Inductive Bible Study Method

What is Bible interpretation?  Train answers, “It means recapturing the attitudes, motives, thoughts, and emotions of its writers and of those concerning whom they wrote.” [p.94, Methodical Bible Study]

Robert Traina mentions practicing suspended judgment as we approach passages using inductive Bible Study methods.  In other words, don’t jump too quickly to conclusions we may later have to correct.  I think we have all done this at times, not only in Bible study but in other decisions calling for interpretation.

According to one education scholar, children [between the ages of 2 and 5 years old] learn 25 times as fast as adults. That is the time when kids are always pulling on their mother’s apron strings and asking “Why mom, but why?” The question “Why?” bridges the observation and and interpretation processes. […]

Interpretation re-creates the original circumstance, atmosphere, setting and life of a Bible passage. Interpretation takes the raw facts from observation and attempts to re-create the original event or statement. This re-creation allows us to better understand the Bible.
The question is: “OK, how do I begin to re-create?”
The answer is to ask as many “Why?” questions […]