Bible study: [Passage]
How to use this template
Work through the three parts in order and resist jumping ahead: see what the passage says before deciding what it means, and know what it means before asking what it asks of you. Read it twice before you start, once aloud.
One sitting of 30 to 45 minutes is enough, or take one part a day. Leading a group? The Questions table at the end is your discussion plan. Copy this file for each new passage.
Passage | |
Date | |
Translation | |
Compared with | |
Alone or in a group | |
Just before | |
Just after |
The passage
Copy it out from your main translation, then bold the words that repeat.
1. Observe: what does it say?
Who is there:
What happens:
When and where:
Repeated words:
Contrasts and comparisons:
Connecting words (therefore, because, so that):
Commands, promises and questions:
What surprised me:
See an example: Mark 4:35–41
Observation notes on Jesus calming the storm, from the ESV:
Who is there: Jesus, the disciples, and “other boats” that set out with them (v. 36)
What happens: an evening crossing, a storm, Jesus asleep on a cushion, the disciples wake him, he rebukes the wind, calm, two questions
Repeated words: “great”: a great windstorm (v. 37), a great calm (v. 39), great fear (v. 41)
Contrasts: Jesus asleep in the stern while the boat fills with water; “do you not care?” answered with “why are you so afraid?”
Questions: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (v. 38); “Who then is this?” (v. 41)
What surprised me: they are more afraid after the storm stops than during it (v. 41)
None of this says yet what the passage means. That comes next.
2. Interpret: what does it mean?
Use the chapter around it, a Bible dictionary and your second translation.
Context:
First readers:
Key words:
Translation differences:
Cross-references
Reference | What it adds |
Main point
In one sentence, as its first readers would have heard it.
3. Apply: what will I do?
What it shows about God:
What it shows about people, me included:
Where it meets my life this week:
This week I will
Tell someone what I learned, or ask them to check in with me
Questions
Question | Kind | Notes |
Observation | ||
Interpretation | ||
Application | ||
Still open |
Prayer
Thanks, confession, and a request tied to this week.
Verse to remember
One verse, word for word, with its reference.