{"id":35648,"date":"2015-04-10T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.olivetree.com\/?p=35648"},"modified":"2019-05-09T13:44:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:44:49","slug":"how-to-use-gods-commentary-on-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/how-to-use-gods-commentary-on-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use God\u2019s Commentary on Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olive Tree has a lot of commentaries<\/a> and study Bibles<\/a> available, and I love using them. I find myself using one almost every day, even if it\u2019s only to get background information on a verse as I read each day<\/a>. The Resource Guide makes it easy to do just that. I can\u2019t even imagine trying to carry Calvin\u2019s 22-volume commentary set<\/a>\u00a0or even the hefty ESV Study Bible<\/a> with me everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But as I\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware, commentaries and study Bibles can get things wrong. Theologians and scholars make mistakes and misinterpret things, but God is perfect and doesn\u2019t make any mistakes. Wouldn\u2019t it be great if God had written a commentary on Scripture? Well, in a way He did, and His commentary comes free with The Bible Study App. Let me explain what I mean\u2026<\/p>\n

GOD’S COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE: INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It has been said that Scripture is its own best interpreter, and that\u2019s absolutely true. It has also been said that when we\u2019re having trouble interpreting a text that seems unclear, the best place we can go is to clearer texts that talk about the same subject. So when Jesus speaks in a parable, it can be very helpful to see what Paul had to say about the subject. That can help to guard us from error as we seek to understand the meaning of difficult passages.\u00a0In this sense, God gives us commentary on\u00a0Scripture through other Scripture.<\/p>\n

Before I used the Olive Tree Bible App, I would do this by looking at the tiny cross-references in my Bible text, then I would try\u00a0to keep my finger where I started as I used my other hand to look up the cross-references\u2014leaving a finger at each cross reference. That got pretty crazy pretty quick since I only have ten fingers. Besides that, what about keeping my place in commentaries?<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Olive Tree offers a few features that make this a lot<\/em> easier.<\/p>\n

GOD’S COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE:\u00a0<\/strong>CROSS-REFERENCES<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Several of the translations Olive Tree\u00a0offers (like the ESV<\/a> and the NIV<\/a>)\u00a0have cross-references built right into the Bible text. Cross-references are references to verses that the translators thought were related to the verse you\u2019re reading. They look like little superscripted<\/sup> letters. When you tap them, you see popup that shows you the cross references related to\u00a0that verse:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The list of cross-references, of course, isn\u2019t inspired. But Scripture is inspired and the cross references are designed to take you to places in Scripture that are related to the passage you\u2019re reading. In the example below, I was reading the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, and I found a cross-reference where Hebrews gives us some extra insight into this story:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TWO PASSAGES SIDE-BY-SIDE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you want to dig into God\u2019s commentary even more, you might find popups don\u2019t show enough context and they can get in your\u00a0way of reading the original passage. With split window, you can easily pull up two whole passages of Scripture side-by-side. All you need to do it tap on the arrow in the upper-right-hand corner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This will bring up the Resource Guide with the Parallel tab open. You can tap the back arrow to switch translations if you want.<\/p>\n

Now I have both passages opened. I can read Scripture and God\u2019s commentary on Scripture\u2014more Scripture\u2014right next to each other!<\/p>\n

LEARN MORE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t consider my study of a passage complete until I\u2019ve looked to see what God says about that passage elsewhere in His Word. These features make it a lot easier to do that. Another tool I often\u00a0use is the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/a>, which is a collection of cross-references that\u2019s a bit larger than what you\u2019ll find in a Bible translation. It\u2019s quite useful and we\u2019ve even written a blog post <\/a>about how to use it.<\/p>\n

\"Olive<\/a>\"Olive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olive Tree has a lot of commentaries and study Bibles available, and I love using them. I find myself using one almost every day, even if it\u2019s only to get background information on a verse as I read each day. The Resource Guide makes it easy to do just that. I can\u2019t even imagine trying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5318],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-study-tips"},"yoast_head":"\nHow to Use God\u2019s Commentary on Scripture - Olive Tree Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Using God's commentary on Scripture is the best thing you can do for your Bible study. What exactly is His commentary? 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