This document provides an overview of a course on Bible study methods. It discusses the foundations of intended meaning, inspiration and authority of scripture, and strategies for interpretation. Key points include: 1) The course will cover why Bible study methods are important, where meaning resides in scripture, theories of inspiration, and strategies for understanding passages in their original context and applying them today. 2) Proper interpretation requires understanding what the text meant in its original context through exegesis, as well as applying its universal truths to modern life through hermeneutics. 3) Effective Bible study involves a two-part strategy of first understanding what was said to the original audience, and second learning how the same

1. Bible Study Methods
Foundations

2. Introduction
1. Discussion (Introduction, reason for attending, previous studies in bible study
methods)
2. Goals and aims of the course
3. Format of the course
4. Guidelines for discussion

3. Foundations
Intended Meaning
a. Why a course on bible study methods (From How to Read the
Bible for All its Worth?)
b. Where is Meaning?
c. Inspiration and Authority
d. A Two-Part Strategy
e. Perspicuity
f. Doug Stuart on Exegesis
g. Osborne’s three levels of hermeneutics

4. Why Bible Study Methods?
i. We are all interpreters already!
ii. We bring our own knowledge about the world to the interpretive process
iii. Translations themselves are an interpretation!
iv. Many people claim to follow the “plain sense” of the Bible, but then why are
there so many disagreements?
v. The solution to bad interpretation is not “no interpretation”. That is an
impossibility. The answer is good interpretation.

5. Where is meaning?
1) Authorial intent
-Meaning resides in the author and is recorded in a communication
2) Reader response
-Meaning resides in the recipient and is created upon receiving a
communication

6. Inspiration and Authority
The Inspiration of Scripture
1) Natural Inspiration Theory
2) Mystical Inspiration Theory
3) Partial or Variable Inspiration Theory
4) Inspired Concepts Theory
5) Dictation Theory
6) Plenary-Verbal Inspiration Theory

7. Inspiration and Authority
Plenary-Verbal Inspiration
“Inspiration is that supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which He
superintended the writing process of Scripture so that all the words and every
part of the original writings were at the same time the words of the human
writers and the very words of God.?
-Dr. Finkbeiner (“Built Upon The Truth” in Foundational Faith, 51)
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own
interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men
moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. -1 Peter 1:20-21

8. A Two-Part Strategy
i. Understanding the Bible in its context
1. “First, one has to hear the Word they heard; you must try to
understand what was said to them back then and there (exegesis).”
i. Applying Universal truth to modern life
1. “Second, you must learn to hear that same Word in the here and
now (hermeneutics).” -Doug Stuart

9. Perspicuity
1) The Simplicity of the Gospel
2) The Depth of the Gospel
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended
to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap
some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under
obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 1:13–15). Wheaton:
Standard Bible Society.

10. Doug Stuart on Exegesis
“The process of exegesis is not complete until application”
-Doug Stuart (paraphrased)

11. Osborne’s Three levels of hermeneutics
Level One: What it meant (Exegesis)
Level Two: What it means for me (Devotional)
Level Three: How to share with you what it means to me (Sermonic)
-Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral (2006)