Rebecca Writes - Rebecca Writes

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to do a series of posts producing an interpretive paraphrase of Romans 8:18-39, with the aim being to show one way to go about doing this sort of Bible study. I’m starting the whole thing off by answering a few questions that might be asked about this planned series of posts.

Why do an interpretive paraphrase?

Because I think that producing an interpretive paraphrase is probably the best way for the ordinary person to do in-depth personal Bible study.

What is an interpretive paraphrase?

Short answer: It’s explaining, in one’s own words, what the author meant to communicate to his original audience. The paraphrasing step comes only after careful study to determine what it is the author intended to say.

What tools will you use?

I am going to pare my tool supply down to what I think most of those reading along would have easily accessible and would be able to use well. I’ll be using

Four translations of the Bible for comparison—the NASB, the ESV, the NLT, and the NET Bible (mostly for the spiffy translation notes). I’ll get my text from Bible Gateway for the the first three translations and Bible.org for the NET. (You might be surprised to see the NLT on the list of translations I’m using. I always use one commitee-done thought-for-thought translation when I do an interpretive paraphrase. That’s about the only time I use one, but I do find a dynamic equivalent translation useful for this purpose.)
Strong’s Concordance.
One commentary intended for the lay person. Mine happens to be The Epistle to the Romans by John Murray, which is from The New International Commentary on the New Testament.

Here are a few other tools that could be used:

The Greek text of Romans, if you are competent. I have a Greek text, but I wouldn’t be able to muddle through Romans.
A Greek lexicon, if you have one and know how to use it. I considered using my lexicon, but decided against it, because many people find a lexicon confusing to use, and I’m not sure most people have a good lexicon available for personal study, anyway.
A Bible dictionary, like Vine’s, for instance. I don’t like Vine’s much, but some people do. It could be helpful, I suppose, especially if you keep in mind that it has a theological bias that shows in some of the definitions.

Why that passage from Romans 8?

Because for the last two Sundays, it’s been the scripture read in church, and both very different sermons, by two different men, have been based in it. And I like this passage a whole lot.