Welcome to Day 1569 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Bible Study – Worldview of the Author and Word Meanings – Meditation Monday

Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! Wisdom is the final frontier in gaining true knowledge. Our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, seek out discernment and insights, and boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; this is Gramps; thanks for coming along on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy Today is Day 1569  of our Trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy. For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, Meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and in prayer. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and making sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you, too, will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind. 

We are continuing our series this week on Meditation Monday as we focus on Mastering Bible Study through a series of brief insights from Hebrew Scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Our current insights are focusing on accurately interpreting the Bible. Today let us meditate on:

Bible Study – Worldview of the Author and Word Meanings

·      Insight Fifty-Seven: You Can’t Understand the Bible Without Understanding the Worldview of the People Who Wrote It

I’ve talked before about the importance of context for interpretation. The context of the Bible involves many things. Think about the many contexts for anything we write. Our past and present experiences naturally color the way we look at the world. What enters our minds in various forms of media becomes part of how we intellectually process the world. How we were taught to express ourselves informs how we communicate. We are a product of the intellectual climate and resources that we absorb. So were the biblical writers.

Much of what we find in the Bible cannot be understood well (or even at all) unless we see what’s written through ancient eyes. We must be able to think like the ancient writer. Doing that requires sharing his worldview. Obviously, we can’t hope to accomplish that task ultimately. But we providentially live at a time where it’s more possible than ever to get inside the head of biblical writers with respect to their worldview.

The key to discovering the biblical writers’ worldview is to read material that reflects their time and culture. Archaeology has uncovered a large amount of the intellectual output of the cultures that were part of the biblical world. Numerous tablets and manuscripts have been translated into English. That makes it possible for us to think more as they did. We can not only read about what people from Egypt, Babylon, and Canaan wrote and thought, we can read that material ourselves.

Some outstanding resources help us navigate this terrain. The best starting points are two books, Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies. Both volumes are guides to the background literature produced by the civilizations of the ancient biblical world. The nine-volume Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary is also a premium reference tool.

Among the many resources these titles will direct you to are anthologies—collections of ancient English translation texts. The most up-to-date scholarly set is the three-volume Context of Scripture. James Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament is a one-volume anthology. Other volumes focus solely on one writer or collection, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, or Philo. Access to the thinking of the ancient biblical world has never been more widely available.

·      Insight Fifty-Eight: What a Word Meant before the Writer Lived Isn’t an Indicator of What It Meant to the Writer

Word study is one of the most common Bible study strategies for folks who have moved beyond merely reading the Bible. The goal of word study is to penetrate your Bible translation to detect the authors’ words in the original biblical languages. Strong’s numbers are one strategy for doing that. Once you know the original language word, the goal is to discern whether the translator chose the best meaning from among the possible senses the word might have. Dictionaries of words in the biblical languages (lexicons) help Bible students with that task.

Word study is far more than looking up words in original language dictionaries. The effort has many pitfalls. One of the most common is the notion that what a word meant “originally” (when it first became part of the language) or in its most ancient usage somehow is the “real” meaning of that word. Such thinking is flawed.

Consider the word “monotheism,” a word we understand as denoting the existence of only one God. That isn’t what the word originally meant. The word “monotheism” first appeared in English in 1660 as an antonym for “atheism.” So, originally, “monotheism” meant the belief in God as opposed to the rejection of that belief.

The original meaning of “monotheism” really doesn’t lend itself to the way we think about the word today. In our time, we’d use “monotheism” in a discussion about polytheism, not about atheism.

The meaning of a biblical word might change with time. For example, the Hebrew word ger can refer to a foreigner, a resident alien, or a sojourner (a traveler). The correct nuance depends on the historical circumstances of the Old Testament book in which it is found. If the book was written at a time when Israel was a nation with its own land, then the first two options are viable. If not, then the third option is more likely. The circumstance of its occurrence in one book of the Bible really doesn’t say anything about its meaning elsewhere.

Once again, context is king. Word meaning does not derive from the chronology of its usage. Word meaning is driven by current contexts, such as the type of literature in which the word appears (genre) or the writer’s circumstances, which help us know if the usage might be metaphorical instead of literal.

Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

That is a wrap for today’s Meditation. Next week we will continue our trek on Meditation Monday as we take time to reflect on what is most important in creating our living legacy. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1568 daily treks or read the daily Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and Journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you tomorrow!