Free Online Bible Classes | Bible Study Methods

Bible Study Methods

This class will introduce you to the basics questions of how to study your Bible.

About this Class

What is Bible study? Why do we study these specific 66 books? What type of literature are we studying? What are the practical steps we should take? How do we determine a word’s meaning? How do we apply the text to our lives? These questions and more are answered in this course.

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Lecture 1

It is important to recognize your presuppositions when you study and interpret the Bible. The writings of the Bible reflect diversity in authorship, genre and cultural background. The common theme that unifies the Bible as a whole focuses on the story of creation, fall and redemption.

Lecture 2

Hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. The goals of exegesis are to determine the meaning of a passage in its original context, and to determine the significance of the passage for today.

Lecture 3

The first goal of hermeneutics is to determine the meaning of the text that the author intended. The interpretation process must take into account the genre of the literature and the historical and literary context. The meaning of the text controls our application.

Lecture 4

The first four steps in the exegesis process are identifying the genre, getting the big picture, developing a thesis statement, and outlining the progress of thought.

Lecture 5

The final six steps in exegesis process are consulting secondary sources, analyzing syntactical relationships, analyzing key terms and themes, resolving interpretive issues and problems, evaluating your results from the perspective of wider contextual and theological issues and summarizing your results. [At the 26 minute mark, the verse reference, John 14:6 should be John 14:26.]

Lecture 6

Word studies are helpful tools you can use to help you better understand the Bible. It is important to make sure your conclusions are accurate and that you use your conclusions in an appropriate way.

Lecture 7

In this lesson, Dr. Strauss discusses two extremes to avoid when applying Scripture. He also gives us five principles to guide our contextualization of a particular passage.

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