Where do you begin when starting a study of any book of the Bible? The average person is just going to jump right into the text of that book and start looking at it verse by verse. Maybe you grab a trusted commentary and start reading through the text. Another option might be to find someone who has recorded a class about that book (why not glean from someone else’s teaching). You might even read the book through a few times before really studying. Obviously, there are several ways that a person could begin a study, and you can’t really be dogmatic about how to begin a study. We all learn in different ways, but I would like to share with you another way.
How to Read a Book
Years ago a friend introduced me to a book. It was written by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren and the title was simply, “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.” How to read a book? Really?! Aren’t you supposed to just pick it up and start reading? Well, there are some books with which you can do just that, but some books (like the Bible) need a more intelligent approach. The book gives several tips on how to get more out of a book. I want to pass on the tips that I believe will help you in get more out of a study of the scriptures.
Read the Headings
Adler and Van Doren give the advice that you need to read the table of contents and then look at the sections headings in the book. This translates somewhat when reading the Bible. Reading the table of contents at the beginning of your Bible will not help you to understand things better in any given book, but the section headings might. Some Bibles do provide a brief synopsis of what is going on in a selected range of scriptures. It is important to recognize at this point the scriptures are authored by God, but the headings are written by man. We need to know this up front. The may give us a little bit of a guide as what is going on, but because they are the thoughts of men (some driven by false doctrines) you need to be careful as they may miss the mark on some of their headings. Nonetheless it is still a good place to start in this author’s opinion.
Skim the Book
This is something that is taught within universities today. If you go to a “Freshmen Orientation” they are going to help you in certain areas, like study, so that you can get the most out of your time in school. One skill that is taught is the idea of skimming. How can you do this successfully? Well, after you have read the headings you skim the book by reading the first and last sentence of every paragraph. Some Bibles are not setup by paragraph, if you have one of these Bibles I would encourage you to get a Bible that does (or look one up online) so you can complete this task. When you are done with this step you are going to start getting a good feel for whatever you are reading.
Outline the Book
Outlining is essential to understanding a book of the Bible. There were times in school when our teachers would require us to outline books of the Bible. It was always arduous work, but I found it to be the most beneficial as I could get a really good understanding of the workings of any book. It is also great for content retention. This is really the final step of the preparation to get started in a study. Go through each chapter and find the main points. Then go through and find the sub-points in each chapter. This will probably require you to read through the book a few times (I tend to read each chapter at least 3 times, sometimes more) before you can really get a good understanding of the text.
What’s the Point?
Maybe you are thinking that this sounds like a lot of work. It is, but this is the way that I have found to be most beneficial in any study of the scriptures. Could you do it another way? Absolutely! Could something else work better for you? Maybe. Whatever you do, make sure that you give it your best (Col. 3:23-24) so that you can be pleasing to God (2 Tim. 2:15).
His Servant and Yours,
Matt McBrayer
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