When teachers rely on word studies to create lessons

By Elizabeth Prata

The Master’s Seminary published an essay titled “Exegetical Fallacies: The Word Study Fallacy” by William Barrick

I found it interesting because much of women’s ministry teaching comes from this kind of study. The Grandmother of word studies is Beth Moore. Her proteges are following suit and her proteges’ proteges, third generation Bible teachers for women, are following suit also.

I attended a BM Living Proof “study” in North Carolina years ago. I had begun going to church regularly only a few years prior. So I was a newbie to church and to the faith. I was totally new to discernment. Most of my earliesty blogging had to do more with prophecy than discernment or encouragement.

I re-read the discernment essays I had written back then regarding Moore’s teaching and I am proud of the Holy Spirit because I think they hold up over time. I believe I was on the money with my concerns to a degree that only the Holy Spirit can take credit because, as I said, I was new and fairly unlearned. I had written a review about my concern with how Moore approaches a teaching she said she constructs for delivery at Living Proof.

She explained how she arrives at the lessons she teaches on her tour. She said that when she prays the Holy Spirit will deliver a word to her. [This is an extrabiblical, Mystical practice] In the case for the teaching in Charlotte, it had been “Hold Fast.” In the case of her next tour in Columbia, it will be “Prepare.” She then creates an acrostic of teaching points that begin with each letter in the main word. In that long-ago Living Proof conference I attended ours was –

His affection is set upon us
Only He is your praise
Loving Him awakens your true heart
Doing His will does us good
Fleeing to Him means fleeing with Him
Any tighter embrace will also replace
Satan wants what we have
The Lord is your life

Looks kind of OK, doesn’t it? I won’t explain each of the eight mantras point by point, but share with you some of what troubled me most. I think word studies are good, and I like when teachers look into the Greek or the Hebrew meaning. This manner of exegetical study, finding all the words that relate to a subject and building a lesson out of it is fraught with danger. You lose the context of each passage you are extracting the word from. If you cross OT to NT that context gets more complicated because you have to research whether the word used in a context was meant only for the Jews in the Old Covenant or can be extrapolated into the New Covenant for the Gentiles. Getting meaning from the Hebrew-to-Greek is also problematic for a layman.

This approach also means that you wind up using a LOT of verses in one study and that tends to feel cobbled together and superficial. Rick Warren does this constantly and he has been called out for it. You can’t really explain to full depth each verse so you simply refer to them, and there winds up being a lot of different points. It gets unfocused, really fast.

What is Hermeneutics? from Ligonier, “the art science of biblical interpretation” … more at link

Moore had said that she found every ‘hold fast’ in the Bible, OT or NT, and she put together a lesson from that. A lot of people in the audience were so impressed with her mention of the Greek word for this or the Hebrew word for that. Even at my naïve state years ago, ripping out a word from its context and matching it to other words it may seem like, wasn’t a good approach. Context is everything.

The Master’s Seminary article explains in detail just why students should not absorb lessons from teachers who crafted lessons based on these kinds of word studies, nor should teachers create lessons based on studies of these kinds. Below are two short excerpts from the short version of their article. If you want to go deeper into the whys and wherefores, there is a fuller, lengthier version of the same article, here.

When it comes to studying Scripture, word studies are popular, easily obtained from available resources and an easy way to procure sermon content. However, word studies are also subject to radical extrapolations and erroneous applications. It is not always possible to strike exegetical gold by extracting a word from the text for close examination. Word studies alone will not suffice. Indeed, over-occupation with word studies can be a sign of laziness and ignorance involved in much of what passes for biblical exposition in our times.

Study of the words alone will not present us with a consistent interpretation or theology. This is one of the misleading aspects of theological dictionaries/wordbooks. One learns far more about obedience/disobedience or sacrifice and sin from the full statement of a passage like 1 Sam 15:22–23 than he will from word studies of key terms like “sacrifice,” “obey,” or “sin” in the text.

The most important thing about studying the Bible is actually reading the Bible. Too many people spend too much time warming up first. Getting the right chair, the cup of coffee, the notebook, the pen, the devotional, the book about how to read the Bible … all fussing over the preparations and never digging into the main event.

Be a good Bible student. And watch out for shallow word study teachers. Just because they mention “Greek” or “Hebrew” doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve delved deeply. Many times it means the opposite.

Recommended resources:

Hermeneutics: her·me·neu·tics- ˌhərməˈn(y)o͞odiks/
noun. The branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.

Short book: How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God by Nate Pickowicz

Grace To You/John MacArthur-
Essay: How to Study Your Bible
Essay: Simple Steps to Solid Study
Book: How To Study the Bible

Article by Tim Challies: How To Study the Bible

Book by Richard Mayhue How To Interpret The Bible By Yourself

Challies Review of Mayhue’s Book

Article by Focus on the Family: How to Study the Bible

Lesson series Herman Who? by Wretched/Todd Friel