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Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters
The post Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters appeared first on Brandon Kelley.
[callout]For the past several weeks, I’ve been co-teaching a class called, Bible Hacks where myself and Daryl Docterman have been teaching short sessions designed to help you read the Bible better. Below are my teaching notes from session seven as well as the audio of the class. Past sessions are listed at the bottom of this article:[/callout]
Audio Version:
[button href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/abundant-life-brandon-kelley/id1030753835″ primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in iTunes[/button]
[button href=”http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/brandon-kelley/the-abundant-life-with-brandon-kelley?refid=stpr” primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in Stitcher[/button]
Back in Elementary school, I remember having a pen pal. Well, I remember that it was something we did. I don’t particularly remember who my pen pal was. But there was something special about writing a letter to another person and then receiving a response back. Today, we have made communication so easy that we tend to avoid our message receiving mechanism – our email inbox.
Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters
But I can remember writing out the letter to send. Dear… Write out what I had to say. Then the closing salutation. Then my name. There was and is a structure to writing a letter. We all know this. And the cool thing is, there is a structure to the genre of Biblical text we are looking at today: the epistles.
What is an Epistle and What is it’s Structure?
Much of the New Testament is in epistle form. An epistle is a kind of letter that also functions as a sort of teaching. Now, it’s important to note that the epistles we find in the New Testament are hybrids between epistles and letters. Some lean more toward epistles and some lean more toward letters. Some are more personal and some are less personal.
An epistle is generally structured with six parts:
Types of Epistles/New Testament Letters
There are a few ways we typically distinguish between epistles in the Bible.
First, we have the Pauline epistles which simply means the epistles written by Paul. The Pauline epistles include:
Next are what are typically referred to as the general epistles. These include:
But beyond these two general distinctions, there are a couple of sub-groups among the Pauline epistles. First are the Pauline prison epistles which were written while Paul was imprisoned. These include:
Second, are the Pauline pastoral epistles which were written to individual leaders of the church. These include:
5 Keys to Reading the New Testament Letters Well
1. Follow the Author’s Flow – Don’t Cut Him Off
Last week, we talked about the book of Acts and how we need to think in events, not chapters. In epistles, we need to think in terms of the entire letter. Some people recommend we think in paragraphs, but I believe that is too narrow. We must take into account the fact that these letters were read aloud before entire congregations (with the probable exceptions going to the pastoral epistles). But even with the pastoral epistles, they were surely read in one sitting, not in a few. With that in mind, we must begin thinking in whole letters rather than chapters and headings.
If you want to read the epistles well, it would make a tremendous difference if you read the epistle all the way through. But even if you don’t do this each time, either noting in your head or writing down notes as you read of the overall flow of the epistle will help as well.
All this points us to our first key, to follow the author’s flow and to not cut him off. Whenever we simply focus on chapters, we tend to cut the author off in mid-thought – especially in the epistles.
2. Leave Your Theological Presuppositions at the Door
No matter if you grew up in church or not, you have a theology. Everyone does. If you grew up going to a single kind of church, you likely have adopted their theology. It’s what you were taught, directly or indirectly. If you didn’t grow up in the church, you still grew up inside a worldview. Your parents had beliefs that shaped how they raised you and how they taught you about life. See, we all have a theology whether it is biblical or not. And that right there – biblical theology – is even tough to define.
Maybe the hardest things to do is this one: to leave your theological presuppositions at the door when you read the epistles. Because when you don’t, you may fall into the same trap as I have. Here’s an example of how this plays out among Arminians and Calvinists. An Arminian will be tempted to read around passages like Romans 8:30; 9:18-24; Galatians 1:15; and Ephesians 1:4-5. Likewise, Calvinists will be tempted to do the same thing with passages like 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; 2 Peter 2:20-22; and Hebrews 6:4-6.
The only remedy for this is to leave those prior theological conclusions at the door – at least initially.
3. Try to Hear Both Sides of the Conversation
Epistles are occasional and are typically in response to something in particular. Some, it seems, would be exceptions like Romans and James. But this back and forth can be seen especially in 1 and 2 Corinthians because Paul actually references the fact that they had sent him a letter with questions (1 Corinthians 7:1).
It’s a good practice to begin asking yourself – as you read the text – what was going on in this church community? What was happening? What conversations were going on? The reality is, we have what we need in the Bible. But as we are reading the epistles, it’s going to be helpful to understand what we are reading if we can begin to see the other side of the conversation.
4. Consider Their Culture
This can be compared to an onion. There are layers. But considering and understanding their culture will give you a great deal of insight into how the recipients of the epistle would have read or heard the epistle you are reading. It will give you insight into things like food sacrificed to idols, head coverings, hair length, and an assortment of other details that otherwise may leave you scratching your head.
Typically a good study Bible will aid you in this.
5. Read Problem Passages With Care and Consult a Commentary
Every now and then, if we are reading closely, there will be a passage that leaves us with more questions than we know what to do with. When this happens, some guidelines will be helpful. First, realize that these texts were written, not to us, but to people in the first century. Second, even if we don’t entirely understand the passage at hand, it doesn’t take away from us understanding the overall epistle.
BibleHub.com offers a number of commentaries that can be helpful to you if you decide that you want to dive into the passage you are in even more.
Let’s Get to Work
In our handout, we’re going to dive into an epistle.
Want to grow your faith even more? Let's be email friends. I'll even give you a free copy of my 4-week audio course and daily devotional called, Journey to Knowing God.
First Name:
Email address:
Leave this field empty if you're human:
[callout]
More From Bible Hacks
Session one: The Overarching Story of the Bible – by Daryl Docterman
Session one: Seeing the Gospel in Every Crevice of the Bible – by Brandon Kelley
Session two: Understanding the Old Testament Context – by Daryl Docterman
Session two: Understanding the New Testament Context – by Brandon Kelley
Session three: Going From Original Meaning to Contemporary Application – by Daryl Docterman
Session three: Identifying Theological Realities and Obedient Actions – by Brandon Kelley
Session four: Reading the OT Narratives Well – by Daryl Docterman
Session four: Reading the Gospels Well – by Brandon Kelley
Session five: Understanding OT Law – by Daryl Docterman
Session five: Understanding Jesus’ Parables – by Brandon Kelley
Session six: Reading the Psalms Well – by Daryl Docterman
Session six: Reading the Book of Acts Well – by Brandon Kelley
Session seven: Understanding the Wisdom Literature – by Daryl Docterman
[/callout]
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The post Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters appeared first on Brandon Kelley.
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The post Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters appeared first on Brandon Kelley.
[callout]For the past several weeks, I’ve been co-teaching a class called, Bible Hacks where myself and Daryl Docterman have been teaching short sessions designed to help you read the Bible better. Below are my teaching notes from session seven as well as the audio of the class. Past sessions are listed at the bottom of this article:[/callout]
Audio Version:
[button href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/abundant-life-brandon-kelley/id1030753835″ primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in iTunes[/button]
[button href=”http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/brandon-kelley/the-abundant-life-with-brandon-kelley?refid=stpr” primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in Stitcher[/button]
Back in Elementary school, I remember having a pen pal. Well, I remember that it was something we did. I don’t particularly remember who my pen pal was. But there was something special about writing a letter to another person and then receiving a response back. Today, we have made communication so easy that we tend to avoid our message receiving mechanism – our email inbox.
Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters
But I can remember writing out the letter to send. Dear… Write out what I had to say. Then the closing salutation. Then my name. There was and is a structure to writing a letter. We all know this. And the cool thing is, there is a structure to the genre of Biblical text we are looking at today: the epistles.
What is an Epistle and What is it’s Structure?
Much of the New Testament is in epistle form. An epistle is a kind of letter that also functions as a sort of teaching. Now, it’s important to note that the epistles we find in the New Testament are hybrids between epistles and letters. Some lean more toward epistles and some lean more toward letters. Some are more personal and some are less personal.
An epistle is generally structured with six parts:
Types of Epistles/New Testament Letters
There are a few ways we typically distinguish between epistles in the Bible.
First, we have the Pauline epistles which simply means the epistles written by Paul. The Pauline epistles include:
Next are what are typically referred to as the general epistles. These include:
But beyond these two general distinctions, there are a couple of sub-groups among the Pauline epistles. First are the Pauline prison epistles which were written while Paul was imprisoned. These include:
Second, are the Pauline pastoral epistles which were written to individual leaders of the church. These include:
5 Keys to Reading the New Testament Letters Well
1. Follow the Author’s Flow – Don’t Cut Him Off
Last week, we talked about the book of Acts and how we need to think in events, not chapters. In epistles, we need to think in terms of the entire letter. Some people recommend we think in paragraphs, but I believe that is too narrow. We must take into account the fact that these letters were read aloud before entire congregations (with the probable exceptions going to the pastoral epistles). But even with the pastoral epistles, they were surely read in one sitting, not in a few. With that in mind, we must begin thinking in whole letters rather than chapters and headings.
If you want to read the epistles well, it would make a tremendous difference if you read the epistle all the way through. But even if you don’t do this each time, either noting in your head or writing down notes as you read of the overall flow of the epistle will help as well.
All this points us to our first key, to follow the author’s flow and to not cut him off. Whenever we simply focus on chapters, we tend to cut the author off in mid-thought – especially in the epistles.
2. Leave Your Theological Presuppositions at the Door
No matter if you grew up in church or not, you have a theology. Everyone does. If you grew up going to a single kind of church, you likely have adopted their theology. It’s what you were taught, directly or indirectly. If you didn’t grow up in the church, you still grew up inside a worldview. Your parents had beliefs that shaped how they raised you and how they taught you about life. See, we all have a theology whether it is biblical or not. And that right there – biblical theology – is even tough to define.
Maybe the hardest things to do is this one: to leave your theological presuppositions at the door when you read the epistles. Because when you don’t, you may fall into the same trap as I have. Here’s an example of how this plays out among Arminians and Calvinists. An Arminian will be tempted to read around passages like Romans 8:30; 9:18-24; Galatians 1:15; and Ephesians 1:4-5. Likewise, Calvinists will be tempted to do the same thing with passages like 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; 2 Peter 2:20-22; and Hebrews 6:4-6.
The only remedy for this is to leave those prior theological conclusions at the door – at least initially.
3. Try to Hear Both Sides of the Conversation
Epistles are occasional and are typically in response to something in particular. Some, it seems, would be exceptions like Romans and James. But this back and forth can be seen especially in 1 and 2 Corinthians because Paul actually references the fact that they had sent him a letter with questions (1 Corinthians 7:1).
It’s a good practice to begin asking yourself – as you read the text – what was going on in this church community? What was happening? What conversations were going on? The reality is, we have what we need in the Bible. But as we are reading the epistles, it’s going to be helpful to understand what we are reading if we can begin to see the other side of the conversation.
4. Consider Their Culture
This can be compared to an onion. There are layers. But considering and understanding their culture will give you a great deal of insight into how the recipients of the epistle would have read or heard the epistle you are reading. It will give you insight into things like food sacrificed to idols, head coverings, hair length, and an assortment of other details that otherwise may leave you scratching your head.
Typically a good study Bible will aid you in this.
5. Read Problem Passages With Care and Consult a Commentary
Every now and then, if we are reading closely, there will be a passage that leaves us with more questions than we know what to do with. When this happens, some guidelines will be helpful. First, realize that these texts were written, not to us, but to people in the first century. Second, even if we don’t entirely understand the passage at hand, it doesn’t take away from us understanding the overall epistle.
BibleHub.com offers a number of commentaries that can be helpful to you if you decide that you want to dive into the passage you are in even more.
Let’s Get to Work
In our handout, we’re going to dive into an epistle.
Want to grow your faith even more? Let's be email friends. I'll even give you a free copy of my 4-week audio course and daily devotional called, Journey to Knowing God.
First Name:
Email address:
Leave this field empty if you're human:
[callout]
More From Bible Hacks
Session one: The Overarching Story of the Bible – by Daryl Docterman
Session one: Seeing the Gospel in Every Crevice of the Bible – by Brandon Kelley
Session two: Understanding the Old Testament Context – by Daryl Docterman
Session two: Understanding the New Testament Context – by Brandon Kelley
Session three: Going From Original Meaning to Contemporary Application – by Daryl Docterman
Session three: Identifying Theological Realities and Obedient Actions – by Brandon Kelley
Session four: Reading the OT Narratives Well – by Daryl Docterman
Session four: Reading the Gospels Well – by Brandon Kelley
Session five: Understanding OT Law – by Daryl Docterman
Session five: Understanding Jesus’ Parables – by Brandon Kelley
Session six: Reading the Psalms Well – by Daryl Docterman
Session six: Reading the Book of Acts Well – by Brandon Kelley
Session seven: Understanding the Wisdom Literature – by Daryl Docterman
[/callout]
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The post Bible Hacks: How to Read the New Testament Letters appeared first on Brandon Kelley.