The Prophet and His Day: Isaiah 1-39 - Free Bible Commentary

VI. This Commentary’s MethodThe Study Guide Commentary is designed to aid your interpretive procedures in the followingways:A. A brief historical outline introduces each book. After you have done “reading cycle #3" checkthis information.B. Contextual insights are found at the beginning of each chapter. This will help you see how theliterary unit is structured.C. At the beginning of each chapter or major literary unit the paragraph divisions and theirdescriptive captions are provided from several modern translations:1. The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update (NASB)2. The New King James Version (NKJV)3. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)4. Today’s English Version (TEV)5. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)Paragraph divisions are not inspired. They must be ascertained from the context. By comparingseveral modern translations from differing translation theories and theological perspectives, weare able to analyze the supposed structure of the original author’s thought. Each paragraph hasone major truth. This has been called “the topic sentence” or “the central idea of the text.” Thisunifying thought is the key to proper historical, grammatical interpretation. One should neverinterpret, preach or teach on less than a paragraph! Also remember that each paragraph isrelated to its surrounding paragraphs. This is why a paragraph level outline of the entire book isso important. We must be able to follow the logical flow of the subject being addressed by theoriginal inspired author.D. Bob’s notes follow a verse-by-verse approach to interpretation. This forces us to follow theoriginal author’s thought. The notes provide information from several areas:1. literary context2. historical, cultural insights3. grammatical information4. word studies5. relevant parallel passagesE. At certain points in the commentary, the printed text of the New American Standard Version(1995 update) will be supplemented by the translations of several other modern versions:1. The New King James Version (NKJV), which follows the textual manuscripts of the“Textus Receptus.”2. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which is a word-for-word revision from theNational Council of Churches of the Revised Standard Version.3. The Today’s English Version (TEV), which is a dynamic equivalent translation from theAmerican Bible Society.4. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), which is an English translation based on a FrenchCatholic dynamic equivalent translation.F. For those who do not read the original languages, comparing English translations can help inidentifying problems in the text:1. manuscript variations2. alternate word meanings3. grammatically difficult texts and structurexix