The Nature of Wisdom:Three Old Testament books are commonly know as wisdom books. Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Job. Also a number of Psalms can be included into this category. Finally, there is the Song of Songs, also commonly called the Song of Solomon.  All of these books contain a great deal of material considered to be wisdom. Wisdom, as it applies to Christians is, the ability to make godly choices in life.

Abuse of Wisdom Literature: Traditionally the Wisdom books have been misused in three different ways. (1) People often read these books in parts. They fail to see that there is an overall message according to the inspired author’s intentions. (2) People often misunderstand wisdom terms and categories as well as wisdom styles and literary modes. Thus they misdefine the terms used in the Bible in wisdom contexts. (3) People often fail to follow the line of argument in a wisdom discourse. Accordingly, they try to live by what was intended to be understood as incorrect.

Who Is Wise? Wisdom is not something theoretical and abstract—it is something that exist only when a person thinks and acts according to the truth, as he or she makes many choices that life demands. The wise person is highly practical not just theoretical. Wisdom literature sought to evaluate how best to make life’s choices, while remaining grounded in the only good choices or godly choices. The very first step in biblical wisdom is knowing God, not abstractly or theoretically, but in the concrete sense of committing your life to him. Wisdom literature then, tends to focus on people and their ability to make godly choices and whether or not they are learning how to apply God’s truth to the experiences they have.

The Limits of Wisdom: It is important to remember that not all wisdom in the ancient world was godly or orthodox. Moreover, wisdom does not cover all of life. Intensely practical, it tends not to touch upon the theological or historical issues so important elsewhere in the Bible. Remember that only when wisdom as a skill, is subordinate to obedience to God, does it achieve its proper ends in the sense of the Old Testament means.

Ecclesiastes: Cynical Wisdom This book is a wisdom monologue that is often puzzling to those who read it carefully. Its consistent message throughout (until the last verses) is that the reality of life and finality of death mean that life has no ultimate value. If we are all going to die anyway who cares if you’re good or not?

Everything about the book, everything but the final two verses, represents a brilliant, artful argument for the way one would look at life—if God did not play a direct, intervening role in life and if there were no life after death. The true aim of the book, however, is to show that such a view of life would leave you cold. When one relegates God to a position way out there away from us, irrelevant to our lives, then Ecclesiastes is the result. The book thus serves as a reverse apologetic for cynical wisdom; it drives its readers to look further because the answers that the author of this book gives are so discouraging.

Wisdom In Job: The book of Job contains all sorts of wrong advice and incorrect conclusions as they come from the lips of Job’s well-meaning “comforters.” This book takes the form of a highly structured conversation or dialogue.

Job’s comforters represent the viewpoint that God is not simply involved but is constantly meting out his judgment through the events of Job’s life. They express the commentary that what happens to you in life, good or ill, is a direct result of whether you have pleased God or not. Their message is that when life goes well for a person, that is a sign that he or she has chosen to do what is good, but when things go bad, it is obvious that that person has sinned against God.

The reader of the book of Job learns what is simply the world’s wisdom, seemingly logical but actually wrong, and what constitutes God’s wisdom and what builds confidence in God’s sovereignty and righteousness. Thus the dialogue and the story line combine to make the Old Testament’s paramount exemplar of speculative wisdom.

Wisdom In Proverbs: The book of Proverbs is the primary locus of prudential wisdom—that is, rules and regulations people can use to help themselves make responsible, successful choices in life. Proverbial wisdom focuses mostly on practical attitudes.

An important thing to remember about Proverbs is that in Hebrew they are called meshallim (figure of speech, parable, or specially contrived saying). A proverb is a brief, particular expression of truth. The briefer the statement the less likely it is to be totally precise and universally applicable. They must be understood reasonably and taken on their own terms. They do not state everything about a truth but point toward it. They tend to use figurative language and express things suggestively rather than in detail. Proverbs can also be like parables in that they express their truth in a symbolic way.

Proverbs are not a categorical, always applicable, ironclad promises, but a more general truth; it teaches that lives according to God and lived according to his will succeed according to God’s definition of success. When the Proverbs, then, are taken on their own terms, and understood as a special category of suggestive truth that they are, they become important and useful adjuncts for living.

Some Hermenuetical Guidelines: Proverbs state a wise way to approach certain selected practical goals but do so in terms that cannot be treated like a divine warranty of success. The particular blessings, rewards, and opportunities mentioned in Proverbs are likely to follow if one will choose the wise courses of actions outlined in the poetical, figurative language of the book.

If you approach Proverbs from a literalistic, extreme interpretation, you will miss the point of the proverb. A proverb frames the truth, in specific, narrow terms that are intended to point toward the broader principle rather than to express something technically.

Each inspired proverb must be balanced with others and understood in comparison with the rest of Scripture. Moreover, you must guard against letting their practical concern with material things and this world make you forget the balancing value of other Scriptures that warn against materialism and worldliness.

No proverb is a complete statement of truth. No proverb is so perfectly worded that it can stand up to the unreasonable demand that it apply to every situation at every time. The more briefly and parabolically a principle is stated, the more common sense is needed to interpret it properly. Proverbs tries to impart knowledge that can be retained rather than philosophy that can impress a critic.

Many proverbs express their truths according to practices and institutions that no longer exist, although they were common to Old Testament Israelites. Unless you think of these proverbs in terms of their modern equivalents their meaning may seem irrelevant or be lost to you altogether. Following is a list of some rules that will help you make proper use of proverbs and be true to their divinely inspired intent.

1.    Proverbs are often parabolic, i.e., figurative, pointing beyond themselves.

2.    Proverbs are intensely practical, not theoretically theological

3.    Proverbs are worded to be memorable, not technically precise.

4.    Proverbs are not designed to support selfish behavior—just the opposite.

5.    Proverbs strongly reflecting ancient culture may need sensible translation so as to not lose their meaning.

6.    Proverbs are not guarantees from God, but poetic guidelines for good behavior.

7.    Proverbs may use highly specific language, exaggeration, or any a variety of literary techniques to make their point.

8.    Proverbs give good advice for wise approaches to certain aspects of life, but are not exhaustive in their coverage.

9.    Wrongly used, Proverbs might justify a crass, materialistic lifestyle. Rightly used, they will provide practical advice for daily living.

Wisdom in the Song of Songs: The Song of Songs is a lengthy love song. It is an extended ballad of human romance, written in a style of the Near Ancient Eastern lyric poetry. The focus of this book is to provide its readers with the answers of whom to love and how to love. These are the two issues that the Song is mainly concerned with.

The Song has had a long tradition of odd translation, based on a combination of two common kinds of hermeneutical mistakes: totality transfer and allegorizing. Totality transfer is the tendency to think that all the possible features and meanings of a word or concept come with it whenever it is used. Allegorizing is interpreting writing as a figurative form that leads to abstract ideas about what the text is saying.

Here are some of the considerations that will help you use the Song in the way Scripture intends:

1. Try to appreciate the overall ethical context of the Song of Songs. Monogamous, heterosexual marriage was the proper context for sexual activity, according to God’s revelation in the Old Testament, and God-fearing Israelites would regard the Song in that light. The attitude of the Song is the very antithesis of unfaithfulness, either before or after marriage. Marriage consummates and continues love between a man and a woman. That is what the Song points towards.

2. Be aware of the genre of the Song. Its closet parallels are indeed love poetry of the Old Testament and elsewhere in ancient Near East, the context of which was not just love of any kind, but attraction in marriage. There is a solid moral overtone and a focusing of love into the right context.

3. Read the Song as suggesting godly choices rather than describing them in a technical manner. They are true as suggestions and generalizations rather than precise statements of universal fact.

4. Be aware that the Song focuses on very different values from those of modern culture. Our culture encourages people to fulfill themselves, whatever their sexual tastes, whereas the Song is concerned with how one person can respond faithfully to the attractiveness of and fulfill the needs of another. In the Song, romance is something that should continue throughout and actually characterize marriage.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Psalms are a collection of inspired Hebrew prayers and hymns. The fact that the Psalms are often appended to copies of the New Testament and that they are used so often in worship and meditation has given this particular book a certain prominence. Yet despite the fact that they are well known, they are also misunderstood. The problem with interpreting the Psalms arises primarily from their nature—what they are. Because the Bible is God’s Word, most Christians automatically assume that all it contains are words from God to people. In fact the Bible also contains words spoken to God or about God, and that these words, too, are God’s Word.

The Psalms are not propositions, or imperatives, or stories that illustrate doctrines, they do not function primarily for the teaching of doctrine or moral behavior. They are profitable when used for the purpose for which they were intended by God. (1) For us to express ourselves to God, (2) and to consider his ways.

Some Preliminary Exegetical Observations: When reading the Psalms you must understand their nature, including their various types, as well as their forms and function.

The Psalms as Poetry: The most important thing to remember when studying the Psalms is that they are poems; musical poems. It is important to familiarize yourself with Hebrew poetry as we did in regards to the Prophetical books, but there are also special points that need to be addressed in connection with the Psalms.

1. One needs to be aware that Hebrew poetry, by it very nature, was addressed, as it were, to the mind through the heart (i.e., much of the language is intentionally emotive). Therefore, you need to be careful in over exegeting the Psalms by finding special meanings in every word or phrase.

2. The Psalms are not just any kind of poem; they are musical poems. It is intended to have emotions, to evoke feelings rather than propositional thinking, and to stimulate a response on the part of the individual that goes beyond mere cognitive understanding of certain facts. While the Psalms contain and reflect doctrine, they are hardly repositories for doctrinal exposition. When you read a Psalm make sure that you do not derive from it meanings that were not intended by the musical poet who was inspired to write it.

3. It is also important to remember that the vocabulary of poetry is purposefully metaphorical. Thus one must take care to look for the point of the metaphor. An inability to appreciate symbolic language (metaphor and simile) and to translate into actual fact the more abstract symbolic notions of the psalm could lead a person to misapply it almost entirely.

The Psalms as Literature: When studying the Psalms it is important to recognize certain literary features. Failure to note these features can lead to several errors of interpreting and application.

1. The Psalms are of several different types. It is important to realize that the Israelites knew all of the types. Therefore, to truly understand the Psalms one must invest the time to learn all of the types as well.

2. Each of the Psalms is also characterized by its form. By form we mean the particular type, as determined by the characteristics (especially structure) that it shares with other psalms of its type. When one understands the structure of a Psalm then one can follow what is happening in the psalm.

3. Each of the types of psalms is also intended to have a given function in the life of Israel. Each psalm has an intended purpose. It is not reasonable, for example, to take a royal psalm, which had its original function in the celebration of Israel’s kingship as God endowed it, and read this at a wedding.

4. One must learn to recognize various patterns within the Psalms.

5. Each psalm must be read as a literary unit. The Psalms are to be treated as wholes, not atomized into single verses or thought of as many pearls on a string. Each psalm has a pattern of development by which its ideas are presented, developed, and brought to some kind of conclusion.

The Use of Psalms In Ancient Israel: The Psalms were functional songs. By functional we mean that they were not simply used as hymns are sometimes used today, spacing material to separate out parts of a worship service in preparation for the sermon. The Psalms served a crucial function of making connection between the worshiper and God. Therefore, the Psalms are very good at remaining applicable in all ages.

Eventually the Psalms were divided into five books. Book 1 (1-41); Book 2 (42-72); Book 3 (73-89); Book 4 (90-106); Book 5 (107-150).

The Types of Psalms It is possible to group the Psalms into seven different categories. These categories serve well to classify the Psalms and thus guide the reader toward good use of them.

1. Lament: Laments constitute the largest groups of psalms in the Psalter. There are more than sixty, including several corporate laments. Individual laments help a person express struggles, suffering, or disappointment to the Lord. Corporate laments do the same for a group rather than for an individual. The laments in the book of Psalms express with a deep, honest fervor the distress the people felt, therefore serving as a valuable tool for expression of concern to the Lord.

2. Thanksgiving Psalms: These psalms expressed joy to the Lord because something had gone well, or circumstances were good, and/or because people had a reason to render thanks to God for his faithfulness, and benefit. There are both community and individual psalms of thanksgiving.

3. Hymns of Praise: These psalms, without particular reference to previous miseries or to recent joyful accomplishments, center on the praise of God for who he is, for his greatness and his beneficence toward the whole earth, as well as his own people. God deserves praise. These psalms are especially adapted for individual or group praise in worship.

4. Salvation History Psalms: These psalms have as their focus a review of the history of God’s saving work’s among the people of Israel, especially his deliverance of them from bondage in Egypt and his creation of them as a people.

5. Psalms of Celebration and Affirmation: In this category include several kinds of psalms, all of which deal with different aspects of celebration and/or affirmation.

Covenant Renewal Liturgies: Designed to lead God’s people to a renewal of the covenant he first gave to them on Mount Sinai. These psalms serve effectively as worship guidelines for a service of renewal.

Davidic Covenant Psalms: These psalms praise the importance of God’s choice of the lineage of David. These psalms provide background for his messianic ministry.

Royal Psalms: There are nine psalms that deal especially with the kingship. The kingship in ancient Israel was an important institution, because through it God provided stability and protection. God works through intermediaries in society, and the praise function of these intermediaries is what we find in the royal psalms.

Enthronement Psalms: These psalms celebrate the enthronement of the king in ancient Israel, a ceremony that may have been repeated yearly. Some believe that they represent also the enthronement of the Lord himself, and were used as liturgies for some sort of ceremony which celebrated this.

Song of Zion or Songs of the City of Jerusalem: According to the predictions of God through Moses to the Israelites while they were in the wilderness, Jerusalem became the central city of Israel. Inasmuch as the New Testament makes much of the symbol of a New Jerusalem (heaven) these Psalms remain useful in Christian worship.

6. Wisdom Psalms: Eight Psalms can be place in this category. Also Proverbs chapter 8 is considered a psalm, praising as all of them do, the merits of wisdom and the wise life. These psalms can be read profitably along with the book of Proverbs.

7. Songs of Trust: Ten psalms that center their attention upon the fact that God may be trusted, and that even in times of despair, his goodness and care for his people ought to be expressed. God delights in knowing that those who believe in him trust him for their lives and for what he will choose to give them. These psalms can help us express our trust on God, whether we are doing well or not.

Some Concluding Hermeneutical Observations: How do these words spoken to God function for us as a Word from God? Precisely in the ways they functioned in Israel in the first place—as opportunities to speak to God in words he inspired others to speak to him in times of past.

Three Basic Benefits of the Psalms: From the use of the Psalms both in ancient Israel and in the New Testament church we can see three important ways in which Christians can use the Psalms.

1. Remember that the Psalms are a guide to worship. The worshipper who seeks to praise God, or to appeal to God, or to remember God’s benefit, can use Psalms as a formal means of expression of his or her thoughts and feelings. It can help express our concerns in spite of our own lack of skill to find the right words.

2. The Psalms demonstrate to us how we can relate honestly to God. One can learn from the Psalms to be honest and open in expressing joy, disappointment, anger, or other emotions. To cry to God for help, or with other emotions, is not a judgment on his faithfulness, but an affirmation of it.

3. The Psalms demonstrate the importance of reflection and meditation upon things that God has done for us. They invite us to prayer, to controlled thinking upon God’s Word (that is what meditation is), and to reflective fellowship with other believers.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Nature of the Prophecy:More individual books of the Bible come under the heading of prophecy than any other heading. Four major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel) and twelve minor prophets (the final twelve books of the Old Testament), written between about 760 and 460 BC. The first mistake that most of us make when studying prophecy is our understanding of what the word means. Most Christians think that the prophets only spoke to the coming of Christ as well as hinting to the New Covenant. In fact, less than 2 percent of Old Testament prophecy is directly Messianic (this does not mean that all prophecy is not ultimately fulfilled in Christ). Less than 5 percent specifically describes the New Covenant age. Less than 1 percent concerns events yet to come.

The prophets did announce the future, but it was usually the immediate future of Israel, Judah, and other nations that surrounded them, rather than our own future. The purpose of the prophets was to speak to their own contemporaries, not just us.

In the prophetical books we hear from God via the prophets and very little about the prophets themselves. This is the aspect of the prophetic books that causes the most trouble in interpreting. Other areas of trouble are how the oracles were written. In the longer books or the major prophetic books there seems to be multiple oracles. They are not always presented in their original order and often given without hints to historical setting or where on oracle begins and the other ends. Also most oracles were spoken in poetry.

Another matter that complicates our understanding of the Prophets is the problem of historical distance. As people move farther and farther away from the religious, historical, and cultural life of ancient Israel, we have a hard time putting the words spoken by the Prophets in their proper context. It is hard for us to see what they are referring to and why.

The Function of Prophecy: The following guidelines should help in the process of studying the prophetic books of the Bible.

The Prophets were covenant enforcement mediators. God does not merely give his law, but enforces it. God announced the enforcement of his laws through the prophets, so that the event of his blessing or of his curse would be fully understood by his people. They functioned as God’s mediators, or spokespersons, for the covenant. The blessings for covenant faithfulness fall into one of the following six categories: life, health, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect and safety. The curses can mostly fit into one of ten categories starting with ”d”: death, disease, drought, dearth, danger, destruction, defeat, deportation, destitution, and disgrace. As you read the Prophets, look for this simple pattern: (1) an identification of Israel’s sin or of God’s love for her; (2) a prediction of curse or blessing depending on the circumstance.

The prophet’s message was not their own, but God’s. The prophets responded to a divine call. What we read in the prophetical books then, is not merely God’s Word as the prophet saw it, but God’s word as God wished the prophet to present it. The prophet does not act or speak independently.

The prophet’s message is unoriginal. The message that the prophets delivered was more or less the same as the one that Moses gave. God raised up the prophets to gain the attention of the people to whom they were sent. The prophets are not inspired to make any points or announce any doctrines that are not already contained in the Pentateuchal covenant.

The Exegetical Task: When studying the prophetical books three tools can be very useful to aid in exegesis. The (1) first, a Bible dictionary, this will help to give a good introduction to the historical setting as well as other background information. You should make it a practice to always read a dictionary article on the prophetical book before you start to study. The (2) second is to use a commentary. This will give more in depth analysis of background information but will also provide explanations of the meaning of the individual verses. The (3) third would be to use a Bible handbook. This is a combination of both. This a great resource when reading through multiple chapters and you only need a general amount of extra information and analysis.

It is also important to think oracles. You want to be able to separate the individual area of the prophecy. This will help to understand the audience better. If you know where the oracles begin and stop then you will know the sections where you need to find the specific context relevant to that oracle.

Specific Contexts: Each prophetic oracle was delivered in a specific historical setting. A knowledge of the date, audience, and situation, therefore, when they are know, contributes substantially to a reader’s ability to comprehend an oracle.

The Forms of Prophetic Utterance: It is important to realize that oracles can take on different forms. Bible commentaries are wonderful resources to identify and explain the different forms. Below are the three most common forms you will find in prophetic writing.

1. The lawsuit: The full lawsuit form contains a summons, a charge, evidence, and a verdict, though these elements may sometimes be implied rather than explicit. The figurative style of this prophetic utterance is an effective way of communicating.

2. The Woe: “Woe” was the word ancient Israelites cried out when facing disaster or death, or when they mourned at a funeral. Woe oracles contain, either explicitly or implicitly, three elements that characterize this form: an announcement of distress, the reason for distress, and a prediction of doom.

3. The promise: Another term for this kind of oracle is the salvation oracle. It can be identified by the following three elements; reference to the future, mention of radical change, and mention of the blessing.

The Prophets as Poets: Many of the things during ancient times that were important enough to remember were considered appropriate for composition in poetry. This was in part due to the ease of remembering the words or lyrics of the poem because most individuals could not read or owned any books. All of the prophetic books contain a large amount of poetry and some are entirely comprised of poetry. The following features demonstrate three repetitive styles of Old Testament poetry.

1. Synonymous parallelism: The second or subsequent line repeats or reinforces the sense of the first line as in Isaiah 44.22

“I have swept your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.”

2. Antithetical parallelism: The second or subsequent line contrasts the thought of the first, as in Hosea 7.14

“They do not cry out to me from their hearts, but wail upon their beds.”

3. Synthetic parallelism: The second or subsequent line adds to the first line in any manner, which provides further information, as in Obadiah 21

“Deliverers will go up from Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.”

Some Hermeneutical Suggestions Beyond sharing most of the same principles with the Epistles, we offer three further matters that should help in applying the information located in the prophetic books to your lives.

1.    A Caution: The Prophet as Foreteller of the Future. Yes, the prophets predicted events for the future but as discussed most of their predictions had to do with ancient Israel and Judah. They spoke of coming judgment or salvation in the relatively immediate future of ancient Israel. Be careful to not assume that all of the prophecies were focused on the New Testament. When reading the Prophets take note of the context, intent, style and wording.

2.    A Concern: Prophecy and Second Meanings. At a number of places in the New Testament, reference is made to Old Testament passages that do not appear to refer to what the New Testament says they do. These passages seem to have a clear meaning in their original Old Testament setting and yet are used in connection with a different meaning by a New Testament writer. This second meaning is commonly called sensus plenior or fuller meaning. This is apparent when we see New Testament writers expand on references made in the Old Testament that do not, within scripture, allow for this further meaning.

The problem for us with this second meaning is that we can not and should not make these connections. Only the authors of the New Testament are authorized to proclaim their writings as inspired by the Holy Spirit. The difficult thing about these sorts of writings is that it takes no concern with the context, intent, style or wording of an Old Testament passage. They draw allegorical connections because the Holy Spirit inspired them to do so not because they were concerned with what the original Old Testament scripture intended. For us this second meaning when discovered through close examination of Scripture can provide further insight into the meanings of a particular passage of Old and New Testament writings.

3.    A Final Benefit: The Dual Emphasis on Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is correct belief. Orthopraxy is correct action. Through the prophets God calls the ancient Israelite’s and Judah to a balance of right belief and right action. This is the same thing the New Testament calls us to. Because God basically wants the same thing from us as he did of Israel and Judah we can use the Prophets as a constant reminder of God’s determination to enforce his covenant.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

What the Law is:The Old Testament contains over six hundred commandments, all of which are contained within four books; Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While Genesis does not contain any of these commandments it is also considered to be part of the law. The largest problem for most Christians in reading and studying this portion of the bible is the hermeneutical question. The following guidelines should help in the understanding of the Old Testament Laws and covenant.

1.    The Old Testament Law is a covenant. A covenant is a binding contract between two parties, both of whom have obligations specified in the covenant. The covenant format of the Old Testament Laws had six parts to it: preamble, prologue, stipulations, witnesses, sanctions, and document clause. The preamble identified the parties of the agreement. The prologue gave a brief history of how the parties became connected to one another. The stipulations are the individual laws themselves. The witnesses are those who will enforce the covenant. The sanctions are the blessings and curses that function as incentives for keeping the covenant. The document clause is the provision for regular review of the covenant so that it will not be forgotten.

2.    The Old Testament is not our testament (at least not apart from the New Covenant). The Old Testament represents an old covenant, which is no longer binding to us. We have to assume that none of its stipulations are binding unless otherwise noted in the New Testament or New Covenant. God expects something different from us than he did those in the Old Covenant or Old Testament.

3.    Some stipulations of the Old Testament have clearly not been renewed in the New Covenant. You can make two groups within the Pentateuchal laws that no longer apply to Christians of today. (1) The Israelite civil laws and (2) the Israelite ritual laws. The civil laws specify what penalties existed for various crimes. The ritual laws dealt with the specifics about worshipping God and the atonement of sin. Both of these groups of Laws only applied to the people of ancient Israel.

4.    Part of the Old Covenant is renewed in the New Covenant. Some aspects of the old ethical laws are actually restated in the New Testament as applicable to Christians. Such laws derive their continued applicability from the fact that they serve to support the two chief laws of the New Covenant; love the Lord your God with all of your hear, your soul, and your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.

5.    All of the Old Testament law is still the Word of God for us even though it is not still the command of God to us. God wants us to know about all commands even if they are not directed at us personally. Care needs to be taken though that we understand that the Law can be used in both a good way and a negative way in the life of the Christian and this is often determined by how the Law is mediated (through Christ or through Moses).

6.    Only that which is explicitly renewed from the Old Testament law can be considered part of the New Testament “law of Christ.” The Ten Commandments as well as the two laws mentioned earlier; loving your God with heart, soul, and mind; and loving your neighbor as yourself.

The Old Testament Laws: The following definitions of the categories of Laws will help in defining what God was trying to instruct, therefore, allowing better understanding of how this portion of Scripture can apply to your lives.

Apodictic Law: Usually begins with do or do not. They are commands, telling the Israelites what they need to do to fulfill their part of the covenant with God. Throughout the study of these Laws one can begin to see how impossible it is to please God on our own. This also helps to show us that when reading the Old Testament we ought to be humble and appreciate how unworthy we are to belong to God.

Casuistic Law: These laws are case-by-case. These sorts of laws constitute a large portion of the more than six hundred commandments found in the Old Testament Pentateuchal law. None of these laws appear in the New Covenant. What we can gain from studying this kind of law is the demonstration of God’s fairness and redemption that he granted. In these laws we often get a glimpse of the character of God.

The Food Laws: The majority of these laws have to do with God’s protection of the Israelites. Most of the foods prohibited were more likely to carry disease, or were uneconomical to raise.

Laws about the shedding of blood: Sin always deserves punishment. God revealed to his people that one who sins against him does not deserve to live. But he provided a procedure by which a sinner could make atonement for his or her sins; a substitute of blood could be shed for redemption.

Unusual Prohibitions: These refer to laws such as “ do not mate different animals,” or “ do not plant your field with two kind of seeds.” The inspiration of these laws came from a desire of God to set his people apart from the Canaanites. The Canaanites believed in what is called “sympathetic magic,” the idea that symbolic actions can influence the gods of nature. God could not bless his people if they practiced this kind of nonsense. These laws helped lead the Israelites away from a religion with no salvation, ultimately demonstrating Gods love and plan for us.

Laws giving blessings to those who keep them: Such a law is neither punitive or restrictive. These laws give instructions for the benefit of keeping God’s commandments.

Some Do’s and Don’ts

1. Do see the Old Testament law as God’s fully inspired word for you, but don’t always see it as God’s direct command to you. Ultimately see God’s law as a guardian that leads you to Jesus (see Galatians 3.19-24).

2. Do see the Old Testament law as the basis for the Old Covenant, and therefore Israel’s history. However, don’t see the law as binding on Christians in the New Covenant except where specifically renewed and mediated through Jesus.

3. See God’s justice, love, and high standards revealed in the Old Testament law, but don’t forget to see that God’s mercy is made equal to the severity of the standards.

4. Don’t see the Old Testament law as complete. It is not technically comprehensive. Do see the Old Testament law as a paradigm—providing examples for the full range of expected behavior.

5. Don’t expect the Old Testament law to be cited frequently by the prophets or the New Testament. Remember that the essence of the law (Ten Commandments, and the two chief laws) is repeated in the prophets and the New Testament.

6. Do see the Old Testament laws as a generous gift from God to the Israelites, and don’t see them as an annoying group of arbitrary regulations limiting people’s freedom.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Parables in History:Parables have suffered misinterpretation second only to Revelation. One of the keys to understanding them, however, lies in discovering who the original audience to whom they were spoke; although many times they did come down to the evangelist without a context. It’s not that Jesus was trying to be obtuse; he fully intended to be understood. It is our task to try and hear what Jesus’ audience heard.

The Nature of Parables: The first thing to notice is that not all parables are the same kind. There is a basic difference between the Good Samaritan (true parable), the Leaven Meal (similitude), the saying “You are the salt of the earth” (metaphor), or “Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles?” (epigram).

Story Parable: This is a story pure and simple. It has a beginning and an end; it also has something of a plot.

Similitude: These are illustrations taken from everyday life that Jesus would use to make a point.

Metaphor or Simile: Seem to function somewhat like a similitude but are spoken for a totally different reason. These can be detected by utilizing a figure of speech, which makes an implied comparison between things that are not literally alike

Epigram: Usually seen as a neat, witty, pointed saying.

How the Parables Function: The best clues as to what the parables are can be found in their function. Parables themselves are the message. They make a call for response. Because the nature of the parables assumes that the original audience understood the intended message we have to interpret them so we can begin to understand what they are trying to say.

The Exegesis of Parables: There are two things that captured the audience that heard Jesus’ parables; knowledge of the points of reference, and noticing the unexpected turn. The points of reference can be discovered by doing good exegesis of the parable. After being able to identify all points of reference, identifying the unexpected turn will be quite easy.

Throughout the parable Jesus uses many elements for reference but only to help the audience get the point. Note well that a parable is not an allegory because of this. A true allegory would mean that every element within the story would have some meaning foreign to the story itself. The point of the parable is not in the points of reference as it would be in a true allegory. The point of the story is to be found in the response.

Here are three suggestions to help with the task of exegesis. (1) Sit and listen to the parable again and again. (2) Identify the points of reference intended by Jesus that would have been picked up by the original hearers. (3) Try to determine how the original hearers would have identified with the story, and therefore, what they would have heard.

The Hermeneutical Question: The problem with the parables is that they were originally spoken in context to the original hearers and because of our cultural distance with that audience our immediate understanding of what Jesus was trying to say is limited. They need interpretation because we lack the immediate understanding that the original hearers had. Following are two suggestions on how to interpret the parables into our own lives after executing good exegesis.

1. The parables are presented in a written context and through exegesis we can discover what the point is with a fairly high degree of accuracy. At this point we will need to translate that same point into our own context. With the story parables one might try retelling the story in such a way that, with new points of reference, one’s own hearers might feel the same emotions that the original audience felt.

2. Jesus’ parables are in some way vehicles for proclaiming the kingdom. You must immerse yourself in the meaning of the kingdom in the ministry of Jesus.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Nature of the Gospels:Gospels may be divided roughly into sayings and narratives, that is, teachings of Jesus and stories about Jesus. Theoretically you should be able to use the principles of studying the Epistles for the one and the principles for historical narratives for the others. Having said this we need to look at the other dimensions of the Gospels that require additional strategy to study and understand. Almost all of the trouble in interpreting the Gospels stems from the fact that:

1.    Jesus himself did not write a gospel; they come from others, not from him. Because of this reason to perform exegesis we need to think in terms of the historical setting of Jesus and the historical setting of the authors. You will also want to think about the historical context for each Jesus and the authors. Ask yourself why a certain gospel was written and when. One of the questions you will want to ask, even if it cannot be answered for certain, is whether Jesus’ audience for a given teaching was his close disciples, the larger crowds, or his opponents

2.    There are four gospels. For a variety of reasons the gospels written for one community or group of believers did not necessarily meet all of the needs in another community. So one was written first, Mark, and then rewritten twice, Matthew and Luke. Finally a fourth, John was written. All of these books exist with the same importance and authority because in each case the interest in Jesus is at two levels. First, the purely historical concern that this is who Jesus was and this is what he said and did; it is this Jesus, who was crucified and raised from the dead; whom we now worship as the risen Lord. Second, there was the existential concern of retelling the story for the need of later communities that did not speak Aramaic or Greek, and lived in areas like Rome, Ephesus, or Antioch, where the Gospel was encountering an urban pagan environment.

These books which tell us virtually all we know about Jesus are not biographies they are “the memoirs of the apostles.” Four biographies could not stand side by side with equal value; these books stand side by side because they record the facts about Jesus, recall the teaching of Jesus, and bear witness to Jesus.

The Historical Context: Finding the historical context of Jesus can be a difficult task at best. This is because the way in which Jesus’ teaching was handed down. The content of the Gospels was passed on in individual stories and sayings (pericopes), not as whole Gospels. Some of these sayings were transmitted along with their original contexts. These are often referred to as pronouncement stories. Other stories and sayings did not include any historical context. This left the evangelist under their own guidance and that of the Holy Spirit to give the sayings present contexts. This is one of the reasons that that we often find the same saying or teaching in different contexts in the Gospels. This is also why sayings with similar themes, or the same subject matter, are often grouped in the Gospels in a topical way.

The Literary Context: The literary context has to do with the place of a given pericope in the context of any one of the Gospels. The concern for doing this is twofold: (1) to help you exegete or read with understanding a given saying or narrative in its present context in the Gospels, and (2) to help you understand the nature of the composition of the Gospels as wholes, and thus to interpret any one of the Gospels itself, not just isolated facts about the life of Jesus.

Think Horizontally: This means that when studying a pericope in any one gospel, one should be aware of the parallels in the other. There are two basic reasons for thinking horizontally. First, the parallels will often give us an appreciation for the distinctiveness of any one of the Gospels. Second, the parallels will help us to be aware of the different kinds of contexts in which the same or similar materials lived in the ongoing church. This is important in seeing how the same material was used in new contexts in the ongoing church.

Think Vertically: To think vertically means that when reading or studying a narrative or teaching in the Gospels, one should try to be aware of both historical contexts, that of Jesus and that of the evangelists. This is to help bring awareness that many of the gospel materials owe their present context to the evangelists, and that good interpretation may require appreciating a given saying first in its original historical context as a proper prelude to understanding that same word in its present canonical context.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)