My first study techniques blog was on the way that God told us (through His prophet Isaiah) how to read the Bible. The next technique that I love using is interpretation.
Interpret
I grew up in a Christian home and have heard many different pastors give many different types of sermons. Many of these pastors would include statements like "the Hebrew word for this means (so and so)..." or "this Greek word means (insert meaning here)...". And I always wondered how they knew this. I've only ever heard one pastor that has actively tried to teach his congregation how to study what the Hebrew and Greek languages were... and it's not that hard to learn how to do it. All you need is a "concordance" for the Bible. I would recommend the Strong's Concordance which is available in paper format and, since you are likely viewing this because you do have internet access, it is also available from several different online sources for free. I use http://www.blueletterbible.org/ and enjoy their search function, lexicon and word pronounciation apps. All you have to do is type in what passage or word you are looking up in the search box, (make sure the "show Strong's" button is checked off directly below the "next book" button in the top right hand corner,) and you will see little blue numbers beside almost every word that pops up in the passage. These numbers are the numerical values that have been given to those specific words in the Hebrew or Greek that the scripture was originally written in and, if you click on that number, the definition and various translations of that word will be shown, along with every place that that word shows up in the Bible. Pretty cool. An awesome study tool.
I use the concordance to interpret the names of people and places in the Bible. I've heard some people tell me that this is not a good study technique and that this is not how a concordance is meant to be used, but I don't worry about that. When you read the Bible for long enough you will see that the names of people and places do mean something in many cases, and that the people that wrote many of the books of the New Testament (almost all of them, in fact) used this very technique to teach the Old Testament scriptures. Here are some names that were given to people/places for a reason, starting with the most important one first:
Jesus - this is the Greek variant of the Hebrew name "Joshua", meaning "God's Salvation" (see Matthew 1:21, where God intentionally named Jesus and gave the reason why).
Abraham - his name was originally Abram, which means "exalted father", but God changed it to Abraham, which means "father of many nations" because it was his geneology through which Jesus would be born (see Genesis 17:5).
Isaac - Abraham & Sarah's son. They both laughed when God told them that they would have a son because Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90 (well past child-bearing years) - so God told them to name the boy Isaac, which means "laughter" (see Genesis 17:17-19 and Genesis 18:12-15).
Moses - who was pulled out of the nile by Pharaoh's daughter and called Moses, which means "drawn from the water" (see Exodus 2:10).
There are many many examples where names are given to people and places for specific reasons - sometimes the reason is given in the passage, and sometimes the reason comes through meditation on what the story is saying to the reader. The authors of the New Testament books that use this are:
Matthew - when he was quoting Isaiah 7:14 (see Matthew 1:23)
Mark - see Mark 5:41,15:22, and 15:34
Luke - (in the book of Acts, which Luke wrote) see Acts 4:36, 9:36, and 13:8
John - see John 1:38, 1:41, 1:42, and 9:7
Paul - see Galatians 4:25 and Hebrews 7:2
Interpretation is key to understanding the Bible. Not only for names and places by use of a concordance, but also for prophecy. Many of the lessons are given in the form of a parable, or story, or a picture that doesn't directly reference the meaning of the story. Many times these parables are interpretted; sometimes they are not. But the interpretation is key to understanding what they mean. Translating the names of people and places can be a big help in understanding the lessons. Sometimes, however, you will have to meditate and pray to the Lord for the meaning of the story - and that's where the next study technique comes in. God bless.
