Book Studies - a time to wrestle

It is one thing to tackle a passage of scripture - but a whole book is an entirely different matter. One of the biggest problems for the newcomer to studying a book is the fate of the failed commentary writer.

It is not your objective to write a meditation based on every single verse.
your first responsibility is just to read it as narrative - it's part of a big story book after all, and see if you can get to grips ith the six big questions:

• who
• what
• why
• where
• when
• how

Who was the book originally written to?

What type of writing is it?

Why was it written?

Where and when was it written?

How should its message be applied?

After reading through it, if you're not sre of the book's background, pick up a good Bible dictionary or a commentary on the book and see what that says.

Then,

Split up the text into Key Passages where the major part of your study will be concentrated.

Identify the Key People and examine their relationship with God.

Draw out the Key Principles that can be applied from this book.

After that, you may want to draw ut a Timeline of important events - also put them in a historical context - what else was happening, before, durin and after.

You can also list the Themes that run through the book and see how they parallel eachother.

You may want to draw Trees, to show how different ideas or principles develop and are dependent on one-another throughout the narrative