Correlating the Bible
INTRO
A simple look at the contemporary church, for example, makes it abundantly clear that not all “plain meanings” are equally plain to all
“You very rarely have to go outside of the Bible to explain anything in the Bible.”
He realized that the more you compare Scripture with Scripture, the more the meaning of the Bible becomes apparent. The parts take on meaning in light of the whole.
DANGERS OF CORRELATION
1) Proof-Texting
One can usually recognize the cults, for example, because they have an authority in addition to the Bible. But not all of them do; and in every case they bend the truth by the way they select texts from the Bible itself
KEY TERMS:
As we think about the last step of Bible study, correlation, we kind of have to pull together what we’ve already done in the passage and then look to see how that fits with other things that are going on on that theme in the Scripture
KEY TERMS:
CORRELATION refers to....
Correlation connects a given passage to other passages that are in the Scripture
ANALOGY refers to interpreting a difficult passage by understanding a simple one
what does this passage over here say that’s in addition to or alongside with what I’m seeing in my own passage?
CONCORDANCE refers to a study tool that enables you to chase down words from one book of the Bible to the next
Using a concordance, you can put together things that appear isolated in the text; and they take on greater meaning in relation to each other
DANGERS OF CORRELATION:
1) Proof-Texting
One can usually recognize the cults, for example, because they have an authority in addition to the Bible. But not all of them do; and in every case they bend the truth by the way they select texts from the Bible itself
2) Apparent Contradictions
TIPS ON CORRELATION:
One textual feature that quickly becomes evident in any portion of Scripture is the interplay among topics, ideas, characters and places—some of the important devices that make a text of any kind interesting
1) Keep your eye on people
2) Keep your eye on promises
3) Keep your eye on themes
We must ask continually, “How does this part of the Bible fit with the wider purposes of God as revealed elsewhere in the Scriptures?”