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Four Key Areas that Must Be Understood to Properly Divide God’s Word from John MacArthur’s Book,
               How to Study the Bible.
                    1.     The language
                          We speak English, but the Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, and a few parts in
                          Aramaic (which is similar to Hebrew). So we have a language gap that must be bridged,
                          otherwise, we won’t fully be able to understand the Scripture. For example, in 1 Corinthians
                          4:1 the apostle Paul says, “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ.” Now
                          that sounds great, Paul; you’re a minister of Christ. When we think of the English word
                          minister, we think of a prime minister or the minister of defense. A minister is an elevated
                          position; it’s a dignified term. But the Greek word is huperetes, which means a third-level
                          galley slave on a ship. Paul said that when the record goes in for him, let it be said that he
                          was nothing more than a third-level galley slave for Jesus Christ. You would never get that
                          out of the English term. Why?  It is because there’s a language gap.

                          Another example is in the book of Hebrews. When you look at the word perfection in the
                          book (6:1; 7:11), you can get completely confused on how you comprehend Hebrews unless
                          you understand that perfection has to do with salvation, not spiritual maturity. That’s what
                          you’ll find out as you study the words and their relationships in the text. It is very important
                          to do this. And to study the words in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, you
                          should get W. E. Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Moody Press,
                          1985). It’s very helpful for someone who doesn’t know Greek. You can look up every English
                          word, and it will tell you the Greek meaning. It will be a great help to you as a Bible student.
                          Also, a good concordance will help you in the study of words.

                    2.     The culture
                          The cultural gap must be bridged, because cultures can be very
                          different. If we don’t understand the culture of the time in which
                          the Bible was written, we’ll never understand its meaning. For
                          example: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
                          with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). What does that
                          mean? Why didn’t he say, “In the beginning was Jesus”? Well, he
                          used “the Word” because that was the vernacular at that time.
                          To the Greeks the term Word was used to refer to a floating kind
                          of cause, a kind of ethereal, spatial kind of energy that was
                          floating around.  John said to the Greeks that that floating cause,
                          that thing which caused everything, that spatial energy, that cosmic power, is none other
                          than that Word which became flesh (1:14).

                          To the Jew, the term Word was always the manifestation of God, because “the Word of the
                          Lord” was always God emanating His personality.  So when John said “the Word was made
                          flesh and dwelt among us,” he was identifying Jesus Christ, the incarnate Christ, as the very
                          emanation of God.  In the text, therefore, he meets the Greek mind and Hebrew mind with
                          the right word that grabs both at vital points.

                          And this goes on all throughout the Bible. If you don’t understand the Gnosticism existent at
                          the time of the writing of Colossians, you may not understand the purpose of the book. If

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