Worship
Prayer by Amah
Review of homework
We’ve now finished looking at the prerequisites, I hope you continue to share the gospel, continue to grow as a big brother or big sister in the church, and have a rich devotional life. Now we will go on to the first main course: Biblical Survey.. But before we do, I just want to remind you what the overall course is:
What I teach is called Biblical Theology. “Theology” is a big broad subject with thousands of years of development. Broadly speaking Theology can be broken into three major streams of study: Biblical Theology, Systematic Theology, and Applied Theology. (Other streams like Historical Theology, etc., also exist). These three streams of theology overlap in some ways and contribute to each other, but let me give examples of each kind of theology so you get an idea of what we are doing in this course.
Applied theology focuses on topics like: Missiology, Evangelism, Ecclesiology, Christian Counseling, Christian ethics, Discipleship, Leadership... It uses a variety of approaches to advance understanding and find practical solutions in these fields.
Systematic theology focuses on topics like: Christology, study of the atonement, Christian philosophy, etc. It generally starts with a question and then looks across the breadth of scripture to answer it. A good place to start learning about Systematic Theology is by learning catechisms. Here are a few in Indonesian.
NEW CITY CATECHISM (Indonesian)
WESTMINISTER CATECHISM (Indonesian)
Biblical theology focuses on topics like: hermeneutics, language studies, author studies, book studies, genre, discourse, etc. It generally starts with the Bible, and as we read it we learn things about systematic and applied theology, but the starting point is understanding the Bible.
Goals for the Biblical Survey Class
Learn basic theology of the bible
Learn basic apologetics about the bible
Learn the major themes of each of the books of the bible
Learn the context of the books in time and geography
Be able to study a passage at multiple levels using various resources
Be able to prepare small group bible studies for each major genre of scripture
Be able to look up commentary on difficult to understand passages to answer questions
Today we start with the basic theology of the bible and learning about study tool
Theology of the Bible
(1) Learning the Bible requires
You are a spirit-filled believer Lk 24:13-35
A pure heart Mt 5:8
Humility Ps 25:9
Application Mk 7:10-13
Purpose to become Christlike 2Co 3:18
The Bible belongs to the family of faith,
is by the family of faith,
it to the family of faith,
so that the family will grow in faith
(2) Attributes of the Bible
Inspired 2Tim3:14-17, 2Pet1:19-21, 2Sam 23:1-2
Authoritative: Everyone is subject to the Bible. Man is not above the Bible to interpret it, the Bible is over man to interpret man.
Sufficient: God has spoken all that we need for his revelation
Relevant: There is no one that can say the Bible is not relevant to me.
Clarity: The Bible generally means what it says in a way that we can understand. It is not generally understood to be allegory.
Inerrant: There are no mistakes in the word of God. (we will look at this more carefully next time… but there are some extra notes)
(3) How many layers of voices are there to the Bible?
What I will call here “voices” refers to things that influence the message that we are receiving. Let’s consider what is between us and God directly.
★ GOD
☆[Internal] The Bible interpreting the Bible (especially, New Testament authors quoting LXX)
☆[Internal] Apostolic author
[Internal] Intended author (‘voice’ of the author)
[Internal] First scribe
☆[Internal] Genre of the text (discourse? history? poetry? law? wisdom? prophecy?)
☆[Internal] Narrator in the text
☆[Internal] Character in the text (could be first, second or third person)
☆[Internal] Listener in the text (Job’s friends, Nicodemus in John 3, etc.)
[External] Original manuscripts (Urtext)
☆[Internal] Intended reader (direct recipient)
[Internal] Initial readers (first generation readers)
[External] Textual critics
☆[External] Translators, translation committees
★SCRIPTURE
□[External] Publisher, app/digital platform developer
□[External] Environmental conditions and personal state of mind
★ ME (the first person, and my response/application)
A second person and their response/application
A third person and their response/application
☆Be aware of and consider these levels
□ Be aware of and mute these levels
Levels of Bible Study
Examining the Forest, the Woods, the Trees, the Branches and Leaves
The Forest: Overall sections of the Bible
The Woods: Books, sections and discourse
The Trees: Sentences and verses
The Branches and Leaves: Language and word studies
Tools for every Level
Examining the forest
This course
Examining the Woods
Outlining sections (let’s try Psalm 2)
Examining the Trees
Grammar diagrams: https://www.drivennails.com/jobpsalms-diagrams
Examining the Branches
Passage commentary: Matthew Henry’s Commentary in Indonesian
Examining the Leaves
Doing a word study: Using Strong’s numbers in Indonesian
One Genre to Consider: Poetry
We already made an outline of Psalm 2, but in addition to an outline, for biblical poetry it can be useful to consider these points:
Repetition
Parallels/constrasts
Chiasm
Allegory/clarity
Negative/positive changes to the tone
Changes in perspective or pronouns
Overall meaning of the poem
How do the words/images help bring the overall meaning to life?
Preparing a Small Group Study
Prayerfully study a passage carefully using the tools: understand the book context, make an outline and/or grammar diagram, do word studies of key words
Consider how the passage represents a genre of text to deepen your appreciation of the text
Consider how the passage is connected to good news
Prepare several questions for the study that focus on the main theme
Read a commentary afterwards to learn more
Summary
We are studying Biblical Theology. Maybe you are also interested in applied or systematic. We will also answer those questions, but from a Biblical Theology approach.
The Bible is primarily for people of faith. The Bible is inspired and therefore infallible, authoritative, etc.
When reading the Bible, it can be useful to consider the many different voices to make sure we try to hear God’s voice.
We study the Bible on many levels, and there are good tools to assist us at learning at every level.
Poetry uses language in a special way to create memorable pictures that are often an allegory for something else.
Homework
Prepare a small group study for a Psalm
Practice memorizing the 66 books of the Bible
Let's let you ask questions now.
How much is lost in translation from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek?
Prayer and worship to finish.