It causes so many puzzle pieces to fall into place. Knowing the original audience of each book is enormously helpful. Or Left Behind (joke, yet not a joke because I don’t believe that interpretation!).ĭo you want to know how to understand the Bible? Understand the genres. If you don’t understand genres you can get really wacky interpretations, like that dude who wrote the book 88 Reasons Jesus Will Return In 1988. Revelation is apocalyptic, meaning it contains many symbolic elements. The epistles are letters and follow the conventions of letters. The Song of Solomon is poetry and should be interpreted as poetry, not as commands like the law. Every book of the Bible falls into a particular genre. This ties into understanding the context. Reading in groups allows you to gain a fuller understanding of God’s ways and wisdom. The writings contain God’s street wisdom for the all the situations we encounter in daily life. The law shows God’s perfect law and our inability to keep it. The New Testament is the gospels, Acts, Paul’s epistles, the general epistles, Hebrews, and Revelation.Įach group of books has its own divine flavor. The Old Testament is grouped into the law, the prophets, and the writings. The Bible is grouped in relevant sections. If you need help, there are loads of plans which can take you through the Bible in a year. For the grand Creation -> Fall -> Redemption -> Recreation storyline. This gives you a feel for the overall arc of Scripture. Obviously, reading the entire Bible multiple times is ideal, but reading it through sequentially at least once is essential. #3 – Read The Entire Bible Sequentially At Least Once You can go overboard on this, such as trying to literally tie every single item in the temple to Jesus (“The ashes represent the ashes that will fall when Jesus returns on a white horse!”), but overall this is a very helpful principle to keep in mind. The temple foreshadows Jesus as the new temple. For example, the Mosaic law points to our inability to keep the law and Jesus’ fulfillment of the law. This means that generally speaking, every portion of the Bible points to Jesus in some way. Jesus said that all the Scriptures testify to him. The first and main principle in how to understand the Bible is to keep everything in context. Reading a verse out of context almost always leads to terrible Bible interpretations (see Philippians 4:13 and weirdo interpretations about weight lifting). Where one word falls in relation to other words. Where a section falls within a logical argument. Where a chronology falls within the story of the entire Bible. What do I mean by context? I simply mean: This is one of, if the not the most important thing when it comes to how to understand the Bible. They don’t replace the Holy Spirit or diligent devotion. Here are a smattering of 21 tips, in no particular order, to help you dive deeper into the word of God. God illumines and applies his truth to our hearts.īut when it comes to getting more out of the Bible, how to understand the Bible for all it’s worth, to gaining a fuller and holistic understanding of Scripture, I think tips can be helpful. There is no replacement for persistence and the power of the Holy Spirit. In reality, what we need most is simply to read and pray on a regular basis. It doesn’t quite work like that with the Bible.
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