Homegroups

Homegroups is a large source of free, high quality, curated small group material.

There are over 60 home group series, including:

• ‘Hope’, from the Bible Society (four sessions including videos)

• ‘We Need to Talk About Race’, with Ben Lindsay (four sessions including videos)

• ‘What On Earth is Heaven?’, with James Paul (twelve sessions including videos)

• Over 20 series of Bible studies from the team at St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 7, 2 (2020)

The latest issue of the Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies is now available online, with the below articles and their abstracts (where available). Individual essays are available from here, and the journal is available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Frederick J. Long

From the Editors

Drew Holland

An Alternative Approach to the Dilemma of 2 Kgs 3:27

King Mesha’s sacrifice of his son and the subsequent retreat of the Israelite army from Moab in 2 Kgs 3:27 has proven to be a puzzling text for interpreters from rabbinic Judaism to the present. Modern historical analysis has fallen short in providing a coherent explanation for the events of this verse. This article attempts to seek a new and cogent interpretation for this passage based upon support from other texts and lexemes within the Old Testament. In keeping with the theme of Omride disobedience found throughout the Old Testament, this article deduces from intertextual evidence that Israel participated in Mesha’s burnt offering after securing victory over Moab. This cultic impropriety led YHWH to drive the Israelite army from its newly regained territory.

Matthew R. Peterson and Dain Alexander Smith

Ancient Literary Criticism and Major Structural Relationships: A Comparative Analysis

The texts of the New Testament (NT) emerged during an era that produced robust literary and rhetorical criticism. This article draws from works produced during that period to investigate similarities and differences between the figures discussed by ancient literary theorists and the Major Structural Relationships (MSRs) identified by David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina. Ultimately, this article reveals that the MSRs proposed in their Inductive Bible Study (IBS) handbook are not merely an invention of modern literary critical reading strategies but reflect devices incorporated into ancient literature and identified and discussed by ancient literary theorists.

Wilbert Webster White

The Resurrection Body “According to the Scriptures,” Chapter Three

If we suppose Intelligence, with an organism answering in its characteristics merely to the properties of the ether, we have a being conforming very nearly, if not quite, to the notion the mystics had of the indwellers of the supersensual world. With bodies more dense than steel, though unamenable to earthly sight or touch, these creatures would see the fleshly forms as a shadowy garment, and a matter at large but as a film thinner than air which offered no bar to their passage. And, exempt from the laws of gravitation which hold prison bound the frame of clay, they might levitate at will, and with the swiftness of light transport themselves from planet to planet. From the sun’s flame they could take no harm and even the chill of absolute zero would leave their bodies unscathed.

Fredrick J. Long

“Arise ‘n’ Shine, Daughter Zion of the Messiah Jesus!”: A Sermon at Asbury Theological Seminary, Aug 19, 2020

Joseph R. Dongell

My Journey with Inductive Bible Study

Preaching in Context

The below article, written with my friend and colleague Neil Hudson, has been posted on the website of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity as a supplementary piece to the resource on whole-life preaching. It is the fifth in a projected series of six short pieces exploring different aspects of preaching in a way that is alert to the everyday lives of Christians.

Ever had one of those moments when someone thanks you for saying something in a sermon, but which you can’t recall saying, or which you never intended to be taken that way? Or ever preached a sermon that seemed very effective in one church only for it to fall flat in another church?

The difference often comes down to context.

1. Understanding the significance of context

In What Do They Hear? Building Bridges Between Pulpit and Pew (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), Mark Allan Powell explores why what a congregation ‘hears’ is not always what the preacher ‘said’. One of the reasons is that how we read and receive Scripture is shaped by our social locations.

Describing an experiment conducted with students from different backgrounds, Powell uses the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 as an example. His American students tended to overlook 15:14 (‘there was a severe famine in that whole country’), while most Eastern European students identified the famine as crucial to the story. Students from Tanzania noted 15:16 (‘no one gave him anything’), highlighting the way the people of the distant land exploited the son’s desperation instead of helping him. Powell also demonstrates how, in reading stories in the gospels, clergy tend to identify mostly with Jesus, whereas lay people are more inclined to identify with other characters, such as the disciples or the Pharisees.

Here, if we need it, is a reminder that we don’t preach biblical passages into a vacuum. We preach to particular people from particular backgrounds with particular responsibilities and concerns as they gather at a particular time in a particular place. The people in our congregations live out their identity as disciples of Jesus in particular circumstances.

Scripture itself leads us to expect nothing less. God’s word doesn’t float free in a contextless ‘ether’. It’s rooted in and flows out of particular on-the-ground situations – whether it’s the different types of Psalms arising out of multiple moments in the life of faith, Jeremiah in Jerusalem or Ezekiel in Babylon, Matthew or Mark telling the story of Jesus for early Christians, Paul writing to the Galatians or to the church in Corinth, Peter writing to Christians who, like exiles, are scattered across Northern Turkey, or John writing up his visions from Patmos for those being persecuted for their faith. God’s word addresses God’s people where they are.

So, we preach it as a word which flows out of particular contexts in the life of God’s people to be addressed back into particular contexts in the life of God’s people.

2. Taking account of contexts

This being the case, in our preparation for preaching we engage carefully with the biblical text, but we also reflect (insofar as we are able to do so) on the various contexts in which our people find themselves – the places where they live out their discipleship to Jesus.

Taking context into account allows our preaching to be timely, grounded, and personal. We sometimes think that the more we speak in general terms, the wider we’ll reach; but that doesn’t mesh with the reality of people’s lives. Preaching is for real people in real contexts, not generic people in generic contexts. We do not escape our everyday reality to hear a promise or a rebuke or a command from God’s word; we hear those in our current, concrete, and often complex circumstances – a promise or rebuke or command that addresses us where we are.

‘Context’ might be global, regional, local, or personal. Personal elements of context might include situations at home, at work, wider social activities, with family, colleagues, friends, acquaintances. Ideally, we focus on where people are. Starting globally might feel remote and overwhelming for many listeners, but we can start with the home situation or something in the neighbourhood or an item in the news, and perhaps draw wider implications for the national or international context.

We don’t take account of context in order to appear ‘relevant’, but to give our hearers an imagination for seeing their context as part of the larger world in which God is working. Sometimes our engagement with Scripture may provide a mirror that reflects something of our context back to us, helping us to understand it more deeply. On other occasions, it may engage with aspects of our context and challenge us to envision alternative possibilities. How might things be different where we are – at home or at work?

3. Preparing sermons with contexts in mind

In some respects, taking account of context is less about adding a further step to our preparation, and more an awareness that permeates the whole process. Even so, it might be helpful to reflect self-consciously on some of the specific situations of congregation members known to us and bring these to our engagement with the text. Below is a series of questions and prompts we have found helpful to consider in preparing to preach from biblical passages:

(a) What does this passage reveal about God/Jesus/the gospel?

(b) How does this passage shape our understanding of what it means to be a disciple?

(c) Knowing where at least some of the congregation have been this week, and being aware of their contexts:

• What might I want to highlight and explore from this passage?

• What might connect with their situations?

• What would offer a challenge?

• What would offer encouragement?

(d) Reflecting on this passage would lead us to pray that...

(e) Living out this passage over the next week might involve...

The order of the questions is significant. We don’t want to impose our congregation’s personal needs or their particular situations too quickly on to the passage without hearing first what God has to say through it. So, we begin with a question which asks what the passage affirms about God, Jesus, the kingdom, the gospel, and so on – these are given priority.

And then, we ask how the passage might shape our understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Only then comes a question related to context. Here now is an opportunity to reflect on the daily frontlines of the members of our congregation and ask how this passage – given what it says about who God is and what God has done in Jesus, and given what it says about discipleship – might address them, where they are.

Out of that then flows a prompt about prayer and a prompt about action.

Give the questions a go with your next sermon.

We don’t need to become professional ethnographers in order to do this task well. We learn it over time through observation and conversation – paying attention to people, asking questions, listening to stories, gathering insights – all of which can make a difference to our awareness of where people are at.

Importantly, preaching is not the only way to address a congregation’s context – the sermon is not a self-contained entity. But it takes its place in the dynamic of the gathered worship, and so is integrated with confession, praise, prayer, song, silence, communion – all of which form us as followers of Jesus for our everyday frontlines.

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 1, 1 (2014)

Those familiar with the method of inductive Bible study – most fully and recently outlined in David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina, Inductive Bible Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011) – may be interested to know about a new, open access publication, The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies.

Individual articles from the first issue (with abstracts below) are available from here, and the whole volume can be downloaded as a pdf here.

William J. Abraham

Inductive Bible Study, Divine Revelation, and Canon

Drawing on encounter with the teaching and work of Robert A. Traina this paper develops a constructive account of his contribution to inductive bible study by responding positively to two objections that naturally arise. On the one hand, it answers an objectivist worry by noting that Traina’s work readily fits into the tradition of Geisteswissenschaft and takes with radical seriousness a metaphysics of personal agency and action. On the other hand, it deals with a subjectivist worry by showing that Traina’s central concerns transcend his relatively conventional theology of scripture. Through these strategies we can see that inductive bible study is a dynamic research agenda in hermeneutics that depends on crucial insights into the nature of observation and interpretation. Given the validity of these insights, inductive bible study is now poised to enter a new phase of its life as it moves forward into more conventional forms of academic research.

Fredrick J. Long

Major Structural Relationships: A Survey of Origins, Development, Classifications, and Assessment

A central feature to Inductive Bible Study (IBS) are Major Structural Relationships (MSRs), despite some variation in the number, identification, descriptions, and organization of them. These relationships are endemic to human communication; hence, their description is vital for accurate and holistic observation of biblical materials. The origin of MSRs is traceable to the 19th century art instruction of John Ruskin. He himself was aware that his insights into composition extended beyond artistic to musical and literary composition. Practitioners of IBS have continued to develop and describe rigorously methodologies surrounding the identification of MSRs, especially at Asbury Theological Seminary. A survey and review of the development of MSRs within the IBS movement reveals that stability of their identification as well as an openness to refine them (even adding to them) has been an asset for practitioners of IBS. The genius of IBS has been its major practitioners’ conceiving MSRs as central in the quest for truth, and especially the truth of God’s Word.

Stanley D. Walters

Twain Heights: Spirit and Word in Biblical Prophesying

The place-name “Ramathaim,” a noun in the dual number, found in Samuel’s ancestry 1 Sm 1:1 and nowhere else, is an allusion to a pair of narratives each set in Ramah, namely 1 Sm 19:18-24 and Jer 40:1-6, which together show the Spirit and the Word as essential features of biblical prophesying. Elkanah thus appears as part of a trans-generational movement of study and spiritual revitalization, to which the canonical book of Samuel continues to call us.

Thomas Lyons

Interpretation and Structure in Joel

Despite renewed interest in the book of Joel and its relationship to the “Book of the Twelve,” scholarly opinions still significantly diverge on the structure of the book of Joel itself. This article surveys recent significant and representative proposals for Joel’s structure before arguing for an alternative unified structure based upon grammar, literary markers or “catchwords,” and structural relationships (as described by David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina in Inductive Bible Study).

Joseph R. Dongell

Discerning Segment Boundaries within John 1:19-4:54

Bible commentators have traditionally supplied hierarchical outlines for the books they interpret under the assumption that texts are semantically structured, and that valid interpretation flows in part from accurately discerning textual structure. The disciplines of narrative criticism and discourse analysis have significantly advanced our understanding of textual structure, and have crossed paths by way of mutual influence with the IBS movement, which has given sustained attention to formalizing the study of textual structure. Against this backdrop, John 1:19-4:54 invites closer scrutiny in terms of the logic of its composition. The nearly universal agreement that 1:1-18 forms a clear literary unit, and that 5:1 begins another, contrasts with a lack of agreement about how to construe the intervening material. One popular view, that 2:1-4:54 is gathered as a literary whole by virtue of a Cana-to-Cana inclusio, falters under careful examination. According to the conclusions and introductions supplied by the narrator, 1:19-2:22 stands forth as cohesive unit devoted to presenting the Disciples as those who come to full and stable faith in Jesus. Likewise, 2:23-4:54 stands forth as a cohesive unit devoted to presenting Jesus as the Savior of all: Jews, Samaritans, and gentiles.

The Gospel Transformation Bible

Forthcoming from Crossway, and so based on the ESV, is the Gospel Transformation Bible. Further information, including a positioning video with reflections by several contributors, is available here.

I can be a bit of a cynic when it comes to the seeming proliferation of study Bibles, but I’ll be interested to take a closer look at this one.

Here’s some of the blurb from the Introduction:

‘The goal of the Gospel Transformation Bible is twofold: (1) to enable readers to understand that the whole Bible is a unified message of the gospel of God’s grace culminating in Christ Jesus, and (2) to help believers apply this good news to their everyday lives in a heart-transforming way. Our hope is that, as Christians throughout the world learn to see the message of salvation by grace unfolding throughout Scripture, they will respond to God with greater love, faithfulness, and power.’

Later on, more is said about the second goal of helping readers apply gospel truths to their everyday lives.

‘Faithful application typically answers four questions: 1) What to do? 2) Where to do it? 3) Why to do it? and 4) How to do it? Previous application-focused study Bibles have emphasized the first two of these questions. The Gospel Transformation Bible, while not ignoring the first two questions, seeks to be a primary resource for the latter two. Contributors’ notes indicate how the unfolding gospel truths in any given passage of Scripture motivate and enable believers to honor their Savior from the heart – in short, how grace transforms them.’

A pdf sampler is available here, including sample chapters from six books of the Bible, as well as an introduction to the bible.

In addition, the whole of Jeremiah (with Introduction and Notes by Graeme Goldsworthy) is available here.

David Helm on One-to-One Bible Reading

David Helm, One-to-One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian (Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2011), 103pp. ISBN 9781921441981.

Here is a short, helpful, practical book from David Helm, essentially encouraging Christians to read the Bible with others:

‘Reading one-to-one is a variation on that most central Christian activity – reading the Bible – but done in the context of reading with someone. It is something a Christian does with another person, on a regular basis, for a mutually agreed upon length of time, with the intention of reading through an discussing a book or part of a book of the Bible’ – although he also notes that ‘there is no reason it cannot be employed in one-to-two or one-to-three contexts as well’ (11).

Part 1 looks at the ‘what, why and how’ of one-to-one Bible reading (covering the nuts and bolts of getting started, running meetings, etc.), while part 2 explores some ‘frameworks and ideas’.

Two simple frameworks for Bible reading are offered:

• The Swedish method – where the passage is read aloud; each person then reads the passage on their own again, looking for three things – a light bulb (anything that shines out in the passage), a question mark (anything that is hard to understand), an arrow (anything that applies personally); followed by sharing and discussion of each category.

• The COMA method – an acronym for Context, Observation, Meaning, Application, with questions asked about a Bible passage in all four categories.

Helm also offers recommendations of particular Bible passages for different sorts of people (whether non-Christians, new Christians, or established Christians), and suggests appropriate COMA questions to ask about the different biblical genres.

An excerpt of the book is available here, and Helm’s COMA questions on biblical genres are available here.

I read the book a while back, but have just caught sight of a short course connected with the book, available online – One-to-One Bible Reading.

According to the website:

‘This course is a way to share the idea of One-to-One Bible Reading with a group, to encourage others to get started with it. The course consists of four lessons that may be enjoyed by groups of any age or size. It’s for adult Sunday school classes, home groups, youth groups, or just a few friends who want to give themselves to reading the Bible.’

Each of the four lessons consists of a video of David Helm sharing a couple of insights from the book, some suggested discussion questions, and an activity.

All the material is available for convenient download from this page.

The Global Study Bible

Forthcoming from Crossway, and so using the ESV, is the Global Study Bible, ‘a one-volume study resource for globally minded Christians everywhere... designed from beginning to end to be highly accessible and value priced for distribution on a global scale’.

From the advance blurb:

‘The Global Study Bible features a fresh design, with a wide range of new features. Each book begins with an introduction, followed by a unique, insightful description of the global message of the book. Likewise, a set of new articles by global Christian leaders apply the Bible to global issues, such as the role of government, the nature of the church, world religions, social ethics, and missions and evangelism.’

Sample pages are available here.

Access to an online version comes with a purchase of a print edition, and Crossway promises that when customers register online for their free access, they will ‘make a second copy available free to another global Christian, wherever the demand is greatest, anywhere in the world’.

The Bible in Transmission (Summer/Autumn 2011) on Translating the Bible

The latest issue of the excellent publication, The Bible in Transmission, from Bible Society carries a collection of articles on translating the Bible:

Tony Graham

Editorial

Gordon Campbell

Translating the Bible for King James

At the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 a new English version of the Bible ‘to be read in churches’ was conceived in response to the perceived problems of earlier translations. So began the task of about 50 of England’s finest scholars.

Nick Spencer

The Geneva Bible

Substantially based on the earlier translations by William Tyndale, the Geneva Bible was the most successful, influential and widely read English translation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The English authorities, however, disliked the Geneva’s militant phrases and seditious notes, and eventually it was replaced by the Authorised Version.

Jon Riding

Bible Translation in a Changing World

After a brief survey of the history of translation, Jon Riding considers three key developments in recent decades that have radically transformed the task of translating the Bible. He also reflects on what the future holds for Bible translation.

Paula Gooder

Why Produce Your Own Translation?

Biblical scholar Paula Gooder reflects on why she often produces her own translation of Scripture. Translating a passage afresh allows the different levels of potential meaning to be highlighted in a way not possible if we just use published translations.

Neil Rees

Dissecting the Bible

A concordance is a key aid when studying the Bible. After a brief overview of the history of concordances, Neil Rees explains how computer technology has aided the production of concordances in languages that would not have had the resources to produce them a few years ago.

Simon Crisp

Bible Availability Around the World

A consideration of Bible availability around the world. Examples from four continents illustrate the impact the translated Word can have on individuals and whole communities.

Chris Sunderland

Telling Bible in a Prophetic Age

Stories have an important place in every society. They express a community’s deepest views about life and how it should be lived. This article encourages us to recover the art of storytelling as a valuable discipline and hear the Bible again as a told story that can deeply affect our society.

James Catford

News from Bible Society

Mark Meynell on the Bible

Mark Meynell kindly makes available the leaders’ notes from a series of studies carried out by the Fellowship Groups at All Souls Church, Langham Place in London as part of their ongoing Biblefresh celebrations.

The studies, derived loosely from Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book: The Art of Spiritual Reading (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006), take five different passages ‘which illustrate how God’s people respond to God’s revelation’, looking ‘at how the Bible itself describes its impact on the believer’s life’.

Deuteronomy 8 (and Matthew 4:1-12)

Israel in the Desert

The Bible as Revelation – Feasting on the Word of Life

Psalm 119:33-48

Israel in worship

The Bible in Devotions – Delighting in the Word of Promise

Luke 24:13-35

The Risen Jesus

The Bible in Understanding – Believing in the Word of the Prophets

Acts 8:26-40

The Spreading Church

The Bible in Evangelism – Communicating the Word of Hope

Nehemiah 8

Israel home after Exile

The Bible in Ministry – Explaining the Word of Truth

The document can be viewed and downloaded here from Scribd.

David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina on Inductive Bible Study

David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina, Inductive Bible Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 464pp., ISBN 9780801027673.

An excerpt of this book carries the Foreword by Eugene Peterson, the Preface from David Bauer, and the Introduction.

This volume is an expansion by David Bauer (and Ada Thompson) of Robert Traina’s Methodical Bible Study, first published in 1952. After the Introduction, it unfolds in five parts:

Part 1. Theoretical Foundations

Part 2. Observing and Asking

Part 3. Answering or Interpreting

Part 4. Evaluating and Appropriating

Part 5. Correlation

It aims to offer ‘a specific, orderly process that readers can apply directly as they work with particular biblical texts’ (xiii). Even so, as Bauer is concerned to point out (and as Eugene Peterson also emphasises in his Foreword), ‘although inductive Bible study involves certain steps that are performed, it is not solely a matter of techniques. It involves, above all, a commitment to an inductive posture, which means radical openness to the meaning of the text, wherever a study characterized by radical openness might lead’ (xiv).

Krish Kandiah on Navigating Life with the Bible

Krish Kandiah, Route 66: A Crash Course in Navigating Life with the Bible (Oxford: Monarch, 2011), 192pp., ISBN 9780857210180.

‘Route 66’ is the theme for this year’s Spring Harvest, and Krish Kandiah’s book of the same title is one of its main resources.

The book is mentioned in the latest Biblefresh newsletter, which also links to a pdf excerpt.

I was privileged to read a pre-publication manuscript of the book back in October last year and, if I’d got my act together in time, I would have been very happy to have written a blurb to join all the others recommending it. I’ll certainly be adding it to my future lists of recommended items on biblical genres and on introductory material on reading the Bible.

Krish has an enviable ability to use story and anecdote and self-deprecactory autobiographical snippets to excellent advantage in making points. And yet, he manages to cover the salient issues about each of the major biblical genres in a concise and engaging way, linking them with Bible studies and suggestions for small groups.

Biblical Interpretation and Application Reading Room

From Tyndale Seminary comes this full and helpful list of books on biblical interpretation and application with links to Google Books.

J.I. Packer et al. on Reading the Bible

Justin Taylor, at Between Two Worlds, draws attention to the availability of a 10-page excerpt from the ESV Study Bible on ‘Reading the Bible’, containing the following mini essays.

J.I. Packer

Reading the Bible Theologically

Leland Ryken

Reading the Bible as Literature

John Piper

Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God

David Powlison

Reading the Bible for Personal Application

R. Kent Hughes

Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship

Bible Engagement Among Young People in Australia

Philip Hughes and Claire Pickering, Bible Engagement among Young Australians: Patterns and Social Drivers (Christian Research Association, 2010).

Scripture Engagement notes the publication of a 53-page report from the Christian Research Association in Australia on Bible engagement among young people in Australia.

The report, commissioned by the Bible Society (South Australia), is available as a pdf here.

It looks at national patterns of Bible reading, attitudes among young people to the content of the Bible, as well as major influences and social drivers of young people’s attitudes to the Bible.

They summarise:

‘Conservatively interpreted, the surveys show that around 4 per cent of young people read the Bible daily, another 6 per cent read it weekly, and 15 to 20 per cent read it very occasionally. About 70 per cent never read it. The frequency of Bible reading is a little greater among older young people, although this is probably a result of changing history patterns over generations and not related to age. Of those who read the Bible daily or weekly, most attend church services and youth activities, such as a Bible study group. Most also have parents and friends who attend church frequently. Those who read it frequently are mostly involved in Protestant Evangelical or Charismatic denominations, such as the Pentecostals, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Seventh-day Adventists.’

They propose the following recommendations for the Bible Society:

• Focus on building youth groups and Bible study groups
• Develop materials for occasional readers and the curious
• Work with families in encouraging Bible engagement
• Explore relevant forms of communication and community for encouraging Bible engagement

And their recommendations for future research include these questions:

• What are the catalysts for Bible reading?
• How is the Bible interpreted?

Bible Apps for the iPhone

Bible Reading Fellowship have produced apps for their daily Bible reading notes, New Daylight, and their more in-depth study series, Guidelines. More information and the opportunity to sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Krish Kandiah refers to New Daylight in a review of some Bible apps for the iPad and iPhone here.