Beef Up Your Bible Reading 3

So you’re supposed to read the Bible — whatever part you’re reading — wanting to know what the person who wrote it intended to say on to the people he wrote it for. But how, to give just one example, can you work out what Isaiah, writing in Hebrew, intended to say to people who lived in Jerusalem over 700 years before Jesus was born?

If you know where the bit you’re reading fits in the bigger story of the Bible, that’s a good start. It’ll tell you what was going on in Jerusalem at the time: you’ll know what the situation was that Isaiah was addressing.

Next, take a look at the verse or passage you want to understand (I’m talking about any Bible passage now, not just a passage from Isaiah) and make sure you know what every word means. You might think that’s such a blindingly obvious thing to do that it doesn’t need saying but bear with me, there’s a little bit more to it than you might imagine, and simply looking up words in an English dictionary won’t do. Here’s why.

I love ice-cream. I fell in love with Janet (my wife) the first time I saw her. Last time I played tennis I lost by two sets to love. I trust in God’s love. Four sentences and in each of them the word love means something different. But you knew that, didn’t you? And you have a good idea what love means in each case. You worked it out by reading the whole sentence. Sometimes, with some words, it’s a bit harder and you need to look at the wider context to be sure but basically it’s just using a bit of common sense really. Well, the same kind of common sense can help you to understand the meaning of a lot of words in the Bible, especially if they’re words that can mean more than one thing. Look carefully at what the whole sentence or paragraph is about.

The Bible wasn’t written in English: it has been translated for us. Sometimes it’s just not possible to find an English word that expresses the exact meaning of the Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) word that the original writer used, so it’s not always easy to make an English translation express the exact thought he wanted to get across. One way you can get around that is to read your passage in a few different translations. If a single word can’t fully express the original thought you’ll often find that those different translations have opted for different English words. By comparing translations and putting all the options together you’ll get a better idea of what was intended. If you want to be more accurate try looking up the words in your passage using an online Bible Study tool like biblehub.com. Once you get familiar with it, you’ll find it invaluable.

The meanings of words change over time and the Bible was written a long time ago. What you want to know is what the word meant when your passage was written, not what it means today. The best way to work that out is to see how the same word is used in other parts of the Bible that were written around the same time. Again, it’s not as hard as it sounds. A Bible concordance will give you a list of verses that use your word. But again those online tools make it even easier: type in your word and all those verses will pop up on your screen. If that sounds like too much work, a decent Study Bible or a basic commentary will tell you what all the important words mean. And don’t forget that the meanings of English words change over time too. What you read in an older translation may not mean what you think it means. I know a lot of Christians are peculiar people, but I don’t think that’s what either Peter or the translators of the Authorised Version meant us to take from 1 Peter 1:9.

You’ll find that exploring the meanings of words, in itself, will give you some great insights. You’ll be glad you made the effort, especially when it comes to words that are used a lot in the Bible but not so much in everyday conversation: words like love, grace, loving-kindness, faith, holiness, righteousness, glory…

“All Scripture is God-breathed.”

2 Timothy 3:16

Every single word.