Page 19 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Remember, the Old Testament is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built. In the New
Testament we see the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.
John MacArthur wrote, In Colossians 1:25–26 Paul said, “Of which I am made a minister, according to
the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which
hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.” Paul said,
“I’m called by God to give you the mystery that’s been hidden.” Now the mystery, basically, is the New
Testament revelation. Paul also said that he was an apostle of the “mystery” in Ephesians 3:3–5. So the
major thrust of his ministry was the new revelation. He would allude to the Old Testament insofar as it
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illustrated and elucidated and supported the New Testament.
Thus, the emphasis of our study should be in understanding the mysteries of the New Testament and
how Christ fulfilled (obeyed) the OT law on our behalf!

Principle #5

Beware of the pitfalls of language - The original manuscripts are the inspired Words
of God. We do not posses a single original autograph. Therefore, human intellect
must be applied to recover that original text, and to translate it into modern
languages. This is a notoriously difficult task!

For example: In John 21: 15-17, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. The first two times He
asked Peter if he loved Him with a sacrificial love and used the word agape. Peter responded, “Yes Lord,
I like you a lot (phileo but translated “love” in the English Bible.)” The third time Jesus asked Peter if he
loved Him, He used Peter’s word, “Do you even like me a lot?” We must know something about the
original languages to understand the change in vocabulary and understand the real meaning of this
passage.

You can become a better Bible scholar as you study the original languages and conduct word studies.
Also utilize the work of scholars who do know the original languages in your studies. These include the
use of:
Commentaries: ex. Crudens, New Bible Commentary
Concordances: ex. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Young's Analytical Concordance
Bible Study Aids & Helps: Numerous authors have written articles and books on various topics
or books in the Bible.
Bible Dictionaries: New Bible Dictionary
Bible Versions & notes: use translations that used a formal equivalence (literal word for word)
approach to translating their version.
Computer assisted study programs: Logos Bible Software demonstration.
Interlinear Bible available online for free. Biblehub.com has an excellent interlinear version:
https://biblehub.com/interlinear/.

10 https://www.gty.org/library/articles/45STUDY/how-to-study-your-bible

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