Nigel Beynon - Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding Gods Word

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D E E P E R

Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding Gods Word
Copyright 2010 by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach

First published as Dig Deeper! Tools to Unearth the Bibles Treasure, 2005 by Inter-Varsity Press, Nottingham, England.

Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this work.

North American Edition published by Crossway Books

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Interior design and typesetting: Lakeside Design Plus
Cover design: Tobias Outerwear for Books
Cover photo: Josh Dennis
First printing 2010
Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture references marked NRSV are from The New Revised Standard Version. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the authors.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-58134-971-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beynon, Nigel.

Dig deeper : tools for understanding Gods word / Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach.

p. cm.

Originally pub.: Nottingham, England : Inter-Varsity Press, 2005.

ISBN 978-1-58134-971-9 (tpb)

1. BibleCriticism, interpretation, etc.Textbooks. I. Sach, Andrew. II. Title.

BS511.3.B48 2010

2009030020

320.6dc22

VP 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Nigels son, Jacob,
and Andrews godson, Eden Dean.
May they grow up loving Gods Word.

B efore we jump in with our first tool, were going to pause to examine the nature of the Biblewhat kind of book it is and how it came about. That will lead us to the right way to approach it.

Imagine that a friend who isnt a Christian asks you, Why do you bother reading the Bible? Isnt it out-of-date? How would you respond?

We hope you would disagree. The Bible isnt like an old railroad timetable that has outlived its usefulness because things have changed. It is something that the eternal, almighty God has said, and therefore it is relevant and important for all times and cultures: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isa. 40:8).

You can see where your friend is coming from, though. We would have to admit that parts of the Bible seem a bit dated. After all, it was written between 1,900 and 3,500 years ago; it describes the history and events of people weve never heard of and who often dont seem anything like us; it talks about what food you should and shouldnt eat, how you should sacrifice animals, and the type of material you should make your clothes fromnone of which directly applies to us today. It isnt hard to see why someone might say its out-of-date.

Our dilemma is caused by the dual nature of the Bible. It is a divine book , spoken by God, and therefore it is always true and relevant. And yet at the same time it is a human book , written by people a long time ago, and therefore it is in some senses dated. Lets think about each of these two natures of the Bible and how they should influence the way that we approach it.

A Divine Book

By calling it a divine book, we mean simply that the Bible comes directly from God. Behind the various human authors, he is the ultimate author.

Thats a huge claim to make, and lots of people would dispute it. But for Christians the issue is settled very easily: this is what Jesus himself believed about the Bible.

When asked by the Pharisees about divorce, Jesus said this: Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh? (Matt. 19:45).

Jesus quotes from Genesis 2:24, which, he says, was spoken by he who created them. But when we turn to Genesis 2:24, we find that it is not a direct pronouncement from God (compare Gen. 2:18), but simply part of the narrative written by the human author of Genesis, probably Moses. However, Jesus sees this human sentence as something spoken by the Creator, God himself. We could multiply the examples showing that this is typical of Jesus attitude to the Old Testament.

The apostle Paul delivers the same verdict: All Scripture is breathed out by God... (2 Tim. 3:16). You cant speak without breathingyour lips move, but there will be no sound (try it!). Words travel on our breath. That explains what Paul is saying about the Old Testament (Scripture). It comes out of Gods mouth. It is his word. This is sometimes called the doctrine of inspiration .

But what about the New Testament? That was written after Jesus returned to heaven, so presumably we cant know what he thought about it. Wrong. While Jesus was on earth he told his apostles that they were to be his witnesses and speak for him after he had left (see John 15:27; 17:20), and they went on to write the books and letters we call the New Testament. In effect, Jesus deliberately planned and commissioned the New Testament. To make sure they got it right, he didnt just leave the apostles to write it by themselves. He promised the help of his Spirit: I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:1214).