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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | DocTrinsograce | 172745 | ||
Dear Brother Mark, I know you intended your remark to be humorous... However... If a person regularly uses commentaries they would know that the best commentators cite their sources. They would also know that that the early church compiled a large quantity of commentaries. They might even realize that commentaries pre-date Christianity. In Him, Doc |
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2 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | mark d seyler | 172785 | ||
Hi Doc, (Yes, commentators cite their sources. Some commentators are little more than a collection of citations - nothing wrong with that! Yes, commentaries have piled up to the sky since time immemorial. And yes, there are commentaries on God's Word dating back several thousands of years. I have perhaps, between those on my shelf and those on my computer, around maybe 40 or so? 50? I've never actually counted them. I have modern day back to the Ante-Nicene, and a few Targums.) Actually, I was intending to be slighty humorous but to make a point. A commentary, any commentary, is a man's opinion on the Word of God. Either a commentator is publishing their own opinion, or they are publishing an opinion they read from another commentator, who had either published their own opinion, or the opinion which they got from another commentator, who had either published their own opinion, or..., well, you get the idea! :-) Some commentaries make some fairly bizarre statements. Its not uncommon for a commentator to do more commenting on their own theological system than on the actual text of the Bible. Some commentators are quite true to the Scriptures, and add true wealth of knowledge and understanding. But that absolutely cannot be said of all. A great many commentators use a great many words to tell you why the text doesn't actually mean what it says, in all those places that contradict their system. I am very leary of anyone who tries to tell me not to believe as truth what God wrote as truth in the Scriptures. Are you aware of what the "pre-Christian" commentators wrote of the coming Messiah, and what the people should expect? Some got it right, but certainly not most. Some had some pretty strange ideas indeed! But by and large, we know what the general idea was, of what people were expecting - its in the pages of the New Testament. Now, there were some who understood, although not many. Those who did understand, did they get that understanding from reading their commentaries, or from the direct illumination from the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures and their own devotional life? The Gospels, Paul's testamony, these tell us that it was the Lord Himself Who revealed these things. Now, Please, do not let anything I am saying be understood as if I am telling you to never read a commentary, or even to just sit back and wait for divine revelation to seep up through your fingertips. But I would heartily recommend to all, before reading any commentary, study the Word. Read a passage 20 times through. Look at every passage that has bearing on the subject, and prayfully learn what the Bible says. In my opinion, the absolute best, by far, Bible "study help" is a good concordance. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. Consider all the disagreements between commentators on some fairly basic issues. I don't think I need to present a list, I'm sure you, as would anyone who as read the commentators, has run into numerous instances of this. How can you know which is right unless you had already learned what the Bible teaches on a subject? And we know that the number of voices is not an indicator of truth. Commentators, whether written, or spoken, have their place, but I would say a distant second place to the diligent study of God's Word. You can read many many innacurate statements in a commentary, but you will never read one in the Bible. Love in Christ, Mark |
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3 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | kalos | 172787 | ||
Mark: I have heard two old sayings about commentaries. I think there is truth in both of them. They are: The best commentary is a good translation. The Bible is its own best commentary. "The best commentary is a good translation." Many times when I have looked up a difficult verse in another translation, especially the Amplified and the NLT, I found my question answered and understood the verse well enough to continue reading. "The Bible is its own best commentary." John MacArthur writes: "One of the basic principles of biblical interpretation is the analogia scriptura, the analogy of Scripture. In other words, we must compare Scripture with Scripture in order to understand its full and proper sense. And since the Bible doesn't contradict itself, any interpretation of a specific passage that contradicts the general teaching of the Bible is to be rejected." Grace to you, Kalos |
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4 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | mark d seyler | 172791 | ||
Hi Kalos, I agree with you very much on this! :-) God bless you! Mark |
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5 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | annointed_child | 172795 | ||
depends what kind you need, there are many different bibles out now. | ||||||