{"id":39831,"date":"2017-10-25T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.olivetree.com\/?p=39831"},"modified":"2024-06-17T07:22:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T14:22:21","slug":"whats-a-topical-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/whats-a-topical-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s a Topical Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you don’t know a word, your first inclination might be to look up a dictionary definition. While it may certainly be helpful, the better way to understand a concept is to see it in action. When you experience the word being used, you learn how to use it for yourself. So, in this post, you will not only learn what a topical Bible is. You’ll also see how to use one and how topical Bible studies can change the way you read the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT’S A TOPICAL BIBLE?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, a topical Bible takes passages of Scripture and organizes them by topic. Each one looks slightly different, so we’ll take a look a the MacArthur Topical Bible<\/a> as an example. Here’s how it looks in the app:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"MacArthur<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You can search through the resource like a dictionary, finding important Biblical themes, people, and places. When you pull one up, you’ll see a long list Scripture references which are all linked to your Bible. Just tap on it to open a pop-up window showing you the verse in context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A TOPICAL BIBLE IN ACTION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was asking myself this question not too long ago. I knew what a topical Bible was, and how I might use it… but I wondered how the authors of this resource envisioned others using it. Lucky enough, John MacArthur provides that information in the foreword of his MacArthur Topical Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. WHY USE A TOPICAL BIBLE?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When reading the Bible, we may first ask ourselves, “What does this mean to me?<\/em>” But we should probably first ask, “What does the Bible mean by what it says?<\/em>” MacArthur shares with us the typical four steps for interpretation and which step he envisions his tool being used:<\/p>\n\n\n\n