Welcome to the Bible Study Man website where I hope we can learn together what The Bible has to teach us. My aim is to bring this amazing book alive in a fresh, interesting and sometimes challenging way!
I have divided the site into four main sections detailed below. Feel free to explore and if there’s anything you can’t find or understand - get in touch!
Carl Nielsen, January 2018
P.S. If you'd be happy to sign up for the monthly newsletter (see the form at the bottom of this page) I'll keep in touch with you once a month (no more, I promise!) via email to let you know my progress.
The Four Main Sections
1. Online Teaching Sessions
Would you think I’ve learnt anything by reading The Bible from-cover-to-cover many times over several years?
I certainly hope I have! I also learnt from my time wrestling with clinical depression. What I’ve come to call The Nielsen Creed has it’s roots in that time:
God is God.
God is Good.
I am His.
And He is mine.
I unpack this and other subjects in this growing library of video and audio sessions.
On the live sessions interaction is encouraged.
2. Dramatic Bible Readings
Have you noticed that people often read The Bible without emotion?
There’ll be none of that here! If you read the texts it is sometimes clear that the speaker is angry or sad, other times not so much. For example was Peter saying “If YOU say so...” or “IF you SAY so...” in Luke 5:5? We don't know but I feel that a little conjecture can help throw some light, providing we know we’re guessing!
So what I'm attempting is to bring The Bible to life with very expressive readings. I doubt my interpretation accurately reflects the mood or emotional tone of the original, but I think it’s an interesting and sometimes enlightening alternative to the usual formal reading style.
3. Bible Reading Plan
Have you ever tried to read The Bible from cover to cover?
If not and you’d like to, then this day-by-day plan will help you to read the entire Bible in one year. It takes less than half an hour a day even if you’re a slow reader like me!
The plan is based on four traditional sections - The Law (Torah or Pentateuch); The Prophets (Neviim); The Writings or Poetry (Ktuviim) and The New Testament.
As a sample, today’s sections to read are Deuteronomy Chapter 11 verses 18 to 32. Follow that by reading Ezekiel Chapter 48 verses 8 to 35. The third part is Ecclesiastes Chapter 5; and lastly James Chapter 3. Enjoy!
4. The Bible
Do you know the difference between ‘God’, ‘ The Lord’ (as opposed to ‘The Lord’) & ‘God Almighty’?
No? neither do I! Well that's a bit strong; what I mean is, it's not obvious which relates to the original words for God; and the differences are interesting. I’m more clued up about ‘elohim’ - the closest to our English ‘god’; ‘Adonai’ - ‘The Lord’; ‘YAHWEH’ - The name of God (the one that’s often rendered ‘The Lord’ with the small caps) which I am rendering ForeverOne. Or the four different words for love in the Greek texts that transform the traditional readings.
I wanted a translation that brought these interesting differences to light but couldn’t find anything that worked for me. The interlinear texts which seemed so promising to begin with turned out to be way too clumsy to actually use on a daily basis it seemed to me; I am not an expert in Hebrew or Greek but have some knowledge and lots of resources to draw upon. Anyway I discovered there was a public domain modern English translation and realised I could build it myself from that... Easier said than done!
So what I have is a minor adaptation of the World English Bible which includes nuanced meanings of particular ancient words for placenames, for God and others of special interest. This is a growing list and I welcome any suggestions for investigation and possible inclusion.
