Dig Deeper (Paperback) by and

Most conversations I've had with non-Christians about the Bible end up there sooner or later. It's all a matter of interpretation. Sure, you say it means that Jesus is God and that sex outside marriage is wrong and that heaven is only for Christians, but maybe for me it means that Jesus was just a good teacher and sex with anyone is OK as long as you both want it and heaven is for everybody. It's all just a matter of interpretation.

Actually, we've all been conditioned to think like that. It's part of the whole philosophical movement called postmodernism, and over the last few decades it has infiltrated the TV shows that we watch and the classrooms that we sit in. Postmodernism teaches that when I come to a piece of literature such as the Bible, what matters is not what it means, but what it means for me. And that might be different from what it means for you. And that's OK.

I wonder if you've ever been in a Bible study like this:

Leader: Does anyone have any thoughts about verse 1?
Person A: I think it's talking about X, and . . . (blah, blah) . . .
Person B: Yes, I see what you're saying Person A and I totally respect you. For me though it means Y, the opposite of X.
Leader: Mmmm. Thank you both. Let s move on to verse 2.

That's postmodernism in action. The text means one thing for one person and the complete opposite for another, but both interpretations are to be respected and treated as equally valid. But the apostle Paul doesn't see it like that. He thinks that there is a right and a wrong way to understand the Bible.

This book is a toolbox. Sorry if this conjures up painful memories of failed DIY projects, hours spent waiting for the emergency services on the hard shoulder of the motorway, or rusty, forgotten implements decked with cobwebs at the back of your garden shed. But there are no spanners or trowels here. These tools are rather a means of getting to the bottom of any Bible passage and discovering its true meaning.

Title

Dig Deeper
Author(s)

Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach
Series

Dig Deeper
ISBN

9781844744312
Format

Paperback
Publisher

IVP
Topic

Bible Reading
Audience

Adults
Pages

192
Published

01/05/2010

Andrew Sach

Andrew Sach serves part–time as a pastor at Grace Church Greenwich, and part–time as a tutor on the Cornhill Training Course, helping to train other preachers. He has a background in science that began with an explosives factory in his parents’ garage aged 15 and ended with a PhD on why two ears are better than one. He enjoys playing Bach on the piano and attempting to pour nice shapes in his coffee with frothed milk. He is co–author of the Dig Deeper books.

See other titles by this author

Overall rating

5.0 based on 3 reviews

Dig Deeper

In this short book Nigel and Andrew give you 16 method ‘tools’ to use when reading the Bible, such as the author’s purpose tool and Bible timeline tool. These have proved so helpful that we used this book as part of ministry training at church. I guarantee that this book will enable you to get more out of the Bible and unearth some hidden treasure. It certainly does encourage you to Dig Deeper!

Martyn Blackman

A fantastic book, which walks through how to understand the central point of what a given passage of the Bible is saying (ie how to do exegesis). Each chapter presents a different “tool” for discerning the meaning. While a lot of these may seem like common sense (for example, the “repetition tool” more or less says that if something is repeated, then it is probably important), often it is nevertheless common sense we need to hear. Particularly in the light of the lack of understanding over how the Bible works as a book, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to understand how to mine the treasures of Scripture for themselves.

Sam Watt

Dig Deeper! Or that's what the title to Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach's book encouraged me to do as I read the Bible. Dig Deeper! Tools to unearth the Bible's treasure is a short 160 page book published by IVP UK, aiming to equip believers with the methods they need to improve their reading and understanding of the Bible. The book contains 17 different `tools' for getting the most from the Bible including, the structure tool, the translations tool and the copycat tool, among others. Each `tool' is given a few pages of explanation, with a useful "worked example" and then followed up with exercises to do yourself. This makes the book easy to study and absorb, as the repetition of the concepts through the examples and exercises works it into your memory. A word of warning however, this is not a scholarly book and nor is it in depth but neither does it claim to be this. In the bibliography at the back of the book other more advanced books are suggested for the reader, if they feel they would like to go further. This is a book that I cannot fail to recommend highly enough to the average non-scholarly Christian, providing an excellent entry level guide to getting the most out of the Bible.