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INTERPRETING GOD'S WORD
INTERPRETING GOD'S WORD
Eisegesis Vs. Exegesis
Eisegesis Vs. Exegesis
We here at bible nerds are committed to avoiding eisegesis. “What is eisegesis?” you ask? great question! Eisegesis is making the bible speak for you and your agendas, biases and presuppositions. The opposite of that is exegesis and it is the process of letting the bible speak for God.
Eisegesis:
Eisegesis:
"The interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one's own ideas" *
"The interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one's own ideas" *
At Bible Nerds we strive to discover God’s truth and show that God’s truth is available for anyone. We seek to do this by properly interpreting God's Word using exegesis and we only want to encourage our listeners to do the same.
Learn more here: What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis? - Gotquestions.org
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
GotQuestions.org wrote a great article with a video that explains this topic in more detail. Click here to read the article or watch the video here.
UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
To get a fuller understanding of what the Bible is saying, it’s important to try to take a few things into consideration. Some things to take into consideration about each passage you are reading are:
Author, Date, and Recipients
Who is the author? When was this written? Who was it written to?Theme
What is the main concept of this book?Purpose
What is the main purpose of this book?Key Themes
What are the important themes that will be addressed in this book?Outline
What is the layout of this book?Setting
Where did these events take place? This often includes a map.Literary Styles
What is the main literary style for this book or passage? It could be genealogical, historical narrative, law, parable, poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature, apocalyptic, a gospel, or an epistle (letter).
There are many great resources out there for understanding these things. Here are some we use:
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
The Bible project has tons of great Bible study tools. They've made some great videos to help us understand the different literary styles of the Bible. Check them out!
The ESV translation, found on www.esv.org, is a great resource for most of this information as they provide an introduction section for each book in the Bible with information on:
Author, Date, and Recipients
Theme
Purpose
Key Themes
Outline
Setting
This pdf tool, created by Dayton Women in The Word, does a great job of quickly taking us through an understanding of each Biblical genre:
Historical Narrative
The Law, Poetry
Wisdom Literature
Prophecy
Apocalyptic Literature
The Gospels
The Epistles
READING & STUDYING
READING & STUDYING
There are so many ways to read and study the Bible today! There are countless apps and websites as well as physical books, not to mention all of the different versions (translations) of the Bible. Here are some that we use.
Website - App
Great for reading and studying in a browser
Great for reading and studying in a browser
biblegateway.com is the bible and more in your browser. It has over 50 translations, reading plans, study tools and a verse of the day for daily inspiration. One great feature of this app is the offering of the bible in other languages like Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French and so many more. They also have an app so that your bible reading is mobile.
Great for reading on a mobile device
Great for reading on a mobile device
The YouVersion Bible app is one of the most popular and powerful Bible apps on the market, and for good reason. They make it easy to read and study the Bible in a well designed app experience. It also has a large number of different English translations to choose from, as well as translations in other languages, including Chinese, Spanish, French, and more. This is Sam's go-to app for daily reading. It also has great audio Bibles!
Website - App
Great for studying and taking notes on a mobile device
Great for studying and taking notes on a mobile device
Logos Bible Software is probably the most extensive and powerful all-in-one Bible study tools on the market. Their app experience is well-designed and they have a great website and software for desktop/laptop as well. One of Logos' best features is its freakishly enormous library, including Bible translations (English and otherwise), original language texts (Both Greek and Hebrew and there are multiple options), commentaries (you guys... so... many... commentaries), textual criticism, articles, etc... Another amazing feature (and this is really why this is Sam's favorite Bible tool for in-depth study) is the note taking capability.
While the base stuff is free, you do have to pay for a lot of these extra things. There's a subscription option or you can just get Logos for free and purchase whatever books you want a la carte (This is what Sam does). Don't worry, there are also many free options to use within Logos as well.
Website - App
Great for studying and taking notes in a browser
Great for studying and taking notes in a browser
netbible.org is a great site if you have some original language experience and want to do a deeper dive on a text. It offers interlinear Greek and Hebrew, as well as a function to be able to hold your mouse over the original word and see how it has been translated. There are multiple versions of the English bible and also study tools like commentaries, scholarly articles and maps. It is possible to click on an original language word and see the root word, parsing, times used in scripture, Strong’s Concordance number and common translations. there are also helpful scholar comments that address issues of textual criticism and alternative translations. They also have a mobile app called “Lumina.” It is a great bible on phone app with all the scholar notes and a section to write your own notes and thoughts on a passage for later reflection.
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES
gotquestions.org is a great resource that tries to provide deeper insight into the passage being read. it is a para-church ministry that hopes to provide people with more information, explanation and understanding. Their goal is to help people find God’s truth, rather than promote a denominational agenda. If you have questions about scripture this is a great place to look for answers
The Bible project has tons of great Bible study tools. We especially love their videos. Sam doesn't like to start reading a new book of the Bible until he's watched the summary video about that book from The Bible Project (they're that good). The Bible Project makes it fun and easy to understand the Bible, from overall story line to specific and difficult words or concepts. We're just saying, if you're gonna get caught in a YouTube trap, you might as well be watching The Bible Project.
The American Bible Society website offers a brief explanation of 15 of the most popular english translations. It is very helpful if you are wanting to get a new bible or better under and the translation you currently use.
This website offers an online PDF with hyper-links in the table of contents that make it easy to jump to relevant information based on the passage being studied. It also offers helpful information that helps modern readers better understand the historical context in which these 66 books were written, as well as prayers, charts and maps.
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