3 concepts that improved, adjusted, or clarified my knowledge of the Bible:
1. “The laws found in the Torah are tied to the Mosaic or old covenant.” (Cartwright, p. 183)
Growing up, I spent a lot of time confused about the “rules” of the Bible. I have been told that
we, as Christians and followers of Jesus, are supposed to follow all of the rules and laws in the
Bible. Then, people have contradicted that statement and have told me that not all of the rules
are directed towards us and we cannot take everything in the Bible so literally. This paragraph
clarified things for me by telling me that these commands were given specifically to Israel on
their journey to the Promised Land. (p. 183) Their obedience of the laws and commands would
bring a blessing upon them and their disobedience would bring upon them a curse, and that is
why when they did not follow those commands, they were sent into exile. This clarifies for me
that yes, there are rules and commands in the Bible that we must follow as followers of Christ,
but some rules and commands were given specifically to certain people during a certain time
and it may not apply the exact same way or as literally to us in our time now.
2. “In other words, the new covenant is between God the Father and God the Son.” (Cartwright, p.
183) This improved my knowledge of the Bible because I did not know that Passover was
representative of a new covenant between God the Father and God the Son. I have never put a
lot of thought into Passover honestly, it was something I grew up just knowing it was something
we celebrated. I assumed that the covenant that came to be was between God and the humans
that are supposed to turn to Him to be saved. However, this paragraph says that within this new
covenant God fulfills both parts of the covenant. He did this by fulfilling His part and sending
Jesus Christ as the representative for all humanity when he died for our sins on the cross.
3. Because of the fact that I have been told by many people that I trust when it comes to reading
and studying the Bible that many of the laws and rules within in the Torah are outdated and no
longer used, I never thought it important to study the laws within the Torah. Cartwright states
on page 188 that “when proper consideration is given to studying the laws found in the Torah,
one will gain a greater understanding of the character of God, who instigated these laws.” After
reading that, I realized I have to change my thinking about how I view the laws in the Old
Testament and I should go back and re-read them and study them to get a better understanding
of God’s character.
2 ideas that I believe are crucial to remember when studying the various genres of the Bible and
why these two ideas are crucial:
1. I believe that it is extremely important to remember that the different genres of the Bible all
serve a different purpose. If you read them all thinking that they all serve the same purpose,
you won’t understand the actual meaning behind the passages and why they were written
for us to begin with.
2. When studying the various genres of the Bible, I believe that it is crucial to apply the
historical context with each genre as it is written. When you remember to add the historical
and cultural time and not read it as if it were pertaining to us now, it helps you to
understand more if and how it can be applied to us or if it is just something that is important
for us to know.
Show one way that understanding the various genres of the Bible could aid in Bible study
1. I grew up being taught that it was essential to learn to be a “Proverbs 31 wife.” In my mind,
before I really started studying the Bible and knew better, I thought that these were rules
that women were supposed to follow in order to be the kind of wife that God wants them to
be. Because of the fact that I interpreted this Proverbs as a Law, it misconstrued what I
thought Proverbs 31 actually meant. As I got older and actually got married, I went to one of
my Bible study teachers and asked for advice about it because it just seems almost
impossible to do everything a Proverbs 31 woman would do. The way she explained it to me
after explaining it to me that it was not a Law was that the goal is over time, your whole life
as a wife, your goal should be to be a Proverbs 31 woman OVER TIME, not all at once. Her
explaining to me that it was not really a command that I had to follow in order for Jesus to
accept me put it into perspective for me. This is one reason why it is extremely important to
understand the different types of various genres in the Bible and how difficult it can make it
to understand the Bible when you don’t understand the difference between all of the
genres.
