Exegesis - Understanding Scripture (1 of 3)

Welcome to the first part of the Understanding Scripture course, Exegesis.

This material is intended to equip all believers with basic skills in exegesis and theology so they can gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of God's Word.

It's completely free, and you can download all the material at training .freely .giving.

On that website you'll also find resources that complement this video so be sure to check it out.

These trainings are commonly run in small groups over six sessions with a leader teaching the content from the slides provided.

That way there's someone there to answer questions and give feedback on work completed. So most people won't need these videos.

Rather, they're to help in the following situations. Individuals who want to learn the content by themselves, or groups that don't have a leader to run through the content with them, or leaders who want to learn the material before running their own groups.

So let's get started. First, we're going to look at an introduction to what exegesis is.

We're then going to look at the three components of exegesis context, content, and implications.

And then finally, the last two sessions are for writing your own talk or study and then getting feedback on it from others.

In this first session, we'll cover what exegesis is and why it is important.

Have you ever said something that was misinterpreted? For example, maybe someone misunderstood your message that you sent them because they missed several previous messages that you sent before that one.

Or maybe you've tried to make a joke, but someone thought you were being serious. Or you told someone to do something, but they didn't do it in the way that you intended.

The results can be bad, especially if your message was really important. Well, God has given us scripture so that we can know him.

As we see from these two passages here. 2 Timothy 3 .16

-17 says, And so God has given us scripture so that we can know him better and know what his will is for us, so that we can live lives that please him.

In 2 Peter 1 .21, it says, And so all scripture is from God, even though it was written by many different people over a long period of time.

Ultimately, it tells us not what their will is, but what God's will is, as they spoke from God.

So if we misunderstand scripture, we'll misunderstand God. If scripture is from God and about God, then misunderstanding it will have consequences for how we understand

God himself. Sometimes people misunderstand us by mistake or sometimes on purpose.

And it's the same with scripture. In 2 Peter 3 .16, we read,

And so we can see some parts of scripture can be hard to understand. As it says there, some of Paul's letters were hard to understand.

So some people may misunderstand what's written by accident, by mistake.

But then also notice that others intentionally distort what scripture says.

And so other people will try to get us to misunderstand scripture, try to distort what it says.

And so whether it's intentional or not, we have to be on our guard that we don't misunderstand scripture, because otherwise we'll be misunderstanding

God. Now there's different ways people can read the

Bible. For example, they may read it like a magic book that they can just flick to a random verse and it will have a message for them.

Others read the Bible more like a self -help book. They look around until they find something encouraging and skip over all the rest.

Or other people read it like a storybook. They draw inspiration from famous heroes of the faith.

Others read it like a life guide, and so they might search for a particular topic that they're interested in.

And still others may read it more like a history book, where they can learn lots of facts about Israel, the life of Jesus, and what things were like back then.

You can pause the video now and discuss what may be wrong with these different approaches.

Well, firstly, if you're reading the Bible like a magic book, then it encourages reading verses out of context, and assumes we can manipulate

God into giving us personal revelations when we want them. If you're reading the

Bible like a self -help book, the Bible may have things to say to us that aren't necessarily encouraging, or even about us.

For example, maybe God wants to confront us on our sin. Or maybe we're reading a passage about making sacrifices, but that has changed now that we have

Jesus. In terms of reading it like a storybook, well, most characters in the

Bible are flawed, and so they shouldn't be held up as role models unless they are Jesus.

Despite some good actions they may have done. And so while we can admire many things that famous characters in the

Bible do, we also have to be careful not to think that they are role models for us to follow.

If you're reading the Bible like a life guide, well, the Bible has things to say that maybe we never think of or seek advice on.

Maybe God wants to speak to us about a topic that we would have never thought that would be relevant to us.

And when it comes to reading it like a history book, events are recounted and there is a lot of history you can get from it.

But they're not just for interest or entertainment, they're to teach us about God and his will.

And they're not just events of the past, they're events we need to learn from today as well. So when we come to the

Bible, we need to be doing what's called exegesis. Exegesis involves studying the original meaning of Scripture to faithfully interpret it for today.

And so if we want to understand God, we need to understand Scripture as we've already seen.

And if we want to understand Scripture, then we must understand its original meaning first.

Just as we would want others to understand the original meaning of what we say, and not be misquoted, so too we must understand the original meaning of Scripture as the original author intended.

Only after we've done that, can we consider what implications there might be for us readers today.

Now the opposite of exegesis is something called eisegesis, where we read our own meaning into the text and make it say what we think it should say.

And such an approach is not faithful to the original intent of the author, but it's a very easy trap to fall into.

So with eisegesis, you have Scripture, and you are taking the meaning, what you want it to say, and you're putting that into the text.

Whereas exegesis, which is what we want, you're looking at Scripture and you're trying to get the meaning out of the text.

What did the author intend it to mean, not what I intend it to mean. Here is an example of a commonly misunderstood passage from Philippians 4, verse 13.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Now what people often do with this verse is they read the meaning they want into it.

And so often they interpret this verse being about how God will help you succeed in whatever you strive to do.

And so whatever you are currently struggling with or trying to achieve, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Now if we read the verse just before that one, in verse 12, it says,

I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. I'm accustomed to any and every situation, to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need.

And so actually this passage is talking about Paul being content, whether he has little or whether he has a lot, he's content with his circumstances.

And so in response to that he says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I can be content whether I have a lot or I have a little. And so we can see that it's almost the opposite meaning of what many people interpret this verse to mean.

Rather than it saying God will help you succeed in whatever you want, it's actually encouraging us to be content with what we already have.

And so while God may help us in our endeavors, especially when striving to serve him, this is not the original intent

Paul had when writing this particular statement. There are three main areas of investigation when it comes to doing exegesis.

And we'll look at each of these areas in turn over the next few sessions. The first is the context.

And by context we're thinking about what's around the passage, what comes before it, what comes after it, and what other kinds of context would we need to know to properly understand this passage.

Next there's content, which is the actual passage itself, what is inside the actual passage that we're studying.

And then finally we need to think about the implications of the passage. What did it originally mean for the original audience?

And also what implications would there be for us today? Now scripture doesn't just inform us, it transforms us.

Exegesis involves careful study, but as we have read, it is God -breathed, and God still speaks through it today.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double -edged sword.

It pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That's from Hebrews 4, verse 12. And so while we can do careful study of God's word, which many other non -Christians do as well, we also need

God's help in interpreting it. We need his spirit to be working in us, which is why we should always ask him for wisdom when we interpret it.

And so if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to pause the video now and pray for God to help us as we interpret his word.

It's time to introduce the passage we'll be working on together throughout these sessions. One of the best ways to start doing exegesis is to simply ask as many questions as you can about a passage.

And so you should pause the video now and read the passage carefully several times in multiple translations, highlighting interesting or confusing things you find, and coming up with as many questions you can about this passage.

You don't need to answer any of those questions yet. You can simply ask, what does this mean and what does that mean?

And come up with as many questions as you can. This video uses the

Berean Standard Bible, which is an excellent relatively new translation that is more literal than the

NIV, but easier to read than the ESV. But you can use your preferred translation, and it's also good to consult multiple while you study a passage.

Now that you've had a good look at the group passage, it's time to pick your own passage.

You'll study this passage individually over the rest of the sessions and give a presentation of it during the last session.

You'll come up with either a Bible study outline or a talk outline. Here are two suggested passages you could choose from.

But depending on your group or your own study, you may prefer to choose another passage instead.

Pause the video and do the same as you did for the group passage. Highlight and write questions about the passage that you chose.

During this session, we'll look at context, which is an essential part of good exegesis.

Have you ever joined a movie halfway in? It can be hard to understand what's going on.

Some movies it might be easy to understand, but others it might be almost impossible to follow without the previous half of the movie.

The first half of the movie provides context for the second half. And so even if you can see and hear everything that's going on in the second half, you might still not be able to understand it without knowing what happened before in the first half.

You see, context can completely change the meaning of something. For example, what could each of these statements mean?

First, I left her outside all night. Now, if that was talking about a dog, you might not be concerned.

But if you're talking about your daughter, then there might be issues. The next example, it hurt my heart.

Now, hopefully someone's talking figuratively about a romantic breakup or something like that.

But if you're talking about literally something hurt your heart, then that would be a lot more serious.

Or finally, he tested positive. Now, if that was referring to testing positive to a disease, you might want to know what that disease is.

But if you're testing positive, for example, to an antibody or something that helps you have immunity to the disease, then that would be a very different story.

In that case, you'd actually be protected from that disease. Since context can have such a big impact on interpretation, it's essential we consider it when we interpret the

Bible. There are three different types of contexts we should consider.

There's the historical context, which is talking about what happened in the Bible already, and also what was happening in history at that time as well.

Then there's the literary context, which is talking about what happened already in the particular book you're reading, the book of the

Bible or the letter. What happened in the letter already before you get to your passage? And then there's also the immediate context, what was written immediately before and after your passage.

For example, if you're watching a TV show, then the historical context would be all the previous episodes of that show, and also what the culture and generation was like and what it was written for.

The literary context would be the episode as a whole, what has already happened in the episode that you're watching.

And the immediate context would be what the characters just said before the section you're up to, and what they're about to say afterwards as well.

In terms of the historical context, the historical context covers all the other contexts that is relevant outside the book itself, who the author is and who their audience is.

And this context includes other books of the Bible, but also the culture and the time period of the day.

So it can be helpful to consult commentaries and other trustworthy sources on the culture and the time period, but for now we'll just consider what the rest of the

Bible has to say. Let's think about the following examples.

How would the historical context help to understand these statements? First, in Luke 17, 16, he fell face down at Jesus' feet in thanksgiving to him, and he was a

Samaritan. Now, in order to understand who Samaritans were, you might be able to pick up some details from the book of Luke, but it's going to be helpful to read other books of the

Bible as well. For example, in John 4, 9, we learn that Samaritans were despised by Jews.

And so this statement takes on so much more meaning when we find out that actually,

Samaritans were these people who were despised by Jews, and that is the man who is falling face down at Jesus' feet in thanksgiving to him.

For the next one, 2 Corinthians 2, 4. For through many tears

I wrote to you out of great distress. Now, we're going to want to know what Paul was distressed about.

And in Paul's previous letter, so 1 Corinthians, he admonished the

Corinthians for numerous issues in their church. In John 1, 51, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the

Son of Man. Now, just by looking at the book of John, we may not be able to work out what

Jesus is talking about here. But by knowing the historical context, and in this case, the other books of the

Bible, we're going to know what Jesus is referencing here. The first example of angels of God ascending and descending is likely a reference to Genesis 28, where Jacob saw angels ascending and descending from heaven.

And the reference to the Son of Man points to Daniel 7. So these references are going to add meaning to what

Jesus is saying here, that he is the fulfillment of prophecies, and he has a direct connection to God.

Let's now think about the literary context. Any given passage has a part to play in the overall meaning of the book or letter it belongs to.

And so the literary context looks at the whole book or letter. Books are rarely ever intended to be broken into pieces and read.

Rather, ideas may not be fully formed until the whole text has been read.

For example, a letter to an employee might start with praise for all the hard work that employee has done.

But it could end with the boss telling the employee that they're no longer needed.

And so while the boss was praising the employee, he was only doing so to soften the blow that was to come, that he would have to fire him.

Or take this example from the Bible. In Ecclesiastes 10, verse 19, it says money is the answer for everything.

Now, if you took that verse by itself, you could come away with a very warped understanding of the

Bible's message on money. In that passage, the author is just reflecting on how money can buy anything, whereas feasts and wine are useful only for special occasions.

It doesn't teach what the author thinks about money, though. And if we read earlier chapters, we'd know.

Because in Ecclesiastes 5, verse 10, it says he who loves money is never satisfied by money.

So by being familiar with the whole book of Ecclesiastes, you'll more accurately interpret sentences such as that one.

You should pause the video now and think how does the literary context help understand the following statements?

So rather than a drastically different interpretation, it may just be that the literary context just provides depth and clarity to the purpose of some statements.

And that's the case with many of these. So let's look at Titus, chapter 3, verse 10, reject a divisive man after a first and second admonition.

Now, if you take that sentence by itself, you might still come away with a correct interpretation. But it's helpful to know what the context was.

And the letter of Titus is about the conduct of Christians, especially as a church community.

And the instruction to reject a divisive man is regarding those who are giving unhelpful teachings that would divide a church.

And so it's good to know what was the reason why he was telling them to reject someone who's being divisive.

Galatians, chapter 2, verse 16 says, a man is not justified by works of the law, which is true, but what was he specifically addressing?

Well, in Galatians, people had been convincing people in Galatia that they needed to be circumcised and follow

Jewish laws. And so, yes, a man is not justified by works of the law, but it's helpful to know

Paul was specifically addressing issues where people were being told to still follow the

Jewish law, specifically regarding circumcision. And in Jonah, chapter 3, verse 5, we read that the

Ninevites believed God. Now, that's a nice statement. It's nice when people come to believe in God.

But it's not just about the Ninevites believing God, it's also a rebuke to Jonah.

Because the story contrasts God's grace to the repentant Ninevites, the ones who do say sorry for their sins and turn to him, with Jonah's unfaithfulness and his hard heart.

Because he wanted them to be punished, he didn't want them to repent. We now come to the immediate context.

And by this, we're talking about what's directly before and after a passage. Because the meaning of a statement can change drastically depending on what is said right before or right after it.

This is the most obvious form of context, what immediately surrounds the statement being made.

You can pause the video now and look up the following passages. And think, how does the immediate context help understand these statements?

For the first example, Psalms 14 .1. There is no God. Now, that would be a funny statement to find in the

Bible. But if we actually read the context, it says only fools say there is no

God. For Matthew 7 .1, do not judge seems like a fairly straightforward and universal command.

But if we were to apply that to everything, it means we would not hold criminals to account.

We would not judge anyone who is abusive and all sorts of extreme examples. When actually,

Jesus is confronting hypocrisy in that passage. And in verse 5, he actually says, after you have taken the beam out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

And there are many other passages that support the right judgment of others as well.

Matthew 5 .39, do not resist an evil person. Again, if you took this to an extreme, it would allow all kinds of abuse to be inflicted on you.

Whereas in the context, Jesus is actually teaching to not retaliate for relatively minor offenses.

It's not a teaching to never ever resist evil acts. John 14 .14,

if you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. Many people have taken this verse to mean that God will simply do whatever they want him to.

But in the context, it is about that which glorifies God. Finally, Matthew 18 .20,

where two or three gather in my name, I am with them. Many people have taken this to mean that God has some kind of special presence when at least two believers are gathered together.

However, this is actually regarding Jesus affirming the judgment of two to three faithful witnesses when confronting someone's sin.

And this points back to Old Testament law as well. Let's now practice identifying these different types of contexts using a group passage.

All of the following statements are true of the passage, but they represent a different form of context.

So go through each and decide, is this historical context, literary context, or immediate context?

Pause the video now and identify those. So, when it says the parable is

Jesus' answer to the question, who is my neighbor? That is the immediate context, as that question has just come up prior to the passage.

Two, Samaritans were despised by Jews for being mixed in race and religion.

That is historical context. Next, we're getting that information from outside the book of Luke.

Three, the expert in the law concludes the Samaritan was a neighbor.

That actually is said right after our passage, so it's the immediate context.

Four, James and John earlier wanted God to destroy a

Samaritan village, but Jesus rebuked them. That's helpful to know when we want to think about who

Samaritans were and how Jews thought of them. And that story comes up in the same book, the book of Luke, but it is a bit before our passage, so we can consider that the literary context.

Five, the topic of loving neighbors came up due to the earlier question, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? Though that isn't the point of the parable. So, that question did lead up to our passage, even if the parable isn't directly in response to that.

So, we could consider this the literary context or the immediate context. It doesn't really matter which one.

The point is as long as we're considering the context. Finally, number six,

Levites were from the tribe of Levi and were to help the priests with temple worship. We're getting that context from outside the book of Luke, so it's historical context.

You should now consider the passage that you chose earlier, the passage that you'll be looking at individually over each of these sessions.

Study the context of that passage and think what is significant about the historical context, the literary context and the immediate context.

Part three. In the previous session, we looked at context, which is, in other words, what is around the passage.

Whereas in this session, we'll be looking at content, which is the makeup of the actual passage itself.

To help us analyze the contents of any given passage, it's good to consider the following.

Firstly, what's the genre, the style of writing? Secondly, what is the structure of the passage?

How is it organized? And finally, the details. What are noteworthy things in the passage that are important to consider when interpreting its meaning?

Let's first consider genre. Each style of writing requires a different form of interpretation.

For example, you could learn about lions via the following. An encyclopedia entry on lions, a documentary about lions, a movie like The Lion King, or a story about the life of a lion.

You could learn facts and grow an appreciation of lions through all of these genres.

But you'd need to interpret each in a distinct way. Now, you might assume that a fact -based genre would be the best for learning about lions.

But facts don't necessarily move you to love and appreciation or fear of them.

A movie documentary would better help you visualize lions, but it would be less fact -based.

And a story about a lion might have just a few facts, but it could greatly move you to appreciate lions.

Likewise, it's interesting that God has not provided us with fact books about him, but with a great variety of genres.

Much of what we learn about God is derived from stories, or even poetry.

These are the main genres in the Bible. This isn't an exhaustive list.

There are some other forms of genre as well, but these are the most commonly occurring genres.

Narrative, which is a story. And sometimes these may be fictional, but quite often in the

Bible, narratives are historical. They tell real events that really happened. An example of that would be

Genesis. Letter, which is a message addressed to a particular recipient.

And a lot of the New Testament is made up of letters to different churches and people, such as Paul's letter to the

Colossians. Poetry, which is artistic language in the form of a poem or a song.

And we have many of them in the book of Psalms. Prophecy, messages from God told through a prophet.

And much of the second half of the Old Testament is made up of books of prophecy, such as Isaiah.

There's also apocalyptic genre, which is highly symbolic language, usually of future events, but not always.

And the most famous book of apocalyptic language is Revelation, of course. Law, instructions for what is morally or religiously right and wrong, such as Leviticus.

Or wisdom, which are philosophical lessons taught through statements or also through stories, such as the book of Proverbs.

Now, a book is not always just one genre. And a genre may contain other genres or sub -genres as well.

For example, the Gospels are mostly historical narrative, but also contain parables, which is a form of wisdom literature, or prophecy, or even some law.

So don't worry if you find a passage that doesn't seem to fit the genre you thought it should.

Scripture will always be richer than any genres we come up with. Let's now consider how each genre may affect the way we interpret it.

Firstly, narrative. Most are historical, but all still aim to teach something by recounting particular events.

Even when a narrative is historical, it isn't necessarily historical in a modern -day journalism sense.

The purpose is always to communicate truth about God, and authors will select what is recounted to achieve that aim.

Letter. The author and situation of the recipients can be highly relevant.

Authors may be addressing issues they know their recipients have, and they won't necessarily be stated in the actual letter.

There will be a lot of assumed knowledge. Poetry. Poetry may use vivid language and imagery to express truth, rather than raw facts or instructions.

It may express intense emotions, such as hatred for enemies, etc. And Jesus' instruction is to, of course, love your enemies, but the

Psalms do still provide a place for expressing positive and negative emotions.

Prophecy. Many prophecies are directed at Israel specifically, and have already been fulfilled in Jesus.

Most prophecy in the Bible occurs around the time of the exile, and is very specific to that period of time.

But some of it still ultimately finds its fulfillment in Christ, which is especially clear when it's quoted in the

New Testament. Apocalyptic. Even if apocalyptic literature is referring to literal future events, the focus should still be on what's clear, rather than what's not.

Many interpreters get caught up in trying to predict future events, and miss that the message for today is often plain and clear.

It is usually to comfort and give courage to God's people right now, to stand firm in the midst of persecution, knowing that God will ultimately be victorious.

Law. Old Testament laws are no longer binding, but do still reveal aspects of God and His will.

And so laws that still apply, like do not murder, etc., apply because they are what

God expects from believers, not because believers are bound by Jewish law. The authority is

Jesus, not the Old Covenant. Which is why many Old Testament laws are not applicable for Christians.

And the ones that are applicable are only coincidentally so. However, they all do tell us things about God, since they were all initiated by Him.

Wisdom. Wisdom explores truth from certain perspectives, when it's not meant to account for all situations.

This literature will often state things that are generally true, but not always so.

Which is why some wisdom literature might even seem to contradict at times. Such as when pondering justice, and how in some sense it is assured, but in other senses it seems to elude us.

Let's now look at some actual examples from the Bible. Here's a sample genre, looking at an example for each.

And we need to think, how is interpretation affected by the genre? You should pause the video now, and think about these yourself, before continuing.

So for the first example, Mark 16, 8. So the women left the tomb and ran away, trembling and bewildered.

And in their fear, they did not say a word to anyone. Now some take the statement that they did not say a word to anyone as factual, and evidence that the

Bible contradicts itself. But as a narrative, the statement is highlighting their fear, and initial response to it.

The women obviously did later share what happened, otherwise Mark wouldn't be writing about it.

The example for Letta, Philemon, chapter 1, verse 18. But if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge it to my account.

Paul is specifically appealing to Philemon, on behalf of Onesimus.

And he's not making a general statement about Christians taking on the debt of others.

For Psalm 18, 40. You have made my enemies retreat before me.

I put an end to those who hated me. Now Psalms are very emotive and personal.

It doesn't recommend putting an end to all enemies. David is reflecting on how God delivered him from Saul, who was appropriately judged by God at that time.

Prophecy, Isaiah chapter 30, verse 19. O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.

This prophecy is specific to Jerusalem, for after it is invaded by Babylon, it cannot be interpreted for modern day

Israel, but it will ultimately be fulfilled in Christ for all believers.

Apocalyptic, Revelation chapter 13, verse 7. The beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them.

The beast is symbolic for opposition against God and his people. While many try to identify the exact nature of the beast, it is to get the message.

Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints. Chapter 13, verse 10.

Amidst persecution. Law, Leviticus chapter 19, verse 27.

You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

This was a law for Israel and doesn't apply to Christians. God's people were to be set apart from the sinful nations around them, most often in terms of morals, but also sometimes symbolically, like with hair and the use of fabrics.

Wisdom, Proverbs chapter 25, verse 15. Through patience a ruler can be persuaded and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

The author is not saying this will always be the case, but is exploring what is generally true and wise.

Such teachings guide our practices rather than dictating them. Let's now consider our group passage.

Luke chapter 10, verse 30 to 35. What impact does this passage's genre have on how we interpret it?

Well, the Good Samaritan is a parable, a form of wisdom literature, but it's embedded within the narrative of the

Gospel of Luke. Now, for the following statements, both of these are true and which are false.

Firstly, the events actually happened. While parables are usually fictional, even if the cities mentioned are real places, such as Jericho, it doesn't actually mean the story took place.

Two, every character represents someone in real life. It is true that the priest and the

Levite do represent the religious leaders of the day, and Jesus told this parable as a rebuke to them.

And also he references Samaritans because they were despised by Jews, so he intentionally chose those people.

But we shouldn't go so far as to then start interpreting who the robbers may represent or who the innkeeper may represent.

We should just stick with what the main message of the story is. So no, not every character represents someone in real life.

Three, parables always teach something. This would be true. They are never there just for our entertainment.

Jesus never tells a parable just to tell an interesting story. There's always a meaning and a message behind it.

Four, parables always point to the cross. This would be false.

It's not true that the genre of parable or wisdom literature always points to the cross.

Parables often do refer to the redemptive work of Christ, but not always, and not in this particular parable.

When it comes to the content of a passage, we want to pay attention to any important details.

We want to look for any important details that stand out because some words will have a greater influence on interpretation than others.

Here are some different categories of words and phrases that are important to look out for.

There are more categories that could be considered, so don't get too caught up in trying to identify which category is which.

Simply take note of anything that has a significant influence on the meaning of the text.

So here are some examples. In 1

Corinthians chapter 13, the word love occurs nine times, so we know it's an important concept in that chapter.

You could also consider contrasts. So for example, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31,

Paul says get rid of lots of bad things and then be lots of good things.

And so he's contrasting the bad things with the good things. Consider also quotes.

So when the passage quotes another passage, that's something important to be aware of and you'll want to look up that other passage to learn what was the original meaning in that one as well.

So for example, in Matthew chapter 1, verse 23, it's quoting Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14.

They will call him Immanuel. Also pay attention to links to other passages.

So even if it's not a quote, it's still a passage. So in Galatians chapter 4, verse 28, it says now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

And so you'll want to learn about the story of Isaac and why he might be referencing him there in that passage.

Consider also emotions that come out in the text. For example, in Luke chapter 7, verse 38, says she began to wet his feet with her tears.

If you were listening, she was literally wetting his feet with her tears, but there's emotions coming out in the passage.

That's important to take note of. Also pay attention to reasons for things.

So in Philippians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul says abound in knowledge so that you may test what is best.

And so pay attention to the reasons he gives for example, in First Corinthians chapter 9, verse 12,

Paul says, shouldn't we have support? But we did not exercise this right.

And so Paul argues for the right to support and then there's a change in flow. He did not take advantage of that right.

So for the parable of the Good Samaritan, here is the passage on the screen with different details that you like.

But let's just consider what different details have been highlighted here. Firstly, if we pay attention to the purple highlights, these are all characters.

And so the characters in the passage have been highlighted. They are nameless, which suggests this is probably a fictional story.

For the color grey, there is a single highlight and it is the names and if we know the historical background, we'd know that it's about a day's journey from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This doesn't make it a real story. It just makes it feel more real to the audience by adding actual real places into the story.

In blue, we've got language that's emotive. It highlights the man's helplessness and also the

Samaritan's compassion. In red, we've got contrasts. So the religious leaders avoid the man whereas the

Samaritan went to him. In green, we've got actions.

The various different ways the man is taken care of at great expense to the Samaritan. There is a single word in orange and this is simply unknown.

We'd need to research what it means. What does a denarii mean? If you do want to learn what a denarii means, you can look up Matthew chapter 20, verse 2.

Finally, in teal, it highlights the flow of the passage. The next day.

Which tells us that the story takes place over two different days. Let's now move on to structure.

The Bible was not written with a predetermined structure but since scripture is written in an orderly manner, there is a form of implicit structure.

By analysing that implicit structure, we can better grasp what the author intended to say.

An easy way to do that is by creating an outline, like so. You can specify a range of verses, so verses 1 -10 and then say what section it is and then have a next range of verses with a section title.

Within each section, you can have subsections You don't want to overdo it.

You probably only want a few sections to keep things simple but breaking it down can be helpful to follow the flow of the passage.

Now the purpose of creating an outline is not then to teach that outline to others and try to force scripture to be more structured.

It's to help us better understand the passage so that we can teach it faithfully. For short passages, breaking it down into a few main points and large passages may require subsections as well.

Often our outlines may be similar to paragraph breaks in the translation we use.

However, don't assume a translation always breaks at the most appropriate point.

Paragraph breaks are usually not in the original text and are themselves an interpretation in a way.

Here are three different ways the structure of our group passage could be broken down.

So pause the video and think which of these would be most helpful in terms of the meaning of the story.

Which structure best helps understand the text? If we consider the first structure it splits it into different days

Day 1 and Day 2 paying attention to the flow of the passage. But does this actually help us understand the parable?

It's not a great structure as although the span across two days does show the care of the

Samaritan that he did go to a lot of effort it's otherwise unimportant to the message of the story.

The next structure is better. It distinguishes between the religious leaders and the

Samaritan who are the key characters in the story. Whereas the final example is not as good.

The robbers and innkeeper are part of the context but they're not the actual point of the story so structuring it around them doesn't really help us understand the story.

You should now work individually on the passage you chose earlier. Spend time analysing the genre the details and the structure of the passage you chose.

Part 4. Implications We've so far looked at the structure of a passage we'll now consider a passage's implications for its readers.

All of scripture has a purpose. It has not been written merely to keep a record of events or for entertainment it all communicates things about God and his will for humanity.

For example Noah and the flood is not just an interesting story to tell kids it actually shows

God's righteous response to sin. The story of Jonah and the fish rebukes those not wanting

God to show grace to others. And the genealogy of Jesus reveals

God's sovereignty and Jesus' authenticity it's not just a boring list of names.

So these well -known passages are not just stories but have implications for how readers should think feel and act.

Readers of scripture should come away transformed by them. Scripture has an original audience.

Every book was written in an understandable way for the audience who first received it.

This means we must first consider what the author intended for the original recipients before considering what it may mean for us today.

For example if we're reading about the Old Testament sacrifices the implications for the original audience were to actually do the sacrifices to maintain a right relationship with God.

They weren't irrelevant they were to actually perform them. Or in 1

Corinthians 1 verse 10 -13 the believers were to stop forming groups based on who baptized who and that was an actual issue people were arguing about who baptized who.

Or in James 2 verse 1 -4 believers were to actually make sure that they were not treating the poor badly and telling them to sit at their feet rather than have a seat at the table.

So for all of these passages these were actual issues that the original audience were facing and they had to take real action in that circumstance.

The Old Testament was also written for us. In reference to writings before Paul's own time he said in 1

Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

And so when Paul recalls events in the past he says they weren't examples rather they are examples written down as warnings for us.

So while Scripture does have an original audience it's also clear that God intended

Scripture to benefit all future generations as well. But there are some challenges in determining what implications

Scripture has for us today. The original audience had their own culture and had specific issues they faced as well.

Theology is how we bridge the gap between then and now. Theology is simply the study of God and his relationship with people.

While the original audience may have had situations different to our own there are still theological principles that form the foundation of the teaching for that time.

We can take those principles and apply them carefully to our own situations.

When we don't utilize theology and simply apply the original implications of Scripture to our lives today we end up importing a lot of culture and time period specific things that are not appropriate for us today.

We need theology to bridge that gap. Two types of theology are biblical theology and systematic theology.

Biblical theology looks at how something develops over the story of the Bible. Whereas systematic theology looks at all the teaching on a topic including that from the same time period.

So biblical theology asks the question how does the time period and advent of Christ affect how to interpret this passage?

Whereas systematic theology asks how does the entirety of Scripture help to interpret this passage?

Both of these are needed for any interpretation of Scripture but they will be covered in more depth in future trainings.

This is a brief example of how the whole Bible fits together. The story of the

Bible tells of God's relationship with mankind and how sin has gotten in the way.

The way we interpret a passage will be different depending on what phase of history we're in.

Passages in the Old Testament must especially be understood in light of Christ's coming and his fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and laws.

And so you can see how the relationship with God has changed in each of the phases.

And you can see how each phase lines up with a certain part of the Bible. First, God dwells with his creation but then people sin and they're banished.

However, God still loves people and restores relationship with them despite their sin.

He does this especially by making promises to Abraham. Not because Abraham was a good guy but simply because he's a good

God. God is then present if his people are faithful and he makes a covenant with the nation of Israel that if they obey him they'll be blessed but if they don't obey him then they'll be cursed.

However, people fail to obey God, they forsake him and worship idols and so he punishes them with exile.

But during that time there are still prophecies of hope and eventually

Jesus comes. He's the perfect fulfillment of God being present with his people and also being the perfect man who is faithful to God and sinless.

And because of that his death on the cross and his resurrection he can pay the penalty of sin for us.

He has opened the way for us to have a close relationship with God which we now experience through his

Holy Spirit as we wait for Jesus' return. And then we will forever for all eternity be in God's presence in his new creation.

So the whole story of the Bible is about how to resolve the issue of sin and fix the relationship between God and his creation.

Let's now go back to the examples we gave earlier and think about what the implications would be for today.

If we carefully extract the theological principles from the passages we can work out how we might apply them for us today.

So for the Old Testament sacrifices the implications for the original audience were to actually do them to maintain a right relationship with God.

Whereas the implications of them today are not for us to perform those sacrifices but for us to be thankful for Jesus who sacrificed himself for us.

In 1st James chapter 1 the implications for the original audience was that they should stop forming groups based on who baptized who and stop dividing over such a silly issue.

Now while we may not have such an issue in our own churches today about who baptized who there are still implications for us that we should be united in Christ and avoid dividing over trivial matters.

In James chapter 2 the original audience was to stop discriminating against the poor and to ensure they have a place to sit and participate in church meetings.

We too should ensure the poor are socially included in our churches and while we may not have an issue of forcing poor people to sit on the floor we can still exclude them by for example charging for church events that they may not be able to afford or embarrassing them by requiring them to ask for a discount or ask for a free ticket.

Rather we should make sure all events are free so that we don't exclude the poor from them.

So while the two New Testament passages could be directly applied to us today we don't often share the same situation.

So we need to consider what principle is at play and consider modern day situations that would be relevant to that principle.

There are a few different types of implications that come from passages.

We will be most familiar with being told to do something in response to a passage but Scripture shouldn't just transform what we do it should also transform how we think and feel.

One type of implication is knowledge and it could be knowledge about God or knowledge about people.

A passage may help us know God better, not just in terms of facts but in terms of personally understanding and appreciating him.

Or in terms of us a passage may help us know ourselves and other people better in terms of both valuing human life and also considering our sinful state.

Or a passage could have implications on our attitudes. A passage may lead to transformation of our hearts in ways that can't necessarily be acted out.

It could be a change of attitude to a life situation that will still remain the same and so you may still do that thing but you'll do it with an attitude that is more pleasing to God rather than the attitude you had previously.

And then there are actions. We may need to take tangible action and start or stop doing something.

Or if we are already doing it maybe we should simply be encouraged to persevere in that. So applying a passage to today may involve helping people consider any one of these types of implications for their lives.

You may sometimes hear people criticise churches that are all about knowledge and not about living out their faith but a faithful Christian will delight in transforming not just their actions but their hearts and minds as well.

Growing in knowledge is a reasonable application for a passage. We just must make sure our actions are also being transformed as well when a passage does call for it.

So let's think about the group passage, the story of the Good Samaritan and what might be suitable implications for today.

A Good Samaritan in the news today is simply a bystander who helps a stranger when they are in trouble.

But this misses an important point of the parable, that the man is helped by a

Samaritan who he would normally despise. So pause the video now and consider the following implications and decide if they are suitable or not suitable.

For the first one, Jesus was beaten and broken out of love for us.

You can see that this implication is trying to connect the passage to Jesus but it's not a good way of doing it.

There's no reason to interpret this parable as being allegorical for Jesus according to the context.

So this would not be a suitable implication for today because it misunderstands the passage. Two, love even your enemies.

This would be suitable, in fact it's probably the most suitable implication of the passage. This is the main implication of the passage as it directly answers the preceding and following questions.

Who is my neighbor and who was a neighbor to the man? And we can see here that the implication is on our attitudes, how we consider those around us and that will also flow into our actions as well.

The next one, help anyone you see in need. While this would be a suitable implication of the passage, it doesn't really bring out the main message that we're to love even our enemies.

So not just someone who's in need but we're to love our enemies. For example,

I think this parable is telling us that we are to love our enemies even when they're not in need because this is all pointing back to the commands to love your neighbor.

Number four, you cannot inherit eternal life unless you love your neighbor.

While there is a question of eternal life in the context, it's not the actual question being answered by this parable so this would not be a suitable implication of the passage.

Finally, number five, religious status does not excuse lovelessness.

This would be a suitable implication. Jesus is clearly criticizing religious leaders with this parable, having them as the bad examples and showing that although they have a high status, that doesn't give them excuse to not love their neighbors and in this case, love

Samaritans as well. So we can see here that this passage is really targeting our attitudes.

We may not come across someone who we consider an enemy who's beaten up on the road but we may come across people we consider enemies at work or at school or at other contexts of life and Jesus is calling us to make sure that we love them.

We'll now consider how we can utilize all we've learnt to prepare teaching material that is faithful to scripture.

If you're preparing to teach or lead others through a passage, you should consider what implications the passage may have for them.

There may be implications for them that are not applicable for you. For example, you should consider your audience's age, their gender, their relationship status, their occupation, their spiritual maturity or other circumstances as well.

Let's consider some examples. You can pause the video and think about these yourself first before we go through them.

First, Proverbs chapter 3, verse 7. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the

Lord and turn away from evil. The implication will likely be on our attitudes.

Having humility and trusting God's ways are better than our own. There could be a variety of implications for adults, such as what attitude they have in their marriage and sexual purity, whereas for youth it could be something like not following the crowd, but instead following what

God says. For the next example, for example, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 14.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Those from a Buddhist background would need to avoid literal idolatry that their friends and family may wish for them to partake in, whereas this would largely be irrelevant for those from a

Western background who instead should be admonished to not idolise wealth, career and other things they may be tempted by.

Finally, Romans chapter 9, verse 18. Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

The implication is mainly on knowledge of who God is and how he acts.

Believers can be encouraged to have awe at God's mercy in saving them purely by his own will, whereas non -believers should be challenged to not think of religion in terms of doing good to get to heaven, but should seek

God, who is the one who has mercy on those who come to him. So how do we hold everything we learn about a passage together?

This is where a big idea comes in. Whether it's a Bible study or a talk, having a big idea that holds all the truths of the passage together will make it much easier for your audience to understand it, as catching one ball is much easier than having several thrown at you.

This doesn't mean we are reducing everything in the passage down to one thing, rather we are focusing on one thing that helps connect most of the elements of the passage together.

Now, a good big idea is one clear, two faithful, and three theological.

It should be clear in that it should be brief and add clarity not confusion. It should usually be a single statement that is easy to understand.

It should be faithful as well. It should be consistent with the passage's content and meaning.

It doesn't necessarily have to account for every part of the passage, but if there are significant sections missed, then it may not be a very good big idea.

And it should also be theological. It should bring forth truths applicable to then and today.

We should avoid being merely descriptive. That would just be summarising the passage.

We want to focus on what the passage teaches about God and his will that is applicable to any time period.

Let's try this out on our group passage. What is wrong with the following big ideas?

Pause the video and have a quick think about the following examples. Let's look at the first one.

No matter who lives next to your house, you must love them. What is wrong with that big idea?

Well, it's not faithful to the passage. The parable clearly shows that a neighbour is not just referring to those who live next to you.

The moral of the story in that particular time was that even Samaritans who may have lived far away from you were your neighbour and you were to love them.

What about the next one? The man was ignored by religious leaders but loved by the

Samaritan. The problem with this one is it's not theological.

It's merely descriptive of what happened. It doesn't teach us things about God. For the final one,

Samaritans were despised back then and yet the one who ended up helping was the Samaritan.

So we should love even people we don't get along with. The problem with this big idea is that it's not clear.

It's all true but it doesn't help us hold the passage together with a single idea.

There's just too much going on in that statement. Finally, what is good about this big idea?

We are to love everyone around us regardless of who we are or who they are.

Now why is this a good big idea? This isn't to say it's perfect. You could come up with different big ideas that are also very good but this big idea does fulfil the criteria of being clear, faithful and theological.

Firstly, it is clear. It's succinct and easy to understand. It's also faithful as it includes the main ideas of the passage.

It's focused on the main idea of loving others. It includes the rejection of status, so being a religious leader like a

Levite or a priest does not matter, it does not excuse you from loving others. And it also includes the acceptance of even enemies, that we're to love even our enemies.

Finally, it's theological and applicable to then and today. It teaches us of what

God wants for us, what God's will is. We'll now think about what makes a good

Bible study and what makes a good talk. There are many ways to prepare a good

Bible study and this is one way that will be suitable for most circumstances. It's perfectly okay to use another kind of structure if that's what you're used to but if you're new to leading a

Bible study then this is a helpful way to get started. First, you should have a warm -up question.

It could be a fun or interesting discussion question that's somehow related to the topic. It doesn't have to teach something, it just needs to get people interested and comfortable in talking to each other before we dive into the passage.

If there's anything in the passage that isn't straightforward then you probably want to ask some context questions beforehand that draw attention to any context that's important to understand for interpretation.

Then you have your topical questions. These dive into the details of a passage.

You can break down the passage into different topics or sections and then have a series of questions on each.

And there are two types of questions. The first are questions that draw attention to something.

So these are comprehension questions that focused on what the passage says whereas you've then got questions that draw out the meaning of a passage.

These are more interpretation questions that consider the meaning and the implications. So when you're drawing attention to something it's kind of asking the what, what is being said and when you're drawing out meaning it's asking why it's being said.

You can then also have some summary questions to wrap everything up and then also implication questions to ask what does that mean for us today.

If you're instead deciding to prepare a talk this is what should go into a good talk.

Talks have similar elements to Bible studies except you have already considered the implications of the passage and you apply them to your audience.

First you'll start with an introduction, an opening illustration that builds interest and is connected to your passage.

You'll then have your main points and usually there's either two three or four main points to a talk that all connect to the big idea.

Within each main point you need to explain what the point is and show from the passage where the point comes from and what it means.

You should also illustrate your point so give an analogy or example that further clarifies the point and its relevance to the audience and you should also apply your point revealing what the implications of that truth is for the audience that you are speaking to.

Finally you'll then want to have a conclusion that restates your big idea, brings everything together and reveals what the implications are.

The main points of a talk do not necessarily need to sequentially follow the main sections of the passage.

A talk's points could be in a different order to the passage or not based on the passage's structure at all.

It could be more based around themes in the passage. As we're not aiming to simply recite the passage but to teach it to a modern audience.

You should now begin to create either a Bible study outline or a talk outline based on the passage that you chose earlier.

On the training .freely .giving website you can find templates to do this.

Part 5. Preparation. This session is dedicated to working on your

Bible study or talk outline and discussing any questions that come up. In the final session you'll be presenting your work and giving feedback.

Part 6. Feedback. It's time to review your study or talk outline.

If you're in a group you should be giving each other feedback whereas if you are by yourself you may want to ask a pastor or someone else with good knowledge of exegesis to give you feedback.

When it comes to reviewing a Bible study or Here are some good questions to think about each component of the study.

These questions don't all need to be answered. They're simply provided to help participants think about how to give good feedback to each other.

Firstly, the big idea. Is it clear and faithful to the passage and theological?

Next, the topics. Are they the main topics of the passage? Usually these will follow the structure of the passage and could be based on themes as well.

Either way, it should categorise all the main parts of the passage. When it comes to the warm -up question, is it interesting and relevant?

Because if it's not you may just simply want to leave it out if it doesn't help people get into the passage.

For context questions, you need to think are they answerable by your audience, by the group that you'll be running the

Bible study in? Because if they can't answer it themselves by looking at the passage, you may simply want to teach it.

For example, if it's some historical details that no one else is likely to know, you may just want to reveal what those details are rather than asking the question.

But whatever the context you're bringing up, you need to make sure that it actually helps people understand the passage.

For your questions that draw attention to the passage, do they all point to important parts?

And for the draw out meaning questions, are they likely to extract the meaning of the topic?

For the summary questions, do they gather everything under the big idea? Do they help the group come back towards what the main point of the passage is?

And finally, for the implication questions, are they drawn from the big idea?

And are they appropriate for today? When it comes to reviewing a talk, you should consider for the big idea is it clear, faithful to the passage, and theological?

For the context, are all the necessary elements explained? Have you left anything out that some will be confused by in the passage because they didn't know about it?

For the main points of your talk, you must check that they are actually the main points of the passage and not just minor details.

When you're explaining your points, you should think, do your explanations help to understand the passage?

You want to add clarity rather than confusion. For any illustrations you've included, do they help to understand the topic and be convicted by it?

Do they match the point that you're trying to illustrate? For your applications, are they from the passage and are they appropriate for today and appropriate for your audience?

And then considering your introduction and conclusion. Does your introduction connect listeners to the passage?

Does it interest them and make them want to learn more? And for your conclusion, does it bring everything together?

Does it help people leave knowing what the main point of the passage was and what its implications are for their lives?

If you're in a group, you should now take turns to share your outlines and give each other feedback.

You should go through your outline sequentially and explain it to the group. And you should consult the questions mentioned earlier while you're giving each other's feedback.

This is just a suggested way to structure your feedback session, but feel free to do what you prefer.

The author can first share what they feel like they could have improved. And then the reviewers can share what they thought was good and maybe one or two ways it could be improved.

You should try to be encouraging in your feedback, but also honest so that everyone can learn how to more faithfully and accurately interpret

God's Word. I hope you've enjoyed this training material. This material is entirely public domain, which means you can copy, modify, translate it without any limitation.

You don't have to attribute us or anything. We recommend keeping this slide so that any modifications are also dedicated to the public domain as well.

All scripture has been quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. You can learn more about this training and download all the original source files for it at training .freely

.giving. Also note, if you check out the original slides in the speaker notes, there's extensive notes for leaders explaining tips and timing and how to run groups well.

So make sure you check out that as well. Blessings in Christ as you strive to know Him better through His Word.