Bible study tools

Proper tools are required to study any ancient literature. The Bible is an ancient book and appropriate tools are required to unlock its message. There are three important tools commonly used by the Bible students. These tools are Biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics. These three little words are actually jargons and so  some explanation and illustration is necessary.

Exegesis: It is an art of critical analysis that is used to study the ancient text in its original language, with the purpose of bringing out its original message. It involves text study, sentence structure, and word study etc. A good grasp of the original languages is essential to a good exegetical study because the Scripture was written in different ancient languages. The Old Testament scripture was mainly written in Hebrews with a touch of Aramaic, and a trace to Akkadians and Arabic root. Then there is this Septuagint, which was a translation, and it was written in koine Greek. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was popularly used by the Jews and our Lord. Koine Greek was a common dialect or lingua franca of the Roman Empire since 3^rd century BC and that was slightly different from the classical Greek. The New Testament was also written in Koine Greek with a bit of Aramaic.

Naturally, one has to be well versed with all these languages before he can actually place his hand on these two testaments. Therefore, strictly speaking, Biblical exegesis is a special task that requires professional knowledge. Looking around in the Christian community in Malaysia, there are not many people who can carry out the job. Obviously, there is none among the Reformed Baptist fraternal that can exegete the Biblical texts in its original language. For the few of us who have gone through training in the Bible colleges have merely picked up superficial knowledge about exegesis. This is a fact and we have to humbly admit it. Can we still carry out the task of biblical exegesis? Yes, we can, though not as a specialist. We can still make exegetical observation on the English version of the Bible with the help of good exegetical commentaries. We can come to a closer grasp of the Bible by our critical observation.

Hermeneutics: It is an art of interpreting the original message from the scripture and it is closely associated with exegesis. Biblical interpretation and biblical exegesis are Siamese twins. They would produce accurate search on the scripture when they work hand in hand with one another. When the exegesis is inaccurate the interpretation would be wrong. Yet many Bible students have gone straight into interpreting the scripture without paying any attention to exegetical work. Probably they presume that the two are the same, and if they have done the interpretation they would have done the exegetical work. When exegetical work is ignored, then they have to resort to big doctrinal argument to support their interpretation.

Homiletics: Generally, this is a study on public speaking. Its emphasis is usually on the beauty of the message and on the persuasiveness in the delivery of the message. In the Christian practice, this is an art of public preaching from the scripture. In this sense, expository preaching is closer to the heart of the Christian homiletics. The message comes straight from what the preacher has found from both the exegetical work and the work of interpretation, and then special emphasis is placed on the application of the message.

In the following is an outline of a sermon which I heard some time ago. It is a good example how one can jump straight into interpretation and homiletics without paying sufficient attention to exegesis. It was one of the better messages I have heard, but I still feel that the exegetical work was lacking and the message drifted away from the original intention of the text.

The triumph of God's grace

1. Introduction
2. Focus on the family
3. An abdication of responsibility
4. The desperation of a lady
5. Vindication amidst immorality
6. Reflection ad application

Now, I will show you how I worked out an outline of a message, from Gen.38, by using the three study tools, in the following;

Exegetical observation

This is an outline of Genesis 38. This is a plain story without any interpretation. This is what exegesis supposes to be. It is, of course, a bit tougher when come to controversial text.

1. Judah married a foreign woman and bore three sons. 
2. He then got a wife for the older son
3. God killed him because of his wickedness 
4. Then the second son was ordered to marry the woman.
5. God killed the second son too for his refusal to produce any child with the woman.
6. Then Tamar was told to wait as widow.
7. Judah broke his promise.
8. Tamar used her deception to get herself a son with Judah.
9. Tamar saved herself death penalty with Judah’s signet and cord, and staff.
10. Tamar gave birth to two sons.

Interpretation

In interpretation we should ask as many questions as possible. Why did Moses record the story? Was it about man’s conduct? Was it all about immorality? Was it about the wrongness in human cunningness? Was it about one man's responsibility to reproduce on behalf of his own deceased brother? Or was it about God and His will? The message which I heard seems to focus more on the issue of immorality and how these moral problems being overcame by the Grace of God. But, from the plain exegesis we do not find such passing of judgment on Judah and Tamar in the text, except the two sons who were killed by God. 

It is difficult and inaccurate to judge the conduct in the Old Testament from our perspective. What appears to be wrong to us may not be wrong in the Old Testament. The reason given for the older son’s punishment was his wickedness. The text does not provide further information about the nature of his wickedness. It is a puzzle why did God punish him while they were many people might be worse than him. The conduct of the second son, to us, is definitely not serious enough to be punished. But it was serious enough to God.  From the wider context in Genesis, it is quite safe to say that the two sons’ wickedness has to do with their refusal to have any child with Tamar. His conduct was not a moral issue but was an act of disobedience. Judah’s casual relationship with the prostitute would be a horror to us but it was alright to the society then. As a widow, Tamar’s pregnancy was unacceptable to her society, but it might not be so today. So it is inaccurate to treat the story like this as a teaching material on moral issue.

It is more appropriate to interpret the story as God’s progressive way of revealing His will to the Jews. The larger context in Genesis and the information provided by the gospels would help us to arrive at a clearer interpretation. Jacob had 12 sons and on each he gave his blessing. Judah received his share of the blessing as recorded in Genesis 49.8-12. Judah’s line had a special role to play in God’s salvation plan. Tamar had a special place in God’s plan. Tamar’s son Perez was an important link in the genealogy right up to Jesus Christ. (Mt.1.3; Lk.3.33)!

Homily

Now we have a message from Genesis 38 and we have to present it in a manner that would be relevant and be able to connect to the listeners. Perhaps at this point we have to find out who is actually the leading character in the story. It is very much like directing a film show and the director would normally tell his history by casting the leading and supporting actors or actresses in a distinctive manner. It would not work if all turn out to be leading actors and actresses or all were in the supporting roles. So in our presentation, we have to decide on the leading character and the supporting ones. There must not be any confusion here. Do we have Judah or Tamar as the leading person? I would choose Tamar and use her to tell the story, and the outline will be as the following.

God's will prevailed! 

 Introduction: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is.55.9). It was unthinkable and unbelievable to the Jews that Tamar a foreign woman was chosen as the vessel to bear the seed of Judah.

1. Tamar the passive bride (1-6)
2. Tamar the “black widow” (7-11)
3. Tamar the cunning daughter in law (12-23)
4. Tamar the blessed mother (24-30)

Application: What shall we do when we encounter such a wise and sovereign God who had not only a salvation plan, but also had the power and wisdom to bring the plan to its consummation? Three things we can do when we get to know our God from the story of Tamar;

·         We should humble ourselves before Him and complain no more.

·         We should bow down and worship Him

·         We should learn to appreciate what the Lord had taught His disciples about “let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Rounding up:

What is the whole purpose of insisting on using the appropriate tools in Bible study? It is all about the science of analytical study. It is proven as the right method to study the Bible and to extract its intended message from the Bible. At the end of the preaching, we have to ask ourselves whether or not we have imparted the accurate grasp of the Scripture to the congregation. We have to ask also whether or not we have delivered the correct homily to the people. It is never an easy task to preach an accurate message that is based on the Bible. Hard it might be, but our calling is not to mislead others by our ill prepared homily.

A journey in bible study

Serdang Church has organized a seminar on Biblical Exegesis in 1986. I was then a fresh graduate from Seminary Theology Malaysia and was posted to Klang Wesley Methodist Church as a pastor in the month of June. I was informed that a delegation of 10 members had signed up for the seminar. I was impressed by the effort initiated by the Serdang church to organize a seminar on such an important subject. I was convinced that organizing such seminar was the right thing to do because it would help Christians to appreciate the right approach to study the Bible. It is always the desire of most thinking Christians to obtain proper Bible knowledge by developing the correct method in Bible study. Such desire is commonly shared by Christians from all denominations. The 10 Methodist members who had signed up for that seminar that was organized by a Reformed Baptist Church simply prove the point. The organizing committee should have made it its aim to promote Bible knowledge by imparting the knowledge of Biblical Exegesis in the subsequent seminars, then it would have been able to reach out to a larger group of Christians in the Klang Valley.

The golden opportunity was given to Serdang Church and it started well, but unfortunately it slipped away into a wrong direction. The subsequent seminars and conferences moved quickly to focus on themes and issues that only interested the Reformed members. The response from other denominations was not so good; at least, the 10 Methodist members did not show up for any seminar after that. Since then, the Reformed Baptists became more and more inward looking and moved into a direction of division by entangling with unending doctrinal dispute. Each one held on to his own interpretation of the Bible. Elders and members from the same fraternal were hard working in proving to one another that who is truly “reformed” and the end result is that many were hurt and disappointed. Elders are pointing fingers at each other and calling each other names that are less than being kind. Elders and churches are afraid to do anything right that is out of the reformed frame work for the fear that they might be branded as un-reformed. The situation is very much like what is reported in Judges; “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21.25).The strangest thing is that all these took place while we claim that the Bible is our final authority and the 1689 Confession our common consensus. In this sense, the reformed Baptists are not in any way different from the other denominations.

The question now is how to pull the Reformed churches out of this muddy puddle? We have tried the Reformed distinctiveness and it did not work. We have tried waving the 1689 Confession and it became the cause of dispute. We have laid our hands on many other attempts but we have not tried hard enough with the exegetical study of the Bible. Shall we?