By Wendell Tenison
FOREWORD
A study of the spirit of man must fall into the class of most difficult. Bible study is very much like our government and private schools, wherein the student will fall within one of five categories; elementary, intermediate, high school, college and post graduate. However, one thing differs in a study of the scriptures in that man can never master or obtain all there is to know about the knowledge and revelation of God.
A mistake too often made by those who attend institutes of higher learning in the religious field is that most feel they have obtained the necessary knowledge they need and therefore close the book to any further self-education.
Of all words hard to be understood in the bible, the word spirit ranks at the very top. Translators have had great difficulty with this word. In the same passage some use a small s, where others use a capital S. It must be understood that the earliest Greek manuscripts of the new testament used all capital letters for every word. Neither, were there any paragraphs, nor hardly any punctuation. Our total trust in upper and lower case in the scripture can only render confusion. In some places the word wind has been erroneously translated instead of spirit when relating to God or man. For the most part the context will dictate the accurate rendering. Scholars of Greek Lexicons have omitted citing some passages where the word spirit is more difficult, Jn.6:63; 1Jn.5:8. On the other hand, some translators intentionally pervert the Holy Scripture.
The problem is obvious. Those scholars of Hebrew and Greek words have devoted their lives to the understanding of words, rather than to an overall understanding of the word of God. Many times there is only one verse that will unlock the key to the understanding of a particular subject.
One thing that any bible student must understand regardless of his educational background, but assuming that he is of reasonable intelligence is this; we all read the same book. That is, the book being read is a legitimate version and not a (per) version of God's word. No student has an advantage over any other, except the one who earnestly solicits the wisdom and understanding that only God can provide to those who sincerely seek to rightly divide his word of truth.
The question most often posed regarding bible study is what is the best method? Regardless of the method prescribed, one stands out far above all the rest: a continual reading of the scripture with the idea of looking for something new in each verse, rather than seeing how much one can read in a given period of time. The bible is by far its own best commentary, even better than all the commentaries that money can buy. After more than more than forty five years of bible study, I have learned that when I quit reading the bible, I quit learning.