No, I am not going to give you any study "shortcuts."  In my experience, they aren't worth much.  The actual process of studying, the time spent and the work done, is what matters.  If you are trying to save time and still learn copious amounts of scripture, your heart is not in it.  God expects you to care enough about Him and His Word that you don't mind the time it takes.  Besides that, it just won't work.
            The issue here is one we all have, and have more and more as we age—remembering what we learned.  At the risk of having people laugh at me, I am going to tell you some of the things I do to overcome this problem.  I do not expect you to follow the same procedures as I, but to be emboldened to find your own memory crutches, the things that make sense to your mind and that work for you.  Mine may not do that.  We all seem to learn in different ways, so pay attention to your own particular abilities and use them to the best.
            First, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making up little songs to help memorize scriptures or lists in scriptures.  You did it as a child when you learned the apostles, the sons of Jacob, and the books of the Bible.  The list does not have to rhyme and you do not have to come up with a new tune.  Using an old one, even something like "Mary Had a Little Lamb," is just fine.  It's perfectly scriptural:  teaching and admonishing yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  I knew a woman who memorized scores of passages just by singing them.  What's wrong with that?  If anyone laughs at you, just ask them how many passages they know by memory!
            Then there are mnemonic devices.  I had a terrible time remembering which prophets spoke to Israel and which to Judah.  Finally I wrote them down and there it was—only two to Israel, Hosea and Amos.  "HA!"  I said to myself, and ever since then I have remembered it.  H for Hosea and A for Amos—HA!  It can be just that silly.  I even shared it with my classes and now they can remember it too.  When they do forget, I just look at them and say, "HA!" and instantly the two names are practically shouted across the classroom, usually with a laugh.
            Then there are the spelling similarities.  Ever since I was a child and learned the story of the divided kingdom, I instantly noticed the names of the first king of each nation:  Jeroboam and Rehoboam.  Out of 8 letters, 6 are the same.  So which was king in which kingdom?  In this case you remember a negative:  Jeroboam (which begins with a J) was NOT the king of Judah (which also begins with a J).  Maybe I was a lazy child, but I did that from the beginning as soon as I saw those two names and have never had trouble since.
            The alphabet is common in many of my devices.  How about Leah and Rachel?  Whose handmaid was Bilhah and whose was Zilpah?  I just sat down one day and looked at the names and the letters they started with.  If you put the sisters in alphabetical order (L and R) and the handmaids in reverse alphabetical order (Z and B), you've got it.  Leah's handmaid was Zilpah and Rachel's was Bilhah.
            Maybe because I have studied them for so long, I don't really have any trouble matching husbands and wives in the Bible, but I have noticed that a lot of folks do.  I've heard people marry off Rebekah to Abraham more times than I have fingers and toes.  If you are one of those folks, here is the perfect opportunity for you to try this out for yourself.  First get your Bible and write down the husbands and wives, matching them up correctly (that's why you got your Bible).  Look at the names.  Look at the letters the names begin with.  Look at other facts about the couple.  Find something that makes sense to you and then spend a little time working on it.  The devices themselves must be easier to remember than the thing you are trying to remember or it defeats the purpose, but if you work for a little while now, it will save you hours of having to look up the basic facts, and you can then spend your study time on the depths of the Word.
            Now that we have had 18 posts on Study Tips, it is past time to get to work.  Make your own computer file and a document for each tip, placing them all where you can easily get to them.  Make use of these things, reviewing when necessary.  You might even try to come up with an exercise for each one.  Do whatever it takes to help yourself learn the Word of God, the Words the Life, the words whereby you shall be saved (Acts 11:14). 
            And don't worry if anyone laughs at you.
 
​​​​​​​ I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. (Ps 119:15)
 
Dene Ward
 

I have heard it all my life.  "The Bible is simple enough for anyone to understand."  If that's the case, why should I bother studying it beyond just reading a little every day?
            I agree whole-heartedly:  the Bible is simple enough for anyone to pick up and find out exactly what he needs to do to have his sins forgiven and enjoy a relationship with Christ.  But that is not all you can find in the Bible.  Remember what Peter said?
            And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. (2Pet 3:15-16) 
            And then we have this:  On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil. (Heb 5:11-14)
            There are parts of God's message which are deeper, more intricate, and not quite so simple to figure out.  There are places we can dig and dig and dig and still not fully comprehend them, not until we have been at it for years and suddenly a light bulb goes off.  I believe God meant that to happen in order to keep us coming back for more.  And continuing to study and meditate, compare scriptures and analyze them, plumb the depths of a given passage until it has nothing left to give also does this:  it demonstrates to our Father exactly how much we care about Him and His Word.  When was the last time you spent some time doing research on anything?  What was it?  A disease?  A medication?  A politician?  A restaurant?  And why?  Because you really felt a need to know more for one reason or another.  Shouldn't we feel that way about God too?
            Your faith should not be a Sunday morning ritual, and that is all it is if you fail to open your Bible throughout the week.  Under the Old Law, priests offered daily sacrifices, Ex 29:38-42; Lev 6:20.  Peter says that under the New Law, we are the priests, 1 Pet 2:9.  Our whole lives are the sacrifice, Rom 12:1, not just our Sunday mornings.
            And one final reason to study—you have been taught a lot of incorrect things in your life.  Yes, even if you "grew up in the church."  I have heard more faulty arguments, more incorrect statements, and more unscriptural beliefs proclaimed in Sunday morning adult Bible classes than I have from my pagan friends.  And we don't even know they are wrong!
            Understand this:  God will not let you into Heaven because someone else taught you wrong.    …If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit. Matt15:14.
            If you teach someone else something wrong, his blood will be on your head.  Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we will be judged more strictly. Jas3:1.  That doesn't mean just teachers who stand up in front of a class; it counts for anyone you talk to, even one-to-one.
            Do you get it now?  Bible study is important.  It isn't optional.  No, you may not have the capacity to be a real Biblical scholar, but isn't it odd that the one place we don't mind being told, in fact, we proclaim ourselves, the one place that we are too dumb to learn is the Bible, because we think that lets us off the hook?  If that is our problem, let's work on our hearts first, then maybe the study problem will take care of itself.
 
He replied, “You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not.  For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Matt 13:11-12
​​​​​​​Give instruction to a wise person, and he will become wiser still; ​​​​​​teach a righteous person and he will add to his learning. Prov 9:9
 
Dene Ward

Today is National Bacon Day, not to be confused with International Bacon Day which is celebrated on the Saturday before Labor Day.  Bacon has become a gourmet treat these days, added to practically every kind of sandwich, salad, and some casseroles which would otherwise have nothing to do with bacon at all.  Personally, I think it might be a little overused, but I realize that might be heresy to some of you out there.  Yet bacon does have its various legitimate uses, of which I am a big proponent.
           I was reading the Q and A column in a cooking magazine based in Boston.  “You’re kidding,” I spoke aloud when a reader asked how to dispose of bacon grease without clogging her sink.  Dispose of bacon grease?  Keith was equally appalled, but on a whim he asked a friend, who is originally from New England, what he did with his bacon grease.
            “Why?’ he asked with a suspicious look on his face.  “What’s it good for?”
            What’s it good for?  I guess this is one of those cultural things.  Bacon grease to a Northerner must mean “garbage.”  Bacon grease to a Southerner means “gold.”
            My mother kept a coffee can of it in her refrigerator.  I do the same.  My grandmothers both kept a tin of it on their stovetops.  They used it every day, just as their mothers had.  In the South bacon grease is the fat of choice.  In the old days only better-off farmers had cows and butter.  The poorer families had a pig, and they used every square inch of that animal.  Even the bones were put into a pot of beans and many times the few flecks of meat that fell off of them into the pot were all the meat they had for a week.  In a time when people needed fat in their diets (imagine that!), the lard was used as shortening in everything from biscuits to pie crust.  And the grease?  A big spoonful for seasoning every pot of peas, beans, and greens, more to fry okra, potatoes, and squash in, a few spoonfuls stirred into a pan of cornbread batter, and sometimes it was spread on bread in place of butter.
            I use it to shorten cornbread, flavor vegetables, and even to pop popcorn.  Forget that microwave stuff.  If you have never popped real popcorn in bacon grease, you haven’t lived.  I am more health-conscious than my predecessors—in fact, we don’t even eat that much bacon any more.  But when we do, I save the drippings, scraping every drop from the pan, and while most of the time I use a mere teaspoon of olive oil to sauté my squash from the summer garden, once a year we get it with dollop of bacon grease.  Any artery can stand once a year, right?
            As I said, it’s a cultural thing.  Things that are precious to Southerners may not be so to Northerners, and vice versa.  Don’t you think the same should be true with Christians?  What’s garbage to the world should be gold to Christians.
            One thing that comes to mind is the Word of God.  In a day when it is labeled a book of myths, when it is belittled and its integrity challenged, that Word should be precious to God’s people.  David wrote a psalm in which at least seven times he speaks of loving God’s word, Psalm 119.
            We often speak of “loving God” or “loving Jesus,” but you cannot do either without a love of the Word, a love shown in obedience.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the words that you hear are not mine, but the Father’s who sent me, John 14:24.  Jesus even defined family, the people you love more than anyone or anything else, as “those who hear my word and do it,” Luke 8:21.  Surely the ultimate love was shown by the martyrs depicted in Rev 6:9 who were slain “for the Word of God.”
            Do we love God’s Word that much?  Then why isn’t it in our hands several times a day?  Why aren’t we reading more than a quota chapter a day?  Why can’t we cite more than one or two proof-texts, memorized only to show our neighbors they are wrong? 
            Bacon grease may be gold to a Southern cook, but it is hardly in the same category.  Yet I think I may have heard Christians arguing more about when to use bacon grease than when to read the Bible.  Maybe we are showing the effects of a culture other than a Christian’s.
 
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John 14:21
 
Dene Ward

On December 27, 1933, the Sinaitic Manuscript, one of the great ancient manuscripts of the Bible, arrived at the British Museum in London.  It had been purchased from the Russian Government for 100,000 pounds, which was then a little over half a million dollars.  More than half the purchase price was donated by the public.  It is said that the manuscript was greeted by a large crowd and that all the men removed their hats as it passed by them.  Respect.  For the Word of God.  Less than a century ago, by the way.
            The Sinaitic Manuscript is the earliest complete copy of the New Testament, and also contains a portion of the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint.  It was originally found at St. Catherine's Monastery at what is believed to be the original Mt. Sinai.  Later it was sent as a gift to the Russian Czar, Alexander II.  Later of course, after Marxism took control (please note:  socialism does not like religion), first under Lenin and then Stalin, it became something they were happy to dispense with, especially at the price believers were more than willing to pay. (Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible)
            And what is happening today?  Even by people who study it as their career, it is called a book of ancient myths, full of errors, and certainly not authoritative for our lives.  You can find websites that regularly poke fun or ask ridiculous questions (that only show the askers' ignorance) designed to denigrate the Bible.  Moses did not write the Pentateuch.  Abraham never really existed.  The Gospel of John is anti-Semitic.  Daniel is history written to look like prophecy.  Isaiah was written in two or three sections, some much later than the other.  Those last two are supposed to undo the great evidence of prophecy in both of those books.
            When I was a child, I heard someone famous, I don't remember who, say on television that one day the Bible would be banned in America but eagerly read in Russia.  That was the height of the Cold War and an unthinkable idea.  Now I am not so sure.  So what do we do about it?
            People have denied, defamed, and even destroyed Bibles for a long, long time.  Stop, take a breath, and calm down.  This is the Word of God we are talking about, a Word He has kept safe for us through thousands of years in ways no one can legitimately deny.  It will not cease to exist no matter what happens in our time.   Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away (Luke 21:33).  Show that Word the respect it deserves in your keeping of it, and in your speech about it.  Study it like it actually means something to you and follow it no matter what it costs. 
            Take off your "hat" in your heart whenever it passes by.
 
For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever, 1 Pet 1:24.                        

 Dene Ward        

This is another aspect of devotional Bible reading that we discussed on the podcast I mentioned yesterday.  How in the world can Bible reading be dangerous?  Let's see…
            I think the first danger might be that we stop with that kind of reading and never progress further.  Remember what we said yesterday about keeping a journal?  That journal should lead you to a more complete study, the kind that involves analysis, noting repeated words and phrases, looking up word meanings, making charts and lists and perhaps pulling out a few reference books.  Stopping with simple devotional reading is like stopping the meal after the appetizer.  It will also keep you firmly in the "milk" zone rather moving on to the meat.  (Pardon my mixed metaphors, at least they are all food!)
            Another danger is that your reading will become a mere mechanical habit.  Instead of reading slowly and stopping occasionally to consider a point or make a note to pursue later, it can easily turn into, "Read my Bible today—check!"  God's Word is precious.  Don't ever treat it like your toothbrush.
            A final danger is that our "Me" culture can easily get in the way.  When all I want is something that "resonates" with me, that makes me feel good, that brings a tear to my eye or makes the hair stand up on my head, my Bible reading has become about Me instead of the God I worship; about what I like, not what He says and I need to hear.  All of us need a challenge occasionally, or even a good swift (verbal) kick once in a while.  I need to read those too, and I must not make my likes and dislikes cause me to avoid certain parts of God's Word.
            As we discussed yesterday, devotional reading can be a good and helpful part of our lives as Christians.  Just be aware that, as always, Satan knows how to take even the good and twist it into something bad.  Even he quoted the Word of God.
            If you would like to hear the podcast, you can find it easily.  On Facebook search for "Working with the Word."  Go to that page and look for the post that has my name on it.  Click on that link and it will take you straight to my interview.  I can't say it's perfect by any means.  Most of these last two articles are things I wish I had said!  But maybe you will learn some other things and will find this podcast something you might like to listen to in the future.  In fact, you can search their Facebook page while you are there for other subjects you might be interested in and listen to them.  I am sure that Emerson Brown and Jeff O'Rear would appreciate your support.
 
They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading…They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading (Neh 8:8,12).          Dene Ward

Recently I was asked to record a podcast on Devotional Bible Reading.  It took me a few minutes to realize what they meant, despite the fact that I write daily devotionals.  My definition of this type of reading versus Inductive Bible reading, would be the reading we do more or less casually, usually on a daily basis, and with no real aim in mind beyond that.  Inductive reading, then would be more of a study method involving reference works and cross referencing other passages in the Bible, with some writing almost always included.  They didn't tell me I was wrong when I gave them those definitions so I'm sticking with them.
            At first thought, devotional Bible reading seems almost pointless, but now that I have actually thought about it, I can see several advantages.  First, it gets the Word into your head.  You would be surprised how many things I was taught incorrectly as a child.  I am sure the teacher just knew the narrative so well that she didn't bother to read it again and told what she had always heard or remembered.  That is exactly how errors get passed from generation to generation.  I remember the first time I discovered an error like this.  I had pulled down my Bible and actually read what it said.  I sat back in shock for several minutes.  Over the years I have discovered several more of these instances.  It isn't that we have false teachers in the church who deliberately set out to teach our children incorrect details.  It's that we are sometimes a little lazy and we know we know it so why bother taking the time to read it again?  Because you may not know what you think you know, that's why.
            Another advantage is the ingrained habit of reading the Word of God on a schedule.  Once you train yourself to do it, you generally keep on doing it even when times are rough and life is difficult.  While I do not believe in any sort of mysticism, I do believe in God's providential care.  Who knows but as you sit there reading that particular morning (or evening), you might come across something that is just what you need right then?  Sort of like assembling.  I do not remember a time in my life when I did not assemble with the saints on Sunday morning.  Even when my spirits were low and my spirituality suffered, I went out of habit.  But where was the best place for me at such a time in my life?  Right there where I might hear something I needed, or receive an encouragement that pulled me out of the pit.  The same can be true of a practiced habit of daily reading.  A passage may "speak" to you, even a familiar passage, like it never has before. 
            A third advantage may be that Devotional Reading might be easier to relate to your life at that moment.  When you are studying more deeply, you are looking up word meanings, studying customs and geography, and finding other pertinent passages.  The nuts and bolts of taking a passage apart can completely rip the fabric of application, while a more casual reading might instantly make sense for a problem you are currently facing.  I remember tearing a passage to pieces one day, then looking with satisfaction on my paper full of notes only to suddenly think, "So how does this help me tomorrow?"  It didn't actually.  I may have learned a few things, but it didn't help me live a bit better the next morning.
            A final advantage could be that it moves you on to that deeper study we have been contrasting it to.  Keep a journal beside you as you read.  It will help you keep track of where you've been, but you can also write down things to study more intently later on.  What does this word mean?  Is this character mentioned anywhere else in the Bible?  (Do you know who that king Absalom ran off to was?)  How far is this place from that place?  (Do you know how far Hannah was from Samuel after she took him to the tabernacle?)  How much money is this (that the Samaritan left to care for a perfect stranger or that the Christians were giving when they sold property in Acts 4)?  And then, just write down things that are bothering you that particular day or that you struggle with.  All of those things can lead you to a longer, and maybe more beneficial study at another time.
            If you aren't reading your Bible daily, I hope you will start.  Two men in the Bible were told to "eat" God's Word—Ezekiel and John (Ezekiel 2:8; Revelation 10:9).  It is our spiritual sustenance.  You really can't do without it.
 
​The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words (Ps 119:160-161).
 
Dene Ward

I see one Bible study mistake made over and over and even by seasoned professionals—mixing up their metaphors.
            By this I do not mean what is usually meant in grammar class, using two different and unrelated metaphors in the same phrase of an analogy.  Like this one:  "That's awfully thin gruel for the right wing to hang their hats on."  (MSNBC, September 3, 2009).  Rather, what we refer to here is assuming that every Biblical metaphor means the same thing in every context.  Prime example:
            For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Heb 5:12-14)
            So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- (1Pet 2:1-2)
            I don't know how many times I have heard these two passages equated just because babies and milk are mentioned in both.  Here is the problem:  they speak of two entirely different issues and if you don't separate them, you miss half the teaching. 
        In the Hebrews passage, the writer rebukes those who have not progressed in their knowledge of the word.  They are still babies who need milk.  They ought to have matured into adults who can handle a T-bone steak, but they cannot.  They have not "trained their powers of discernment."  In this case, the milk is the first principles, the ABCs of being a Christian, the easy stuff, and being a baby is something you definitely do not want to be.
           Peter, on the other hand, says we should desire the spiritual milk in the same way an infant desires its mother's milk.  The "baby" in this passage is a good example, not a bad one.  We have all seen a hungry infant open its mouth and grunt for that milk over and over until it is fed.  All of us are supposed to be like that little baby, hungering for the spiritual milk, no matter how long we have been Christians.  In this case, the metaphor is about hunger, not just for the Word but for all spirituality, and the baby is something you want to be. 
           These two passages may use some of the same words, but they are not about the same thing.  All it takes is a little slow reading of the entire context, and then maybe a little thought—pretty obvious thought as a matter of fact.  Perhaps one could even call it "milk."
           Here's another one:
          According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. (1Cor 3:10-13)
          Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. (2Tim 2:20-21)
          This one is a little trickier.  Both passages mention gold, silver and wood, along with a few other materials.  However, in the Corinthian passage, Paul uses the various building materials to say that all of us are different.  We each use whatever our abilities are to build on the spiritual foundation.  Some of us have greater abilities than others, but God will be the judge of how we use those abilities.  Being a "wood" disciple is not necessarily bad as long as we are doing what we can with that wood.  The analogy here is our various abilities, a subject he will eventually come back to in chapter 12, using the body as his analogy.
          However, in the Timothy passage, we are talking about pots, and what the pot is made of determines whether it is honorable or dishonorable.  He goes on to say that we will be honorable vessels, i.e., gold or silver, if we cleanse ourselves, making ourselves suitable for God's use.  We will be dishonorable, wood or clay, if we don't.  Do you see the difference in how this metaphor is used?  In the first, wood is not necessarily wrong, but in the second it is definitely wrong.
          These are not the only two by a long shot.  In one place Christ is the foundation; in another the apostles are.  Stop tying yourselves in knots and just realize that you are using figurative, not literal, language—metaphors, in this case.  The way some people go on, you would think Jesus and the apostles were real stones!  Separate your metaphors rather than mixing them and you will come much closer to the truths they are trying to teach you, without missing any of them.
 
Dene Ward

A certain young lady I know can name all the kings of Israel and Judah in order.  Her classmates in Bible class, whom I suppose were embarrassed that they could not do the same thing, told her, "All you know is a bunch of useless information."  Let me tell you something:  nothing in the Bible is useless information.  If you cannot use it now, someday when you learn a little more and dig a little deeper, I guarantee it will come in handy.
            Do you want an example?  A scholar named L. R. Helyer has pointed out that the Eastern cultures have an eastern orientation.  In other words, they face east to determine direction, while we Occidentals tend to face north to do the same thing.  Do you remember when Abraham and Lot separated because their flocks were too large to dwell side by side (Gen 13)?  Abraham stood in the Promised Land and said, "Do you want the left or the right?"  Abraham would have been facing east when he did that, and he would have meant, "Do you want the north or the south?"  And by that he meant the northern or the southern half of the Promised Land.  Abraham, to whom the promise was given, was generous enough to share that land with his nephew.  So what was Lot's choice?
            "But Lot journeyed east" [completely out of the land].  These four words ring increasingly ominous as the story continues.  But notice, even here, the distinction that is made between Abram who settled in the land of Canaan and Lot who settled among the cities of the valley.  "It is clear from [Gen 13:12] that the territory chosen by Lot lies outside the borders of Canaan" (Growth of the Seed, Nathan Ward). 
            If the story of Genesis is the choosing of the line of the Messiah—which I believe it is—here is one reason Lot was rejected from that line.  He wanted a land that looked well-watered and fruitful, even if it contained the most wicked heathen of the time, rather than trusting the promises of God and staying in the Land.
            BUT—would you have ever known that if you had not known about the eastern orientation of the Oriental peoples?  Would you have ever realized the significance of the choice he was offered versus the choice he made if you hadn't noticed that it was "the left or the right?"
            Now think a little more.  Is that orientation the reason the tabernacle and, ultimately, the Temple, faced east?  I don't know, but maybe it's something worth considering.  In fact, maybe any mention of direction might be worth studying yet again to find its significance, if any.
            If God had it recorded for us, it isn't useless.  In some fashion it will add to our knowledge and appreciation of him.  If I can't figure it out yet, it's up to me to work at it, not look down on someone who has gone to the trouble of learning as much as possible, even if it does not appear pertinent at the moment.
            Details matter.  Don't discard them like so much rubbish.
 
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matt 5:18)
 
Dene Ward

Just as we should know some basics about Hebrew in order to avoid making foolish errors in our reasoning, we should know at least a little about Greek, the language of the New Testament.  So let's learn a little something about it.
            First, at the time of the New Testament, Greek was written in uppercase letters only.  That's important because too many times I have heard people in Bible classes say something like, "Well, it has to be talking about the Holy Spirit because it's capitalized."  ALL the letters are capitalized.  In fact, in our culture we would be thinking that God is yelling at us, which of course He isn't, though I am sure He would like to fairly often.  When the translators see the word "SPIRIT" they must make the decision whether it means the Deity or an attitude, like school spirit or a spirit of unity.  These men are often so reverent that when they are not certain which it means, they will capitalize it to make sure they do not insult the Holy Spirit.  That was the mindset of the very early translations and translators, a wonderful mindset to be sure, but one that can and has often caused misinterpretations.  Be careful with those capital letters and don't make any arguments based upon them.
            Second, no spaces existed between words and there was no punctuation.  In the classic example, imagine you saw this sentence:  ISAWABUNDANCEONTHETABLE.  Now, is that "I saw a bun dance on the table," or "I saw abundance on the table?"  The translators go primarily by context as well as common sense.  I have never seen a bun dance on the table, neither the waltz nor the polka, but I have seen many feasts where indeed there was abundance on the table.  That's why the translators are acknowledged scholars.  They are used to handling that ancient language and all its peculiarities.
            The point about punctuation is also important.  Everyone knows that Paul had a penchant for long sentences, as in Eph 1:3-14.  That is one sentence.  The newer versions cater to our culture's desire for what I call "business writing"—short sentences that are simple to read and understand.  That's fine in business writing.  It is NOT fine when we are discussing important and profound subjects.  You should always keep an older version handy when you are studying from a new one (NIV, ESV, etc.) so you know exactly what was written and see the connections.  If your version includes a phrase or words four sentences later that were actually in the original one sentence, you may miss those connections.  Yet these are the markers for the beginning and end of a thought. Yes, it is more difficult to read and comprehend a long sentence, but this is your soul we are talking about.  You are supposed to be so deeply interested in these things that you will pore over them for hours, not give them a quick scan and move on.  The New Testament is not a collection of sound bites!
            Now about those italics.  Words written in Italics are supposed to be words "not actually in the Greek."  Many times those words are implied or even necessary to the Greek word they support, another thing those scholars know that we don't.  (If you took Latin in high school like I did, this probably makes perfect sense to you.)  When we say, "That italicized word is not there," a majority of the time (one scholar told me 99%), we are wrong.  It has to be there because of the word choice by the author. Please be careful when you start spouting off about a language you neither understand nor speak
            Having said all this about Hebrew and Greek, remember that very few points can be made from those languages that cannot be made from any language, including English. Our loving God would never have left us with something we could not understand and follow when He planned to judge us by it.
           
Dene Ward

(I received some help from a couple of friendly scholars on this and the next Study Time post.  Any errors are not theirs, but my own misunderstandings and ignorance.)
            No one expects you to be a Bible scholar, but let me ask you this.  What is your favorite pastime?  Sewing?  Cooking?  Baseball?  Golf?  And what do you do with those things?  Maybe you subscribe to a certain magazine.  Maybe you watch certain TV shows or sporting events.  Maybe you read books on the subject.  Whatever it is you enjoy, you spend time learning more about it, don't you?  Maybe not as much as a professional, but certainly more than the average Joe—or Josephine.  Not only do you enjoy being able to talk about it, you do not want to look foolish when you can't even define the basic terminology or know the rules of the game.
            So in that spirit, as Christians, disciples of the Lord, children of the Father, we should want to know the basics about certain subjects.  We certainly ought to know the Handbook inside and out.  I would hope I don't need to even mention that, but what about the original languages it was written in?  If we don't know the ABCs, so to speak, we may make some embarrassing errors or worse, lead someone astray with faulty arguments.
            I don't know Hebrew.  I don't read Hebrew.  It all looks like chicken scratch to me.  But over the years I have learned a few things about it.
            First, you read it right to left, not left to right as we do.  That means when you have a book written in Hebrew you will read it back to front.  I suppose to Hebrew readers it is front to back and we are the ones doing it back to front, but you get my point.  The first time I picked up a Hebrew book and found the title page in the back (front to them) it really threw me for a loop.  You ought to find one just so you have that experience.
            Second, there were no written vowels in Hebrew for centuries.  Some liberal scholars have tried to make hay with this.  Just imagine English without vowels.  The word "RD" would give you fits.  It could be read, red, rad, raid, road, rod, rid, ride, rude, and maybe a few others.  Some people have done their best to make it seem that knowing exactly what the Hebrew says is impossible, but they are wrong.  All those centuries ago the common people did not have access to written scrolls.  They were read aloud to the people, people who could memorize at the drop of a hat—it was their culture to do so.  The tradition of how a word was read was passed down through the years. They would have instantly known it when someone tried to put a different word in there. 
            Along came the Masoretes who developed a system of "pointing" around the consonants to indicate which vowel went where.  In addition to that, Origen, one of the so-called Church Fathers, included the transliteration of the Hebrew Bible into Greek when he compiled six Ancient versions of that Bible in the second century AD (the Hexapla).  In many places these match what later became the written vowels in the Masoretic text, further validation of the Old Testament we have today.
            Another interesting thing is word groups.  Most Hebrew words are based on a three letter root, which is easily seen even when transliterated into English letters.  For example, Shalom, Solomon, Jerusalem, and Shulamite are all SLM words, which tells you they are related somehow.  I have no idea how many roots there are, but I bet I can find quite a few now that I know that little trick.
            The last thing I want to mention is the use of repetition in the Hebrew language.  While there are a few intensifying words, they are rare.  The Hebrew language prefers to use word order and repetition to create emphasis.  The "(singular) of (plural)" repetitive construction will often be used, as in "Lord of Lords" and "King of Kings."  It doesn't actually say "Most Holy Place" in all those passages about the tabernacle and the Temple.  It says, "Holy of Holies."  If your Bible includes a "most," that is the translator's decision because that is how we would ordinarily say it in English.  The point is this:  repetition equals emphasis in the Old Testament.  "Abraham, Abraham" would have gotten that patriarch's attention much more readily than a single "Abraham," sort of like using all three of your child's names when you are angry with him.  Be careful when you try to make some point involving these phrases or the fact that words are repeated.  "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord," does not mean you are required to say "Holy" three times whenever you refer to God.  That was their way of saying, "The Lord is the Most Holy."
            I hope these little nuggets of information have interested you enough to learn a little more on your own.  You can never know too much about the Word of God.
            Next time we'll talk about Greek.
 
Dene Ward