Biblical Studies

Course Overview

Biblical Studies

Biblical studies are the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament). For its theory and methods, the field draws on disciplines ranging from ancient history, historical criticism, philology, theology, textual criticism, literary criticism, 

Introduction

Biblical Studies is a branch of theology that examines the text of Scripture in order to draw out (the literal translation of “exegesis”) its meaning. Exegesis includes many sub-disciplines: textual criticism, hermeneutics, the study of the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), biblical archaeology, biblical history, and biblical theology. How these disciplines relate to each other is debated, but all of them (either directly or indirectly) aid in discerning the meaning of Holy Scripture.

Explanation

Textual criticism, when understood properly, is the task of comparing manuscripts in order to discover the original meaning of the text. Since we do not possess any of the original autographs, we must seek to get as close as we can by comparing manuscripts and thereby eliminating copying errors. There is no need for the Christian to feel nervous about this endeavour. God has preserved the Bible in a few exceptionally accurate manuscripts, in the case of the Old Testament, and in many thousands of manuscripts, in the case of the New Testament.

The student of the Bible must also learn how to read the Bible. Hermeneutics (from the Greek verb hermeneuō, meaning “to interpret”) is the study of interpretation. How do we interpret the Bible? We study how the Bible interprets itself. We study the historical background of the texts. We study the various literary genres in which the Bible has come down to us. We examine meaning itself, and how words convey meaning. We discover errors and fallacies of interpretation and seek to avoid them. Students also develop their understanding of how biblical studies and systematic theology complement each other and are not contradictory or conflicting.