Category: Bible

2/21/2013

Perking up Bible Lesson study

I recently received this request: "Help me find understanding in the [weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson], as when I read it I feel confused. People will say to me, 'Oh, wasn't that a wonderful lesson on happiness?' or something, and I can barely remember what it was about. If I read it 4 times I still don't get it... I feel stupid."

RESPONSE: Nah, you aren't stupid. Like anything, Bible study takes practice and tools can help. When I first attempted a regular study routine, I didn't think I got much out of what I read either. But actually, good stuff was getting in (and coming out in my life) without my realizing it. The discipline of sticking with it, even when it was difficult, helped me became more familiar with the layout of the Bible. And although I, too, often couldn't pinpoint an overriding theme from the Lesson, certain passages did tend to stick with me or pop back into thought when I needed them.

But to begin to really enjoy the study, I tried different things that helped me find more substantial meaning. I learned off the bat that it's not important what the lesson may mean to others. It's important that it mean something to me. If your Bible study is in a rut or if you are having difficulty staying focused, you might try one or more of these ideas which helped me to perk up my study life.

Appendix B

In the back of the big Complete Concordance to the Writings of Mary Baker Eddy is an Appendix B that list the Bible citations Mary Baker Eddy used in her other writings (Prose Works, Poems and the Church Manual). There is an appendix B for the Science and Health part, too, but often those passages appear in the Bible Lesson already. I found it helpful to look up whatever Bible Lesson citations appear in other places in her writings. This further reading can help expand the application of a Scriptural passage in new ways.

Www.bible.cc

Online comparative Bibles can be very helpful, too. I have worked with many over the years. But my current favorite is www.bible.cc. If there is a verse that seems "Greek" to me, I look it up on that website and find another translation that is more understandable. It's fun to look up well-worn passages, too, for a fresh take on the familiar. A lovely feature of this site: When you click on the translation you like, it takes you into the text so that you can read the entire passage in context. At the bottom of each individual citation page there is a collection of highlights from various Bible commentaries that sometimes offer helpful background and context for the passage, too.

Mybiblelesson.com

One of my favorite tools for studying the Bible Lesson is the mybiblelesson.com version available by online subscription (you can get individual Lessons, too) through the Christian Science Publishing Society. My Bible Lesson is designed for youthful thinkers and readers - I figure that alone counts me in. It is colorful and has sketches and captioned photos and research that I find helpful to expand on the ideas. I also like the format of having the Bible passages appear to the left of the page, and correlative passages from Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on the right. I find this layout particularly helpful when I try to identify why and how a particular passage from Science and Health illumines the spiritual sense of a Bible passage or story.

Mark the books

Much as I enjoy the tools available for reading the Bible Lesson in printout form, nothing beats putting in my metal markers and using blue chalk to prepare my books for study. There is something about glimpsing what I will get to study during the week that gives me a feeling of anticipation and expectation of good. And that half hour I give myself on Sunday afternoon to prepare the books pays big dividends all week long. The ideas that have most meaning for me from the study often aren't even in the lesson. They are in the verses above or below the marked passages, or on the opposite page, that leap up and smack me with insights that meet my need. That's when the study stops being "the" Bible Lesson, but becomes "my" Bible Lesson - God's Word speaking to me.

I frequently receive questions from readers of this blog concerning Bible study. How do you keep your study fresh and alive? Feel free to share in your comment below.

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9/3/2012

Bible punctuation, revisited

A rich man took a piece of paper and wrote his last wishes:

I LEAVE MY GOODS TO MY SISTER NOT TO MY NEPHEW NEVER WILL BE PAID THE BILL OF THE TAILOR NOTHING TO THE POOR

But he passed on before he applied any punctuation to his letter. Who did he leave his fortune to?

His nephew decided on the following punctuation:

I LEAVE MY GOODS TO MY SISTER? NOT! TO MY NEPHEW. NEVER WILL BE PAID THE BILL OF THE TAILOR. NOTHING TO THE POOR.

But the sister disagreed. She punctuated the note like this:

I LEAVE MY GOODS TO MY SISTER, NOT TO MY NEPHEW. NEVER WILL BE PAID THE BILL OF THE TAILOR. NOTHING TO THE POOR.

The tailor asked to see the original note. He punctuated it like this:

I LEAVE MY GOODS TO MY SISTER? NOT! TO MY NEPHEW? NEVER! WILL BE PAID THE BILL OF THE TAILOR. NOTHING TO THE POOR.

Last of all, the town council entered the discussion of the note. They proposed their version:

I LEAVE MY GOODS TO MY SISTER? NOT! TO MY NEPHEW? NEVER! WILL BE PAID THE BILL OF THE TAILOR? NOTHING. TO THE POOR!!!

Click photo to find source. The Biblia Hebraica Blog.

Punctuation, clearly makes a big difference. Ancient Hebrew, the original language from which Old Testament texts are translated, had no punctuation to indicate the beginning or ending of an idea, phrase or sentence. It also had no past tense. Translators, using their best judgment, added punctuation, time tenses, and even words, to bring out the ideas as clearly as they understood them.

Give it a try, yourself.
Taking out time references and the added words not present in the original, how would you punctuate Genesis 1:1,2 to bring out your best understanding of creation?

GOD CREATES THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE EARTH IS WITHOUT FORM AND VOID AND DARKNESS UPON THE FACE OF THE DEEP AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD MOVES UPON THE FACE OF THE WATERS

"The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New, — these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages. But mistakes could neither wholly obscure the divine Science of the Scriptures seen from Genesis to Revelation, mar the demonstration of Jesus, nor annul the healing by the prophets, who foresaw that 'the stone which the builders rejected' would become 'the head of the corner.'"
MARY BAKER EDDY, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 139

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Perking up Bible Lesson study

Bible punctuation, revisited

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Perking up Bible Lesson study

Bible punctuation, revisited

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