"Here A Little, There A Little" -- How To Do Theme Bible Study
It doesn't take long to realize -- once you begin to read and study the Bible for yourself -- that the Bible is not like an encyclopedia. The Bible is not arranged in such a way that you can look up a particular subject or topic and locate just one passage that contains all of its teaching on that topic. For any subject you choose to consider, the Bible's teaching will be found in a number of different places -- here a little, there a little.
This means that when we wish to discover what the Bible teaches on a particular topic, that we will need to do research to locate a number of different passages that bear on that subject. For example, suppose we wished to study the subject of "forgiveness" -- where would we find important biblical teaching on that subject? Literally in hundreds of Bible passages -- how about Jesus' parable of the prodigal son? The account of King David's sin with Bathsheba also comes to mind. The list goes on and on -- I'm sure that if we had an hour to spend we could come up with many different passages that bear on the teaching of forgiveness, without even scratching the surface.
Fortunately, however, we don't have to rely on our memory of the Bible when we do a topical or thematic Bible study -- there are several different Bible study reference books that we can use to do this. One of these is a Bible concordance -- these books list every occurrence (if they are a complete or exhaustive concordance) where a particular biblical word is used. If we were studying forgiveness, we could look that word up in our Bible concordance and we would soon know every passage of the Bible that used this word.
Using a Bible concordance -- especially an exhaustive Bible concordance -- can give you a tremendous amount of "data" -- the raw material that you will need to examine as your study proceeds. However, using a concordance can become very tedious -- there will be a lot of Bible passages to look up, and you will find that some of them are not as important as others, some are not as relevant to your study as others will be. If you use a concordance you will have to look up all of the references and "weed out" the references which are not significant.
If you want to save some time, you can also try to use a topical Bible -- these are like concordances, but they contain pages with lists of Scripture references which are grouped by topics, rather than by specific words that are used. Using a Bible concordance has limitations -- for example, studying forgiveness, we might never be led to consider the parable of the prodigal son, because in certain Bible translations the word "forgiveness" is never used. Yet it DOES bear on the subject of forgiveness. A topical Bible, on the other hand, has lists of versus grouped by topics -- a human editor has gone through and selected some of the most relevant passages of the Bible that deal with this specific subject.
Another useful tool when doing thematic or subject-oriented biblical studies is a Bible dictionary or Bible Encyclopedia -- if the topic you are studying is important enough, you may find an entry in your Bible dictionary or encyclopedia. The Bible dictionary and encyclopedia will have a digest of the teaching of the Bible on that particular subject. Better Bible dictionaries/encyclopedias will give you more in-depth information (and you'll have to pay extra to own them).
As a general recommendation, I would advise you to balance your thematic subjects in such a way that you study doctrinal and theological concepts as well as practical subjects. For example, you can study very practical subjects such as prayer, faith, finances, marriage, children, etc. But you should also take time to study subjects like the attributes of God (His holiness, righteousness, justice, etc.), salvation, the church, Israel, the Messiah, the Trinity -- these are more weighty doctrinal or theological subjects, but are also important.
A thematic or subject study of the Bible is the natural complement to a book by book study of the Bible -- a theme Bible study will give you the opportunity to explore particular subjects in much fuller detail than would normally be possible when doing a study of a single book of scripture. Used in tandem with each other, they are a powerful combination that will really help you advance in your understanding of the meaning of God's Word.
Bible Study Methods The Basic Steps Of Bible Study Understanding Bible Translation Differences Choosing A Good Study Bible Book-by-Book Bible Study The ABC Bible Study Method The Markup Bible Study Method Theme Bible Study Bible Study Software Guide 6-Year Bible Study Plan Our Privacy Policy |
