I loved playing the board game Clue when I was growing up. To win, I had to piece together clues throughout the game to see if the culprit was indeed Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the kitchen. Understanding the Bible also requires a reader to pick up on clues. We refer to this step as observation, and it is the first of three steps in understanding the Bible.

Step 1: We start with observation by asking, “What does the text say?”
Step 2: We transition to interpretation, asking, “What does the text mean?”
Step 3: We conclude with the application by asking, “How does this text work?”

Step 1: Observation

If done right, observation will give the reader what he or she needs to know in order to understand the text. Observation, to be sure, will not necessarily make it so that the reader immediately knows how to interpret the text. That’s not the goal of observation. Interpretation is step 2. The goal of observation is to make sure that all relevant pieces of information are available for the reader to put together as he asks himself, “What does this text say?”

5 Steps of Observation

1. Read several English translations – (for English speakers/readers). Read the text in 3 or 4 translations. Look for keywords and see what similarities and dissimilarities exist between the different translations. If you see a wide array of interpretations of words, this is a clue as to which words you will want to dive into for your understanding of the text.

2. Look for significant terms. Every word of the Bible is inspired, but not every word has equal weight or significance. Great Bible readers look for contextually crucial words. Moreover, they look for words that stand out and are repeated. They look for theologically profound terms. For example, how the word “righteousness” is introduced and developed in the letter to the Romans.

3. Look for literary features. These include, but are not limited to, repetition, contrast and comparison, question and answer, conjunctions, conditional clauses (“if”), metaphors, stories, illustrations, analogies, quotations, irony, and tone. This list is not comprehensive, but the Scriptures contain all these devices and more, and a good Bible reader is keen to look for them.

4. Look for structure. This is a more technical discipline, but each biblical text has a God-ordained structure, a logical flow to which the author was inspired to write the text. A popular example of this is the use of the word “therefore” in the New Testament. As the well-worn statement goes, every time you see a therefore, you need to ask, “What is it there for?”

The Bible has structure, and the more we study and know the structure, the better we can interpret and apply what the biblical author is trying to convey. 

5. Ask a lot of questions. 

Being curious is a must for doing great Bible observation. 

One time, when teaching a class on how to study the Bible, I assigned the same text to the class and asked them to come up with as many questions as possible regarding what they had just read. We made it a friendly competition to see who could come up with the most relevant questions.

The point of the exercise wasn’t to come up with answers to all the questions – that would take more time than we had allowed. Rather, the exercise was intended to help each person come up with a list of questions that would serve as a foundation for understanding the text.

The following is an example of questions we might ask by looking at James 1:1-8:

1James, a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. 2 Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
– James 1:1-8, NASB.

Challenge yourself to think of as many questions as you can.

v. 1 – Who is James? 
Is this the half-brother of Jesus or another James? Is this the James who was one of the disciples of Jesus (James and John)?
If it was the half-brother, then when was it written? Before or after the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, where James is a key figure?
What difference does that make as to the dating of the letter?

v. 1b – Who is he writing to?  
Who are the twelve tribes? Why are these dispersed abroad?
Where is abroad?
Brothers and sisters – is this literal or figurative? Blood relatives, Jews, or fellow church members?
Is this written to believers or non-believers? What difference does it make as to who his primary audience might be?

v. 1 – What is a bond-servant?
Is that the same thing as a slave?
Is a slave in James’ day the same as a slave in our day – our recent past?

v. 2 – What are trials? 
Is there a difference between trials and temptations?
Do we know anything about the kind of trials that James’ audience was facing?
Are these trials random, or does God purposefully bring them on?
Do everyday difficulties like colds and losing our jobs count as trials? Or just being thrown in prison for being a Christian?
Is trial the same thing as persecution?

v. 2 – How is our faith tested?
And what about joy?
What is joy? Is that the same thing as happy?
If I’m not happy, does that mean I don’t have joy?
Am I supposed to be joyful when bad things happen?
What if I’m not joyful? Does that mean that I am sinning?

v. 5 – What is wisdom?
If you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
What does wisdom refer to?
Is this wisdom in general, or spiritual wisdom, or both?
Can I ask for wisdom when I’m not in a trial?
Can non-believers receive the same wisdom?

v. 8 – Double-Minded
What does it mean to be double-minded?
What does unstable mean?
What if I’m 90% sure but still have 10% faith? Is that a sin, or just normal?
How does this relate to the first part about trials?
We will stop here, but you can see that a vast number of questions arise when we read any biblical text.
Asking great questions helps us to observe better all the words that God put in the text.

Observation is the first of three Bible study methods we will be exploring. Next is the step of interpretation.