November 20 - Matthew 16:24

Well, that was fun!  Now, I know how to share documents with you.  It seems as if there is a learning curve with every thing I do anymore.  Why is it that I just can't know enough to do everything I want to do?  I guess if I knew it all, I'd be dead, eh?

So ... what I want to do today is offer you my interpretation of Matthew 16:24.  Well, just one phrase.  You can see one of the styles of Inductive Bible Study that I'm doing this semester.  We actually process through quite a few different things before we even get to this point.  It's totally crazy stuff!

Here's the link to the PDF file:  (Matthew 16:24 Interpretation)

But, at this point, we are asked to explore 5 different determinants. The question to be answered is: "What is meant by the statement “take up his cross” (kai aratō ton stauron autou) in Matthew 16:24?"

I look at the definitions of the two main words ('take up' and 'cross'), then I look at the inflection of those words.  In essence, that is looking at the way these words are interpreted from the Greek.  You can look and see all of this information happen.  After this, I look at these words in context.  Context in this case refers to varying ways that Matthew (and only Matthew) uses these words in his Gospel.  I then write a quick summary about what I've discovered and move on.

The next process is Word Usage - how are these words used throughout the rest of the New Testament ... so that we can see how all of this ties together.  It's pretty cool.  Following Word Usage, the next determinant is Scriptural Testimony - what other scriptures have the same type of teaching.  I was lucky this time, the professor took pity on us and gave us the scripture references ... we just had to deal with them.

After Scriptural Testimony, we can finally look at what commentaries have to say.  I used three different commentaries.  They're actually fairly particular about which are appropriate to use - who knew?!

Finally I make a couple of summary statements, build the bibliography and I'm finished.

So ... here is about 9-10 hours of work on my part.  Can you imagine a lifetime spent doing this for the entire Bible.  I certainly can ... wonder how I can turn that into a paying job?  This is the coolest part of the Inductive Bible study - when you finally get to digging into the guts and glory of scripture!