What They Don’t Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies What They Don’t Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical studies written by Michael Joseph Brown, published by Westminster John Knox Press presents a new way to approach the Bible in a more intellectual manner. This is a very well put together book that goes over many aspects of not only Biblical scholarship but Biblical studies. Brown’s book should be in the hand of every person who is trying to find a new method of dwelling into the Bible because how easily he has organized all of his information. There are many rules of thumb used to show the reader how to interpret biblical text and even show multiple perspectives in the biblical scholarship community. The four main chapters he uses are the aim …show more content…
In the first section of Brown’s book it shows the difference between biblical studies and biblical scholarship. Brown explains how both are important for personal application but biblical scholarship should not be approached by your personal faith journey. It should be approached like any other scholarly class with historical context. Brown explains how there are multiple procedures for biblical interpretation but outlines a few of the most popular. Form criticism looks at small units in the text to determine their “setting in life” to discover the purpose of the passage. The purpose of this interpretation is not to argue if the scene actually happened but to try and understand the context of the scripture. Another type of criticism Brown explains is tradition. Tradition criticism points back to stories, sayings, songs and poems and uses