 Okay, good morning. Before we begin, would someone open us with a word of prayer, please? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just wish to thank you for this hour of study. We just pray as we come at this time into their hands that you will lead us in their word, let their word minister to us. Let us be able to retain what we learn and be able to apply the same in our own lives, Father. We also pray, Father, for a blessing upon all our teachers and the students in Jesus' precious name, the great Amen. Thank you. So we'll do a quick overview of what we covered last week and then get into today's content. Also, I'm supposed to be posting your midterm assessment today. So I'll probably, I'll try and do it today or tomorrow, but most probably it'll be tomorrow. Okay. And it'll be based on whatever we've covered so far in our classes. And I'll, do you usually get a few days to finish your assessments? Or is it just, is it just like open for two days? I can keep it open till Sunday. So you can do it anytime before Sunday. Okay. What's that? Yeah, it'll be like a multiple choice kind of exam. Okay. Yeah, so we'll basically the content for this class is what I'm going to be posting. So it'll be God's worth the miracle seed and whatever we cover till today's class. Okay. Yeah, it won't be too tough and it'll be open book so you can reference your notes and yeah, whatever else you need when you're answering. Except consulting with one another. You can use your textbook. You can use your notes. Okay. So we began on interpreting scripture last week. So second Timothy 215 we looked at Paul's advice to Timothy to rightly divide the word of God. And by doing so that he would be faithful to his calling that God had placed upon him to lead the church to be an elder in the church. So likewise, we are called as ministers to be people who are interpreting the word correctly. Right. And we looked at this method of observing what the text says, looking at what is the meaning of what it's saying, and then applying it to our lives personally or applying it finding applications for the people we are ministering to. So if we're preaching then we talk about applications that the people could use from that passage in their lives. So, yeah, we also looked at the fact that scripture is inspired by God written by humans. So there's the aspect of studying God's Word. We do a background study, we do a cultural study, we do a word study, all of these aspects of interpreting scripture. So we put in human effort. And we also recognize that scripture was written by certain authors to a certain audience. So it was written by humans to other humans. So that aspect is definitely going to play a part in how we interpret scripture. The other aspect is that it's inspired by God. So we will always depend on the Holy Spirit as we are studying scripture, recognizing that we can do all of this study and only get to a surface level understanding of the word. But if we are depending on the Holy Spirit, then we will get that spiritual revelation that only the Holy Spirit can give us. This is something we talked about in God's Word, the medical seed, right? There is possibility of error during interpretation. And this is why we want to make sure that we are following good methods for interpretation. And that's what we're going to be covering in this class. What are some good practices to follow while interpreting scripture? And what are some mistakes that we can avoid to make sure that we don't misinterpret what is being said? We looked at Martin Luther's advice. I won't read this through, but basically saying scripture is its own interpreter, right? So we go back to scripture to help us understand parts of scripture that are a little difficult. So anytime we're reading a passage of scripture, we look at it in the context of the word of God, the whole word of God. So if one passage is unclear, then we look at other passages that might help us better understand the passage that is unclear. So scripture itself interprets itself. That should be our process. So some characteristics of scripture as a divine book, scripture as a human book, the goal of interpretation. So we're trying to understand what the original author was trying to say. We don't go with our own message or our own intent and then try to prove it from scripture. Instead, we go to scripture and let scripture say what it's saying and we take that and apply it to our lives. So we started with this part of our study at the end of class last week. So we were looking specifically at the English Bible and why we have so many different versions, right? So some people question why do you have so many Bibles? Like they all say different things. But each version of the Bible is made with specific goals in place. So we're going to look at that. The scriptures, translations are based on handwritten documents that were copied by scribes. We don't have the original writings of the New Testament authors, but we have copies that were made by scribes and these were all done by hand. So someone would be reciting and the scribe would copy it or a scribe would be looking at another copy and copying from it. But typically it would be someone reading and the scribes writing down and there would be several scribes making copies of the documents because there was no printing press, right? So everything was done by hand, written by hand. We have 5,800 manuscripts in Greek of the New Testament, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in other languages. So whenever English translation is being made, it's always going back to the Greek, right? For the New Testament, the English translation is based on the Greek and the Old Testament is based on the original Hebrew. We don't look at the Latin or any other language translations because we're always trying to go back to the original language and translate from there. What happens if we look at a Latin translation? Any thoughts of why we have to go back to the original language? Just to get the original intent in which it is written, the exact words, not like a replicate. Yeah, so when you're translating first, if we're looking at the Latin manuscript, we're already looking at someone who has interpreted the text. So if we are taking a Latin manuscript and then translating into English, we're interpreting it twice, right? So for example, if I'm speaking in English and somebody is translating into Hindi and then another person listens to the Hindi translation and translates into Spanish. That's not going to be the best translation. By the time the person speaking in Spanish translates, it's going to have added so much extra content because the Hindi person has translated it in a certain way, has understood what I was saying, has added their own meaning to what I said. They won't exactly translate every word that I said. Then the Spanish person additionally does that. So it's better if the third person is also listening to the English and then translating it to the other language. So that's the same reason why we go back to the original language with scripture translation. So we also looked at this. Manuscripts could be written on, there were either parchment, which is the skin of animals, or papyrus, which is made from plants. So papyrus didn't last as long as parchment because it's made from plants, right? But most of our New Testament manuscripts are written on papyrus and these would be bound together and made into sort of like what we would call a book today. So those are called codexes. So a book with papyri or parchment was a codex. This is one of the oldest papyruses that we have. It's from John 1831 to 33 and John 1837 to 38. So this is between 100 AD and 150 AD. We looked at two different types of manuscripts. The Byzantine text type also called the Majority text and the Alexandrian text type. So that papyrus, which the oldest one would fall in the Alexandrian text type because it's one of the oldest manuscripts. So what is the difference between the Byzantine and the Alexandrian? The Byzantine, there is agreement, a large amount of manuscripts that exist in the Byzantine text type agree with each other. There's hardly any difference in what is being read. So we have many copies of the manuscripts, right? So I said that scribes would be writing down and someone would be reading out to them and there would be many scribes who were writing. And those copies were sent to different churches in different places across Asia. So when we read in the New Testament, the writers were writing to a group of churches. They were usually not writing to one church. So like that, when copies were made, they were being sent out. Some were being preserved. So these copies all agree with each other the most in the Byzantine text type. The Alexandrian text type is very old. So in terms of closest to Jesus's ministry or closest to the original writing, the Alexandrian text type would have manuscripts that are closest in time to Jesus's ministry and to the original writing. So the NKJV and the KJV are based on the Byzantine text type. Other translations use also the Alexandrian text type. So if you see sometimes in your English translations, there will be a note saying, Latest manuscripts include this verse. So it will be in a footnote. It won't be actually in the scripture text. So that's where they are referring to the Alexandrian text type. They are still translating with the Byzantine, but then they'll have a note saying, This is what the oldest, the latest manuscript say this, and they won't include it in the main text of scripture. So these translations use both text types. Is that clear? So the Alexandrian was discovered a little later. And so nowadays translations are using the Alexandrian text type as well in the work that is being made. So what is the difference between translations? The three that I've put in bold, the formal equivalence, functional equivalence and paraphrase, these are the ones which are usually, if you're watching any videos talking about translation, they'll usually refer to these three main forms of translation. So optimal equivalence and essential equivalence are somewhere in between. They're not usually none of the major translations fall into those two categories. In formal equivalence, it's a word for word translation. So that means if I say this is good, I'm saying that in English, if I'm translating it to another language, I'll try and put the same words in the same order in the other language. Even if the other language actually forms a different sentence structure, I'll try and keep it to the same structure that I said. So I said this is good. Say if I'm doing a translation into whichever language, say Canada, I'll try and put the Canada words in the same order. What is the word for this? What is the word for is? What is the word for good? And I'll try and translate word for word and in the same order of words. So that is a word for word translation where they're trying to keep the structure as close as possible to the original language, even if that other language doesn't follow the exact same structure. So sometimes it can be a little hard to understand because in Canada I may actually switch the words around or in Hindi I may actually switch the words around to form a sentence. But because I'm trying to stick to the original language's word order, I'm still putting it in that order even though in this next language it doesn't communicate the same thing exactly. So the benefit is that you're getting closer to the original language. The drawback is that sometimes it can be hard to understand in the translated language. So in English, if you're translating like that, the sentence may not be exactly how you would speak to one another in English. So that's the challenge with word for word translation. Functional equivalence is where you're taking a thought and you're communicating the thought. So here the order of words in the sentence may not be so important as it is in the formal equivalence. There you're trying to just communicate the thought. This is good. How would I say that in the language I want to translate in? I'll just say it plainly. I won't try to put it in the same order of words. So I'm trying to communicate the thought rather than the exact words and the exact order of the words. Then the paraphrase is taking that thought for thought but trying to communicate it in the context we're in. So I may be speaking the same, say for example, the example of Hindi or Kannada wherever, it's spoken differently in different parts of the country. The same language is spoken differently. So in a paraphrase you're trying to make it relevant to the people who are hearing you. So even though I may be translating the thought, I'm translating it in a way that the people who are listening can understand. So a paraphrase nowadays is used in English that is very easy for us to understand because we're all speaking a certain way. The KJV uses very formal language. A paraphrase will use very casual everyday how we speak that kind of language to communicate. So it's very easy to understand but at the same time it adds a lot of interpretation to the original text because it's trying to make it easy to understand for people. So when people read it, they should be able to understand it very easily. And so they are interpreting the original text in ways that will help people understand. Suppose I say this is good. And what I mean is that the work that someone has submitted is good. So someone submitted an assignment and I said this is good. But we want to translate it to a very young audience. So we may say this work is awesome. So a paraphrase might say that. So it's a very different way of saying the same thing. But it's communicating it to that audience in a way that they'll understand the same thing that I was saying. Does that make sense? So the optimal equivalence and essential equivalence are somewhere in between. So the optimal equivalence falls between the formal and functional equivalence. And essential equivalence falls between functional and paraphrase. We look at the image from your textbook. I don't know how clear this is. You're able to see it okay? Yeah, it's a little bit okay. So if we look here, right at the beginning of your word for word is the interlinear. So interlinear is where you're taking the original Greek and you're putting an equivalent English word for it. So you're taking it exactly as the Greek text is and you're saying what is this Greek word in English? What is this Greek word in English? You're putting it in the exact same order. We look at an example after this that will be easier to understand. NASB is also far left on the word for word. So still trying to stick to exact word translation and exact structure of the sentence. Trying to stay the same to the original. The KJV and NKJV somewhere in between. Word for word and thought for thought. The HCSB is given as an optimal equivalence example. So that falls right in between. Then in thought for thought, some of the ones that we may be more familiar with are the NIV. So the NIV communicates, takes the whole thought and communicates it rather than a word for word. NLT falls between a thought for thought and a paraphrase and then the message falls on the far end. So some people would even not consider the message as a paraphrase because there's so much interpretation involved in communicating in a way that people will find it easy to understand. So they don't include it even in a paraphrase, but here it's included at the far end. So the other one was essential equivalence. I think the passion translation is not on this, but the essential equivalence will be somewhere in between. So we look at an example of a verse to see how each of these major translations have translated it. So this is an example of an interlinear, which is the far left side of your word for word translation. And we take the original Greek. So the original Greek is here. We are looking at 2nd Timothy 316. Okay. Let me just open that in my binder. Okay, so we're looking at 2nd Peter 316 and in blue on the top, you can see the original Greek. So what is the interlinear doing? And this is the Greek as well, the black. It's just taking the exact word in Greek and putting the English word for it. So, pasa, every, graphe, scripture, theopneustos. God breathed, chai, and... Okay, so it's taking the Greek, putting the English word for it. But at the same time, because you can't understand like every scripture God breathed, it adds an is there in brackets. Okay, so the original Greek doesn't have anything to say, doesn't say is, but to make it understandable in English, they've added the is here, here also, and for training in righteousness. So and is added there in brackets to make it at least understandable in the English. Now, it's a little easier to translate Greek to English because Greek follows a similar word structure. Hebrew is completely different. So it would be very hard to form a sentence based on the Hebrew order of words. But here this makes enough sense that we can understand it, right? Every scripture is God breathed, profitable for instruction, for correction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So they've been able to translate word for word and keep the exact order of words. Just added two words in English and you're still able to understand it without too much difficulty. So if we look at other translations of the same verse, NASB says all scriptures inspired by God. KJV says all scriptures given by inspiration of God. NIV says God breathed, NLT says inspired by God. So NLT and NASB, although they follow a very different translation method, have used the same word inspired by God, inspired by God. And NIV and message both have used God breathed. So if you look at the original, the interlinear, the interlinear also says God breathed. So most translators are trying to communicate it in the best way possible. No translator is taking this job of translation lightly. So they want to stick as close to the original language in meaning. But because of the method, some may have more flexibility and interpretation. That's the only difference. Okay, NASB, it's beneficial for teaching, for rebuke for correction. KJV is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction. Useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting. Okay, so again, NASB and NIV are very close here. It's useful to see NLT. Now NLT is somewhere in between thought for thought and paraphrase. So you can see how many words they've added to translate, to try and communicate the same thing in Greek. So it's useful to teach us what is true, to make us realize what is wrong in our lives and corrects us when we are wrong. They've explained the words, each of those words much more to help the reader understand what. So you may not be very familiar with rebuke, correction, what does that mean, or doctrine, reproof. What do those words mean? These words help us in words that we use today when we are talking. These are the kinds of words we would use. So it's much easier to read this and understand what they're saying. And the message, on the other hand, does much more useful one way or another, showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes. So you can see with each of these, they're not trying to do exact word for word. They're trying to communicate the meaning here, NLTN message. And then this last part, training in righteousness, instruction in righteousness, training in righteousness, teaches us to do what is right, training us to live God's way. So you can see those, how the translations, they all are communicating the same thing, but the way they're saying it is slightly different, which is why it's also very helpful to read the same verse in different translations because you get a better understanding of the verse based on how all of these people have looked at the verse and chosen to translate it. Okay. We'll move on from there. Okay, right? Okay. So in personal Bible study, we're going to move from these translations to how do we study the Bible? Okay. So when we are studying the Bible personally for ourselves, there are three goals. One is to know what the Bible is saying, know the truth. The second is to know God through the Bible. So knowing, unveiling, and the third is revealing. That is to let that truth change us so that we are, when we go out into the world, people are able to see God in us and through us. Okay. So that's the goal of personal Bible study. We want to know the truth. We want to know God through the study of his word. And then we want to allow that word to transform us and we want to walk in accordance with that word so that when people see us, they see God through our lives. Okay. They see our lives and they know who God is through our lives. Okay. Methods of Bible study. We have a few different methods that we look at. One is a devotional or passage study approach. This is a more inductive way of studying the Bible. So an inductive way is where we go to the Bible. We study it and we allow the Bible to tell us how we should interpret that passage. Okay. So we don't go to the passage with an intention already like this is what the passage means. So how can I show that this passage means this? That is not our intent. Our intent is to let the passage speak for itself and then based on what our study shows us, that is the message we preach or the message we understand, the message we take away from the passage. So in the inductive study, we look at what does the text say, what does the text mean and how should I apply this? This is what we had mentioned earlier as well. Observation, interpretation and application. Okay. The devotional method, how do we do it? One is we meditate on the Word of God. So we read the Word of God. We look at what is it saying? What are the words it's using? What is the meaning of these words? All of those things. Then we visualize it. We put ourselves. This is where we're doing our personal study of the Word. So we put ourselves into the story. How would I feel in this situation? How would I react to what has happened here? So if we're looking at the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter being in the boat and seeing Jesus. So we want to put ourselves in Peter's shoes and look at, okay, if I was in that boat and Jesus was standing there, would I react the same way Peter did? Where Peter says, if it's really you, call me to come to you, right? Would we have that kind of faith to believe that we could also go and walk with Jesus on the water? Would we walk in the same way? How would we feel when we're walking on the water? Would we have the same fears that Peter had? Or would we be able to walk with more confidence and more faith than Peter had? So putting ourselves in the story, feeling what the people in the story feel. Understanding how were they reacting? Why were they reacting that way? All of those things. And then we put it in our own words. So being able to tell that story or explain that passage in our own words. And then applying it. So how can I apply what I've learned through this time of meditation, through this time of reflecting on this passage so that I can be more like Jesus? So my life is more like how Jesus lived. Okay, that makes sense. So that is the devotional method of Bible study. Another method which also comes under the devotional approach is a verse by verse study. Here we do the same thing that we said in the devotional study. But here we're looking at each passage, each verse in detail. Okay, so if I'm looking at a small part of a chapter or if I'm looking at a whole chapter, I'll study each verse in that. Try to look at what is each verse talking about. I'll put each verse in my own words after I've studied it. So while I'm studying it, I'm also asking questions of the text. What does this mean? Why is this said? If there's something that is unclear, I try to do some research to find the meaning. I look at different translations if I'm not sure about the meaning of a specific verse. Maybe I look at different translations. Then as I'm doing that, I'm writing down what am I learning, what are new things that I'm learning. Then I put each verse in my own words and I write out an application for each verse, a personal application for each verse. Again, the application is how do I live more like Jesus? That is the goal through these studies. The next is a character or biographical study approach. Here we are studying a specific character in the Bible. We will look at their attitudes, their strengths, their weaknesses. How do they reflect Bible truth by the way they are living? If we look at David as a Bible character, we look at his life. We have a whole range of stories about David. From when he was a shepherd, to when he became king, to when his sons became kings, his son Solomon became king. We have his whole life in the Bible, recorded in the Bible. We look at what was his attitude throughout his life? How did it change? Why is he called a man after God's own heart? What were some of his strengths? He was someone who was really passionate about following God. He was someone with great faith. Right from his childhood, we can see when he goes against Goliath, that he went against him with so much faith in who God is. Then we look at his weaknesses. Where are things, where are mistakes that he made? So whether it's Bachiba, whether it's with his children, how he raised them, different things like that. We look at what were some things that he did that were not as per the will of God. And we examine this versus Bible truth. So we don't take any character from the Bible and follow exactly everything they did, even if it is King David. Because there were some things that he did that were not in line with God's will. So we examine it versus Bible truth. We walk in their shoes. That is, again, we put ourselves in their story. We try to experience what they experienced through their life, all of the challenges they experienced. And then we choose something about them that we think is something that God wants to do in our lives. So from the life of David, maybe God wants me to enter into my battles with greater faith. So the quality I want to take away from my study of David is greater faith. And so we study that specifically from David's life. How did he exemplify faith throughout his life? We memorize a verse maybe related to faith. And then we start to apply it to our life. Two different situations we're in. How can I walk in faith in a way that reflects the power of God that displays confidence in who God is? The biographical study method is very similar to a character study. The only difference is that you're focusing more on experiences. You're not looking at the whole life of the person. You're not looking at their character. You're looking at what were their life experiences. So if I take the example of Joseph, Joseph was sold as a slave. He was mistreated by his master's wife. I'm looking at all of his experiences that he had. And I'm learning from how he responded to those experiences. What were some of the mistakes he made? What were some of the things he did right? And from his responses, what are things I can learn? What are ways in which I can also be the way Joseph was in these situations? So we'll stop here. I think we have about three minutes left. Any questions so far on whatever we've covered? Any general questions? There is nothing like the best translation to follow. It's more or less based on the need. If I'm just doing only a Bible study, whatever I feel is better if I'm giving it to somebody, put them for a new person and if it is preaching, then you use different things. There's nothing like the best translation to go to. Every translation has its pros and cons, which is why it's good to refer to multiple translations because they all help to better understand the passage. And yes, like you said, depending on the purpose of using that if it's a new believer, if it's something we're giving as a gift, if we are doing it for a personal study, for preaching based on the need, a different translation might work better. Especially if we're doing more like a study of a passage and we're going in detail to study it, like we want to do an exegesis. So exegesis is like where we're going to the original language, we're looking at the meaning of the text, all of that. It wouldn't be a good idea to use a new living translation because new living translation has already added so much in its interpretation. It's better to do a word for word, one of the stricter translations because that will help us better, especially if we don't know Hebrew and Greek and we can't go into the original language so much in detail. It's better to use a word for word translation for those kinds of studies. So yeah, depending on our purpose in using the... You put amplified version. Where would it fall? It's also included in the word for word, amplified. I didn't know that but in that same... It's there in that image, right? What about the image? I'm just talking about the usage. Oh, should we use the amplified? Where would you ideally use amplified? I think the amplified... So according to this, it's a word for word. So it would be good for studying. If we're trying to study passage in detail, the amplified would be a good... For me personally, the amplified is very useful when some translation is not very clear and I'm not sure what exactly the meaning is. The amplified gives a lot more options and description of the meaning of the word. So yeah, that's it. But I'll just share with you this. This is one website that I had talked to you all about, which I use. So it's Bible Hub. Okay, we can go and come back. I'll show this to you all when we come back from our break.