How to Study the Bible

About this course

The Bible is a heavenly book, written in human language. It is written to and for the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church, and it is a revelation of God: of His purpose, His objectives, His desire, and His plan. This course puts the tools of study into your hands so that you can go into the Word for yourself.

Apostle Mary Banks builds the course in four parts. It begins with the tools, the Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and teaches you to work the marginal notes, Topic Numbers, Forward References, and Topical Index until you can trace a single Biblical topic from Genesis to Revelation. It then teaches the three writing styles of scripture, six methods of study, and the outline of the whole Bible book by book.

What you will study

• Part I, Study Tools: the Bible as a revelation of God; the Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, and Strong’s Concordance; marginal notes, Topic Numbers, forward references and parallel passages; studying a book, chapter, passage, verse, and Bible personality; and the mindset of a student who seeks out truth.
• Part II, The Writing Styles of the Bible: literal, figurative, and symbolic writing, each defined and illustrated from the script, closing with the mystery of the woman of Revelation 12 opened by Genesis 37.
• Part III, Methods of Study: Precept Upon Precept, Verse by Verse, Line Upon Line, Word Study, Event Study, and Character Study, and the 5 W’s that can be utilized in every one of them.
• Part IV, The Old and New Testaments: the Old Covenant and the Septuagint; the Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and New covenants; and an outline of the divisions and main themes of all sixty-six books.

Who this course is for

This course is for every believer who intends to search the scriptures for himself rather than echo the view of others, and especially for those who teach and preach, who need a natural lesson plan and a balanced overview of a topic. It is the foundation course of the Rightly Dividing the Word series.

What you will need

Much of the work of this course is done with tools in hand. You will need a Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible is optional.

How you are assessed

Each part ends with a chapter quiz and a practicum discussion in which you work the manual’s own exercises with the study tools. The course closes with a final exam drawing on all four parts. Chapter quizzes count for 60% of your grade and the final exam for 40%. A passing grade is 70% or higher.