One of your top goals as a Bible class teacher should be encouraging your students to read the Bible independently. Even with simple versions like the NIrV, however, Bible students will encounter passages that don’t make sense to them immediately. Some will just skip that part and keep reading. Others may stop reading for the moment or entirely, believing the Bible is too hard for them to understand.
There are a few simple tools you can teach them to use to try and understand a passage. Of course, your students can turn to commentaries and other reference materials, but most won’t. Here are five easy things to teach them that they may be more likely to do.
- Try to figure out exactly it is that they don’t understand. Is it a word that is new to them? A cultural concept like an oil lamp? A command or principle of God? Something someone said or did (not making sense as something they would expect someone to do). Pinpointing the issue can make it easier to overcome the problem. During classes, have them brainstorm ways they could overcome common obstacles to understanding passages in scripture.
- Try restating the difficult part in their own words. This can cause readers to look more carefully at the passage for clues that will help them restate and understand the difficult part.
- Look at the verses surrounding the difficult part. Sometimes we start reading passages that are in the middle of a story or a thought process. Backing up a few verses or reading a few more verses can make things clearer.
- Think about other passages in the Bible that are similar to the difficult one. Many major concepts are repeated more than once in the Bible. Perhaps another author in the Bible has written the same idea in ways your students can better understand.
- Think about trusted resources you can ask for help. These could be people, websites or books. Help your students develop a list of trusted sources they can depend upon for help in understanding scripture. If you don’t, they will be at the mercy of the AI answer, Wikipedia or some random person.
Taking the time to teach students some Bible reading comprehension strategies can make it more likely they will be lifelong Bible readers. Better comprehension means they are also more likely to be able to understand what God wants them to do. It’s worth taking some class time periodically to review strategies.