Today in THP Students, we began discussing some essentials of the Christian faith. A key aspect of Christianity is the Word of God. To kick off this discussion, we played a game that required our students to think critically. I gave them a riddle that I could only answer Yes or No questions to in a period of 10 minutes. The riddle was as follows:

A man is found dead on a path 200 feet from a gate. Besides what he was wearing, all he had with him was a strange stick. Who was he, and how did he die?

The students came up with some wild theories as they investigated the scenario. Suggesting he was a gardener attacked by his own trees, he was attacked by a bear, or he was a construction worker of some sort. They got SO close but didn’t quite get it. But I did go ahead and give them the answer, which was:

The man was a jockey in a horse race, and he had tragically fallen off his worse.

After some laughter, we went on to the lesson itself.

The Lesson

These riddles are tricky because you need more information at first look. The solution for each riddle requires us to ask questions to discover each situation’s who, why, and where. 

There are many situations in life where we must intentionally study a situation to understand it truly.  This is especially true for us as Christians when we approach the scriptures.  Today, we are going to be starting a discussion on what the Bible is and how to understand what it says.

Ask: What is the Bible?

Answer: The Bible is a collection of 66 history, poetry, and wisdom books. It tells us the story of God’s people and the birth of the world’s Savior and details how believers should worship God and interact with the world around them. It is broken up into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Ask: Who wrote the Bible?

Answer: The answer is one being through many people. In the Bible, we see that there are roughly 40 people who wrote the scriptures over a thousand-odd years. The Scriptures, while penned by men, are verbally inspired by God.

Ask: Why is the Bible important?

Answer: You wouldn’t want to learn how to play baseball from a person who’s only ever played soccer their entire life. You wouldn’t want to learn how to do gymnastics from someone who’s never worked out a day in their lives. The Bible is important because helps us as believers to understand who God is, how to worship Him properly, and how to live a life as a dedicated disciple. Not from some random person who doesn’t love God, but from God himself through various writers who were just as passionate about loving God.

So now that we have that down, let’s talk about studying the Bible. 

Step One: Get a Bible.

It’s hard to read the Bible in its original text unless you speak Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. So, we have to use a translation. The thing about translating anything from one language into another is that words and ideas don’t always transfer over, especially when you’re dealing with writings from thousands of years ago.

A great example is the name of one of my favorite fast-food places, “Taco Bueno.” If we did a literal translation of the name “Taco Bueno” into English, it would be “Taco-Good.” Which sounds very cavemen-like. But if someone were translating it for the best understanding of what it’s saying, they would say, “Good Taco.” You’d have to make that adjustment because the rules for Spanish grammar differ from those for English grammar. So, in picking a Bible, we must ponder the translations.

There are many translations, and my general rule for people is, “Pick the Bible you’ll actually read.” But with some minor caveats to that statement. There are two main views on translations: word for word (Taco Good) and thought for thought (Good Taco).

Some, like the New King James, King James, New American Standard, and English Standard, are more “word for word” (Taco Good).

On the other side are translations like the New International Version, New Living Translation, and the Christian Standard Bible, which lean more towards “thought for thought” (Good Taco).

Now, these are in various degrees. I feel some things in the NIV and NLT are better handled than the ESV and NASB simply because they made specific topics more understandable.  I personally use several on the list.

A thing I do warn folks about is not to use a full-on paraphrased Bible like the Message as their primary Bible. It’s not a bad tool, but it’s not an actual Bible. Also, stay clear of some intentionally miswritten Bibles, such as the New World Translation, which was purposefully miswritten for the sake of a particular organization.

Step Two: Read the Bible in Context

In our riddles, we had to ask some hard questions to understand the context of our situations. Let me give you another example where context is important.

You find two notes that the same person wrote. One note says, “Take it easy when you get home from school. Put your stuff down, get a snack, listen to music for about 30 minutes, maybe go outside and play with the dog for a bit, then do your homework.”

The second note says, “As soon as you get home from school, I want you to sit down at the kitchen table and start doing your homework. No music, no games, get to work immediately.”

Ask: Why would the same person write two very pieces of advice?

It’s because of the context of the situation. One note was written to a kid who was struggling with school, and the other was a kid who was dealing with stress and anxiety from being at school. Both needed advice about what to do after school, but each had a different situation.

Now, both were great advice, but if you were personally dealing with anxiety from school, you wouldn’t apply the advice of the first note. When we look at the scriptures, there is a world of wisdom that’s designed to help us. But we need to be aware of the context of the advice so that we can accurately apply it to our lives. 

Ask: So how do we do that?

When we come to a Bible passage that we are reading, we need to ask some key questions…

• What is the genre of the passage I’m reading? Is it poetry? Is it a letter written to a specific person and place? Is it a narrative that tells an overarching story?  We are going to get into the discussion on genre later but to put it short, knowing the genre we are reading helps us to understand it better.
• Who is speaking in the passage and who are they talking to? Is it Jesus talking to a disciple? Is it Moses talking to Pharaoh?  Is it Paul writing to a hurting church?
• How would the original readers of this passage interpret what’s said?
• Knowing how it applied to the original readers, how does it apply to my life?

Ask: How do we discover this information, and what do we do if we struggle to understand?

• Take a moment to carefully read the intro of each book as it gives you key information like who’s writing and who they are talking to.
• Take time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to understand what you’re reading.
• Ask for help! Ask your pastors, your mentors, and parents.
• Use tools like commentaries or study Bibles.

At the end of our lesson, we wanted to be able to provide a tool for the students. Thanks to the generous donations of various individuals here at The Healing Place, we could gift each student a copy of the Student Edition of a study Bible called The Fire Bible. This particular one uses the New Living Translation to be a bit easier to read, but it also contains some fantastic commentary, notes, and tools to help our students grow.

Next week, we will be taking the conversation a bit further by diving into a discussion on genre, practical steps for studying the Bible, and other things!