The Seven Deadly Sins Of Bible Study

The Seven Deadly Sins of Bible Study and How You Can Avoid Them

Based on an Article By Jack Kuhatschek

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The Seven Deadly Sins of Bible Study and How You Can Avoid Them is based heavily on an article by Jack Kuhatschek that I had in my files. I couldn’t find a link to it on the internet, but big credit goes to him for the thoughts presented here in such a fine fashion. - JED

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Introduction

1. Bible, the English form of the Greek name Biblia, meaning “?books,?” the name which in the fifth

century began to be given to the entire collection of sacred books, the “?Library of Divine

Revelation.?” The name Bible was adopted by Wycliffe and came gradually into use in our English

language. The Bible consists of sixty-six different books, composed by many different writers, in

three different languages, under different circumstances; writers of almost every social rank,

statesmen and peasants, kings, herdsmen, fishermen, priests, tax-gatherers, tentmakers;

educated and uneducated, Jews and Gentiles; most of them unknown to each other, and writing at

various periods during the space of about 1600 years: and yet, after all, it is only one book dealing

with only one subject in its numberless aspects and relations, the subject of man’s redemption.

(Easton’s Bible Dictionary)

2. The Bible is of supreme importance to Christians. We do not worship it, but it tells us of the God we

do worship.

a. It is assumed that Christians desire to study the Bible.

b. It is always good to spend some time thinking about how we study the Bible.

c. There are some mistakes we can make that provide for wrong conclusions and we want to

avoid those.

d. Jack Kuhatschek wrote an article some time back called The Seven Deadly Sins of Bible Study.

e. He began by telling this story:

3. A few years ago a friend of mine showed me a prayer letter he had received concerning a "Miracle

Healing Revival." A Miracle Prayer Request Sheet was enclosed with the following instructions:

A. Take the prayer sheet I have sent you and write your name on it, and as you do, lay hands

on it. We must have your prayer requests back from you so we can touch them and pray

over them for "if any two agree touching anything, it shall be done."

B. By misunderstanding the King James Version, the well-meaning Christian who wrote this

letter hit a new low in biblical interpretation.

C. The word touching, which is so crucial to his viewpoint, does not even occur in the Greek

text, as the NIV makes clear in its translation of the verse: "If two of you on earth agree

about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven" (Mt. 18:19).

4. This example illustrates the unusual and sometimes amusing ways the Bible is interpreted and

applied.

5. In our Summer Sermon Series we will talk about 9 Myths Christians Often Believe - usually

because of a Bible verse that has been misapplied.

6. Jack’s article offers up "seven deadly sins" of Bible study. In this study we’ll identify these "sins"

and discover how to avoid them.

1. Proof-texting

A. Kuhatschek: When I was a child, our pastor often gave the following benediction at the end of a

service: "May the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another."

1. I always assumed that he was asking God to protect us both until the following Sunday, and

I’m sure that was his intent. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered he had taken the

verse completely out of context. The verse isn’t really as nice as it sounds.

2. It’s found in Genesis 31, after Jacob and Laban have settled the heated argument by

making a covenant. Because Laban doesn’t completely trust Jacob and knows that the two

of them will not be together, he asks the Lord keep an eye on his son-in-law to make sure

he doesn’t mistreat Laban’s daughters.

3. Taken in context, the verse is sort of a pious threat - hardly a fitting benediction!

B. In order to avoid proof-texting - taking a verse out of context - we need to realize that good

Bible study requires more than looking up a string of isolated verses.

1. We would never think of reading a Tom Clancy novel the way we do Scripture - one

sentence from chapter one, another from chapter five, and a third from chapter twelve.

2. It would result in nonsense, and we would miss the plot entirely!

3. The Bible was written as literary units, such as books, letters, and poems, that were meant

to be read from beginning to end.

2. Being too Literal