Beginner's Bible Study - 003

Let's follow the example of the Jews who were in Berea and heard Paul teach:

Ac 17:10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming [thither] went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Ac 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Paul taught that the Old Testament spoke of Jesus

1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The Bereans did not believe Paul just because he was an apostle

To the Bereans, Paul was just a guy who told them that Jesus was the Messiah. He did not have authority over them, and he had no position to impose his beliefs upon them.

They were expecting the Messiah, and Paul told them that Jesus was the Messiah. If it was obvious that Jesus was the Messiah, they would have simply accepted Paul's teaching, but they did not.

The Bereans believed Paul because he taught them how to read the scriptures properly

As they read the Old Testament the way Paul taught them, they searched the scriptures to see that Paul's teaching about Jesus was true.

Ac 17:11 ... they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The Bereans were qualified to test Paul's teaching against the Old Testament

We have Paul's teaching in the form of letters to various churches. They are not authoritative because 'Paul the apostle' wrote them. They are authoritative because as we read the Old Testament the way Jesus did, we can test Paul's teachings against the Old Testament. It is because Paul teaches what is in the Old Testament properly that we know his teaching is valid.

The church did not give us the Bible

Some people say that the church gave us the Bible and therefore the church is the authority. The church did not give us the Bible. The Jews gave us the Old Testament, and the the church gave us a commentary on the Old Testament based in the way Jesus taught the disciples to read the Old Testament. The New Testament is the teaching of the apostles. That teaching mirrors the teaching of Christ who taught from the Old Testament.

You are qualified to test the New Testament

Like the Bereans, when you learn how to read the Old Testament the way Jesus did, you will be qualified to validate the teachings of the apostles.

The teachings of the New Testament are the hidden teachings of the Old Testament. They are there in the New Testament because the authors are revealing it from the Old. Often they will directly point you to the Old Testament scripture they are teaching from. More often they do not. The Hebrews of Jesus's day knew the scriptures well. The apostles could write in an abbreviated form, only sharing the hints required to show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy, without having to directly mention the prophecy, because it was well known.

It is a little more difficult for us because we don't speak Hebrew, and we are unaccustomed to thinking like they did. We have been trained in the Greek way of thinking. It is difficult for us to accept that contradictory things can both be true. But in Hebrew, contradictory things are merely riddles that expose two sides of an issue. They both are true from different perspectives.

Jesus also spoke in puns, parables and riddles because the language of Old Testament prophecy uses puns, parables and riddles to speak of Christ.

The apostles studied the Old Testament

The gospels were written in the order of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. There may have been ten years or more between some of the books. We can see evidence that they became more proficient in reading the Old testament with time.

Mark begins the story with the preaching of John the Baptist. With time Matthew came to understand that the story began with Abraham. Luke learned that it started earlier with Adam. And John, who wrote last, was most proficient and began the story with the first word of Genesis... "In the beginning". John understood that every verse of the Old Testament spoke of Jesus.

The apostles teach us to study

We can have a head start over the apostles because we can learn from them, and how they read the Old Testament. They practiced the way that Jesus told them to read the Old Testament, and they gave us the New Testament in order to teach us how to read it as well.

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

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