What the Bible Says About Scriptures For Bible Study
The short answer
The Bible has a lot to say about how we should approach it. Paul tells Timothy that "every Scripture is God-breathed" and useful for teaching and correction (2 Timothy 3:16), which means the whole library of Scripture — poetry, law, story, letter — is meant to shape us. Psalm 119:105 pictures God's word as "a lamp to my feet," light enough to take the next step, which is often how study actually works: not everything illuminated at once, but enough for today.
Other passages describe the posture study requires. Joshua is told to meditate on God's instruction "day and night" (Joshua 1:8) — slow, repeated attention rather than a quick skim. The Bereans in Acts 17:11 are praised because they received Paul's teaching eagerly and then "examined the Scriptures daily" to see whether it held up. Eagerness and careful checking belong together. And Jesus repeatedly asks, "Have you not read?" — assuming that real reading, done well, leads somewhere.
Taken together, these scriptures for Bible study suggest two things at once. First, study is work we're invited to do with every tool available: understanding the language, the culture, the kind of writing we're looking at, and the people who first heard it. Second, study is not merely technical. Some passages tell us plainly what to think; others — like many Old Testament stories and Jesus' parables — deliberately hold back their verdict and make us wrestle, weighing what we read against what Scripture says elsewhere. Good Bible study, then, combines solid tools with patience: we bring our best effort to the text, and we let the text do its own slow work on us.
What scholars say
Donald K. McKim answers the question of whether scholarly tools help or hurt Bible reading, explaining that studying language, culture, and literary form equips us to hear God speak. John Goldingay then shows the other side of study: using the story of Jephthah, he notes that the Bible sometimes withholds its verdict, making readers think things out in light of what it says elsewhere.
“The Holy Spirit also helps us interpret the Bible. Presbyterian Christians believe we should use all the tools we have to help us understand the Bible. There are various ways of approaching the Bible, using the insights of what is called “biblical criticism.” This does not mean a “criticism” that “criticizes,” or devalues, the Bible. Instead it means a way of evaluating the biblical writings. We study the language of the Scriptures, their backgrounds, the culture in which they were written, their literary forms, the communities that first read the Scriptures—all these dimensions. We study, using the best resources we have, in order to be as well equipped as possible to hear God speaking to us in the Scriptures.”
“It is an extraordinary feature of the story of Jephthah and his daughter that it resolutely refrains from telling us what to think about what went on. It offers no expressions of approval or disapproval with regard to what happened. That is not uncharacteristic of Old Testament stories, as it is not uncharacteristic of Jesus’ parables. The price it pays is that people come to very different conclusions about the meaning of the story (or the parable). But refraining from incorporating judgments has advantages. Whereas the Bible sometimes works on us by telling us exactly what to think and what to do, sometimes it works on us by making us think things out for ourselves in light of the kind of things it says elsewhere. That may have a more powerful result.”
What it means for you
If you want to study the Bible well, start with both halves of the picture. Bring your tools: a good translation, notes on background and context, attention to what kind of writing you're reading. None of that diminishes Scripture — it helps you hear it more clearly. Then bring your patience. When a passage refuses to hand you a tidy moral, resist the urge to force one. Sit with it, compare it with what the Bible says elsewhere, and let the discomfort do its work. A verse that makes you think things out for yourself may change you more deeply than one that simply tells you the answer.
In context
The scriptures most often cited about Bible study come from varied settings. Psalm 119 is a long meditation celebrating God's word from every angle. 2 Timothy 3 is an aging Paul urging his protégé to hold fast to the Scriptures he learned from childhood. Joshua 1 is God commissioning a new leader at a frightening threshold. Acts 17 shows a young church community testing new teaching against Scripture. Different genres, different moments — but each assumes that careful, ongoing engagement with God's word is central to a faithful life.