{"id":30380,"date":"2021-01-13T09:16:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?page_id=30380"},"modified":"2026-01-03T09:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:01:02","slug":"introduction-to-studying-the-corinthian-letters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/introduction-to-studying-the-corinthian-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Studying the Corinthian Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Introduction to Studying the Corinthian Letters<\/h1>\n

Studying the Bible<\/h2>\n

“Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.<\/i>” (II Timothy 2:14-18).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most people don’t actually study their Bibles. Instead, they search for statements that prove their current ideas. Thus, they make the Bible speak their thoughts instead of speaking the thoughts of the Bible. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen<\/i>” (I Peter 4:11). If we are going to give God the glory, then we need to teach what God has taught.<\/p>\n

But to teach requires understanding what the Bible actually states. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is<\/i>” (Ephesians 5:17). It is natural for people to color what they see with their own thoughts and ideas. “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled<\/i>” (Titus 1:15).<\/p>\n

I remember playing a game called Observation<\/i>. It presented a complex picture of many things going on at once. The picture was held up for 30 seconds, and then you were quizzed about the details in the picture. I was amazed at how often a fact I just knew turned out to be false when I went back to the picture. The picture hadn’t changed; my memory of what it contained was faulty.<\/p>\n

Many disagreements and misunderstandings regarding the Scriptures can be quickly settled when people go back to the source. Often, reading the verse again causes you to realize that what you just knew was in the Bible was not quite what you remembered. You might have forgotten the context or missed a critical word or phrase that changes the meaning of what was said significantly.<\/p>\n

To really grasp the meaning of a text, we need to look at it repeatedly. But each examination cannot be the same, or we will end up missing the same things we missed before. What helps is to tackle the puzzle from different perspectives.<\/p>\n

Imagine putting together a very large jigsaw puzzle. How do you tackle the problem? Typically, we start by looking for the corner pieces because they are easy to identify. Then we start putting the edges together. Filling in the inside is a bit more difficult, but we start grouping pieces by their colors and textures, knowing that similar colors and textures will likely be close together. And when we get stuck, sometimes it helps to get up and sit on the other side of the puzzle. The change in perspective causes us to notice things we might have previously overlooked.<\/p>\n

Understanding the Scriptures can be similar. We start with the obvious facts, but to find the deeper meaning, we need to see how the pieces fit together. For that to happen, we need to grasp the various pieces and view them from different perspectives.<\/p>\n

We will use both deductive and inductive approaches to understand I and II Corinthians. Inductive means that we start with the small pieces and work our way up to understanding the whole. It is a bottom-up approach, which is helpful because most of us tend to think top-down. The deductive approach is to take the whole and divide it into parts. The deductive approach helps to keep us heading in the right direction – it is the corner and edge pieces in our puzzle. The inductive approach helps us see things as they are, not as we would like them to be.<\/p>\n

Where It Fits<\/h2>\n

There are 66 books in the Bible. Each book is written in a different style, in a different time period, by different authors, to different people, for different purposes. To find the edges, we need to know where I and II Corinthians fit into the overall layout of the Bible.<\/p>\n

The 66 books are divided into two covenants: the Old Testament and the New Testament. We need to know which covenant a book falls into to know to whom it applied. The Old Testament was given to the Jews (Deuteronomy 5:1-3), and the New Testament was given to all the world (Matthew 28:18-20).<\/p>\n

In our Bibles, the books are organized by type. The Old Testament includes the Law, History, Wisdom, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets. In the New Testament, the sections are the Gospels, History, Letters, and Prophecy. The Letter section can be further divided into Letters by Paul and Letters by Others. The Letters of Paul are subdivided into Letters to Churches and Letters to Individuals. Both I and II Corinthians fit into the section of Paul’s letters to churches.<\/p>\n\t

Looking at the Context<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Read through the entire book of I Corinthians, preferably in one sitting. Read it like you would a letter that was written to you from a friend. This will give you an overall feel for what the book is about.<\/li>\n
  2. Read through the entire book of I Corinthians a second time and this time jot down answers to the following questions:\n
      \n
    1. Make a list of frequently repeated words, phrases, or ideas.<\/li>\n
    2. Who are the people mentioned in I Corinthians?<\/li>\n
    3. What events are mentioned which might help us date the book?<\/li>\n
    4. What locations are mentioned?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    5. What kind of book is I Corinthians? (Historical, Biographical, Poetic, Proverbial, Prophetic, Instructional, or a combination?)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Corinthian Letters\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Introduction to Studying the Corinthian Letters Studying the Bible “Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19928,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30380","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19928,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":0},"title":"The Corinthian Letters","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Corinthian Letters by Jeffrey W. Hamilton July 2011 I Corinthians Getting Familiar with the Text Introduction to Studying the Corinthian Letters Background to I Corinthians Overview of I Corinthians Understanding What Was Said in I Corinthians Segmenting I Corinthians The Start of the Letter Salutations and Thanksgiving (I Corinthians\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Corinth.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30566,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/segmenting-ii-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":1},"title":"Segmenting II Corinthians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Segmenting II Corinthians Class Discussion What problems did you find in identifying pronouns? Did you have any difficulties in determining synonyms or antonyms? Finding the Main Topics Many times, trying to read something in one large sitting causes you to miss the details. A part of any letter is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/suggested-mark-ups-for-ii-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":2},"title":"Suggested Mark-Ups for II Corinthians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Suggested Mark-Ups for II Corinthians People Paul Timothy Titus Silvanus brothers, saints God God, the Father God, the Son (Jesus, Christ, Lord) God, the Spirit Satan, serpent Eve Aretas Moses Abraham Time present day time Location Corinth Macedonia Asia Achaia Troas Damascus Judea Keywords and Phrases glory boast, boasting, proud,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/understanding-what-was-said-in-ii-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":3},"title":"Understanding What Was Said in II Corinthians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Understanding What Was Said in II Corinthians The Same Thing in Different Words In many languages, and in English in particular, we like a variation in our words. We might repeat an idea, but we change the words slightly so we don't sound like a broken record. In addition, every\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/suggested-mark-ups-for-i-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":4},"title":"Suggested Mark-Ups for I Corinthians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Suggested Mark-Ups for I Corinthians People Paul Sosthenes Chole Apollos Cephas Crispus Gaius Stephanas Barnabas Moses Timothy Fortunaus Achaius Pricilla Aquila Adam James God God, the Father God, the Son God, the Spirit Time Location Corinth Achaia Ephesus Asia Macedonia Jerusalem Keywords baptized belief \/ faith boast body calling church\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30396,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/understanding-what-was-said-in-i-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":30380,"position":5},"title":"Understanding What Was Said in I Corinthians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Understanding What Was Said in I Corinthians The Same Thing in Different Words In many languages, and in English in particular, we tend to like a variation to our words. We might repeat an idea, but we change the words slightly so we don't sound like a broken record. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30380\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}