Scripture 101: Tips for Personal Bible Study
by Thomas R. Lee

Chances are that while at college you will meet students - perhaps roommates, persons down the hall or otheracquaintances - who may invite you to be part of a Bible study group. And should you say yes, you may sense their way of doing Bible study a little too simplistic, too neat or too moralistic, all of which may make you wonder if there are other ways of approaching the Bible. There are, and in what follows, you'll find some suggestions toward that end.

The Bible: What It Is and Isn't
The Bible could be defined as a written interpretation of how God has acted in history to create, sustain and guide the community of faith. A key word here is interpretation: the Bible is interpretation, not dictation. That is, the Bible was not somehow written in heaven and delivered to us word for word. Rather, it describes how ancient Israel and the early Christians interpreted such
events as the exodus from Egypt and the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Bible is communal, not individual. It was produced by the community of believers for the community of believers. Moreover, that community was diverse; it comprised persons from a wide variety of backgrounds. Consequently, the Bible, written by and for them, is pluralistic, not monolithic. Matthew's audience, for example, is different than Mark's, and hence, Matthew's message may differ from that of Mark's. Thus we ought not expect stories in the Bible to be in complete harmony with each other. When we recognize the diversity in scripture as well as its communal and interpretive character, our study of the Bible can lead us to fresh and surprising insights.

The Bible: A Text
The Bible, needless to say, is a collection of books or written texts. Sometimes, however, we forget the books of the Bible were written a long time ago, in a different part of the world, and in ancient languages no longer in use. There is a "distance," then, between the text of the Bible and us moderns. In doing Bible study, we need to recognize there will be things we won't
understand because the text is far removed from our culture and experience. Yet there are ways for us to begin to bridge the distance between the text and us. First of all, use a good, modern translation, but not a para- phrase such as The Living Bible. On the one hand, it is hard enough to understand a biblical passage because of its distance, let alone having to contend with an
archaic English idiom. A paraphrase, on the other hand, puts you at an even greater distance from the text in that it is not based on the original Greek and Hebrew, but is one person's attempt to express in contemporary speech the words of an older English version. 

A recent translation, moreover, in addition to its clarity, is valuable in that it is based on Greek and Hebrew manuscript tradition which is superior to those available to translators a century or more ago. A couple of new translations, then, for you to consider are the New Revised Standard Version, published this past spring, and the New American Bible. The latter, originally published in 1970, had its New Testament revised in 1986.

When you begin to study a passage, chances are the verse divisions will first catch your eye. These might suggest to you that Bible study proceeds on a verse-by-verse basis, with each verse having some meaning over which to puzzle. But it's a mistake to begin this way. Rather, forget the verse divisions for a while. Do your initial study of the text on a macro instead of a micro
scale. That is, skim the book as a whole. Try to establish what kind of material it is. Is it a letter? A gospel? A book of prophecy? Then, look for the major divisions within the book. The clues here are words and phrases like "After these things..." (Genesis 15:1); "...when Jesus had finished these sayings,..." (Matthew 7:28); and "...therefore..." (Roman 12:1; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 5:1).

Once you've established the major divisions of the book, attempt to describe the character of each larger unit. What is their relationship to each other? For example, the "Therefore" of Romans 12:1 signals that Paul is beginning to sketch the ethical consequences of the theology he discusses in chapters 1-11. Then move to the smaller units within the large section. What are these? Parable? Miracle stories? Narrative? Judgment oracles? Admonitions? How are they related to each other? Did the author bring them together because they share a common theme? An example here might be the stories in Luke 15. Note that they are all parables about something (or someone) lost. Might Luke have brought them together in this chapter in order to answer the objection made to Jesus' ministry l5:2? It is only after considering such questions of structure that you will want to move to study individual verses or groups of verses.

The Bible: A Text In Context 
The "distance' between us and the Bible is historical and cultural as well as literary. As a good translation and attention to outline and structure help us to bridge the literary distance, there are ways we can begin to overcome the Bible's historical and cultural remoteness. The key is to try to gain a sense of the original context of the book or passage. Based on what is written, what do
we imagine the original audience to have been like? Matthew, for example, quotes the Old Testament far more than the other gospel writers and adds details that likely would be understood only by someone familiar with Judaism (cf. Matthew 23:1-12). Might it be that Matthew's original audience comprised Christians of Jewish heritage? In contrast, Luke 1:1 -4 and Acts 1:1 suggest that Luke wrote his gospel to a Roman official named Theophilus. It's not coincidental, then, that Luke's story ends in Acts 28 with St. Paul preaching the Gospel of Christ in Rome, the capital of the empire.

Our imagination, though, can carry us only so far in recreating the context of a passage. The point comes when we must turn to other resources. Your college or university may have a religious studies department which offers courses in Bible. If not, the history department should have offerings in the history of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. Sign up for one. Also, don't overlook the non-credit classes, such as the Search Weekly Bible Studies, at your campus ministry center or in a local congregation. And remember the library. 

Most college libraries will have copies of recent and reliable Bible dictionaries and commentaries. The Harper's Bible Dictionary (1985), edited by Paul Achtemeier, and The Harper's Bible Commentary (1988), edited by James L. Mays, are two reference works to which you can turn for information on biblical books, authors and events. For you own library, you might want to purchase two inexpensive paperback introductions to the literature and history of the Bible: Reading The Old Testament, by Lawrence Boadt, and Reading The New Testament, by Pheme Perkins. Published by Paulist Press, they represent the mainstream of contemporary Catholic and Protestant scholarship.

The Bible: 'Was Christum Treibt'
Finally, after studying the text and the context of a biblical passage, we've come to the point of asking the question of relevance. We understand what the passage may have meant when Isaiah spoke it or Matthew wrote it, but what does it mean for me? If we acknowledge the "distance", as discussed previously, between the world of the Bible and us, it may be that some passages will not have as much relevance as others. Perhaps some are so tied to their original setting that they have little, if any, significance for us. The ritual and cultic laws of Leviticus, as well as Paul's words concerning the use or non-use of head coverings during prayer (I Corinthians 1 1:2-1 6), are such texts. 

And then there may be issues today unanticipated by the biblical tradition. Even St. Paul experienced some of that. In I Corinthians 7:25, he deals with the question of whether or not a person should get married since the end of the world seems so close. Paul writes that about this he has "no command of the Lord"; i.e., there's no direct word of Jesus (nor of the Old Testament scriptures) to answer the question. So he simply proceeds to "give his opinion" of what seems best for the wellbeing of the Christian community. 

Similarly, not every concern we have will be addressed by the Bible in a direct way. Like Paul, after we have searched the scriptures and been informed by them, we too may be able to offer only an opinion. Above all, as we seek to discover what scripture might say to us, we're guided by Luther's principle, "Was Christum treibt." That is, does the text "drive" (treibt) us to God's gracious action in Christ? The Bible points us to Christ when (1) it indicts us for our vain efforts to earn God's favor; (2) it recalls for us how God took the initiative to deliver Israel from oppression in Egypt and exile in Babylon; and (3) it addresses us with the promise that in Christ God has acted to deliver us from sin and death. 

With this as a guide, we can avoid our bible study becoming simplistic and moralistic. Rather, by not expecting the Bible to speak to everything on the one hand, and on the other, by affirming that the central message of scripture is that of God's grace for us, Bible study can offer us a living word to create and sustain faith.

Thomas Lee is campus pastor at the University of Montana, Missoula.