How to Study the Bible and All Its Worth
SUMMARY
God’s Word is ultimately profitable, above and beyond any other text that has ever been written or compiled, and it is the study of this divine text that has for centuries been the source of the Christian’s greatest blessings and the Church’s greatest heartaches. Blessings come when Christians understand not only that God has communicated with and revealed Himself to men over millennia through the same books written thousands of years ago, but also that they must diligently study that communication in order to apply it. Heartaches come when individuals and churches forego that study and try to apply the Word without ever having understood it or the context in which it was originally written, thereby defiling God’s message and destroying unity amongst believers. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth seeks to guide its readers to a better understanding of God’s eternal message through a methodology of proper exegesis and hermeneutics.
As seminary professors, both Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart have given their lives to the study of God’s Word, and through their experiences in teaching and guiding, they have come face to face with many of the misinterpretation pitfalls that have trapped students of the Bible since the Word was first made accessible. The dire need for effective hermeneutics and proper application was the reason this book was written, for the authors, experts themselves, became convinced that individuals must not depend on the results of the careful study of biblical experts, but must instead learn to wield the tool of hermeneutics themselves. As a cohesive means for getting this point across, the authors teach their methodology through the idea of biblical, literary genres (i.e. Epistles, narratives, psalms, etc.), that each specific genre has its own characteristics which affect how one might discover and apply the principles found within the biblical text. Thus the focus of How to Read the Bible is the methodology of hermeneutics as it
God’s Word is ultimately profitable, above and beyond any other text that has ever been written or compiled, and it is the study of this divine text that has for centuries been the source of the Christian’s greatest blessings and the Church’s greatest heartaches. Blessings come when Christians understand not only that God has communicated with and revealed Himself to men over millennia through the same books written thousands of years ago, but also that they must diligently study that communication in order to apply it. Heartaches come when individuals and churches forego that study and try to apply the Word without ever having understood it or the context in which it was originally written, thereby defiling God’s message and destroying unity amongst believers. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth seeks to guide its readers to a better understanding of God’s eternal message through a methodology of proper exegesis and hermeneutics.
As seminary professors, both Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart have given their lives to the study of God’s Word, and through their experiences in teaching and guiding, they have come face to face with many of the misinterpretation pitfalls that have trapped students of the Bible since the Word was first made accessible. The dire need for effective hermeneutics and proper application was the reason this book was written, for the authors, experts themselves, became convinced that individuals must not depend on the results of the careful study of biblical experts, but must instead learn to wield the tool of hermeneutics themselves. As a cohesive means for getting this point across, the authors teach their methodology through the idea of biblical, literary genres (i.e. Epistles, narratives, psalms, etc.), that each specific genre has its own characteristics which affect how one might discover and apply the principles found within the biblical text. Thus the focus of How to Read the Bible is the methodology of hermeneutics as it