Pod Cast Ep. 1
Tue, Jun 18, 2024 12:41PM • 17:17
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
bible, study, good, bible study, esv, translation, written, nasb, notes, number, inspirations, understand, app, writing, english, read, words, bible translations, helps, translated
00:03
Paul, hello, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. My name is Paul Kyle. I am one of the original founders of the Institute of the Living Light, a non-profit Christian-based ministry that seeks to help with outreach programs and spread the word of the Gospel through Bible study and a different approach to the Bible.
So today, we will talk a little bit about Bible study and what it is. So basically, the difference is what types of Bibles you need to look at that kind of stuff today. So basically, being dedicated to the text will not give you all the answers but will help you along the way. So dedication to the text is good but it’s not going to basically give you everything that you need to get what you need out of the Bible.
Now, the Bible is translated by human hands. I’ll say that again here a little bit. But since the Bible is translated by human hands, divine breed buck, but by human hands, it itself inspired human hands, basically. So here are my ideas to studying the Bible.
The first thing that I would suggest is that you begin with begin and end with a prayer and ask that the Holy Spirit be with you while you take on Bible study; this allows you to open your mind up to
01:48
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Number two, this is for you to come up with your own kind of vision of what you want on this journey. What are you looking for, what your path is, kind of help you understand what your faith is, and are you following your own faith.
02:12
Number three, use more than one translation. You will get more out of the translation sometimes than just always using one. And I’ll go over this here a little bit, but I have three or four different translations I like to use, and I have programs that put them side by side so you kind of understand what they are, and you can see them, see the differences, and pray about and understand what
02:39
They are, all right.
Number four, be open minded, and keep in mind that when it was written, there was a whole different worldview than we have now. Understanding their mindset will help you understand what they were thinking, why they were thinking it, and how that pertains to what they wrote and what they said and what they thought.
03:06
Number five, this goes along with being open minded. This is a divine book written by inspired authors. There may be passages that you do not understand, may offend you, but remember, they are there for a reason. They’re in this book for a reason, and you may have to take a little bit longer to understand what those reasons are, but they are in here for a reason, looking back and forth between different old New Testament and understanding what the differences are and how they relate to each other will help you out quite a bit.
Number six words matter. This is not just in the Bible, but in life as well. There’s a lot of words in the Bible you are going to have to look up, and they’re going to have different translations from Hebrew, Aramaic Greek and some other languages throughout the period of time. And those do not always translate well into English, so you’ll need to find what they mean, what they were meaning at the time, and it’ll help you out quite a bit with the Bible study.
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Number seven, we are setting up a foundation of studying of the Bible. We need to be looking at the Bible study the same way. So basically, what we’re looking at is that you’re going to start studying the Bible, and you need to create your own foundation where to study, how to study, the steps needed to study, and to look at it a little differently. When you do study
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Number eight, there are always patterns and writings, not just in the Bible, but also in every writing out there, fictional, nonfictional; there’s always patterns, and it helps to identify these patterns when you’re studying the Bible; patterns do exist in the Bible. Sometimes, it’s a little helpful to read the Bible as a story and then look at that story and what the writer of the story is trying to explain to you and tell you. They tell you this stuff for a reason. So remember, there’s always a pattern in the Bible,
Number nine in my last one, take notes. Do not be afraid to write in the Bible. Highlight and underline. Use tabs. Also having a journal to write your own notes and feelings and inspirations will help you. And it also will help if you put the verses in your notebook or or the page numbers, what it means to you, how you felt about at the time. That will help you in your journey and Bible Bible study.
Okay, so why study the Bible versus only reading it? By studying the Bible, it brings you closer to God, but not only that, but it’ll also develop a better understanding of the spiritual relationship you have with God, and where and how you fit into this picture. It gives you a picture of God’s purpose for us, and it helps you understand and helps people understand where they fit into this purpose. It’s not always cut and dry and it’s not always easy, but it is a step and a foundation that you have to build upon.
It gives you great understanding and pleasure when you do understand what is trying to be portrayed to you, that we are his family, and that’s what helps with Bible study. That’s really helps with Bible study. Reading the Bible is perfectly fine, and you should do this daily, but just reading does not get deep into the context of understanding of the writings.
So when you read it, you or don’t really go into the words as deep. Don’t understand it as well. I read every day and I study every day, two separate things, two separate times, sometimes at the same time, depending on how I’m wanting to study. And there’s different approaches to studying the Bible. As many of you know, we all have a different way of learning.
If you know your best way to study, that is wonderful, and I would continue down that path. This is pretty much set up for beginner Bible studies. People new to the Bible never had any assistance with this. With studying the Bible, the way I find works well is by studying certain subjects, ie, faith, sin, repentance, love, resurrection, by having a subject in mind. It may be helpful for you, when you go down your path to study the Bible, so when you’re first starting out, sometimes it’s best to have to look at just a subject, a specific subject, at every time, and then work off that subject. And then once you work off that subject, you can dive deeper into that subject at each time.
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The other way is to study is to study this specific book at a time, this you’ll go over each chapter at a time, and take that message and put it in your own words. Basically, let’s just say you start reading John in the New Testament. So you just start chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Write down, read it. Look at what it sends you to or where it sends you at. Look in your concordance. Look in all of those different ways to understand and dive into that chapter of that book, and this is a good way to study as well. I do both of these depending on what I’m looking for in my moods and my different times of days and my different feelings and inspirations.
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Either way, you want to approach this systematically and thoroughly. You really want to look at it as the words are written, not as your perspective, always as your perspective a day, but also as a perspective of a time of past when they were writing this stuff. It does help. It does really help when you try to think about what they were thinking at the time. All right, let’s go over some Bible translations. So there’s quite a few Bible translations out there, and I’m sure you’re aware.
09:55
So, in episode two, we’re going to go over a little bit more of the Bible translations, but for now, we have the ESV, which is the English Standard Version, the NASB, the Net, the LEB, KJV, and NIV. So, as I said earlier, the ESV is the English Standard Version. It’s basically been translated from different from the Masoretic texts from this Septuagint, and even the Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls. And so it’s uh, it’s pretty good. That’s what I use the most for reading. It’s really easy to read and understand, and so that’s a very good one. It’s very, as they say, the most current correct translation. Again, this is why I like using multiple translations.
And then you have the NASB, which is the New American Standard Bible, which is very good as well. Um, a bit more for the serious reader: I don’t see much difference between the ESV and the NASB. There are differences, but the writings are about the same. There’s a little difference, but if you’re reading the Bible, you can read either one of those two, then any Bible, the NET Bible. I like this Bible. It’s a very good translation, digs a little deeper, and has different words, but it also has, depending on what kind of Bible you get.
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But I don’t know if it’s a better or translation or not, but it does have different words, but they all mean the same in different ways, or it means something similar, but it helps you give to your mind wrapped around what they were thinking.
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The next one is the LED, the Lexham English Bible. Sorry about that. This one here. I like. It’s only available online through Faith-Life Bible study, I believe, and it’s free. It’s an online app. It has an app for both iPhone, and enjoyed devices, and it also has notes in it, very good notes. I really do like using this one, but again, it’s all that’s only online. Also, there’s the King James Version. King James Version is what most people and it’s the most popular one out there, but it’s also one of the hardest to understand and read. It’s still good to use. They also have the New King James Version, which is still very good to use. They all have their own pros and cons to them. King James is a little harder because it’s written in older English, so you’ll have the way it’s written sometimes; for somebody just starting out, it’s a little bit more difficult.
And the other one is the NIV, which is the New International Version. This one is a good one as well. They very basic, good English, easy to follow, easy to read on there. Now, when you figure out which one you want to get, I would suggest getting a study Bible. That way. With the Study Bible, if you get the ESV Study Bible, the NASB Study Bible, or the New King James has a study Bible. A lot of them have studied Bibles. That’s good because they have really good notes and help you go through your path of these notes on there. But these are interpretations of the author a lot of times. So they might not be your interpretations of the scriptures, but they are good to start out with and to really dive into the Bible. So
14:00
This is a brief overview of the different translations in episode two. I’ll probably go over these a little bit more. All right, online apps and resources. Most of these Bibles have an online app for them, and with that online app, they will have. Usually, you can get your study notes and other study notes them. So here’s some apps. It’s an online app, and you can also get it as on your web based, or you can get it as an app on iPhone and Android. That’s e-sword. ESV has a study Bible app, notes and different study Bibles, commentaries and sermons, etc, all the way through there pretty good. It’s, I believe it’s esv.org I’ll put it in the notes. Blue Letter Bible has different bibles to choose from, has really good notes and has some classes online you can take. It’s pretty good blue Letter bible.org,
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the Lexham, English Bible by faith life, study. Bible has an app and online. I like this one. I use this one a lot. I use this one a lot with my ESV and my NET Bible, which I’ll tell you to talk to you about next and so, NET bible.org, I believe. And like I said, I’ll put these in the notes online app. And an app has good notes. It actually has some translations in it, some old Hebrew, the Hebrew words and different Greek words in the New Testament. So you can actually look at the words, what were there when they were translating it. And that one is a really good one, too. That Bible, I like I said. I also like that one because it really goes into the words and what they mean, and it kind of expands on them, logo logos. But this one’s pretty expensive. They do have a free one, but again, with the faith life one, I believe it’s the same one. It’s very helpful to when you begin this path of yours. So studying, when you’re studying, it’s very important to use a pen and paper. I think getting it from your seeing it, getting it in your mind and putting it on paper really helps you understand what is being said, how it’s being said, and helps you interpret it what’s being said. I write with a computer, tablet, and phone all the time. However, I really like, and I really do believe that writing it with pen and paper is very helpful and will help you with your journey.
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It’s analog; it’s how we learn. So, on the next episode, we’re going to discuss more of the different Bible translations and maybe a little bit more about the strengths and weaknesses of those translations. Then, we’ll discuss a little bit more of the apps and what they can do for you and help you out on this journey. Have a wonderful day. God Bless.
References:
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Institute of the Living Light 