Part 3: How to Study the Bible
PART 3 —
If you’re new to this series, please see part 1 and part 2 for an overview of some Bible study techniques.
Today’s study resumed with Galatians 1:11— essentially the beginning of Paul’s autobiography. The notes from the cross-referenced footnotes (cf) from www.blueletterbible.org suggest reading from Acts 9. When we read Acts 9, we get more details to the events Paul referenced in his letter, which was his persecution of Christians.
Back in Galatians, we read that after Paul’s “Road to Damascus” experience, he went away to Arabia. Why Arabia? What’s in Arabia? Well, we already knew from reading Galatians every day that Mount Sinai is in Arabia, but a quick search at Blue Letter Bible confirms it, as well. (An interesting future study would be what happened at Mount Sinai in the Old Testament; but having read Galatians several times by this point, we know that Paul will address this more later).
One of the areas of study we identified last time was the study of James, the half-brother of the LORD. Using Blue Letter Bible, we were able to search for the verse (Galatians 1:19) and click on the word James in order to see every instance the word James is used in the Bible. We knew we wanted to focus on the gospels so that’s where we limited our search results. In doing so, we were able to quickly identify the two James of the 12 Disciples: James the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alpheus. This meant that James, Jesus’s half-brother, was not one of the 12 Disciples.
Which begged the question: Did James believe Jesus was the Messiah before Jesus ascended into Heaven? None of the search results for the name “James” answered this question. But when we searched for the word “brothers”, we found John 7:5, which seems to indicate that James and Jesus’s other half brothers (Joseph, Simon and Judas, Matt. 13:54-55) did not believe Jesus was the Messiah during his ministry. Scripture does state, however, that Jesus appeared to James after his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7) and that James went on to be a “pillar” in the Messianic Jewish church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13, Acts 21:18).
It might seem silly to spend so much time thinking about James, the half-brother of Jesus, yet Paul determined he was important enough to specifically name in his letter to the churches. We must also remember that our goal with studying the Bible isn’t application; it is a better understanding of who God is, how he works, etc. There is no behavioral change associated with learning about James but we do get a glimpse into a life changed by Jesus and how that life went on to influence the greatest evangelist of all time!
Other areas of study would be:
The phrase “brothers and sisters.” A search in Blue Letter Bible of the word “brother” and then the word “sister” would begin to demonstrate how, when and where this phrase is used. This study would could help develop an understanding of how God views the church.
God’s call on Paul’s life to the Gentiles. Why did God want Paul to preach among the Gentiles? Through scripture we see that it was always God’s plan for all people to be saved (great evidence for this in the OT). These are great verses to get your study started: Acts 10:34-43, Acts 15:12-21, Romans 15:7-13, Ephesians 3:1-13, and 1 Kings 8:41-43. A great word search to further your study is the word “foreigner” since the foreigner is an Old Testament equivalent to a person outside of God’s chosen people (aka, Israelites).
In Acts 9:4-8, Jesus asks, “Why are you persecuting me?” Here Jesus identifies himself with believers. Where else does Jesus identify himself with believers? A good first-step would be Matthew 25:40. Another question is: does Jesus ever identify himself with non-believers?
A timeline of Paul’s ministry. By reading Galatians and Acts, you could put together a sequence to Paul’s life and ministry. Will this study result in a deeper understanding of theology? Probably not. But it could be worthwhile to study how God worked in Paul’s life.
