My approach to studying the Bible.

I take the exegesis route, and wow has it been fruitful.

As we grow in our faith, so too should our study of the Bible. Every time I pick up my Bible, I discover something new that I could have sworn wasn’t there the first time I read that passage or that book of the Bible.

Truly stumped by this sometimes, but definitely welcome it.

It’s should actually be very humbling and respected when God is letting you know you are ready for more.

I have learned many things and unlearned many things. Been corrected both gently and not so gently by God, and that’s fine by me. I ask to be corrected even if I find out a belief was completely wrong, slightly off, or I was missing key context.

Context is everything to me, not just in my spiritual life but my day-to-day life. It’s how I think, how I formulate communication, how I try and sort out this world I live in. Without context, most things cause my mental buffers to kick in, and I look like a deer in headlights situation.

Context, original words, historical understanding of the time frames each book of the Bible was written in, and the history of the writers have become a passion of mine for some time now. I want to understand more and appreciate that the word of God is alive.

This has brought me an even deeper love and joy of studying the Bible and getting closer to God.

I want to leave you with a definition to think on when studying.

Exegesis: “exegesis is the process of careful, analytical study of biblical passages undertaken in order to produce useful interpretations of those passages."

The following are several factors to be considered:

Textual criticism (original wording of text, beginning and ending points of passages).

Historical context (events before and at the time scriptures were written, also includes social settings and culture).

Literary context (investigation of sources and authorship).

Form (What is the genre? Prose or poetry, etc.).

Lexical and syntactical — usage of individual words in order to determine the meaning to determine the original meaning.

Biblical context (How do the passages fit into the Bible as a whole?)

Structural and theological meaning.”(Source)

Approach the Bible in faith and ask questions, get curious, deep dive and always, always go back to Bible and fact check things you have been told.

© Jane Isley

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