Supplemental Reading 2: Bible Study: THEMATIC

BIBLE STUDY: THEMATIC (Literary Criticism)

           This form of bible study draws on several tools from biblical criticism in order to help modern readers understand passages of the bible in context.  This involves studying passages of scripture within the context of its surrounding text.  The words of the bible are set against the backdrop of the sentences, paragraphs and chapters they were meant to form.

It is very easy to read into the text and presuppose that the text can have multiple meanings to multiple people.  This is fallacious and comes from an inaccurate view of scripture.  We must remember that scripture is a Word that has intent and purpose.  The author of the text wrote with the explicit purpose of communicating specific ideas.

Before we dig into how to read through specific texts we must bear in mind that scripture was written in a time and culture different than our own.  There are certain things that the author meant to say to his original audience that means something different to people in our culture today.  However, scripture does communicate timeless truths that carry across through all cultures.  To understand what those ideas are we must understand what type of text we are reading we need to place the text in context of its genre.  This determines the writing style and gives us clues to what and how certain literary elements contribute to communicating the author’s intent.  Additionally, we must also understand the historical setting of the writing.  The text we are studying may have been meant to address the needs of a particular person or group.  There may also be political and social references that only make sense when placed in the proper historical context.  When we factor all these things into our study it adds depth and insight to the layers of text and improves our ability to accurately understand the meaning of the text.

Once this preliminary leg work has been done to understand who the author is and who the original audience was we can view the text through a perspective that will get us closer to the author’s original intent.  The author is trying to communicate ideas.  Ideas are seldom communicated in one word.  When someone writes they typically use units of language to express ideas.  Words are components of a sentence.  Sentences are components of paragraphs.  Paragraphs are components of manuscripts.

The manuscript is a collection of ideas that an author intends to discuss and relate to one another.  The manuscript takes individual ideas that may seem unrelated but ties them together so that they fit to express one consistent theme.  But to understand the big theme how each of individual idea is related to one another we must isolate paragraphs that express individual concepts and ideas.  Each paragraph contains a unique idea that contributes to the overarching theme of the manuscript.  Each word and sentence in a single paragraph should contribute to communicating a single idea.

So before we pick apart a sentences and quibble over the meaning of words, we should try to understand what the bulk of the text is trying to communicate.  We will miss out on the big picture and come up with weird interpretations when we try to extract scriptural truth from a word etiology .  What good is it to know how to decline or conjugate a word if we fail to recognize what the author originally intended to communicate?  Rather we should seek to see the big picture because once we understand that we can rightly and more fully know the depths of the wonders of God’s gift to man, the Living Word (Heb 4:12).

Practice this process with the passage below:

Read 1 John 2:2-6

1.    What Does it Say?

“He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.  This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” yet doesn’t keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:  The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.”

*Once we’ve read what the passage says try to summarize or “bulletize” the passage.  Doing this helps us identify the main concepts of the passage and get to the heart of the text.  Once we can summarize the passage in our own words we’ve spent a sufficient amount of time trying to understand what the passage says.  Summarizing is NOT about trying to draw out an application.  Summarizing IS trying to clarify what the texts says to make sure we understand it.  

Summarize the main points of this passage

*Once you understand what the passage says and can summarize  the content of the passage then  we try to  figure out how the content relates to the real world.  We have to remember that God’s Word is written communication to us and that the purpose of communicating is to exchange information.  The information we collect tells us new things about the natural world, the person with whom we communicate, and about us.  When we do bible study the person we are communicating with is God Himself.  So God reveals more to us about Him.  He also reveals things to us about ourselves.  These revelations affect our relationship with God and our relationships with other people.  

*There are two general categories of questions we ask ourselves when we communicate(study the bible).  The first category of questions relate to just understanding the text itself.  These clarifying questions help us truly understand what is being said.  When we encounter words we don’t know we need to ask ourselves questions about what it means.  Sometimes we see a word used in a way that is irregular and we need to ask ourselves why the word was used that way and if it was placed there for symbolic meaning or some other literary accentuation/emphasis.  

2.    What does it mean?

Exploratory Questions · What does propitiation mean? · Who is the propitiation? · Who is the propitiation? ·  How can we be confident we know “Him?” · According to the passage who is a liar and why? · What does “the love of God is perfected” mean? ·What does the passage say about those who are in Him? · What does it say that those who are “in Him” are supposed to do?

Key points · Jesus Christ is the appeasement/satisfaction/peace offering/reparation for the sins of man(mankind) ·  Those who keep/guard/obey God are the ones who know Him · How do we demonstrate our love for God? · Those who follow Christ are the ones who are in Him

*Once we’ve found out what the text says and understand what it means and how it relates us the next thing we need to do is figure out how to respond to the information we’ve been given.  Just like in any conversation we have when we talk to someone we expect them to respond to the things we say to them.  God also expects us to respond to what He says to us.  The type of questions we ask ourselves now lead to action.  They change what we think and do.  

3.    What does it mean to me?

Reflection Questions 1.        Does my behavior demonstrate that I know God? 2.       Do I know what God’s commands are? 3.       Am I a liar? 4.       Am I following Jesus?

*Once you’ve worked through what God is revealing to you through His Word there must be action.  Whenever God reveals Himself to us it always necessitates change that reformats the way we think.  Changed thinking results in changed lifestyle.  Our behavior changes when we take on a kingdom perspective.  Change is difficult and it takes time.  Too much change at one time can cause a lot of turmoil and discouragement.  So rather than trying to change a lot focus on changing one small achievable goal.  This first step sets you up to have future successful changes that lead you to grow in your relationship with Jesus.  

4.  How does this apply to me?

Individual Challenge 1.  What is one thing God’s revealed to you in this passage that convicts you?  Write it down.   2.  Write down a specific action you can do for 1 week that helps you align yourself with what God’s revealed to you.   3.  Draw or write out a vision of how your life could be different if you lived out this one action.