The following is adapted from Dr. Acha’s book, Inductive Bible Study.
Many things called “Bible Study” today do not involve any Bible study. My son’s teacher once held weekly Bible Study meetings where the Bible wasn’t directly studied. Instead, he read to them from a popular devotional book. If you search on Amazon, you will find thousands of “Bible Study” books that guide learners through a plan of reading Bible verses and answering questions posed by the authors. That’s not the kind of Bible study this book envisions.
Bible study isn’t memorizing verses; it isn’t meditating on God’s word; it isn’t listening to a devotional or reading it; it isn’t going through a book that guides you to read different verses, answer questions, and apply them to your life. Bible study isn’t even doing verse-by-verse expositional teaching of the Bible or listening to good teaching by your pastor on Wednesday. Bible study isn’t superficially reading through the Bible.[i] These things are all important and have their place. However, they are not Bible study.
Bible study is analytical and syntopical reading. To explain what I mean, consider that there are four levels of reading: 1) Elementary reading, 2) Inspectional reading, 3) Analytical reading, and 4) Syntopical reading.[ii] These are “levels” instead of kinds or types because kinds are distinct from one another, whereas levels are cumulative, building on each other. The higher levels include the lower ones; The second contains the first, the third contains the second, and the fourth contains the third.
The first level of reading is Elementary Reading. It may also be called basic reading or initial reading and is the level of reading taught in elementary or primary school. An elementary reader reads at the level of a 6th grader or 10–11-year-old (someone finishing primary school in some countries). At this level, one has the vocabulary and grammar to read the newspaper and most popular books and understand without having to keep looking up every other word in the dictionary.
The second level of reading is Inspectional Reading. Reading at this level involves being able to go through a book in a very short or limited amount of time—a time much shorter than would be needed to read the book thoroughly. It involves 1) Skimming (prereading) the book to get acquainted with its content and structure[iii] and 2) Superficial reading, which involves rapidly reading through the book word-for-word without stopping to research or ponder difficult passages.
The third level of reading is Analytical Reading. Analytical reading builds on elementary and inspectional reading skills but goes much further than that. It “is thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading—the best reading you can do.” It “is always intensely active,” takes much more time than the previous two reading levels, and requires a lot of hard work. Reading at this level means you become a “demanding reader,” asking the right questions of the text to force it to give up its meaning. Analysis of a book (analytical reading) involves separation into its constituent parts for individual study. It starts with a book survey, then a survey of its large parts (divisions, sections, or segments), and finally, an analysis of its paragraphs and sentences.
Writers write to persuade, inform, or entertain (PIE) while readers read for understanding, information, and entertainment. Elementary and inspectional reading is all you need if your goal in reading is information or entertainment. However, if you want to understand, you need analytical reading. It’s the only way to ensure you think the author’s thoughts after him and grow from less to more understanding of the subject. A good high school education should prepare students to be competent analytical readers, but unfortunately, that doesn’t usually happen.
The fourth level of reading is Syntopical Reading or Comparative Reading. Syntopical reading involves reading many books on a specific subject, analyzing them, and comparing them to each other to understand the subject better. However, the goal of syntopical reading isn’t merely to compare the books. Syntopical reading goes deeper than that and constructs an analysis of the subject in a way that may not be in any individual books read.
Thus, syntopical reading is the most active, complex, and systematic level of reading, requiring the greatest effort to pull off. Adler and Van Doren rightly note that “it makes very heavy demands on the reader, even if the materials he is reading are themselves relatively easy and unsophisticated.”[iv] Yet, they quickly add that it is likely the most rewarding level of all. The benefits greatly outweigh the trouble of doing it.
Bible study is, first and foremost, an analytical reading of a specific biblical book. Later on, it is Syntopical reading which allows us to do biblical theology and systematic theology (or topical studies) of the word of God. Such analytical and syntopical reading of the Bible is a means of practicing hermeneutics principles and methodology to observe, interpret, evaluate, and apply God’s word.[v] It allows us to effectively bridge the distance between the biblical world and grasp the meaning and significance of the text. It starts with rapidly reading the passage but later involves slowing down, observing in detail, asking questions, taking notes, interpreting the passage, evaluating it, and applying it. That kind of Bible study takes time and requires hard work. When one is done doing their individual Bible study, secondary sources are often consulted to benefit from the interpretation and assistance of others.
[i] When we read the Bible, we go through it quickly at a natural pace that allows for comprehension, just as one would read a novel. Many Christians use a Bible reading plan to read through the entire Bible in a given amount of time, say one year. Every morning such a person would read through the passage carefully as they would another literary piece. It may take 10 to 15 minutes to read three or four chapters. That kind of big-picture reading is beneficial and is the first step in an in-depth study of a Bible passage.
[ii] Mortimer J. Adler and Charles V. Doren, How to Read a Book, Kindle, Chapter 2.
[iii] With skimming, you may be given 5-10 minutes go through this textbook and get as much information from it as possible.
[iv] Mortimer J. Adler and Charles V. Doren, How to Read a Book, Kindle, Chapter 2.
[v] In this book, Bible study is the same thing as hermeneutical Bible study, which is Bible study that follows sound hermeneutical principles and methods. Anything short of that isn’t studying the Bible.