Through the literature that was published in the 1950s and 1960s by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; I learned how to do in-depth Bible study. Such study is the best way to learn to love the Bible and its author, Jehovah God. Before I give my suggestion of a way to penetrate into the depths of the Bible, I bring one quotation from my book, My Beloved Religion — An The Governing Body, pages 318-319 (brown script):
The Watchtower of 1 March 1956, pages 144–151, made an enormous impression on me because it helped me to see the importance of the nuances and subtleties in the original text of the Bible. The article was entitled, “Keeping Up with the Truth,” and it had four different suggestions for interactive Bible study.
The fourth suggestion would help the student to get a good understanding of one whole book of the Bible at a time, such as Philippians, which was used as an example. First, the student carefully reads a group of verses that constitute a paragraph. Second, he or she wrestles with the details of the verses, finding their leading thought, and expresses this thought with as few words as possible. This is the theme of the verses. Third, the student finds one verse that best captures the principal idea of the theme. Fourth, the student reads a sequence of the verses that follow it and treat them in the same way. Fifth, the student studies all the themes he or she has found and, from them, makes a summary theme for the whole book.
The theme given for Philippians in the article is: “Loving encouragement for faith.” And the themes of the different parts are as follows:
Table 1.1 The leading thoughts of Philippians
| Chapter | Theme verse | Leading thought |
| 1 | 7 | Defending the good news |
| 2 | 5 | Keep the right mental attitude. |
| 3 | 14 | Pursuing for the prize. |
| 4 | 7 | Guard heart and mental powers. |
I used this method for the letters and epistles of the NT and some books in the OT. And I added one extra element, namely, an in-depth study of particular important verses inside each leading thought. In order to get the right understanding of the verses, I used the Index of the Watchtower literature from 1930-1960 and looked up different comments. And here is a clear example of the interactive nature of this form of study. Experienced Christians connected with the Watchtower Society had written comments on different verses in the Bible. When reading these comments, I considered them “with the greatest eagerness of mind,” as did the people of Beroea (Acts 17:11). And then, I worked diligently with the text of the particular Bible book to uncover its leading thoughts and the meaning of the more difficult verses. While I studied, I took notes. And after several years, I had around 5,000 pages of notes. Now I felt I was a real “Bible student.”
I owe a debt of gratitude to those who wrote the Watchtower literature in the 1950s and 1960s. They taught me how to do an in-depth study of the text of the Bible and how to love the results of this study. What I learned was the trigger to my university studies of Semitic and Classical languages which led to a Ph.D in Semitic languages and culture. |
Unfortunately, the Watchtower literature no longer encourages in-depth Bible study. I considered the 720 articles in the Watchtower during the 12 years from 2015 to 2026, and I found 12 articles with detailed studies of Bible texts. This 1.66% of all the articles. |
The best way to do in-depth Bible study and to learn to love the Holy Scriptures is to study one whole book of the Bible at a time, just as The Watchtower of 1956 outlined.
Any in-depth study of one book, such as Ecclesiastes, should include a study of the contexts where the same principal words occur. There are different levels of such a study.
One level is only to use an English Bible and study similar words in the English text.
Another level is to find the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic words of the original text. You can do this using the Kingdom Interlinear translation and a similar Hebrew interlinear text. To find all examples of a principal word in the Bible, or for grammatical analysis, you can use the Logos Bible Study Platform or Accordance Gramcord.
Don’t be frightened of my articles, where I often use the original texts of the Bible, such as in the article about when Ecclesiastes was written. After many years of study, I know these texts, and to analyze them thoroughly, I use this method. Most students of the Bible will use a simpler approach. But my articles show how the subtleties and nuances of the original text of the Bible can be used for those who really want to dig deep.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES?
The book of Ecclesiastes is unique and perhaps the most distinctive book in the Bible. Scholars often describe it as a book of pessimistic philosophy. Brothers and sisters often use this book only to quote 9:5, 10, which says that the dead are unconscious. However, the book contains many special and valuable thoughts. We will see this in particular when we look for recurring keywords and compare them with their context. In the outline below, I will pose several questions, some of which you will benefit greatly from answering.
- How can we know that the book was written by Solomon?
Solomon was the only person who was a son of David, king in Jerusalem.
- The theme of the book.
- Expressed in 1:2, “Everything is vanity (NWT84).
- Do we find a parallel in Romans 8:20?
- The role of the theme.
To understand what an author wants to convey in relation to his theme, we must first identify the book’s main points and see how they connect to the theme. Taking one point as an example, if we are able to understand the main thoughts of Solomon’s account, we will also be able to explain 3:21 and show that the spirit is not something personal that proceeds in different directions. We should also be able to show that 9:5, 10 and 11:9 are two sides of the same issue. Conversely, we cannot acquire a correct understanding of anything Solomon wrote unless we first understand the main thoughts of his account.
POINTS FOR STUDY
4.1 Material things in the present life.
4.1.1 Material things are vanity 1:14; 2:1-11; 4:4; 5:9, 10.
4.1.2 Material things are good for our life 2:24; 3:12, 13, 22; 5:17-19; 8:15; 9:7, 9; 11:9.
4.1.3 How can the seeming contradiction between 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 be harmonized, as we understand the thoughts of Solomon?
4.2. Wisdom and understanding
4.2.1 Wisdom and understanding are vanity 1:16-18; 2:12-16.
4.2.2 Wisdom and understanding are valuable commodities 4:13; 7:3-5, 11, 12, 19; 9:16-18.
4.2.3 How can the seeming contradiction between 4.2.1 and 4.2.2 be harmonized? The following verses may throw some light on this question 3:11, 21; 6:12; 7:23, 24; 8:7, 17; 9:12; 11:5.
4.3 Death
4.3.1 How do the comments about death throw some light on the thoughts of Solomon? 1:4, 11; 2:3, 13-17; 3:1, 2, 20-21; 4:1-3; 5:14, 15; 6:4, 6,12; 7:1, 2, 17; 8:8; 9:2, 3-6, 10, 11; 11:9;12:7.
4.4 A synthesis of 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3. Do we understand how Solomon’s view of material goods, wisdom and understanding, and death give the theme “everything is vanity” meaning and dimension?
4.4.1.1 Explain 3:21.
4.4.1.2 What is the relationship in Solomon’s view of wisdom and death? How does this relationship relate to his repeated assessment that “Everything is vanity”? (9:10; 2:12-16)
4:4.1.3 What is the relation between 9:5, 10, and 2:12-16? (See The Watchtower of February 1, 1977, page 78, and October 1, 1977, page 589,which are excellent examples of deep bible study).
5.0 What can we learn from Ecclesiastes?
- What kind of hope does the book give? 3:11, 14,17; 8:12; 12:13, 14.
- What do we learn about death?
- What do we learn about destiny[2]? 2.14, 15; 3:19; 9:2, 3, 11.
- How should we view material goods?
- How should we view God? 12:1, 13.
FOUR ARTICLES ON ECCLESIASTES WILL FOLLOW.
[2]. The word “destiny” is used in the sense of “what will happen” and not in the sense of “everything is decided beforehand by God” (predestination).
