1. Read the Bible with a Critical Eye—It Can Take It
2. Thinking Is Better than Memorizing
3. Bible Reading Is Not Bible Study
4. Bible Study Is a Discipline, Not a Ritual Event
5. Insist on Being a Slave to the Text—Let It Be Your Master
6. The Goal of Bible Study Shouldn’t Be a Spiritual Buzz
7. Deuteronomy 29:29 Is No Excuse for Intellectual Laziness in Bible Study
8. When You Read about a Place in the Bible, Look up What Happened There
11. Bible Study Isn’t like Marriage
13. The Aim of Bible Study Is the Meaning of the Text, Not a Defense of Your View
14. Ignorance Is Not a Gift of the Spirit
15. Use a Variety of Methods in Bible Study
17. The Guidance of the Spirit Is Neither a Remedy nor an Excuse for Lackluster Bible Study
18. Attention to Detail and Clear Thinking Are Not Antithetical to Loving Jesus
19. Bible Study Is about Discovering the Meaning of the Text, Not Deciding How to Apply the Text
20. Don’t Allow Anyone to Protect You from the Bible
21. Believe That God Will Help You
22. Believing What the Bible Says Isn’t Bible Study
23. Five Minutes Is a Long Time
24. Listening to a Sermon Isn’t Bible Study
25. It’s Never Too Late to Start Studying the Bible
26. Follow Someone Who Leaves a Trail
Part 2. Understand What the Bible—and What Your Particular Bible—Is
27. The Old Testament Came before the New Testament
28. Read the Preface to Your Bible Translation
29. There’s No Such Thing as “Holy Ghost Greek”
30. Learn about Hebrew Poetic Parallelism
31. The Books in Your Bible Are Not in Chronological Order
32. The Traditional Hebrew Text of the Old Testament Did Not Fall from Heaven
33. Learn Something about Philosophies of Bible Translation
34. Get to Know the Features of Your Study Bible
35. Pay Attention to the Formatting of Your Bible Translation
Part 3. Accurately Interpret the Bible
37. Prayer Doesn’t Guarantee Your Interpretation Is Accurate
38. All Interpretations Are Not Equally Plausible
39. Some Things in the Bible Are Clearer than Others—by Design
40. Don’t Be Shaken by Your Lack of Omniscience
41. Lots of Things in the Bible Can’t Be Understood by Children
44. Impressions Are No Substitute for Data
45. Words Don’t Mean Anything by Themselves
46. Don’t Confuse Correlation with Causation
47. What Is Meant by “Literal” Interpretation of the Bible Needs Interpretation
49. “Level of Detail” Is Not a Key to Bible Interpretation
50. The Proper Context for Interpreting the Bible Is the Context That Produced the Bible
51. Most Passages in the Bible Don’t Have Three Points to Communicate
52. The Meaning of a Word Does Not Come from Its Constituent Parts
53. Nonliteral Doesn’t Mean “Not Real”
54. Be Open to Nonliteral Interpretation—the Biblical Writers Used It on Occasion
55. Total Objectivity in Bible Interpretation Is a Myth
56. If It’s Weird, It’s Important
57. You Can’t Understand the Bible Without Understanding the Worldview of the People Who Wrote It
58. What a Word Meant before the Writer Lived Isn’t an Indicator of What It Meant to the Writer
59. A Word Never Simultaneously Means All the Things It Can Mean
60. Genre Is Another Word for Context
61. It’s Okay When Bible Study Produces More than One Possible Interpretation
62. Pay Attention to How Biblical Writers Interpret Other Biblical Writers
63. Tracing Concepts through the Bible Is More Profitable than Word Study
64. The Bible Really Can Mean Exactly What It Says
65. Draw Both Positive and Negative Conclusions about What a Verse or Passage Teaches
66. Affirm the Obvious Without Extrapolating to the Unnecessary
67. Learn about Strong’s Numbers and Their Use
68. Learn about Interlinear Bibles
69. Learn about Reverse Interlinears and Their Use
70. Use More than One Translation in Bible Study
71. Read a Book—or Take a Course—on Biblical Hermeneutics
72. Discover Bible Commentaries
73. Buy Bible Software—Then Use It
74. Acquire a Clear, Succinct Theological Dictionary
76. All Commentaries Are Not Created Equal
77. Learn How to Do Word Studies
78. When Studying Biblical Words, Pay Attention to Word Distribution
79. Bible Software Should Be a Tool for Bible Study, Not a Crutch