You Can Understand the Bible Seminar
Overview
Subtitled An Explanation and Application of the Historical-Grammatical Method of Hermeneutics. This notebook details Utley's personal Bible study techniques, thoroughly explaining and demonstrating the application of the historical-grammatical method of Biblical interpretation. Utley has designed this seminar to be easily understood and practical. The method focuses on the inspiration of the original author. His day, his words, his purposes become the focus of interpretation. It cannot mean what it never meant!
Top Highlights
“Affirming the inspiration and trustworthiness of the Bible was not the end, but only the beginning. How do I verify or reject the varied and conflicting interpretations of the many difficult passages in Scripture by those who were claiming its authority and trustworthiness?” (Page 1)
“Application should be made at paragraph level, not word level. Words have meaning only in context; clauses have meaning only in context; sentences have meaning only in context. The only inspired person involved in the interpretive process is the original author. We only follow his lead by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.” (Page 5)
“‘The Bible throws a lot of light on commentaries.’” (Page 3)
“In applying the Bible, it is important to remember that (except in prophecy) one and only one meaning may be valid for a particular Bible text. That meaning is related to the intent of the original author as he addressed a crisis or need in his day. Many possible applications may be derived from this one meaning. The application will be based on the recipients’ needs but must be related to the original author’s meaning.” (Page 5)
“Christian maturity is a tension-filled road of self-examination and Spirit-led Bible study.” (Page 9)
- Title: You Can Understand the Bible Seminar
- Author: Bob Utley
- Publisher: Bible Lessons International
- Publication Date: 1996
- Pages: 120
Reviews
1 rating
Ward Walker
1/15/2012
I read this 118(+)-page highly-outlined resource C2C when it became available in Logos; I'd read something in paper form ("How to study your Bible for all it's Worth"?) that referenced this work, so when it became available (and in preparation to teach a class), I read this one. It is extremely thorough. If you can follow it's method, you will learn the Bible well. I used it as a guide and in practice skip/trim a lot of steps--I just don't have enough time to follow a process like this and get very far. I appreciated the "chapter" that listed a bunch of recommended readings/references. Regretfully, they aren't available in Logos (or just aren't linked, not sure which). This set of references led me to buying/reading GIBRE and Edersheim in Logos format. The three complement each other well. If you tried using this as a teaching text, it would require a substantially long class.
