Bible Study Tools Lesson 5

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE
Lesson Five: Bible Study Tools

There are a number of very helpful (some may say necessary) Bible study tools.

1. SEVERAL VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE

You can get a better sense of the meaning of the original Greek and Hebrew by using several versions of the Bible.

A translation = AS LITERAL AS POSSIBLE. An example is the New American Standard.

A paraphrase = A FREE OR LOOSE TRANSLATION. An example is The Living Bible. A paraphrase is always easier to read, but it may not always be accurate. Many times a paraphrase includes some of the translators ideas of what the text means. In other words, the translator also does some explaining along the way.

A Study Bible = a translation with all kinds of notes, and introductions, and study helps built right into the Bible. There are a number of them available, some good, some not so good. One of the better ones is the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. It lists many topics, has a very good chain-reference through the Bible, and as much as is possible, stays away from particular Church doctrines.

As I said, there are many good study Bibles available. Check your local Christian Book store.

2. A CONCORDANCE

A concordance is an alphabetical list of all the words in the Bible. It is a tool then, that allows the Bible student to study all of the places in the Bible where certain words or ideas are found. A concordance is the basis for building Christian doctrine.

Strongs Exhaustive Concordance is the best, because of its Hebrews and Greek dictionaries, which are designed for the use of English readers. It is called an "exhaustive" concordance because it includes every single word in the Bible.

3. WORD STUDIES

Word studies are expanded dictionaries of words used in the Old and New Testament. They tell you the wider meanings of Greek and Hebrew words and how they were used in their historical setting and in the Bible.

For the New Testament, I recommend Vine's. For the Old Testament, I recommend the two volume set, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. This second book sounds intimidating, but it is quite easy to use and has a wealth of information. Also, it is keyed to the word numbers in Strongs which means any English reader can use it.

4. BIBLE DICTIONARIES

A "word study" as Number 3 above, is a dictionary of Greek or Hebrew words used in the Bible. A Bible Dictionary is like a one volume encyclopedia of Bible facts, including people, places, and doctrines. I recommend The Illustrated Bible Dictionary edited by Herbert Lockyer and published by Thomas Nelson.

5. BIBLE HANDBOOKS

A Bible handbook is a kind of combination Bible Dictionary and Bible Commentary. Instead of listing topics alphabetically, a Bible handbook lists them in the order of the books of the Bible, giving historical and theological information along the way. I recommend either Unger's Bible Handbook or Halley's Bible Handbook. Both have been around for years, and one or the other is available in bookstores.

6. A ONE VOLUME COMMENTARY

A commentary is a chapter by chapter, verse by verse, sometimes word by word explanation of the Bible, taking into consideration matters of language, history and theology. Nearly any one volume commentary by a major Christian publishing company is going to be helpful. There are also many, many individual commentaries on each book of the Bible, if you want more detail. Or you can get commentary sets, which may have twenty or thirty volumes of commentaries, something like an encyclopedia. As you can well imagine, building a Bible study library can become an expensive proposition!

7. A NOTE BOOK

There is no better way to meditate and do Bible study than by writing things down. You may resist this. You may even resent it. But there is no substitute. Writing does several things;

(a) It helps you ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS.

(b) It helps you REMEMBER what you learned.

Lesson One Lesson Two Lesson Three Lesson Four Lesson Six Lesson Seven