What is the Best Way to Study the Bible?

Question

There are so many denominations of Christianity and interpretations of the Old and New Testament; what is the best way to study the Bible? What was "the Faith" in early Christian history? What evidence do we have of how they understood the holy scriptures? Judaism also has their interpretation; how do we know they are not correct?

Answer 1

The best thing you can do is make a firm commitment to nurture your relationship with God. There are many who know the words of the Bible but have no idea what love, faith, hope, mercy, joy, grace, peace, even life itself is at all. If God is truly your Father, then meet with Him every day. That means opening your day with His words. We eat breakfast to feed our stomachs, even before that we should feeding our souls with His words.

Indeed there are many theologically sound things we can do to understand what God is saying in the Bible, those are all good things. But unless that commitment is there those words will not genuinely fill your soul.

My devotional time consists of sitting in a quiet place and putting aside any distracting thoughts, and briefly just asking God to share with me His things today. I open Scripture and read an entire chapter. I then spend time in prayer, and conclude with a biblically sound devotional reading from others who read Scripture prayerfully too. As my day progresses I may at some point share what I've learned with others when appropriate, and I do continue in prayer with God throughout.

A critical part of that is doing it every single day, without fail. Have I been perfect in this? No, there have been a few days I've neglected Him in this, but that's on me, not Him. He's always ministering to me, but if I am not in His word regularly, richly, meaningfully, then I short-circuit that. This should help address your concerns about other religion's interpretations of things. Being well-versed in what those words say every day, day-after-day, will better equip you to see whether something is true and gracious or it is ungodly yet appearing perfectly fine.

One more thing. While this is one part of a good Bible reading regiment, spending time with others in healthy worship assemblies and in Bible studies is also very good, and you may even get into a much more in-depth study with expanded home groups or higher education academic settings.

Answer 2

Video Summary of Points of How to Best Understand the OT and NT Bible:

1. Start by reading the Old Testament Bible.
2. In concert with that, what will help significantly in reading the details, is to get an overview of the OT. This should not, or must not, be a replacement for reading the details, but a supplement, much in the same way that when we read a book, a Table of Contents gives us a heads up what we are about to read. Also, introduction for the chapter does further. So learning the OT timeline (aerial view of the OT) and understanding the order of events found by reading all of the OT narratives (e.g. Genesis, Exodus, Lev, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings...etc) and being able to summarize them from beginning to end in simple terms. Being able to walk someone through an overview of the OT narratives, chronologically, is a powerful starting point for proper exegesis.
3. Learning after that, the Messianic prophecies (prophecies of the Christ (Messiah))
4. Then the early Christian writings called the Ante Nicene Fathers (published mid 1800s CE) that span the time from late 1st century CE to early 4th century.
5. Learning Biblical languages (Koine Greek for NT and Biblical Hebrew for OT (Modern Hebrew can help in that effort))

A good understanding can be obtained simply by 1 to 3 above, but further study with 4 and 5 will have a powerful effect to make sure we understand the Bible the way the Apostles preached the message... #4 especially since the first few volumes of the Ante Nicene Fathers are those men who knew the apostles or the next generation and who spoke the same language (Koine Greek). Moreover, they were able to engage with them and ask questions to ensure they understood the message that Jesus taught his apostles and explanation of the Messianic prophecies like we read in Luke 24:⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures..