Knowable Word: Helping Ordinary People Learn to Study the Bible

In Knowable Word, Peter Krol has written a very short, readable, and reproducible book on the most important topic of study there could ever be: The Bible.  I am confident that biblical illiteracy is a major reason for church declines over the past decade or so.  Many people think that the Bible is foreign or irrelevant.  Even worst, a lot of church goers think they know "enough" of the Bible because they know some of the key verses.  Krol encourages his readers to not be afraid of the Bible and to read it...A LOT!

The strengths of Krol's work is the approach and examples he gives the reader. He writes as if you are in his office or meeting with him over coffee for discipleship.  Through the book he goes through Genesis 1:1-2:3 using the inductive study method of Observation, Interpretation, and Application.  A long the way through the process of breaking down the text, looking at key weds, repetition and etc, Krol gives forms and outlines that the reader could easily and quickly adapt to help them in their studies.  Even better yet, Krol has a whole website/blog dedicated to the the to topic of the book that can be found here. 

My favorite line from the book is "God’s knowable Word smashes like a jackhammer and repairs like a blowtorch. It rips us apart and puts us back together. It identifies exactly what is wrong with the world: me and you. It shows us the solution: Jesus. It gives us hope that we can break the patterns of brokenness and replace them with more life-giving options. Let it speak to the details of your life."  The more we read the Bible the more we are changed which is why I encourage this book for any Christian who needs a refresher or a beginning approach to studying the Bible.  

No book is perfect of course.  Krol does give an example of how Genesis 1 was basically applied to his life.  Though not wrong, I disagree with some of the conclusions and observations he has on Genesis 1 and the way it applies to us today.  I also would have liked to see more emphasis given to the meta-narrative or overall story of the Bible as a way to help readers begin to read and understand the Bible.  He briefly mentions it in the last chapter but it is more of an after thought.  Finally, though Krol does encourage his readers to read the Bible a lot I felt that he put the bar too high and then provided little direction.  Which then, in the end, may discourage his readers from even trying.  He could have encourage a progression of reading long chunks of Scripture and then given direction on how to read the Bible with the "Big Picture" in mind, but in this work he primarily stinks to the OIA method instead.  

Again, any work on helping people understand and read the Bible is worth reading so I do recommend that you read this work and more so I pray it encourages you to read the Bible more.  

It's Worth the Effort!