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Wiki Commons by MelitikusTwenty questions for the Bible
Details
- Please help me to understand the details of PASSAGE.
Dynamics
- Please help me to understand the dynamics of the situation in PASSAGE. What was the historical setting when this was written? Who was the original audience for the text? What was happening in the world at the time this was written? Summarise for me: who is listening to what PASSAGE is saying, what PASSAGE is seeking, and what would a faithful response require from them?
Context
- Please help me to understand how PASSAGE fits into its immediate and wider context? Who is the author? When was it written? What genre of biblical literature is this? What comes before and after this passage in the text? Help me to understand how PASSAGE contributes to the message of the book of Bible in which it appears as a whole.
Literary matters
- How does the structure of PASSAGE contribute to its meaning? Are there any repetitions, patterns, or themes in the text? Are there key words or phrases in the text? What literary devices are used? Are there any significant textual issues to consider? What was the original language of this text? Are there important translation issues? Do any words have special theological significance?
LOGIC, EMOTION and RHETORIC
- Show me the logical reasoning within PASSAGE, show me the emotional tone, and show me the rhetorical shape of this passage, so that I can understand how the appeal that PASSAGE makes is designed to impact the readers.
Connections across the Bible
- Please help me to understand what connections there are between PASSAGE and other earlier and later books of the Bible? Are there any parallel passages in other books of the Bible?
Good news about God
- Please show me the good news about God that PASSAGE includes, for example his attributes, his priorities, his words, his actions, his creation and his sustaining power, his care for his people, his victory over Satan, his rule over history, his love for the world, the good news of his gospel, the gift of his Son, the ministry of his Spirit, the prospect of his new creation, and his judgement.
Good news about Jesus
- What connections are there between PASSAGE and the person and work of Jesus Christ? How does PASSAGE shed light on the person and work of Jesus Christ? How does the person and work of Jesus Christ shed light on PASSAGE?
The Christian life as The Way
- The Bible pictures the Christian life as a life together as the people of the Way. The people of the Way are travelling together with Jesus towards Jesus, on a challenging journey, with a wonderful future purchased by him, with the power of the Holy Spirit to help them make it to the end, and the guarantee of tears and trouble for every step of the journey between now and then. How does PASSAGE speak to that reality?
The Bible as a lamp
- The Bible pictures itself as a lamp. The world in which we live as a dark place spiritually, where it is not always easy to see the way ahead, not always easy to know what to say or not say. It is often not easy to see what to do or not do, how to proceed, what to think about God or ourselves, or those around us, or the options before us. God gives us the Bible to shed light on the way ahead, helping us to stay on the path. The lamp does not always show everything we would like to see, but always shows us enough to take the next steps on our way home. How does PASSAGE speak to that reality?
The WISDOM of God revealed in Jesus
- The Bible provides testimony to the wisdom of God and the glory of God, the wisdom and glory of God that is fully revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is further revealed throughout the scriptures. How does PASSAGE reveal God’s wisdom?
The WORD of God as food
- There are several food based metaphors for scripture including milk, bread, meat and honey. The movement from milk through bread to meat, pictures growth towards spiritual maturity in ways that parallel the changing diet that is appropriate during physical development. The focus on honey underlines the sweetness of God’s words. How does PASSAGE function in these ways?
The WORD of God as mirror, glasses, invitation to a wedding
- The Bible functions as a mirror, in which we see ourselves and God’s broken world, the bible functions as a pair of glasses, through which we see God more clearly and closely, and the bible functions as an invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb, in which we hear of God’s love for us. How does PASSAGE function as a mirror, showing us ourselves and the brokenness of the world? How does PASSAGE function as glasses, bringing God into focus? How does PASSAGE function as an invitation to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, where Christians are the bride?
A prayer responding to what we see and hear in the Bible
- How does the message of PASSAGE, read in these three ways, encourage Christians to pray in response? Please draft three prayers, in the first person plural, responding to PASSAGE, through the lens of the three metaphors.
Critical attack and Christian responses
- Please help me to understand how critics of all forms of metanarratives respond to PASSAGE. Please show me what a charitable but firm Christian response to their criticisms will involve. Provide me with several possible responses in summary form.
Compare and contrast this passage with Milestones
- Please show me the differences between the vision of the future and the means to get there in PASSAGE, and the vision of the future and means to get there in Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones. Be charitable towards Qutb, but clear on what he believes and advocates.
Praying responses
- Please show me a range of Christian responses to PASSAGE, leading to prayer in response to PASSAGE, looking to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and looking to the prospect of his return, and the final chapters of the Book of Revelation. Show me examples of prayers in the light of PASSAGE from Christian history, and write five collect style prayers for use today, in a range of contexts.
Community response
- Please help me to understand what sort of community PASSAGE is designed to achieve, and what sort of community PASSAGE is designed to avoid, and show me the means that PASSAGE deploys in order to move from one towards the other.
Questions for Christians
- What six questions could Christians ask themselves in the light of PASSAGE, in order to listen to it carefully, to chew it over at length, and to respond to it faithfully, in prayer, and in action?
Gap between God’s thoughts and our thoughts
- What gaps between God’s thoughts and our thoughts does the this passage reveal? What was surprising or shocking to Christians in earlier centuries as they read this passage? What is surprising or shocking for us to read as people living today?
You might decide that you prefer to ask Claude
You could play them off against each other. It’s always worth it. But more on that another day.