How to Study the Bible Intentionally

Methods and Conditions for Effective Bible Study

Reuben A. Torrey

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781622456994
• eBook ISBN: 9781622457007
• Topic: Teologia e religione

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. – 2 Timothy 3: 16-17Nothing is more important for our own mental, moral, and spiritual development, or for our increase in usefulness, than Bible study. But, not all Bible study is equally profitable. Some Bible study is absolutely profitless. How to study the Bible so as to get the most benefit from it is a topic of immeasurable importance. The practicality and effectiveness of these Bible study methods and conditions have been tested in the classroom, and not with classes made up completely of college graduates, but largely composed of people of very simple education. The methods, however, require time and hard work. It must be remembered that the Bible contains gold, and almost anyone is willing to dig for gold, especially if it is certain that he will find it. It is certain that one will find gold in the Bible – if he digs. As you use the methods recommended in this book, you will find your ability to do the work rapidly increasing by exercise, until you can soon do more in fifteen minutes than you could do in an hour when you started. No book other than the Bible provides the opportunity for intellectual and spiritual development by its study. No other book, and no other subject, will so abundantly repay careful and sincere study. The Bible is read much, but is studied very little in comparison. Table of Contents
Ch. 1: Introduction to Methods of Bible Study
Ch. 2: The Study of Individual Books
Ch. 3: Topical Study
Ch. 4: Biographical Study
Ch. 5: Study of Types
Ch. 6: Study the Books of the Bible in Order
Ch. 7: Studying the Bible for Practical Usefulness in Dealing with People
Ch. 8: The Fundamental Conditions of the Most Profitable Bible Study
Ch. 9: Final Suggestions

Chapter 2

The Study of Individual Books

The first method of Bible study that we will consider is the study of the Bible by individual books. This method of study is the most thorough, the most difficult, and the one that yields the best and most permanent results. We take it up first because, in my opinion, it should take up the greatest part of our time.

The first work to do is to select the book to study.

This is a very important matter. If you make an unfortunate selection, you may become discouraged and give up a method of study that could have been most fruitful.

A few points will be helpful to the beginner:

1. For your first book study, choose a short book. The choice of a long book to begin with will lead to discouragement in anyone but a person of rare perseverance. It will be so long before one reaches the final results, which far more than pay for all the labor expended, that the ordinary student will give it up.
2. Choose a comparatively easy book. Some books of the Bible present weighty difficulties not to be found in other books. One will want to meet and overcome these later, but it is not a work for a beginner to set out upon. When his powers have become trained by reason of use, then he can do this successfully and satisfactorily, but if he attempts it, as so many rashly do, at the outset, he will soon find himself struggling. First Peter is a very precious book, but a few of the most difficult passages in the Bible are in it. If it were not for these difficult passages, it would be a good book to recommend to the beginner, but in view of these difficulties, it is not wise to try to make it a subject of exhaustive study until later.
3. Choose a book that is rich enough in its teaching to demonstrate the advantages of this method of study, thus producing a strong appetite for further studies of the same kind. When you have gone through one reasonably large and full book by the method of study about to be described, you will have an eagerness for it that will ensure that you will somehow find time for further studies of the same kind.

A book that meets all the conditions stated is 1 Thessalonians, written by the apostle Paul. It is quite short, it does not have much difficulty of interpretation, meaning, or doctrine, and it is exceedingly rich in its teaching. It has the further advantage of being the first in time of Paul’s epistles. Another book to consider is 1 John, which is not a difficult book in most respects, and it is one of the richest books in the Bible.

The second work to do is to master the general contents of the book.

The way to do this is very simple. It consists in merely reading the book through, without stopping, and then reading it through again, and then again, maybe a dozen times in all, at a single sitting. To someone who has never tried it, it does not seem as if that would amount to much, but any thoughtful person who has ever tried it will tell you quite differently. It is simply wonderful how a book takes on new meaning and beauty upon this sort of an acquaintance. It begins to open up. New relations between different parts of the book begin to reveal themselves. Fascinating lines of thought running through the book appear. The book is grasped as a whole. The relation of the various parts to one another is recognized, and a foundation is laid for an intelligent study of those parts in detail.

James M. Gray of Boston, a great lover of the Bible and prominent teacher of it, says that for many years of his ministry he had an inadequate and unsatisfactory knowledge of the Engl...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction to Methods of Bible Study
• The Study of Individual Books
• Topical Study
• Biographical Study
• Study of Types
• Study the Books of the Bible in Order
• Studying the Bible for Practical Usefulness in Dealing with People
• The Fundamental Conditions of the Most Profitable Bible Study
• Final Suggestions
• Reuben A. Torrey – A Brief Biography
• Other Similar Titles