Background info
Drat! (Yes, I just used the word "drat"...what of it you uncouth cad?) I JUST now remembered that I said I would post some questions to get you going on background information for 1 Timothy! I apologize! Although, in the 2 weeks since we met, no one has asked about it, so you've either also forgotten all about it, or you did fine without the seed questions.
First, some guidelines for answering these. You should always start looking for answers in the text itself, (in this case, 1 Tim.) Next, you can broaden your search to other books in the Bible; Acts is often a good place to look for historical reference. Or look in other books/epistles that may have been written to the same location, etc.
Only after you've exhausted those sources (and you will) should you look to other material. Some of your Bibles may have notes or introductions to books. You can check a Bible dictionary...a decent one will have a brief introduction to each book, as well as biographical info on characters and places. There is a good Bible dictionary on the shelf in the church library, as well as a book on manners and customs that is really great for finding out about cultures of the time. I've also mentioned a Bible introduction, which will generally have a bit more detail than you'd find in a dictionary or in your Bible notes. I have a NT introduction by Donald Guthrie that I really like. It can almost overload you, (for instance, the conversation about who authored 1 Tim. spans 37 pages I think!), but it's good stuff, and it's pretty easy to read. I have an electronic copy on my computer, so if anyone wants to borrow my wood-pulp copy, that'd be fine. (If you want to own a copy, check out Baker Books' used book section...a couple weeks ago they had a few copies and they were $12 or something)
Hope that helps. Here now are some questions to ponder, if you haven't already:
-Who is the author of the book? Is there any debate about this? What is the author's situation? Where are they writing from?
-Who is/are the recipient(s) of the book? What do you know about them and/or their situation?
-When was it written? What other books were written around the same time?
-What is the author's relationship to the recipient(s)? (How do they know each other, etc?)
-Where does/do the recipient(s) live? What sort of place is it? What was happening there in terms of culture, commerce, specific issues, etc?
-Why was the book written? Now that you've read it a few times, what key words, phrases, or ideas do you see? What can you infer about what the recipients were experiencing?
That covers your 5 W's. As you answer all of those, think about how that affects your reading and understanding of the book. Do your answers help explain anything? Do they create more questions? Etc, etc.
If you think of more questions, (maybe even from answers that you found in your study), post them here and share with the class!
First, some guidelines for answering these. You should always start looking for answers in the text itself, (in this case, 1 Tim.) Next, you can broaden your search to other books in the Bible; Acts is often a good place to look for historical reference. Or look in other books/epistles that may have been written to the same location, etc.
Only after you've exhausted those sources (and you will) should you look to other material. Some of your Bibles may have notes or introductions to books. You can check a Bible dictionary...a decent one will have a brief introduction to each book, as well as biographical info on characters and places. There is a good Bible dictionary on the shelf in the church library, as well as a book on manners and customs that is really great for finding out about cultures of the time. I've also mentioned a Bible introduction, which will generally have a bit more detail than you'd find in a dictionary or in your Bible notes. I have a NT introduction by Donald Guthrie that I really like. It can almost overload you, (for instance, the conversation about who authored 1 Tim. spans 37 pages I think!), but it's good stuff, and it's pretty easy to read. I have an electronic copy on my computer, so if anyone wants to borrow my wood-pulp copy, that'd be fine. (If you want to own a copy, check out Baker Books' used book section...a couple weeks ago they had a few copies and they were $12 or something)
Hope that helps. Here now are some questions to ponder, if you haven't already:
-Who is the author of the book? Is there any debate about this? What is the author's situation? Where are they writing from?
-Who is/are the recipient(s) of the book? What do you know about them and/or their situation?
-When was it written? What other books were written around the same time?
-What is the author's relationship to the recipient(s)? (How do they know each other, etc?)
-Where does/do the recipient(s) live? What sort of place is it? What was happening there in terms of culture, commerce, specific issues, etc?
-Why was the book written? Now that you've read it a few times, what key words, phrases, or ideas do you see? What can you infer about what the recipients were experiencing?
That covers your 5 W's. As you answer all of those, think about how that affects your reading and understanding of the book. Do your answers help explain anything? Do they create more questions? Etc, etc.
If you think of more questions, (maybe even from answers that you found in your study), post them here and share with the class!
posted by p_mac at 1:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home