Context Question: What is the historic and cultural background?

Keep in mind the history that lead to the subject of the passage, where it is taking place and what significant things were occurring within the cultural setting. Is it a time of war? Peace? Moral decay?

Here is where a good commentary or study Bible comes in handy, as they can provide significant historical and cultural background information that may not be included in the Scripture, and/or point you to other passages of Scripture that set the stage for the passage being studied.

4th Principle: Conclusion and Application

The fourth principle of interpretation is concluding what you have you learned, and how it applies to your life. In reaching an interpretive conclusion, you should then compare your conclusions with what others have written or said about the passage. Whether your conclusion agrees or disagrees with others' conclusions does not necessarily mean you are wrong or right, but by comparing with others you can often discover things that you may have missed, and by applying principles of interpretation to what others have said you can discern errors in thought and doctrine.

God's Word is not merely a collection of historic narratives but is God's message to humanity. Within the Bible we discover how we are to please God and the consequences of disobedience to God's principles. What we learn from the Bible can and should be taken to heart as the rule for life and applied to our own lives in a meaningful way.

Recommended Resources

Since you are reading this, you probably have a computer so I highly recommend you select that E-Sword link I have on every page and download the software. It is free, and has dozens of resources available for free download at their site. The dictionaries, commentaries, lexicons, maps, devotions and Bible translations available for free download would cost hundreds of dollars if you bought them in book form. There are no nags or hitches with the software, it is completely free.

As for study Bibles I personally use and recommend the Zondervan Study Bible. It is fairly doctrinally neutral and contains a lot of word helps, historic and cultural information, maps, charts, concordance etc. that are invaluable helps with Bible study.

I also use and recommend the Key Word Study Bible edited by Spiros Zodhiates. It contains thousands of word helps and Strong's Concise Greek and Hebrew dictionaries. It is dispensational doctrinally, but is still very usefull for all Christians.

Last but not least I use and love The Reformation Study Bible edited by R.C. Sproul. It contains cross references, foot notes and theological articles from a Reformed perspective.

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