013 | How to Study the Bible Part 2

In our last episode, we talked about the difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible. We emphasized the importance of making observations of the text. The grammar, the language, the context, the original language, etc. As good students of the Scriptures, we are to look, look, and look again at the text before we can begin to draw conclusions. Now we must be armed with the right tools to look at the historical and cultural context of the Bible. The Bible was not lowered down from a cloud, free of cultural influences. No, it was written, read, and understood in the context of culture. This is not good or bad, it just is. With this in mind, we need to move to step two of the interpretive process, measuring the width of the river. 1. Step 2: Measuring the Width of the River to the Cross.a. Key Question: What are the differences between the Biblical audience and us?i. “The Christian today is separated from the Biblical audience by differences in culture, language, situation, time, and often covenant. These differences form a river that hinders us from moving straight from meaning in their context to meaning in ours.” 1. The width of the river varies from text to text.2. Some passages have lots of differences between us and them, and some passages do not. ii. This step is focused on looking for significant differences between our context and theirs.1. Important questions to ask in order to identify differences between our culture and theirs: Who was the author? What was his background? When did he write? What was the nature of his ministry? What kind of relationship did he have with his audience? Why was he writing? Who was his biblical audience? What were their circumstances? How was their relationship with God? What kind of relationships did they have with each other? What was happening at the time the book was written? Are there any other historical-cultural factors that might shed light on the book?