Granddaddy’s Three-Way Bible Teaching Method

During my sixteen-plus years of homeschooling, I taught the Bible to my boys in various ways. I have also taught Bible classes of all sorts to elementary children at church. I have found that a good method is good in lots of situations, and I wish I had known this method when I was homeschooling!

When my boys were really young we read Bible story picture books along with the Bible. We memorized Bible verse songs and made charts of verses learned. Somewhere along the way we started reading straight through the Bible. In high school we used a college credit Bible video series, among other things. While there is value in all of the above methods, I came across a Bible study idea recently that I wish I had known about when my boys were younger. And to think it was sitting on my shelf all the time! The method I’m talking about is a three-pronged approach to Bible study given to me by my Great-Granddaddy Godsoe.

Dr. Godsoe (Granddaddy to me) was a Baptist preacher for sixty-five years. After he died, I happened upon my Granny’s house (Granny was his daughter) one day while she was on a cleaning spree. There were approximately forty old, dirty notebooks stashed in a box. These notebooks contained all of Granddaddy’s Bible studies that he wrote in his later years. I rescued them, cleaned them off, and stored them in my hall cabinet. I knew they were precious, but I was just so busy homeschooling that I didn’t take time to read them. Now that my boys are in college, I peruse the books from time to time. And guess what I found? A wonderful way for homeschool families to study the Bible!

Introduction to the Bible

One reason some people don’t understand the Bible is that they just pick it up and start reading, and sometimes that can be confusing. You may wish to just read this section aloud with your students. You can play one of the suggested games in the Appendix to help them remember the information.

Intro

The central focus of the Bible is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Behind and beneath the Bible, above and beyond the Bible is the God of the Bible. The Bible is God’s written revelation of his will to man. The central theme is salvation in Christ.

Miss Robin’s explanation for younger children: In the Bible, God tells us about Jesus, God’s Son, and how we can be forgiven of our sin. The Bible also tells us and how we should live after we have been forgiven. 

The Bible is a library.

The Bible is like a library of many books bound together in one. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, written by forty different men over a period of 1600 years. The authors were kings and princes, poets, philosophers, prophets, statesmen, and unschooled fishermen. The amazing thing is that even though different people wrote the books of the Bible, the theme and message are the same. We Christians know that the reason for this is that God inspired, or told, the writers what to say but allowed each to say it in his own way. 

Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21b

Miss Robin: You may wish to read this in a translation other than the King James, or else be sure to clarify that Peter is talking about the Holy Spirit here, not a ghost that today’s children will envision.

Translations of the Bible

The Bible is divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written mostly in Greek. (The exceptions are a few Aramaic passages.) Our Bible is a translation of these languages. As people study these old languages and cultures, sometimes they discover a different way a word was used or a new insight into what the author meant when he used a certain word. This is why new translations come out. We must be very careful when translating the Bible.

Divisions of the Bible

The Old Testament is the covenant, or agreement, God made with man about his salvation before Christ came. This is also called the Covenant of Law. The New Testament is the agreement God made with man about his salvation after Christ came.  This is called the Covenant of Grace and came to us through Jesus. The Old Testament begins with God, and the New Testament begins with Christ. Adam to Abraham is the history of the human race; from Abraham to Christ is the history of the chosen race. From Christ on we have the history of the House of God, otherwise known as the Church.

The Old Testament is divided into five sections, which should be memorized:

Books of Law: Genesis-Deuteronomy

Books of History: Joshua-Esther

Books of Poetry: Job-Song of Solomon

Major Prophets: Isaiah-Daniel

Minor Prophets: Hosea-Malachi

The New Testament is divided into four sections, which should be memorized:

Gospels: Matthew-John

History: Acts

Paul’s Letters: 1 Corinthians-Philemon

General Letters: Hebrews-Jude

Prophecy: Revelation

Granddaddy’s Three-Way Bible Teaching Method

Learning the Bible Through Principal Characters

Many people know some of the Bible characters but not all. Still others know the characters but can not put them in order. To be able to place the Bible characters in their right setting increases enjoyment of the Bible. String the characters in order from Genesis to Revelation. This will help you “think through” the Bible.

Principal Old Testament Characters

1. God
2. Satan
3. Adam
4. Noah
5. Abraham
6. Isaac
7. Jacob
8. Joseph
9. Pharaoh
10. Moses
11. Aaron
12. Caleb
13. Joshua
14. Othniel
15. Deborah
16. Barak
17. Gideon
18. Jephthah
19. Samson
20. Ruth
21. Samuel
22. Saul
23. David
24. Solomon
25. Elijah
26. Elisha
27. Kings of Israel (19)
28. Kings of Judah (20)
29. Isaiah
30. Jeremiah
31. Ezekiel
32. Daniel
33. Nebuchadnezzar
34. Cyrus
35. Zerubbabel
36. Ezra
37. Nehemiah
38. Esther

Principal New Testament Characters

1. John the Baptist
2. Jesus Christ
3. Disciples of Jesus, 3-14: Andrew
4. Simon Peter
5. James
6. John
7. Matthew
8. Simon
9. Philip
10. Nathaniel
11. Thomas
12. James, Son of Alpheus
13. Judas, Son of James
14. Judas Iscariot
15. Stephen
16. Philip
17. Paul
18. James, half-brother of Jesus

How to Teach the Bible Using Principal Characters

There are many ways you can teach the Bible using characters. The easiest way that comes to mind is to divide up the number of teaching units you need for your Bible class for the year or the time period you are planning for. Go down the list plugging in names of characters until you run out of spaces or characters. 

There are several homeschooling resources on how to plan a unit study, and you can go as deep as you like into these characters. If you want your students to get a general idea of the scope and sequence of the Bible, keep the studies fairly simple to begin with. Then as the children get older, you can use the same frame and go more in depth.

Use the Bible as Your Text

Use your concordance (esword.com is a wonderful online tool if you don’t own a concordance). You can search for topics and words to put together your readings on a character. After you read about the character from the Bible, you can add enrichment books from your own collection or the library. There is a list of enrichment activities for any Bible study at the end of this article.

Teaching the Bible by Principal Places

You can build your Bible lessons around these places, and you will have the whole story in chronological order. As you work through the Bible places, you can review the characters as they come up.

Principal Places in the Bible

1. Eden
2. Mount Ararat
3. Babel
4. Ur of the Chaldees
5. Canaan
6. Egypt
7. Sinai
8. Wilderness
9. Canaan
10. Assyria
11. Babylon
12. Canaan (after return of Israelites)

A list of enrichment activities for teaching Bible through Principal Places is found at the end of this chapter.

How to Teach the Bible Using Principal Events

Major Old Testament Events

1. Creation (Gen.1:1-2:3)
2. Fall of Man (Gen. 3)
3. Flood (Gen. 6-9)
4. Babel (Gen.11:1-9)
5. Call of Abraham (Gen. 11:10-12:3)
6. Descent into Egypt (Gen. 46-47)
7. Exodus (Exodus 7-12)
8. Passover (Ex. 12)
9. Giving of the Law (Ex. 19-24)
10. Wilderness Wanderings (Numbers 13-14)
11. Conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua 11)
12. Dark Ages of Hebrews (Judges)
13. Saul Anointed King (1 Samuel 9:27-10:1)
14. Golden Age of Hebrews under David (United Kingdom) (2 Sam. 5:4-5, 1 Kings 10:6-8)
15. Divided Kingdom (1 Kings 12:26-33)
16. Captivity (2 Kings 17-25)
17. Return (Ezra)

Major New Testament Events

1. Early life of Christ
2. Ministry of Christ
3. Church in Jerusalem
4. Church extending to the Gentiles
5. Church reaching out to the World
    

 Enrichment Activities

The following activities can be adapted for use in any Bible unit with children.

Bible Information Game

A favorite way to review children on Bible facts is to play tic-tac-toe. You can make a board out of anything, but a large poster board works well. Draw the tic-tac-toe lines as usual, making nine squares. Then make 5 X’s and 5 O’s out of construction paper.  (Please let children help if they are old enough!)

Write your study questions each day according to what you want to review. 

Example:  How many books are in the Bible? Answer: 66

After a child answers correctly, he or she is allowed to take a turn on the tic-tac-toe board. If you have several children, let them play as teams.

Memorizing Bible Verses, Books, Divisions, People, Places, or Events in Order

Take sentence strips and write the verse, divisions, etc. on them. Cut the words apart and shuffle them. Then allow the children to put the words in order. Variation: Write the words on a small strip of paper, cut words apart and wad up the pieces. Put them in a recycled (empty) prescription pill bottle or other jar with a top and put the lid on. Give children bottles and let them work their own puzzles. 

Take a ball or hacky sack and stand in a circle. Let the children throw the ball to each other. Each person says one word of the Bible verse, division, character list, etc.

Learning the Stories

Let children make up their own play and act it out. Take this as far as you want with video and audio.

Check out books from libraries about Bible characters. Even older children like breezing through picture books that are easy for them.

Learning Events

There is no better way and easier way to put historical events and people in order than the old homeschoolers’ stand-by, the timeline. These can be done any number of ways. In my day, we homeschool families displayed our timelines on the walls of our schoolrooms or even our living rooms! (I think this has gone out of style.)  Ready-made timelines can be bought as notebooks, but they are very easy to make yourself. You can also string a line across the room and use clothespins to clip the Bible events and characters in order.  Children love doing this.

Learning Places

Look in National Geographic and Biblical Archeology Review magazines and library books for pictures of Bible places. Google the names of Bible places for pictures and articles to look at on the computer. Some Bible study software includes pictures of Bible places.

Do map studies on Bible places. Make a big map to color while studying the Bible places.

Bible study with children need not be stressful or difficult. Using this simple framework, you can customize your own curriculum that is just right for your children. My general advice on this is to do as much enrichment as you are comfortable with. Use these ideas as a guide; do not become a slave to your curriculum. (If you would like more ideas on how to build on this framework, search the various homeschool catalogues for resources on how to design your own unit study.) 

Good teachers make things simple. They break big chunks of material down into more manageable pieces. Take these pieces of the Bible and hang them on Granddaddy’s framework. By the time you have gone through the Three-Way Process, your children should have a good working knowledge of the sweep of the scripture.