Scripture Understanding Quotes

The Spirit is not given to make Bible study needless, but to make it effective.

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

Until the Bible begins to talk to us, we really have not been reading it.

People often get upset when you teach them what is in the Bible rather than what they presume is in the Bible.

The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us.

Building a godly life on the sand of scriptural illiteracy is impossible.

It seems to me that it was well said by Madama Serenissima, and insisted on by your reverence, that the Holy Scripture cannot err, and that the decrees therein contained are absolutely true and inviolable. But I should have in your place added that, though Scripture cannot err, its expounders and interpreters are liable to err in many ways; and one error in particular would be most grave and most frequent, if we always stopped short at the literal signification of the words.

To preach the Bible as 'the handbook for life,' or as the answer to every question, rather than as the revelation of Christ, is to turn the Bible into an entirely different book. This is how the Pharisees approached Scripture, as we can see clearly from the questions they asked Jesus. For the Pharisees, the Scriptures were a source of trivia for life's dilemmas.

The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond; but most people only look at it; and so they see only the dead letter.

I believe that the Bible is to be understood and received in the plain and obvious meaning of its passages; for I cannot persuade myself that a book intended for the instruction and conversion of the whole world should cover its true meaning in any such mystery and doubt that none but critics and philosophers can discover it.

It's a pity people pick and choose what they learn from the Bible.

I argue that the Talmud is about the constant struggle to understand.

The only way to understand these difficult parts of the Bible, or even to approach them with safety, is first to read and obey the easy ones.

Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

No lawyer can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.

Dear friends, whenever you want to understand a text of Scripture, try to read the original

People take things too literal in the Bible and it's totally wrong.

One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and the censorious.

Knowledge of the Bible never comes by intuition.

The Book of Mormon offers so much that broadens our understandings of the doctrines of salvation. Without it, much of what is taught in other scriptures would not be nearly so plain and precious.

In all things that you find in the Holy Scriptures, seek out the purpose of the words, that you may enter into the depth of the thoughts of the saints and understand them with greater exactness. Do not approach the reading of the Divine Scriptures without prayer and asking the help of God. Consider prayer to be the key to the true understanding of that which is said in the Holy Scriptures.

I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.

It's good that kids know the Scripture. It's best that they know the Scripture and get the concept. All I can say is, it's working.

It's better to emphasize biblical theology, partly because there are fine Study Bibles already available that lean into systematic theology, and partly because biblical theology is particularly strong at helping readers see how the Bible hangs together in its own categories: that is, God in his infinite wisdom chose to give us his Word in the 66 canonical books, with all of their variations in theme, emphasis, vocabulary, literary form, and distinctive contributions across time.

There's an awful lot of biblical ignorance, and the church perpetuates that ignorance.