Men's Bible Study - Proverbs 1-15

I've been given the opportunity to make a contribution to the Allen Bible Church small group men's bible study by providing some notes/discussion topics for the Wednesday night study. I figured I might as well post them up. If you don't have a bible study, feel free to read along with us and post comments. I'll respond as soon as I can.

PROVERBS 1-15

The bible study method taught in seminaries such as DTS uses the structure of Observation, Correlation, Interpretation and Application (in that order, although Correlation and Interpretation are sometimes inverted). The idea is that we Observe the text first, just to see what’s there without trying to Interpret or Apply it. Then we look for how other parts of scripture relate to it (Correlation). Once we have done the first two steps thoroughly, we can start to try to interpret the text or determine its meaning. Once we have done all of these, we can try to apply it to real life (what does this mean to me, here and now). The purpose of this week’s notes is to get us thinking about these bible study steps. The first note has a couple general points about the book as a whole, the other four relate to the 4 steps listed above.

1. General notes/questions: The book of Proverbs is basically divided into two main sections, Ch. 1-9 which represent a kind of wisdom poetry. This has more of a narrative feel to it. Ch.10 – 31 which are the proverbs “proper”. These are the 1-2 line quotes that we tend to see on coffee cups, although there are some themes that can be identified linking them together.

a. Are the proverbs teaching promises or principles?

b. What role does “fear of the Lord” have in wisdom?

c. How do they (wisdom and fear of the Lord) relate to each other?

2. Observation: Two contrasting ideas are personified (given human form) at various places in the first 9 chapters of the book. Who/What are they? Who are the other main characters in the book?

3. Correlation: How does Prov 8:22-31 describing “wisdom” relate to John 1:1-3, 14 describing “the Word”?

4. Interpretation: Context is very important for interpretation. “Con” meaning “with” or “together” and text meaning text J. A preacher once used Proverbs 7:14 “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows” to encourage his congregation to pay their building pledges. Would this be appropriate considering the context of the verse as well as Leviticus 15:25-30?

5. Application: As Proverbs is “wisdom” literature, it is very practical and therefore full of application. The adulterous woman is warned against in the book. Maybe we don’t struggle with an actual adulterous woman (maybe we do), but what is there in your life, here and now, that you could substitute for the adulterous woman? What is that thing that calls to you in the street?