To summarize How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament, this blog journey has supplied twelve steps from exegesis to theology. I categorized each of the twelve under the acronym TOCMA, which stands for Text > Observation > Context > Meaning >...

Text (Genre, Literary units and text hierarchy, Text-criticism) Observation (Clause and text grammar, Argument-tracing, Word and concept studies) Context (Historical and Literary context) Meaning (Biblical and Systematic theology) Application (Practical theology) Once...

What is Systematic Theology? Systematic theology is the study of the Bible’s doctrine designed to help us shape a proper worldview. Systematic theology presupposes that the Bible gets reality right, and it assumes Scripture’s overarching unity while affirming the...

God gave us his word in a book that is made up of multiple books. Whereas biblical theology (step 10) looks more at Scripture as a whole, literary context focuses on the individual parts as they come to us within their overall canonical context. It’s the difference...

Step 8 of the interpretive process moves us from “Observation” to “Context” as we consider, “Where does the passage fit?” This post considers the historical context, and the next will consider the literary context. Starting to Assess Historical Context By considering...

In God’s wisdom, he chose to give us his Word in a book shaped by words. Words often carry a range of meanings, dependent on the context. If I say “trunk,” many different images may come to mind: (1) the main woody stem of a tree, (2) the torso of a person or animal’s...

When interpreting Scripture, we observe carefully by considering how a passage is communicated. We have already established the literary units and text hierarchy (step 2) and assessed clause and text grammar (step 5). So, we are ready to finish tracing the literary...