6.0 What Secondary Tools Can I Use for Studying Scripture?
INTRODUCTION The study of the Bible will always lead to questions that the student cannot answer himself or herself. Over the centuries of Christian interpretive history a variety of perspectives about how to solve this dilemma have aris- en. Central to Christianity has been the role of spiritual leaders, and of the importance of Christian community. One of the prominent ministries in early Christianity was that of the teacher.1 The understanding of God’s will by His people centered on God revealing that will to His people through individuals called by God to communi- cate it. What they spoke orally to God’s people over time was preserved in written form with the documents of the Bible. This impacted the way for God’s people to know that divine will for their lives. These written words now 1Coming off just one root stem in the Greek NT is a large number of words dealing with teaching: διδάσκω, διδάσκαλος, νομοδιδάσκαλος, καλοδιδάσκαλος, ψευδοδιδάσκαλος, διδασκαλία, ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω, διδαχή, διδακτός, διδακτικός [Theological Dic- tionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley and Gerhard Friedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-), 2:135.] And this is but one set of words connected to the idea of teaching. Topics 33.224--33.250, “Teach,” in the Louw-Nida Greek lexicon deal with the core idea of ‘teach’ (The meanings in the sub-do- main of Teach may be regarded as relating to a process of ‘causing someone to learn or to know’ and hence overlapping with Domain 27 Learn and Domain 28 Know, but the meanings in the Sub-domain Teach involve a more continuous process of formal and informal instruction.) [Johannes P.
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