How I Study the Bible—an Example The examples that follow are 1 Samuel 17, some verses from Matthew 13, the first three chapters of the Gospel of John, and the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. I incorporate different translations into the text if I think one is better than another. Mostly I use ESV and NIV but NASB gets inserted at times. I have altered the punctuation slightly in places to fit my style. For example, since I have in red font I the need to have His words begin and end in put Jesus’ words don’t feel my preference). If a passage has a chiastic structure then I quotation marks (it’s just reflect that in the passage (see Matt. 13). Sometimes I will include an outline, as I did for 1 Corinthians (I used the outline of commentary on 1 Corinthians). Gordon Fee’s Sometimes altered the text based on what I read in commentaries (remember, this is I’ve my Bible that I use for me—I teach directly from it). don’t I bother to use full footnoting since, again, this is only for my personal benefit. For don’t example, for New American Commentary (most of the volumes are “NAC” stands excellent, by the way) and is all I use to refer to his commentaries on Matthew “Carson” or John (which are excellent). I highlight footnote numbers in various colors depending on their importance to me. I use heading level 1 for the chapter titles—that way I can use the Microsoft Word’s navigation pane to move around in the document (if you know what that is, Google don’t it). Although I examples of it below, often I will insert sermon outlines in my didn’t give any Bible. Reading the Bible this way is a joy to me and I hope that this will inspire some readers to do likewise in their Bible study. I Samuel 1 Samuel 17 David and Goliath Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. 1 They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle 2 line to meet the Philistines.
How I Study the Bible—an Example The examples that follow are 1 Samuel 17, some verses from Matthew 13, the first three chapters of the Gospel of John, and the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. I incorporate different translations into the text if I think one is better than another. Mostly I use ESV and NIV but NASB gets inserted at times. I have altered the punctuation slightly in places to fit my style. For example, since I have put Jesus’ words in red font I don’t feel the need to have His words begin and end in quotation marks (it’s just my preference). If a passage has a chiastic structure then I reflect that in the passage (see Matt. 13). Sometimes I will include an outline, as I did for 1 Corinthians (I used the outline of Gordon Fee’s commentary on 1 Corinthians). Sometimes I’ve altered the text based on what I read in commentaries (remember, this is my Bible that I use for me—I don’t teach directly from it). I don’t bother to use full footnoting since, again, this is only for my personal benefit. For example, “NAC” stands for New American Commentary (most of the volumes are excellent, by the way) and “Carson” is all I use to refer to his commentaries on Matthew or John (which are excellent). I highlight footnote numbers in various colors depending on their importance to me. I use heading level 1 for the chapter titles—that way I can use the Microsoft Word’s navigation pane to move around in the document (if you don’t know what that is, Google it). Although I didn’t give any examples of it below, often I will insert sermon outlines in my Bible. Reading the Bible this way is a joy to me and I hope that this will inspire some readers to do likewise in their Bible study. I Samuel 1 Samuel 17 David and Goliath 1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
How-I-study-the-Bible-example.docx