Methods Of Study

by Doodson, A. T. | Category: For Young Believers | Jul 1952

In studying the Scriptures we are dealing with thoughts conveyed by words, and therefore it is essential that we pay great attention to the words we use, for "if men are loose in their terms they will be wrong in their doctrine". We are dealing with inspired words, penned under the direction of a Divine Master. He who formed the mouth, the ear and the mind to understand and to use speech, has been the most careful to use correct words.

It is a fundamental principle, therefore, that we understand the words used in the Scripture. Take, for example, such a well-known word as "propitiation", which is used in Hebrews 2.17. If I were to ask each of you to write down your understanding of this word, I wonder how many would be able to give a correct answer!

A good English dictionary is certainly a useful aid to study and there is no small dicti9nary better than Fowler's "Concise Oxford Dictionary". - But we need care to ascertain whether the Scriptural usage of the word is the same as the dictionary sense. Now in this case the dictionary will endeavour to give help to describe the meaning of the word by bringing in "appeasement", and when we look at the word "appease" we see that explained by the words "pacify, quiet, soothe". We ask ourselves if these really can be applied to the Scriptural idea. Did Christ soothe God, or make Him quiet? Certainly n9t! The fact is that many of these words are explained in the sense in which they have been used in the world, and the ancient idea was that the gods were not sympathetic towards men and needed to be appeased. God is not like that, for His nature is unchangeable, but He can act in grace because of the propitiatory work of Christ. The dictionary is necessary and is valuable, but in many things it is insufficient to guide us to the Scriptural meaning.

We therefore turn to specialized dictionaries which are called lexicons. There are many such aids, not all of equal merit. A very useful aid is a concordance. By itself a concordance is a useful aid to study because it gives us all the instances in which the same English word is used, but, because of the difficulty of translation we cannot always assume that an English word is a translation of one, or only one, Greek word. Hence a concordance, such as that of Cruden, which only gives us the English words, may help us to find passages of Scripture, but it is of very limited use as an aid to study. A concordance which states the actual Greek or Hebrew word (except in certain doubtful cases of text) is more useful. That of Strong enables us to see which passages of Scripture use the same word, and then we can examine the meaning of the word and see how it is borne out in all the cases where it is used.

You will notice that we have introduced now two principles :-

(1)the need for understanding what a word means;

(2)the need for examining all uses in Scripture, because Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. For this same reason the references in our Bibles are very useful, and the young student should read the explanation of these in the Preface to the Revised Version. By following up the references many interesting passages may be found, and these help to explain the sense.

Whether we use the references or follow up passages using the same original word, as indicated by the concordance, there is no need to assume that it is necessary to become a student of the Hebrew and Greek languages. One advantage of Strong's concordance is that the original words are indicated by numbers, so that it is not even necessary to know the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. Of course, if anyone is so minded, it is a laudable ambition to study the original languages, but it is a whole-time occupation to become really efficient, and you cannot expect to become an authority with sufficient knowledge and standing to settle difficult points of grammar.

Hitherto I have limited the aids to those which are not biased in interpretation by pre-conceived ideas of doctrine. Lexicons are usually accurate and unbiased, when they are brief, but when they begin to expound the meaning, then errors may creep in. With due care, however, it is possible to get a great deal of help from such a publication as that by Vine, "Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words". This is an excellent book, but is subject to the personal views of the compiler. His exposition may be somewhat faulty at times, but his facts are very useful.

One aid to study may be very subtle and very dangerous. I refer to commentaries on the Scriptures. These are books by men who profess to explain the Scriptures. They are best avoided, for on many doctrines of vital importance they may be very much astray from the truth. There is only one commentary I would recommend and that is "Bible Studies". I am not passing over "Needed Truth", but "Needed Truth" is not so systematic as "Bible Studies". I think that very many brethren would turn to "Bible Studies" if they had to speak on a subject which they knew had been dealt with in the volumes.

Doodson, A. T. | Jul 1952
For Young Believers