These studies and articles are written to help you get to know some of the ‘Great Cloud of Witnesses’ which the Bible tells us about. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of stories of men, women and children who had experiences and faith that can challenge and encourage us. We hope that as you get to know them, some will inspire you as you live out your own faith.
You can use all of these studies in different ways, either on your own or in a group setting. Each style has a logo so that you can tell at a glance which they are.
Are typical Bible studies designed to do either by yourself or as a small group to study and learn together.
Consider a character but with optional discussion questions. If you want to use them as a group we suggest that everyone reads the article first, and then you can discuss issues it raises using the questions.
Give you options, 3 ways of using the same study; an inductive method, a question & answer method and a devotional method. You could do one or more of these steps to really get to grips with the character.
There are many men and women in the Bible who 'pop up' from time to time across large chunks of scripture. They're not usually the main character in a story, but often play a crucial 'supporting role'. These studies are designed to help you read through longer passages, and track with that character, 'unravelling the threads' of their story - to see what we can learn from men and women of God over a period of time. We suggest that you read them with your Bible open beside you so you can read the appropriate passages and not just take our word for it!
You can also access characters by theme, biblical book and chronological sequence, just make your choice and click on the icon.
These studies aren’t claiming to be the definitive final world on a biblical character, they are a starting point, a way to begin to think about our fore-fathers and fore-mothers and see what we might learn about following God from them. We also want to say that exclusively doing character studies isn’t the best way to handle the Bible. There’s a lot more in Scripture than just narratives, like law, letters, worship, & wisdom! Our recommendation is that you use these resources alongside other things and get a ‘balanced diet’ of Bible study.
We hope these resources will inspire you to do your own studying, to dig in the Bible, learn about God, find your own heroes and, ‘Run with perseverance the race that is before you’. (Heb. 12.1)
The author, Ruth Perrin, is a Research Fellow at St John's College, Durham University, an associate staff member at King's Church Durham and a trainer in Christian leadership. She has 20 years ministry experience primarily (though not exclusively) with students and young adults. She speaks regularly at national and ineternational events.