A person interested in studying the Bible will often be concerned with how best to study the Bible.
Welcome to a Bible study guide where I discuss five of the best Bible Study Methods For Beginners. These methods will help take your learning into a more engaging and profitable dimension.
Keep in mind that you do not need a degree or SPECIAL skills to study the Bible. What you need to do is give your attention to it and choose the method that is most comfortable for you.
Meanwhile, have you seen our guide on How To Study The Bible For Beginners? You should give it a careful read!
What Are Bible Study Methods?
First, Bible study has everything to do with analyzing books, passages, chapters, and verses of the scriptures. How you do it is what is known as the method.
Bible study methods are the different procedures through which we approach the scriptures. They are the laid-out rules or principles to follow in tackling the problem of understanding what is in the Bible.
For instance, in a recent message, we looked at the case of the woman caught in sin and how Jesus said to her, Go and Sin No More. Anyone could generalize the statement and even rephrase it however they want. But we had to use a method of approach to arrive at the fact that the instruction to the woman was identical to her sin.
The Bible is like a puzzle you have to study. You need to find a pattern you can follow in order to get it right and in time. Here come Bible study methods!
Why You Need A Method To Study The Bible
You can read the Bible over and over again and still end up feeling confused. I know a friend who challenged herself to read the Bible in about half a year or so. Her conclusion about everything was a total confusion, probably because her goal was just to read the Bible.
As interesting as it may be, reading the Bible alone will not help you to understand it. You will need to study to know enough. And to understand, you will need a method of approach.
Like in mathematics, you can read the answer to a problem from a sheet, but without studying the equation, you may never know how to get the answer. To get to the correct answer, you will need the formula, which is equally a method of approach.
The essence of Bible study methods is to help you understand what the scriptures have to say, especially in a systematic order.
Bible Study Methods For Beginners
The Bible study methods for beginners I will be sharing here are not just for new students of the Bible. Any student of the Bible and The Believers Today can apply them in their studies. You will be surprised how effective your learning will be.
But before we look at the different types of Bible study methods, there are some interesting words and their meanings that I would love to introduce to you. They are called Bible Study Acronyms!
Here are some Bible study acronyms that could help you in your studies:
APPLE – stands for the Attributes of God, Promises of God, Principles for life, Lessons learned or sins to avoid, and Examples to follow.
HEAR: the H stands for His Word, E for Examine it, A for Apply it, and R for Respond in prayers.
JOY: It says you should Just write it, Observe it, and Your heart will respond.
PRAISE: it says you should Pray, Read, Assess, Investigate, Submit, and Express.
The 5 Ps: say that you should Position yourself, Pour over or Paraphrase, Pull out principles, Pose questions, Plan obedience and pin down the date.
LEGACY: it says you should look out for Location, Essence, Genre, Author, Context, and Years.
SOAP – represents the Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer.
OIA – stands for Observation, Interpretation, and Application.
PSALM – stands for Paraphrase, Study, Analyse, Learn, and Meditate.
REAP – stands for Read, Explore, Application, and Prayer.
REST: says you should Read, Engage, Savor, and Take charge.
Let me say that a productive Bible study, beginning from the APPLE to the REAPing and RESTing, requires a painstaking process. But afterward, you should have good products to enjoy and share with others.
Here are five of the best Bible Study Methods for beginners to effectively study the Bible:
1. Inductive Bible Study Method
Inductive is relative to induct, which means to introduce someone to something. Inductive Bible study refers to you introducing yourself into the body of knowledge in the Bible or ideas spread across the scriptures.
The idea around Inductive Bible study is to pay attention to the general details surrounding what you are dealing with to enable you to arrive at a logical conclusion.
It is classified using three main stages: Observation, Interpretation, and Application (OIA).
- In Observation, you look for information about the Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why.
- In Interpretation, you find and explain the intended meaning of the writings from the book, passage, chapter, or verse you are studying.
- In Application, you deal with the implication from a place of understanding about how it applies to you today.
Inductive Bible study is likely the most profound method for effectively studying the Bible. From my observations, it seems to be the method you will meet in every other Bible study method.
2. Verse Mapping Bible Study
Let’s say you read a verse of scripture and are interested in knowing what it is about; Verse Mapping is the formula to follow.
Verse mapping is a method of Bible study referred to as a study of one Bible verse at a time. But that is not all there is to it because you will need to consider the pretext and post-text to arrive at the intended meaning of the verse.
In Verse Mapping, you will need to read the verse over again. Take note of keywords for word search and vocabulary, consider other translations and transliterations, cross reference, interpret, and apply.
For instance, if you are studying Romans 8:1, you can take note of the phrases ‘no condemnation,’ ‘in Christ,’ and the word ‘condemnation’ for word search. Read the previous and the verse after it, and consider other translations where you will find some transliterations like ‘belong to Christ’ instead of ‘in Christ.’
You can then consider cross-referencing the verse with similar verses (like John 3:18 and 5:24) to help you fully understand what the writer is communicating and how it applies to you.
To effectively study different verses using the verse mapping method, you should use a Bible concordance.
3. Topical Bible Study Method
Have you ever read a passage of the Bible and found a word that piqued your interest? Then, you can decide to do a topical Bible study!
Topical study is an interesting and exciting method of studying the Bible. In this study, you pick a word that resonates with you and find out what the scriptures say about it.
Topical Bible studies do not limit you to a verse or book of the Bible but allow you to cut across different books of the Bible as you find the usage of the word or phrase you are studying, the concepts around it, and understand the implications of it in other passages, as well as how it applies to you or your situation.
Topical studies are not just about studying words like creation, love, and hope; they also include looking up biblical personalities like God, Jesus Christ, and Abraham, geographical locations, and even genealogies in the Bible.
I am sure you will need a Bible concordance for this method, and if you are using a digital Bible app, you can easily do a topical search by inserting the word in the search box.
4. Book-by-book Bible Study
Book-by-book Bible study, as the name implies, is a method of studying the Bible with a focus on specific books of the Bible.
In the book studies, you are to choose a particular book of the Bible and study it exclusively over time, applying the Inductive and SOAP Bible study methods.
Assuming you decide to study the Book of Job over one month or there around. While you read, you need to take note of the things said about Job, the things that happened to him and his family, his conversations with his friends, how he reacted, his perception of God, his later admissions, as well as how everything turned out for him in the end.
From there, you can draw a logical conclusion, pick out lessons learned, and apply them accordingly with a comprehensive understanding of the book.
An interesting and exciting aspect of book studies is the possible breakdown into parts like chapter by chapter, a verse-by-verse study, or the study of the overall book.
5. SOAP Bible Study
The SOAP Bible study is a method for studying the Bible. As mentioned above, SOAP is an acronym for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer.
The method of Bible study is as simple as reading the scriptures, observing what is written (finding the meaning), how it applies to you, and praying about it.
It always has more to do with the Inductive Bible study and can be applied in verse-by-verse studies and other Bible study methods not listed here.
The main point is to understand the scriptures within their context and see how the writings apply to you. While knowledge is needful, understanding texts in context is a key to unlocking the treasures embedded in the scriptures (their intended meanings).
