[SOAP Bible Study: Method, Example, and Template – Bible Wonderlife](https://biblewonderlife.com/soap/)

do NOT start with the question on any passage, "what does this mean to me?"
- instead, that's the LAST question you ask

ways to approach God's word:
1 synchronic (bullet points)
    - making categories of the domains of the Bible (e.g., God, sin, atonement, faith, etc.)
    - focuses on the means (i.e., justification by faith)
2 diachronic (story-based)
    - moving the Bible across its conveyed message (e.g., creation, fall, redemption, renewal)
    - focuses on the trajectory (i.e., Kingdom of God)
- by looking at it synchronically, we develop a zoomed-in view of what God wants us to see
- diachronic indicates [patterns](symbols) that represent along our entire existence
- healthy understanding of Scripture requires dialectically holding BOTH of them together at the same time (story + bullet points)

when Jesus says "I thank you for hiding the secrets from the wise and giving it to the children"
- it is because He wishes to confide the truths to those who are contrite in spirit, lowly, etc.
- those secrets are MEANT to be hidden to those who wish to exploit it or follow many gods at once

2 Tim 3:16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

All scripture is profitable, but not for all uses or implementations
Doctrine - abstract, certain use
Events - concrete, certain use
Sentiment - abstract, uncertain use

I like to think of it like "layers".
- Layer 1 - skimming the Bible, where you get the gist of the story as a broad concept (or hear about it from someone in that way)
- Layer 2 - reading the proper story (what you're talking about)
- Layer 3 - interconnecting it with other verses and historical context (which commentary is great for)
- Layer 4 - meditating so deeply on it that God gives further connections through prolonged study
All the layers give inspiration, because God is very clever.

[hermeneutical approaches - What is morphological analysis, as it relates to Bible study? - Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange](https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/2243/what-is-morphological-analysis-as-it-relates-to-bible-study)

[What is the Wisdom of Solomon? | GotQuestions.org](https://www.gotquestions.org/Wisdom-of-Solomon.html)

## from gospel splice intro


	One of the most infuriating realities of Christian tradition is the absence of certain details. The purpose of this transcription, to put simply, is my personal attempt to find harmony to the multiple accounts of Jesus’ life.

	The Bible, as a broad concept, is a collection of stories. This doesn’t repudiate the book, as all human accounts are stories, but it does mean the Bible isn’t merely a dry chronicle of events, and each event was recorded for a reason. This often only becomes apparent through certain details after multiple readings.

	The Bible is a symphony of ideas and, as of right now until the Millennial Kingdom, the Gospel accounts are the centerpiece. Very frequently, the value of those ideas comes in how frequently they repeat: all four accounts cover Jesus feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fishes, but only Luke references Jesus sending out seventy people in pairs. It’s important to know how much God wants to emphasize certain points.

	The word of God is not “the words of the Bible”, but is something more immaterial. It may be Jesus himself, or the Holy Spirit, or an abstracted essence that we call “Scripture”, but has no physical implementation.

	What I’m implying by this is that the Scripture exists beyond the words of the biblical texts, and the texts themselves only allude to that spirit.

	As a philosophical thought experiment, imagine the hypothetical possibility that every single Bible were to be burned or deleted right now, and there was no Bible left. And, to avoid further complications to this thought experiment, imagine that Jesus’ time was destined for 1,000 years into the future. Would the Bible cease to exist?

	The answer to that, to put plainly and bluntly, is “no”. God would be able to reproduce the Bible, word-for-word, using the Holy Spirit through a person or people. This means that the text means nothing, but the spirit of that text is unyielding.

	The natural product of this is that spiritual wisdom doesn’t necessarily come through the Scripture, but is the most reliable source of it. Without this distinction, all the documentation and teaching by theologians, pastors, priests, and evangelists is worthless tripe, and we should all try to read ancient documents to find out precisely what school to send our children to or what sorts of music is permissible in a church service.