Learning the Scriptures

Note: at the end of this post, I am in the process of building an index to the rest of the thread.

I became a Christian before I really understood what it meant.
Then someone gave me a Bible.

I have often said that God loves for someone to take a blind leap of faith to become a Christian, but never wants that person to remain blind. Rather, there are many places in the Scriptures that we are told to learn about God and His Word.  

For the first three or so years after I got my first Bible and began going to church (I was a teenager) I mostly just read the Bible without any real understanding. A somewhat distant relative got me a couple entry level study books, and I went through those, and I listened in Sunday school and in church services.

I eventually got to where I understood about 1% of what I now know is there. That made me the "go to" expert on the Scriptures more times than I care to remember in the Air Force.  Seriously, I understood about 1% of the Bible, and I was the "expert."

When I retired from the AF, my pastor decided to teach a class on Bible Interpretation, because, he said, we were "a mile wide and an inch deep." I soon found out that he was optimistic, at least as far as my level of knowledge was concerned.

This survey is a bit optimistic.
https://www.barna.com/research/state-of-the-bible-2018-seven-top-findings/
You have to get to the end to see:

Bible User: Individuals who read, listen to or pray with the Bible on their own at least 3-4 times a year, outside of a church service or church event.

This is what passes for knowing the Bible, in some circles.

This one is more realistic.
https://albertmohler.com/2016/01/20/the-scandal-of-biblical-illiteracy-its-our-problem-4

Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments.

Further:

Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation's time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study.

Index of postings in this thread:
1. 8 Oct 2019 Opening post, "motivation." Tells why I am writing this little lesson plan.
2. 8 Oct 2019 Continue, with a little more of my background.  
3. 8 Oct 2019 ReadyMom gives me a bit of encouragement.
4. 8 Oct 2019 Dave58 gives me a bit of encouragement.
5. 9 Oct 2019 First a word about the goal and the starting point.
- - the starting point in this endeavor is a survey of the entire book
- - and a tool to aid in that survey
6. 12 Oct 2019 How to find Halley's Handbook (and an on line PDF version for free).
7. 17 Oct 2019 The Seven Dispensations
8. 24 Oct 2019 The People's New Testament (not recommended)
9. 9 Dec 2019 Some discussion about tools that I do not recommend.
10. 10 Dec 2019 Cinnamon giving a heads up on some useful tools.  
11. 11 Dec 2019 My opinion on each of the tools she brings up.
12. 13 Dec 2019 another word of encouragement from Cinnamon
13. 21 Dec 2019 Picking up, again, this call to study the Scriptures.
14. 22 Dec 2019 The Table of Books in Halley's, found around pg 43.
and notes about some of the first books of the Old Testament,
and some of the first books of the New Testament.
15. 2 Jan 2020 Note from Cinnamon
16. 2 Jan 2020 My response to Cinnamon
17. 28 Jan 2020 Some clarification about finding the two tables
of the books of the Bible, found in the front of Halley's Handbook,

NOTE: The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, and news about it took
control of the world's attention from Feburary thru June of 2020.

18. 16 May 2020 My promise to get back to this thread.
19. not yet written
20.
21.


.

As I said before:
When I retired from the AF, my pastor decided to teach a class on Bible Interpretation, because, he said, we were "a mile wide and an inch deep." I soon found out that he was optimistic, at least as far as my level of knowledge was concerned.

He taught a class for an hour or two, one evening a week, for thirty weeks. I managed to make it to most of the first two thirds.

But I had some problems. He was over my head, even though he brought down the level to High School level. (Part of the problem was that I failed English Lit. I am savant in math and science, but struggle with literature.) So, over the next several years, I struggled with taking small bites and translating that to about 5th grade level.

My intent, in this thread, is to outline a series of baby steps to allow others like myself to gain some Biblical Understanding.

Understanding. That is the key.

Funny you should write this today. Several months ago, I purchased a large-print Bible, because I want to read more, and the small print is just too difficult, now.

Last week, I was at a Hobby Lobby store, and saw a nice daily card of 15 min-readings. It's really been on my mind to get that card. So, today I did (along with Bible safe pens & highlighter).

After reading your post I'm thinking I'm getting a tap on the shoulder ...

TRex2 wrote:As I said before:
When I retired from the AF, my pastor decided to teach a class on Bible Interpretation, because, he said, we were "a mile wide and an inch deep." I soon found out that he was optimistic, at least as far as my level of knowledge was concerned.

He taught a class for an hour or two, one evening a week, for thirty weeks. I managed to make it to most of the first two thirds.

But I had some problems. He was over my head, even though he brought down the level to High School level. (Part of the problem was that I failed English Lit. I am savant in math and science, but struggle with literature.) So, over the next several years, I struggled with taking small bites and translating that to about 5th grade level.

My intent, in this thread, is to outline a series of baby steps to allow others like myself to gain some Biblical Understanding.

Understanding. That is the key.

I am following you TR2 sometimes I can pick up the bible and everything seems clear and easy to understand and other times I just don't get it so Rosetta-Stone me.. I would really like to understand more of it if I could

First a word about the goal and the starting point. If your goal is just to get a firm grip on the topic of salvation (especially if you have been around the Church most of your life and know a lot of the Bible stories), I already wrote about that:
https://emergencyhomeprep.forumotion.com/t976-the-end-of-the-church-age-means-the-end-of-the-us#3073

This thread is about getting an understanding of the entire Bible.
The complete story.

I am going to assume very little prior knowledge, and thus, the starting point in this endeavor is a survey of the entire book. There are some books that can be of great assistance in this endeavor.  If you can't buy them right now, check the library, Dewey decimal number 220.6 or 220.7 If you absolutely can't get them, I will try to find the same material on the Net.

First, either one of the following two handbooks:
(They are about 1000 pages, but don't let that intimidate you, they are simple with charts and pictures and stuff.)
Haley's Handbook.  There are several "versions." They are all about the same, unless you find one from many years ago. This book "evolved" over the past 100 years from a 24 page pamplet. (Don't tell Darwin )

[Edited to Add] (This section marked for future edit, to clarify my opinion of the following book.)
What the Bible is all About.  There may be a few "versions of this one also, and again, they are all about the same.

If you have the first one, the first thing to read is "Heart of The Bible" (around page 11) and the second thing to read is "What the Bible is about" which starts around page 30.

If you have the second one, check out the first two or three pages in each chapter. (Each Chapter covers a book or two.)

NOTE: these are handbooks written by men. They are good, but not infallible. The Bible is the only infallible book.

What I should have said in the previous post was that the first step is to get a quick survey, or introduction to the whole Bible, and two of the ways in which that task could be accomplished were by reading one of the suggested items I mentioned.

I also said I would try to find an on line copy of them.
I found one. Halleys Handbook:
https://archive.org/details/HalleysBibleHandbookHenryH.Halley

The next thing I recommend is to get a couple dictionaries.
One, an English dictionary, preferably an old one, since our language changes, but the Bible does not. Many of the words and expressions in the Bible do not mean the same today, as when they were written.

The other is some sort of Ecumenical Dictionary. My teacher recommended Vines, and it took me about 30 seconds to realize that Vines was over my head. The one I like best is Zondervan's Pictorial Dictionary. My copy is from 1973, and that is fine. Anything after 1950 is good, since it would include information learned by way of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I mention this because a new one is about $30 but you should be able to find a used one for less than half price.
Like here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/031023560X/ref=olp_f_usedGood?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true
(Note to ReadyMom: if you can set this up as a referral for your store, that would be great.)

Seven Dispensations. Whether you think of these as "God Given" periods proscribing how God will interact with man, or as man made constructs, they are a way to break up the time periods in the Bible, and they help the Bible make sense to our limited way of thinking.

Personally, I think of it as a Tool that God provided to help our limited minds to get wrapped around His Eternal concepts.

This article provides a usable outline of the Seven Dispensations, and although I have some quibbles about the way it is done, it is a great starting point.
https://www.compellingtruth.org/seven-dispensations.html
Innocence
Conscience
Government
Promise
Law
Grace
Millennial Kingdom

There are other useful tools that God provided, such as Covenant Theology and I intend to explore these further.

Over the past week, I have been reviewing another resource:
The People's New Testament.

Created in the 1880's, this isn't "The People's" as used by Communists to justify their pillage of nations, but rather a New Testament with commentary, designed to be understandable by common people.

Most of the book seems well done, but there are parts where the author's simply blew it. The parables are probably the most obvious to me, as this work provides the popular understanding of them, rather than the correct understanding of them.

I will continue to review this work, and post a link to it, in the next few days.
Edited to add: I do not recommend this book, as there are some errors in it.

Wow, I lost track of time and this has been six weeks instead of "a few days." After review of "The People's New Testament" I don't recommend it, but I said I would post a link to it, so here it is:
https://www.abiblecommentary.com/thepeoplesnewtestamentwithnotesbybwjohnson.pdf

There may be a lot of useful information in it, but I think the useful information can be found, elsewhere, without the misinformation that is also present in this guide.

I have also made a somewhat minor change to my recommendation for "What the Bible is all About." If you have it, fine, it is good, but Haley's Handbook is simply so much better that I recommend getting that, instead.

There is also a copy of Haley's Handbook, on line for free, so if you download that one you can use it. In the future, I will make references to pages in Haley's, and if you have the on line (PDF) version, you will need to multiply the page number by three to find the material. (I will provide enough information, when I refer to it that you should have no trouble finding it.
https://archive.org/details/HalleysBibleHandbookHenryH.Halley

Halley's is a great source.

biblegateway.com - you can read Scriptures in many different versions - KJV, NIV, Dhouey-Rheims, etc. Sometimes it helps to read the translations, because as scholars sourced more knowledge, they were able to more accurately translate. While KJV is filled with beautiful language (and I love and memorized Psalm 23 KJV as a child), it has a couple inadvertent inaccuracies. So it helps to read other versions to get a better understanding.

Beth Moore - She's written several studies that include a DVD, a written text, and a workbook. While it may seem to be for ladies, don't be fooled. She has done extensive research into the TIMES of the Bible and why some things in the Scriptures seem counter-intuitive to us today. I personally recommend Jesus, The One And Only, and Stepping Up (Psalms Of The Ascent). While her published stuff is expensive, you might look around for a church who sponsors her teachings (usually Baptists) and see if they do tele-conferences with her. Around here, you can go to one for around $25.

Cloud & Townsend's published works. These gentlemen go into the Biblical principles of day to day living. My ladies Bible study did the Boundaries workshop back in the day, but they have others.

Devotionals - While they may seem like Christian-light, many have small points on living life as a better Christian and make you think. They are also written for people who don't have a lot of time on their hands, but want some daily edification.

You might also delve deeper into the foundations of Catholicism. Lots of good info out there on the foundations of belief. Protestantism happened due to doctrine, and knowing the reasons and why you fall into one doctrine or another is good mental exercise.  

Full Disclosure - I'm biased and work in the Christian publishing industry.

Cinnamon wrote:Halley's is a great source.

Glad you agree. In my earlier days of Christian studies, it and Zondervan's dictionary were of great value.

biblegateway.com

I was going to get around to this one, eventually. Probably would have gotten there by now if I had not lost track of time. I do want to focus, first, on some resources that will survive an EMP, at least those that you can download to a local hard drive and/or thumb drive.

Beth Moore
Cloud & Townsend's

I will have to admit I don't know enough about either one of these to recommend them, or not. There are a couple others that I don't, as they preach to "itching ears." I will get to them later. Much later.

Devotionals

Nothing wrong with devotionals, if you want to use them. Many of the chaotic people I teach would benefit from the daily study they encourage.

You might also delve deeper into the foundations of Catholicism.

I was not planning to bring up any denomination for a while, but rather, focus on the Bible, itself. Eventually I would have gotten around to Church history.  

Full Disclosure - I'm biased and work in the Christian publishing industry.

That is actually good to know. Thanks.

It will be interesting to go through the Bible. I've done it a couple times, with different studies, each brought understanding in different ways. There is much to learn.

Picking up, again, this call to study the Scriptures.

Hosea 4:6 wrote:My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
   because you have rejected knowledge,
   I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
   I also will forget your children. (ESV)

I will be using Halley's as my main resource, outside of the Bible, and have already mentioned that it would be good for some people (especially the young ones and those who, like me, struggled with English classes in school) to get an English dictionary (an old one, preferably) and a Bible dictionary of some sort. I recommend Zondervan's, since I have not found any that even come close to it.

Acts Ch 8 wrote:
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
   and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
   so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
   Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

I have both the physical and the PDF versions of Halley's, so I will try to remember to post page numbers for both when I reference something in them. A note about the Physical one, however: unlike the Bible, this book is an ever evolving work, and the publisher adds or subtracts small portions as the years go by, so in many cases, the physical page numbers will not be exact.

You may also notice that I will cover a lot of things twice, from two different angles. Hopefully, this will help more people understand me, as I tend to think differently than most people.

Now that I have laid some ground work for some of the tools, I want to dig a little deeper into things.

Around page 43 (pg 92 in the pdf), there is a table with three columns, labled historical, poetic, and prophetic, at the top, and near the bottom, the middle column changes to "letters."

In the historical column, the first thirteen books are in, basically, chronological order, with just a little overlap on some of them. They cover the first (almost) four thousand years of history.

After that, 1st and 2nd Chronicles are somewhat of a summation of the history, from a very different point of view. The last three happen after the first thirteen, and there is some overlap among them.

Moving on to the New Testament, Matthew Mark Luke and John are all somewhat simultaneous, from very different points of view, addressed to different audiences.

Mark, the shortest, is actually, told by Peter, and recorded by Mark. It is written to an audience of Romans. Men of action, it records the deeds of Jesus, at an almost breathless pace.

Matthew is written to the very religious men. A member of the priestly tribe of the Jews, and an accountant (tax collector) by trade, he records with great precision, the fulfillment of the laws and the prophecies, showing clearly that Jesus is the Messiah.

Luke was a Greek, the only non-Apostle to write, a physician by trade, and apparently, from some of the stuff that he wrote he appears to be Mary's personal physician. He records the humanity of Jesus, and how Jesus was the great healer.

John was a very religious man, and had friends in high places. While the others were scattered when Jesus was taken into custody by the religious police of the day, John was able to gain entrance and observe the proceedings.

Acts begins where Luke leaves off, written by the same author, and is a journal of the next (aprox) 30 years.

I like that you are discussing the history of each writer and how they relate to the context. I'm reading along as you teach.

Cinnamon wrote:I like that you are discussing the history of each writer and how they relate to the context. I'm reading along as you teach.

Thank you.

I previously said:

You may also notice that I will cover a lot of things twice, from two different angles. Hopefully, this will help more people understand me, as I tend to think differently than most people.

But I think, since you are here, I will try to refrain from this, and instead, rely on you to tell me if something I say doesn't make sense

Also, I don't know if I made it clear, before, but I am trying to teach the "method" of learning the scriptures. I will try to give some history and context for some of the books, but mainly I will point out where or how that history and context may be found. (That way it isn't just my "say so" and also, that way when I am gone, others can use this method to continue on.

As I pointed out above (on the 21st of Dec), I will be using Halley's Handbook for a study guide. If you don't already have a copy of this, I posted the link to a free, online copy.

On the 22nd of Dec, I pointed out a table on pg 43. Later I realized the page number may be off a few pages, if you have a different edition, since the Handbook has evolved over the years. To make matters worse, there is no "title" for the table. It is simply a table contained on one page, with three columns, labeled:
Historical Books, Poetic Books, and Prophetic Books.

Now, I also want to point out a listing of all of the books, in two parts. It begins on the next page, and is a few (two?) pages long. It gives a single line "purpose" for each book.

Finally, today, I want to point out, just before the table I pointed to, earlier, there is a overview of the Bible, about 12 pages of a two column table. The left hand column is very useful immediately, and the right hand column will become more useful as you study.

In the PDF version, this part begins on pg 64, and is 26 pages. Each section is divided into the story and the story behind the story. This division is the equivalent of the two columns I mentioned for the print edition.

My apologies. I got away from this, mostly due to the pandemic, which is Ironic, since disasters are a call from God to get closer to Him.

Seek shelter in the Lord.
And in His Word.

I will get getting back into this, soon.