How to Study the Bible: Study 1

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Study Approach #1: “Topical Examination”

The title “Bible Student” is fairly self-explanatory. In short, the title describes one who studies the Bible. Studying any type of subject implies a dedication that requires effort, time and energy. Just as one begins any type of study, there is a learning curve; no one picks up a calculus book and expects to be able to solve derivatives without first mastering some of the per-requisite skills. During the process, the student learns to use many tools to aid them in their pursuits, such as graph paper, note taking, calculators, reference tables, and so on. One of the most important things that the student brings to the pursuit is the desire to learn the subject, as well as the belief that if one applies oneself to the pursuit, the subject can be learned.

Bible Students believe that these principles can be applied to the Bible, with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of its content, and, through a belief that the Bible is God’s method of making himself known to us, becoming aware of God’s plan for not only the student, but for the entire creation of mankind. Just as a student of calculus relies on the source material for their studies, students of the Bible are determined to refer to the source for their definitive beliefs. A student of calculus would naturally be wary of allowing someone else to do their homework for them; understanding that the work itself of determining the answers is largely what makes the pursuit of the knowledge worthwhile. Likewise, a student of the Bible is cautious about traditions that may be in conflict with what they find in their studies, and while they may use commentaries, debates and discussions as healthy sounding points to assist with their thoughts, they are careful to consistently respect the final mandate of “It is written”.

This post is the first in a series of posts that will collectively examine various tried and true methods that Bible Students apply during their studies. The series will roughly follow the same outline as the excellent booklet “How to Study the Bible and Have It Make Sense” (a link to to download a free version of this booklet appears at the end of this article). The booklet outlines five key strategies that students use during study; the first of these approaches is described as “exhaustive topical examination”.

Recently, we posted a part of our study into God’s plan for mankind examined a specific incident in the life of Jacob. During the course of that article, two references were made to the use of Strong’s Concordance. A concordance is a collective list of words that are found in a text, made for the point of being able to search for specific references to words, and, usually, the surrounding text. Concordances are also useful for getting a sense of how many times a particular word is used in a work, and in what context a particular word may be used in other locations. Think of a concordance as a “search” or “find” function in a software document, except in book form.

While reading through Genesis 33:22 in preparing the posting, I came across the word “ford”. That word stood out to me as unusual; or at least, not a word used in every day conversation, at least by me. While I knew what the dictionary told me a “ford” was, the fact that the word struck me as unusual led me to look it up in Strong’s Concordance.

Strong’s Concordance is divided into three basic sections (although Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance contains many more useful sections). The first section is an alphabetical listing of every word in the Bible. The occurrences of a particular word are then sub-listed in order of occurrence in the Bible; meaning that an occurrence of a word in Genesis will be listed before an occurrence of that same word in Revelation. Each occurrence also lists a brief snippet of the context, or surrounding words, of the occurrence, followed by the book, chapter and verse of the occurrence, and finally a number. This number is often referred to as “Strong’s index number”. This number serves as a unique identifier that can be used in the second of the three basic sections. The second and third section provide the original Hebrew (in the case of an Old Testament word) or Greek (in the case of a New Testament word) definitions of the English word in question. The index number provides a way to find the Hebrew/Greek word, so that the student may see the original Hebrew or Greek definition of the word in question.

When you look up the word “ford” in he Hebrew section of the concordance, you will notice that the word “ford” only has one listing; meaning that in the entire Bible, the word “ford” is only used this one time, in Genesis 33:22 (although the plural of the word, “fords”, is used in a few other places). The word “ford” has an index number of 4569. Using this number, one can go to the Hebrew listing in the second half of the concordance. This section lists, in numerical order by index number, each of the Hebrew words that form the Old Testament. The following snapshot shows what the entry for the Hebrew word, translated as “ford” looks like:

4569 ma`abar mah-ab-awr’ or feminine mapabarah {mah-ab-aw-raw’}; from 5674; a crossing-place (of a river, a ford; of a mountain, a pass); abstractly, a transit, i.e. (figuratively) overwhelming:–ford, place where…pass, passage.
see SH5674

While a concordance is an extremely powerful tool, the question that any student needs to determine, when using any kind of tool, is knowing when to use one. After all, it wouldn’t be practical to go through the entire Bible, word by word, and correlating every single word in every single verse back to a Strong’s index number. In the previous posting on Jacob’s hip, I cited two different instances where I utilized Strong’s Concordance; first for the word “ford” and second for the word “man”. In these cases, I decided to use Strong’s for two different, yet related, reasons.

Although the last post discussed Jacob as described in the book of Genesis, the main topic that I intended to discuss was the wound that Jacob received as a result of his wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32:25. In preparation for the article, I understood that I would want to lay out a background for the reader, which caused me to read through all of the books in Genesis that refer to Jacob (or as he was later to become known, Israel) in order to refresh my memory and to help lay out how I would structure the introduction to the article. While doing so, or when studying any other parts of the Bible, I try to pay particular attention to either statements or accounts that are repeated (as repetition may indicate importance, or some other message), or seem out of place (as this may be an indication that I am either misreading or otherwise missing some important concept or point, and thus require later, further study), or just seem to be an important part of the account. I try to picture the scenes happening as if I were witnessing them myself; what would stand out to me? If I were seeing the events unfold in front of me, what motivations would I ascribe to the people in the scene?

In thinking about the account in Genesis 32, which recaps the final night before Jacob reunites with his brother Esau, it struck me as significant that Jacob and his group reached a river. On that night, Jacob sent all of his party ahead of him to cross the river, and stayed that night, alone. This stood out to me; in times of crisis or fear, many people would choose to be surrounded by their family and those with whom they were familiar. In the account, in Genesis 32:22, the crossing point of the river is referred to as “the ford Jabbok”. While I am certainly familiar with the word, “ford” is not a word I normally use in my every day speaking; perhaps that would be different if I lived closer to a river. It struck me as significant enough that I thought to look it up in the Concordance; perhaps there was some deeper meaning or even a picture. However, after reading the definition and finding that there really weren’t many other occurrences of the word, I determined that the word and the account was simply that; Jacob family and group crossed the river at a crossing place. However, the thought about the account was important; as a student of the Bible, it is just as important to determine when something in the Bible is probably a picture, or “type” as determining that an account may be a picture. (Note: the concept of a “type” will be examined in a future post).

Reading a little further, into verses 24-26, I was struck by the fact that at no time does the Bible refer to the man that Jacob wrestles with as an angel. Although I have read this account many times in my life, and although in each reading, I no doubt also made the same observation. However, in preparing for a post that would potentially be read by others, I felt the need to look into this further. How would I be able to justify the understanding that the man in Genesis 32:24 was in fact an angel who had taken human form to someone who, perhaps, was not familiar with the Bible?

This led me to look up the word “man” in the Hebrew section of Strong’s Concordance. Studying what I found there proved extremely helpful in two ways. First, by looking through the other occurrences of the word “man” in the Old Testament as listed in Strong’s, I was able to refresh my memory on other places where an angel had taken on human form, and was referred to as a “man” in the scriptures; particularly in Genesis chapter 18, as well as Genesis chapter 18:2-10, where the surrounding chapters perhaps make stronger statements of angels in human form. Second, by looking at the definitions of the Hebrew word iysh, Strong’s lists some of the definitions as particularly a “good, great, mighty man”, which may add some strength to the view that the man Jacob wrestled with was different than an ordinary man.

Just as a scholar of any subject may have multiple study aids, each providing different types of support, there are also different concordances as well as other resources helpful in determining word meanings. Although not covered in this posting, two such resources are Young’s Analytical Concordance and Vine’s Expository Dictionary. Young’s Analytical Concordance is structured much like Strong’s, in that words are listed in alphabetical order, and sub-listed in occurrences in the Bible, with context. Vine’s Dictionary is just that – a listing of words against their definitions. Vine’s provides very scholarly investigations into both words and phrases used in the Bible, and although not every word or phrase is covered (“ford” for example, does not have an entry; and although “man” has a substantial entry, the occurrence in Genesis 32:25 is not covered), those entries that are included can often times provide valuable insight into Biblical words and phrases.

Although topical study is certainly one important approach to studying the Bible, it is certainly only one study method. In the next post in this series, we will examine a second important aspect to Bible study, which is the study of symbolic language. Symbolic language in the Bible has been a source of misunderstandings and confusion surrounding Bible study, and we will examine approaches that will , hopefully, assist with recognizing and reconciling symbolic language.

Posts in the “How to Study” Series

Further Readings and References

  • For those wishing to refer to the study aid referred to in this posting, the booklet How to Study the Bible and Have It Make Sense provides an excellent overview of the posts that will be covered in this series of studies
  • The study in the Patriarchal Age concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, referred to in this post, can be referenced here. It is part of a larger set of studies that examine God’s plan for mankind as revealed in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible
  • (Please note that although some of the links provided in this post will take you to the Chicago Bible Students online bookstore, where physical copies of these books/booklets may be purchased, each of the books/booklets may also be downloaded from the bookstore, free of charge, with no obligation to provide any personal information. Simply click under the description of each item to find the download link.)

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