The Teaching Tools of Scripture

God uses several teaching tools in Torah and throughout Scripture to get His point across. He wants to be understood, but He does not throw His pearls before swine (Mat 7:6). His gold and silver requires deeper digging, but treasure can be unearthed for those willing to look for it (Pro 2:1-6).

In fact, all the teaching tools are introduced in the Creation account, the introduction to and foundation of Genesis, Torah, and the entire Bible. The Spirit did this so that we could first learn His tools, and then use these same tools to unpack the rest of His Word, understanding His meaning without misdirection.

Genesis 1:1-2:3, And the Teaching Tools of Scripture
Genesis 1:1-2:3, And the Teaching Tools of Scripture, part two

Each link to the individual Teaching Tools pages contains an expanded explanation and links to many examples from the Bible study posts. The tools He has taught me so far are:

The Plain Meaning of the Text

God’s Word means what it appears to mean, upon the simple reading of an accurately translated text. This teaching tool is often overlooked, but shouldn’t be.

Learning from the Narrative

One of the most important and most common Teaching Tools is Learning from the Narrative. The history and story of Scripture teaches its own lesson, not by structures or knowledge of Hebrew or the Hebrew paragraphs, the hidden tools, but by considering the story in its entirety.

The Fall of Man in Genesis 3 teaches the lesson that disobedience to God’s command is sin.

Noah’s Flood in Genesis 6-8 teaches the lesson that God preserves the righteous through the judgment of the wicked.

The humbling of Pharaoh’s pride in Exodus 1-12 teaches the lesson that kings, no matter how powerful they are, are no match for the power and might of YHVH.

All the parables of Yeshua teach lessons by considering the stories in their entirety.

Pattern and Repetition

The Scripture often establishes patterns in the narrative. Sometimes the repetition is enough to draw our attention to the fact that this cannot be coincidence; Scripture is trying to make a point about something. Sometimes, however, the pattern is broken, to draw attention to the break, because God is trying to teach us something important.

Hebrew Paragraph Divisions

God’s paragraph divisions, when He has concluded one topic and is ready to go on to the next, are included in Hebrew Bibles, but not in English translations. There are two kinds of paragraph divisions present in Hebrew Bibles–a weak division and a strong division. A weak division, which I mark with {s} since the Hebrew word for it begins with the ‘s’ sound, indicates another facet of the same theme. A strong division, which I mark with {p} since the Hebrew word for it begins with the ‘p’ sound, indicates a completion of a theme, or a new theme.

These paragraph divisions have been preserved through generations by the Hebrew scribes who faithfully copied every letter of Scripture. They were discarded by the English translators. But God has divided His paragraphs the way He has, which admittedly, sometimes do not make sense to human logic, for a reason–He is trying to make a point; He is trying to teach us something. Where the paragraph divisions aren’t are often just as telling as where they are.

Strong Themes

The Scripture not only divides itself into its paragraphs by its markers, but it also divides itself into what I call Strong Themes. Recall that a strong paragraph marker {p} indicates the completion of a theme or topic, while an weak marker {s} indicates another facet of the same theme.

The very next Hebrew paragraph in Genesis following the Creation account in Gen 1:1-2:3, is from Gen 2:4-3:15 and is ended with a weak marker {s}. There are more weak paragraphs following, and the next strong marker {p} occurs at the end of Gen 3:21.

weak facet	+ weak facet	+ strong facet	= strong theme
Gen 2:4-3:15 {s}	+ Gen 3:16 {s}	+ Gen 3:17-21 {p}	= Gen 2:4-3:21 {s+s+p}

Now if Gen 2:4 begins a new strong theme which is concluded in Gen 3:21, Gen 2:3 concludes its own strong theme teaching a single overarching topic:

Gen 1:1-2:3 {px7 (seven concurrent strong facets)} Strong theme: God is our Creator
Gen 2:4-3:21 {s+s+p} Strong theme: Disobedience to God is sin, and carries the consequence of painful toil and death

Comparison and Contrast

A Comparison is a representation of one thing as similar to or like another. Comparisons in Scripture include man made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27); the Father and the Son (Joh 5:19, 23; 1 Joh 2:23); disciples who are like their teacher (Luk 6:40); a good tree which produces good fruit (Mat 7:17).

A Contrast is a representation of one thing as dissimilar or opposite to another. Contrasts in Scripture include Cain and Abel (Heb 11:4); Isaac and Ishmael (Gen 21:9-10); Jacob and Esau (Mal 1:2-3); the righteous and the wicked (Psalm 1); the wise and the foolish (Pro 14:1).

Hebrew Root Words

The Hebrew Testament Scriptures were penned (for the most part) in ancient Hebrew, God’s beautiful language. In particular, God gave the Torah to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai—Moses wrote it in Hebrew, every word in its place as dictated by God. As one studies Hebrew, it becomes more and more apparent that not only the themes of Torah were God-inspired, but every word, even every letter, is in the place pre-ordained for it by God. Hebrew is a very pictorial written language, and the characters themselves convey an inspired message, which gives deeper meaning to the translated written message.

Investigation into the Hebrew root words in a passage reveals so much that out of necessity translation misses! For example, the Hebrew word for “husband” as in, “For your Maker is your husband,” Isa 54:5, is from the root, bet + ayin + lamed = ba’al. Of course this word has a negative connotation because the Canaanites worshiped an idol they called Baal. But long before there were Canaanites, there were God’s words in Hebrew, and husbands. 🙂 The bet is the picture of the house or family. The ayin is the picture of the eye. The lamed is the picture of the shepherd’s staff. The husband, then, is the one of the household (bet) who watches over (ayin) it like a shepherd (lamed) watches over his flock, as God designed things from the beginning. Isn’t that beautiful?

Chiastic Structure

The Scriptures, Hebrew and Greek Testaments, contain chiastic structures from beginning to end. They are one of the thumbprints of God on His Word, that reveal a single divine author from beginning to end (the Holy Spirit), as the beauty, elegance, logic, and symmetry of them is impossible for a human mind to duplicate in the complexity that they are found in Scripture.

A chiastic structure is a narrative that has a central point that is the key point of the passage, and the Spirit points to that point by having the narrative around it zero in on it like an arrow. The way the narrative zeroes in on the central point is fascinating: Let’s say there are four elements or ideas in a passage that leads up to the central point. Following the central point, the same elements or ideas will be repeated in some way, but in reverse order. There can be any number of elements or ideas. But that they repeat in reverse order around a central point is the key characteristic.

I have found complete structures that were one paragraph long, and also five, ten, or twenty chapters long, with smaller structures embedded within them, and also overlapping, without once disturbing the symmetry of the greater and lesser structures around them. I have found structures that encompass an entire book of the Bible, from beginning to end. The life of Yeshua forms a chiastic structure. Well, that would make sense if He is the Word of God made flesh, and the chiastic structure is the thumbprint of the Holy Spirit on the text of the Word of God.

The central point often isn’t what you might expect it to be, and sometimes, the matching pairs aren’t what you would expect them to be a first glance. But God has a reason for making His central points and His matching pairs as He has. Often He is revealing something beautiful and amazing about Himself, about Messiah, or the gospel of grace through faith. Sometimes He reveals prophetic pictures. At any rate, He is trying to help us understand Him.

History that Prophesies

The history of Israel, recorded in Torah and the Hebrew Testament history books, is not merely simple history, but it is a history which prophesies of things to come. Most Christians are very aware of one example: Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, on the night the Passover lambs were slain and their blood was applied to the doorposts of their houses. This history actually happened, but this history also prophesies of our deliverance from slavery in the kingdom of darkness, when the blood of the Passover Lamb, Yeshua Messiah, is applied to the doorposts of our hearts. It is history that foretells the gospel. However, this is not an isolated incident, but all the history of Israel recorded in Scripture likewise prophesies. Only the history of Israel contained in the Hebrew Old Testament prophesies in this manner, as Messiah Yeshua is the Word of God made flesh, and the substance which casts the shadow of the written Word–so that the written Word points to and reveals Him.

Natural Pictures

A similar tool to history that prophesies, is the tool of natural pictures. Yeshua made heavy use of this teaching tool by teaching us many things about spiritual truths using parables. He often began a parable by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” and then proceeded to tell a story about seeds, crops, harvests, landowners, fathers and sons, or some other aspect of normal human existence or the natural world with which His audience was well aware. That picture in the natural world was meant to teach us something about the spiritual world, or God, or the kingdom of heaven that we might not otherwise understand. Prophecy and the prophetic Scriptures also often employ this tool.

Prophetic Types

In particular the Torah, since one purpose of Torah was to write about Messiah, Joh 5:46, but also in the Hebrew Testament, we find, not only history that prophesies of Messiah, but persons whose lives strangely contain amazing elements that mirror Messiah’s life and ministry. We say that Isaac is a prophetic type of Messiah, first, since he was the promised heir to Abraham, although there seemed no way in the natural that the promise could be fulfilled (Gen 18:10-11). The promise to Abraham that a seed would come, mirrors the promise YHVH made to Eve that a Seed would come who would break the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15). Both Isaac and Messiah Yeshua are known as the Promised Seed in Scripture. Second, Isaac was bound to be sacrificed by his father Abraham, but then he was restored to life, seemingly miraculously (Gen 22:1-19). This event in Isaac’s life strangely coincides with the similar event in Messiah’s life (Mat 26:39, 27:50, 28:5-7). Isaac is not the only type of Messiah in Torah or the Hebrew Testament; and in fact, the Hebrew Testament contains types of antichrist also.

Signs of Messiah

God has placed signs, markers, identifying guideposts in His Word to help us recognize when a person or passage is prophetic of Messiah. Yeshua introduced this Teaching Tool Himself when He said to the Pharisees,

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, “Master, we would see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Mat 12:38-40

The number three, after the sign of Jonah, is the first sign of Messiah found in Scripture. Threes appear with overwhelming frequency in passages which prophesy of Messiah in some way, shape, or form. Another very common sign is resurrection life: someone’s death seems certain or is certain, but miraculously, they escape death or are restored to life. Another is self-sacrifice to save others; these are the most common signs of Messiah in the Hebrew Testament, although there may be more.

Common Themes

When multiple passages reveal the same theme or topic, even if they seem dissimilar at first glance, a comparison of those passages often reveals amazing insight, instruction, and wisdom. One simple example is the theme of the tree of life. This tree appears overtly in Gen 2:9, Gen 3:22-24, Rev 2:7, and Rev 22. But also the tree of life appears, perhaps not so covertly, in Psa 1. It is not mentioned by name, but it becomes clear upon consideration of the passage in its entirety, that its theme or topic is a life-giving tree–a tree of life. Comparison, then, of Gen 2:9, Gen 3:22-24, Psa 1, Rev 2:7, and Rev 22 (and any other passages in which the theme is the tree of life) will be instructive.

PaRDeS

PaRDeS is an acronym for “pashat, remez, drash, sod,” the four levels of Scriptural interpretation. P or pashat (“simple”) refers to the plain or direct meaning of the text; R or remez (“hint”) refers to the implied meaning of the text; D or drash (“search”) refers to the allegorical, typological, or thematic meaning of the text, not readily apparent from its direct or pashat meaning; and S or sod (“hidden”) refers to the hidden meaning of the text, usually only understood through knowledge of Hebrew or by revelation.

The foundational rule in applying this teaching tool, is that none of the higher levels of interpretation, to be correct, can ever violate or contradict the pashat or direct meaning of the text. The idea is that all the passages of Scripture can be understood at each of these four levels, so at any one time there will be four interpretations of the same text.

The four gospel writers expounded Yeshua this way.

Mark is the pashat gospel; he described Yeshua in the most simple and direct way. When you read Mark, you learn what happened: what Yeshua said and did.

Luke is the remez gospel; he described Yeshua in a “narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us” (Luk 1:1); he applies what Yeshua said and did to the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Matthew is the drash gospel; he constructed his gospel, not chronologically, as Luke did, but thematically, and then related those themes to their Torah and Hebrew Testament counterparts. This is not readily apparent on the surface reading of Matthew, just as the drash meaning of the text is not readily apparent on the surface reading of the text; but as someone begins to learn the Hebraic structure of Torah and the Hebrew Testament, and its major themes and how they are presented, you find that Matthew parallels that structure and those themes.

John is the sod gospel; this is why his gospel is so drastically different from the other gospels. He presents the hidden or revealed Yeshua. John’s gospel is the home of all the major “I AM” statements concerning Yeshua: I am the light of the world, the door of the sheep, the way, the truth, and the life; the resurrection and the life, and the bread from heaven. John’s Yeshua can only be known through the revelation of the Spirit.

STUDY THE BIBLE WITH THE TEACHING TOOLS OF SCRIPTURE