Finding a decent resource to help you teach a book of the Bible can be hard.
If you lead a Bible Study or help run a youth group, chances are you’re not looking for a 600-page commentary to put on your nightstand. You’re dedicated, sure. But you can’t always go full nerd.
The problem is, you also probably want more than a flimsy set of pre-written questions from a pamphlet. You don’t have days and days to read. But you probably have a few hours, and you do want something a bit stretching to get you ready for Isaiah or Hebrews or whatever it is.
If you coordinate your church’s ministry, chances are you want that for your leaders too. The rise of Study Bibles, the “Help Me Teach the Bible” podcast, and YouTube overviews like The Bible Project are all signs we wouldn’t mind being a little more prepared.
A New Thing
Matthias Media have read the market and begun producing what they are catchily calling Matthias Bible Guides. Neither a commentary nor a set of pre-written questions, these guides “exist to help Bible teachers of all levels engage with the word of God and prepare themselves to teach the Bible to others” (see editor’s preface).
In my hand are the first two volumes. One is on The Letters of John by Matthew Jensen, and the other is on Song of Solomon by Kamina Wüst.
The first thing you notice is they’re fairly short. 120 smaller-sized pages, large font. I’m a slow reader and I got through Jensen’s book in about an hour and a half. The other thing you notice is they follow the same format. Both volumes have about 10 short chapters, (addressing topics such as the book’s purpose, structure or key ideas), and each volume addresses them in the same order.
Matthias Bible Guides
Matthias Bible Guides exist to help Bible teachers of all levels engage with the word of God and prepare themselves to teach the Bible to others. This series is for the Bible study leader who wants to equip himself or herself to prepare and lead studies that are faithful to the Scriptures and to answer questions with confidence. It’s for the busy preacher who’s faced with the wonderful but daunting task of writing a new sermon series. And it’s for any interested Christian who wants a reliable companion as they read through a book of the Bible, alone or with others.
A personal highlight from Jensen was his minority report on 1 John’s structure, and especially his pushback on the myth that 1 John is a circular, spirally, unstructured mess. There is a linear argument to John’s letters, and that’s a really helpful thing to know when teaching it (75–90).
Wüst’s volume was a little harder for me. My take is a little less critical of King Solomon and a little more happy to see Song of Songs play out as a simple love song between a king and his bride (a story Wüst and I both believe points to the gospel, 48–49).
That said, Wüst has done the hard work of making much of the book clear. She’s excellent on introducing high-level Hebrew without insufferable boredom (50–57), and she includes lots of helpful pastoral pointers (43–49, 77–81). For what it’s worth, I think Song of Songs is a good starting place for teaching the Bible’s sexual ethics, and Wüst’s little volume can help.
Not Quite a New Thing
This series is articulate, persuasive and pastoral, not to mention homegrown. Its stated purpose is to not just tell us what God’s word says, but help us learn how to see it for ourselves (3–5). A commendable, worthwhile task.
But that’s also why I was surprised. Often, it felt like the structure imposed by the editors didn’t serve that end.
Take Jensen’s structure of 1 John (75–90). Without a doubt, his analysis is incredible. When I first read his original journal article it changed how I understood 1 John completely. But if that’s the case, why was that chapter nine of eleven? Why wasn’t it front and centre where it could have served as a guide?
Or consider Wüst’s chapter on “key questions and debates” (82–86). Whether you agree with her argument or not, the first thing you’ll notice is how clearly and concisely its ideas are distilled. No doubt hundreds of pages of academic work are compressed so you can interpret the book on the right footing. But again, if interpreting Song of Songs’ is such a quagmire, why wasn’t that closer to the front?
In both of them, the systematic theology section (what you normally do at the end), came before “key words and phrases” (what normally helps you read the passages at the start).
Australians have long been famous for reading the Bible in a fresh, straight-from-the-text, no-holds-barred kind of way. That’s what we’re good at—as are Jensen and Wüst—which makes these books worth reading. However, I would love to see the editors allow structural flexibility across the series that lets each book of the Bible come alive in its own way. At the moment, the series’ rigid structure means it doesn’t quite hit the mark.
