Anyone studying Scripture? Need help!

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stuartbrianhenlis

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Hi, everyone!

I guess this is the place to ask for suggestions for Bible Studying. I really want to study the Bible, but I can’t figure out how to do it in a structured, orderly manner. I’ve bought “Bible Study” guides, but they’re all Protestant Evangelically oriented. I also bought the Scott Hahn “Didache Understanding the Scriptures” book and Study Workbook. Couldn’t follow that one either.

So, my friends, could you help a fellow Catholic get a handle on this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Stuart

PS: I have quite a few Study Bibles in my collection.
 
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I use an NSRV, myself. you could go to your Deacon or priest for help.
 
Depending on what your shooting for, I have had great studies by picking a Catholic commentary and a book of the Bible. Depending on what your looking to get out of your study will sort of decide the commentary type you would choose. I personally like Catena Aurea for the gospels.
 
I am not sure where you live but I take classes through my archdiocese. I am enrolled in the Catholic Biblical School and many dioceses off it. Great program but takes 4 years to complete. After you are done, you will have read and studied ALL of the books of the Bible. You could buy the workbooks online and try to go yourself. I am not sure if there is an online version out there yet.
 
Go to a Catholic bible study group. If your parish doesn’t have one find a pious Catholic parish that offers it. If even the Catholic one is too “Protestanty” find a Traditional Catholic Bible study group.

Honestly, as a member of my College’s Newman Club, which may have more protestant students in it than Catholics (only me and a girl there are definitely Catholic with possibly one other guy), I find that simply having Catholics present at a Bible study will make it a Catholic Bible study. 🤷‍♂️
 
Has anyone taken the Jeff Cavins"Great Adventure" study course? I found the ads interesting, but I cannot attend a local program every week since I move around a lot. I considered just buying the material for self study, but Cavins appears in the video waving an Ignatius Study Bible, so I was wondering why not just buy that -what does Cavins add if you’re not an absolute beginner with the Catholic Bible.

So many of these Bible studies seem to be concerned more with applying the Bible in your daily life, which to me gets addressed enough through other channels like the weekly or daily homily, as opposed to actual Bible history and context, which is my primary interest in attending a study.
 
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The Cavins study is helpful because it is video based and follows a clear structure of reading first through 14 “narrative” books of the Bible to get the “big picture” of salvation history.

Yes, Cavins and Hahn are friends and the actual content is going to be pretty similar (the precursor to the “Great Adventure” was “Our Father’s Plan” which Cavins and Hahn did together). But for those who might find it difficult to just pick up the Ignatius Study Bible and work through it independently, the Great Adventure is very helpful. Plus, the Old Testament for the Ignatius Study Bible isn’t complete yet. 😉

I always encourage people interested in the program to bring it to their parish first and see if it is something that they can get started on the parish level. That way, the parish buys the DVDs. 😜 Of course, the DVDs are a lot less expensive than they used to be since Ascension Press changed their pricing structure some years back. It used to be $350 or $400 for the Great Adventure DVDs. Now it’s $200. They also offer “Unlocking the Mystery of the Bible” which is done in eight 30-minute sessions rather than twenty-four 50-minute sessions. That’s only $100, or you can get CDs of just the audio for $40.

Alternately, you can just print out the Bible Timeline Reading Plan and follow the schedule by reading those chapters in Scripture in a good study Bible like the Ignatius Study Bible, the Didache Bible. or the Navarre Bible.

I do think the general approach of reading the Bible with an eye to see the overarching narrative is a very good approach. So many of us Catholics know the various “popular” Bible stories, but we don’t always see how each individual story fits in the larger story. Following Cavins’ reading plan is helpful in seeing the big picture. Then, when you go back to those books and stories and even the other books, then things start to make much more sense because you know the context.
 
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I am going to look into some of the ones mentioned here. I started a study of Isaiah through Catholic Scripture Study

http://www.cssprogram.net

I paid $70 up front for the course and only attended three classes. It was last year during the election cycle and the class quickly dissolved into political debate instead of sharing our answers. But the lectures by a retired priest were excellent, we also had a graduate of Scott Hahn’s college give a lecture, top notch young lady!

The course was very poorly written, ended up with reiterating scripture passages instead of true Catholic commentary.

I did attend a study of the Gospel of John using early church father commentaries, but it was at an Eastern Orthodox parish. It was wonderful. More of that is needed today.
 
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Hi all!

Well, I checked out the suggested links and I think I’ll continue to study the way I have been using my study Bibles and my Catholic commentaries. All I need is to just do it! I have plenty of reference material in my collections so I don’t need to buy any pre-packaged programs.

Thank you all for your suggestions! You’ve given me encouragement to start the task!

God bless all of you,

Stuart
 
If you want to start from the beginning — The first 5 books of the Bible - referred to as the Torah - are the building blocks for the rest of the Bible. You can get through the entire Torah in a single year. The Jewish calendar prescribes a section read every Sabbath, along with a correlating “Haftorah” which is a selection from outside the Torah (Isaiah, etc.). The main Chabad web site publishes the Sabbath cycle on their calendar online if you want to know the readings for the Sabbath. Very easy to follow this system, easy to navigate. You just have to commit to reading about 20 minutes every weekend.

So, you could start by reading a section of the Torah every weekend, and get through the entire Torah in a year with relative ease. From there, you can start diving into the rest of the Old Testament.

Once you feel like you have a handle on the main stories in the Old Testament, you can start to tackle the New Testament. It’s a shorter read, but a lot of the readings in the New Testament won’t make any sense unless you have a good handle on the Old Testament. The Torah contain the main building blocks for understanding the latter works. You’ll better understand Christ’s debates with the rabbis, for example, if you are familiar with the Torah.

Another option is to attend daily Mass. You can get through pretty much the entire Bible in about 2 years if you attend daily and listen to the readings.

Another option is the Liturgy of the Hours. Someone smarter than me can chime in, but as I recall, you can get through the entire Bible in 3 years through reading the Liturgy of the Hours daily. Someone can correct me if I am wrong on this account.

I read the Art Scroll publications extensively. Art Scroll is a publishing house run by Orthodox Jews that cater to English-speaking Jews generally unfamiliar with Hebrew. Their works, while not Catholic, are excellent, and will really give you a good sense of Hebraic thought. Their Stone Edition of the Chumash is perhaps one of their premier works - It is the complete Torah with extensive commentary. It is an excellent resource. I wouldn’t shy away from reading Orthodox Jewish sources, as they are excellent primers for understanding the Torah and their commentaries are very insightful.

I find commentaries to be very helpful. I have several and recommend having multiple commentaries and Bible translations on hand when you run across a difficult passage. Commentaries can shed light on the historical background, meaning behind unusual phrases, etc.
 
Hi, StGerard!

Thanks for your suggestion! That’s quite a lot of work for a novice like lil’ ole me. I may just continue to do what I’ve been doing, reading some Scriptures and referring to my commentaries if I come across a difficult passage. Simpler that way for me!

Unfortunately, I can’t attend my parish’s Bible Study because I don’t live in a safe neighborhood and can’t walk that well. But thanks for the help any anyway!

Stuart
 
scrap the canned study programs and books…you just need a bible, Catechism, access to writings of Church Fathers (google) will help, and Church documents (Vatican website will work).
 
Well now, Hereiam!!

This is exactly what I intend to do! I have all the resources right here. Thanks for reading my mind!!!

Stuart
 
I decided to try signing up for the Bible Reading plan advertised for free on one of the Great Adventure websites. It said every few days you’d get a reading plan and some information in the email. I figured this would be a good way to get an idea of the Cavins materials without having to spend any money.

I got the first “assignment” just now. Here are the directions: “Soak in the poetry of Genesis 1-2. What truths does it teach you about creation? About God?”

Setting aside the fact that I’ve read Genesis 1-2 many times in my life already, this fluffy stuff makes me feel like I’m back in freshman year high school “bible study” which is not a good feeling. I want to actually learn about the Bible, not examine my relationship with God.
 
In fairness, I think those questions are designed primarily to get discussion going. The content is in the videos. Oftentimes, the discussion questions will be more open-ended, because for an in-person group, just asking questions about the content without application questions makes it seem more like a quiz than a discussion.

For the “assignment” questions, I imagine the goal is to get people thinking about it on their own before they are given the answers. It often helps people to internalize it if they sort of wrestle with it themselves first. Otherwise, they just hear what the presenter says, and they won’t necessarily think through it themselves.

I’m just speculating here. I’m not familiar with the assignment questions sent out via email. From my own experience with many different DVD studies that are out there, I will say that for my purposes, the discussion questions are generally hit or miss. Even in some great studies, I have seen some really odd discussion questions. But I can appreciate how difficult it is to craft good questions because I very much dislike doing that myself. 😝
 
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It doesn’t hurt to read the Bible again in any event, but this sort of thing is what makes me hesitate to join any sort of parish-based scripture study. I was in one some years ago that was all "read and think about what you just read and how you can apply it in your life, " which is fine for readings time at Mass, but doing it in a group is a little off putting for me and doesn’t help me learn info about the Bible. I’m not looking for a conversion experience or to “share” so much as I want a scholarly course at the intermediate to advanced level.

I did a huge amount of this sort of “think about, share and build your relationship with God” type of exercise when I was in Catholic high school. I’m sure some students benefited from it, and I can also see it being useful to some adults who have never really read or thought much about the Bible, but I found it to be often long on emotions and short on information. And frankly, often boring.

I’ll keep going and see if it picks up, but if not I’ll probably just go buy the Navarre Bible and read it.
 
Thanks for asking:grinning:

GO TO:

Agape Bible Study
www.agapebiblestudy.com/

This free Catholic online resource for the study of Sacred Scripture offers: In-depth Bible studies in the living tradition of the Catholic Church; Accessing ancient …

It is excellent and very unser friendly too

God Bless you
Patrick
 
I totally get that. I’m inclined more towards the information side of things, too. I do think there is a balance that must be struck, but I often find that things in the Scripture resonate more with me because of the additional information. Plus, I’m generally introverted and group discussions are never super pleasant experiences for me. I will say that I have been blessed with certain groups to really benefit from the insight of others in terms of how they apply Scripture to their lives. But that tends to happen when you have a solid group of people who take their faith life seriously. Other groups of less solid people can (usually unintentionally) veer off into heresy. 😝
 
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