointing to one verse, and then taking that one verse to be pointing you in some direction. Don't do that! There is a much better way

            The method that this article is demonstrating how to use is called the Inductive Bible Study Method. It uses Inductive Logic starts with specific observations and then makes a generalized conclusion about those observations.

            The Inductive Bible Study method involves three main steps: Observation, Interpretation, and Application. First you observe what is going on in the passage. Then you use those observations to come to an accurate conclusion about what the text means – interpretation. Finally, you apply the text to today's culture and situations - application.

 A Little Bible Background

             The Bible is a complicated set of books. It is made up of thirty nine book in the Old Testament and twenty seven book in the New Testament. The Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew. A few chapters in Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel were written in Aramaic. So, if you are reading the Old Testament in English, you are reading a translation.

            There are a few other pieces of information that might be interesting and helpful as we progress. First, the Old Testament was the Holy Scriptures of the Jews before Jesus came and then followers of Jesus Christ accepted them as Holy Scripture also. The order of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament is different in the Hebrew Bible than it is in the English Bible. Also, when the Hebrew text was written, there were no chapter and verse divisions. In fact, the Hebrew text was originally written with just the consonants, and not the vowels. So the Hebrew word meaning "to bless" would have the consonants "BDR" without the vowels. I know this sounds strange, but it worked for the Israelites. By around 586 B.C. divisions had been added to the existing parts of the Old Testament, so one and three year reading plans could be followed; meaning that divisions were marked so that if you read to the next division, you would read all five books of the law in one or three years depending on which division you read to. This practice also spread to the rest of the Old Testament as the newer books were added. It wasn't until about AD 1400 that verse divisions were added.

            The New Testament was written from about AD 45 to 90. Once again, originally there were no chapter divisions, which were added around AD 1200. The invention of the printing press caused the need for new advances and that is when verses were added. A Greek edition of the New Testament published by Robert Estienne (he was also called Stephanus) in AD 1551 added the verse divisions that are much the same as we have today.

            The main point of this is that the chapters and verses are simply arrangements created by man, and sometimes they can confuse the reader. Sometimes, because of the way that the chapters or the verses are dividing the text, the context of a particular passage is obscured! So, the chapters and verses are not inspired by God and can be used or ignored at your leisure.

 Translations vs. Paraphrases

             Also, before we take a look at the Bible itself, a few things need to be mentioned that might be helpful to you. First of all, what translation should you use? Remember, that the Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew with a few chapters in Daniel and Ezra being in Aramaic, and the New Testament was written in Greek, so if you want to read it in English or any other language other than the originals, you will be reading a translation. How people went about translating the Bible has two main variations: translations and paraphrases. A translation tries to give you a more or less equivalent sentence in English that was in the original language. Some translations try to give an even closer parallel and tried to make it a word for word equivalent.  Paraphrases add a great deal to the original to try to explain it and amplify it and clarify it. The type of translation will be stated in the "introduction" of most printings of the Bible today.

            This author would highly recommend that you use a translation, rather than a paraphrase. Also, this author would highly recommend that you use a modern translation, rather than an older translation such as the King James Version. The reason is that English, just like all other languages, mutates. The way words were used and what they meant in AD 1611, which is when the King James Version was published, are different than what we mean when we use the same words today.

See Inductive Bible Study Method (Part 2) to continue learning about this Bible Study Method.