“How To Study Your Bible”

Many books will inform you, the Bible will transform you!

Salvation

o Romans 3:23 (all have sinned and come short of God’s perfect standard) – No one is perfect.

o Romans 6:23 (For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord) – We can’t earn our way, we can’t buy our way. We are eternally separated from God unless we repent and trust in Christ.

o Romans 5:8 (God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us) – No matter what we have done, where we come from, He made us and he loves us and He died for us.

o Romans 10:9 & 10 (If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.)

If you have never given your life to Christ, stop right now and receive His forgiveness for your sins and thank him for dying for you.

Does it matter which version I use ?

We can divide them into three broad types: word-for-word, meaning-to-meaning (also called thought-for-thought) and paraphrased. Usually a particular Bible version will explain, on its introductory pages, which approach was used in preparing it.

The word-for-word versions most accurately follow the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. The King James Version and its modern counterpart, the New King James Version, are word-for-word translations as is also the New American Standard Version. The accuracy of a version is obviously of utmost importance. To establish sound doctrine the first choice of versions should be a more literal edition such as the King James, the New King James Version or the New American Standard Version.

What about the meaning-to-meaning versions? They can be valuable in putting the Scriptures into more understandable wording. The New International Version is a meaning-to-meaning translation. The meaning-to-meaning versions explain the point more clearly for most readers today, although the word-for-word versions are a more direct translation of the original

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language. So, when the text is not clear, many times a modern meaning-to-meaning translation can help.

A meaning-to-meaning translation is also helpful in conveying the point of ancient figures of speech—idioms—that would not make sense to us in modern language. In general, meaning-to-meaning versions use more up-to-date language and thus are easier to understand—although, again, they are not the best choice for establishing doctrine because they at times involve some interpretation of what the original writers intended to say.

Paraphrased Bibles Paraphrased Bibles, such as The Living Bible or The Message, also can be useful. Their goal is to make the Bible even easier to read in modern language. We should be cautious in working with these, however, because the authors exercised considerable "poetic license" in interpreting biblical terms and passages according to their own personal religious ideas.

NASB New American Standard Bible (1971; update 1995)

AMP Amplified Bible (1965)ESV English Standard Version (2001)RSV Revised Standard Version (1952)KJV King James Version (1611; significantly

revised 1769)NKJV New King James Version (1982)HCSB Holman Christian Standard Version (2004)NRSV New Revised Standard Version (1989)NAB New American Bible (Catholic, 1970, 1986

(NT), 1991 (Psalms)NJB New Jerusalem Bible (Catholic, 1986; revision

of 1966 Jerusalem Bible)

NIV New International Version (1984)TNIV Today’s New International Version (NT 2001, OT 2005)NCV New Century VersionNLT1 New Living Translation (1st ed. 1996;

2nd ed. 2004)NIrV New International reader’s VersionGNT Good News Translation (also Good

News Bible)CEV Contemporary English VersionLiving Living Bible (1950). Paraphrase by Ken

Taylor. Liberal treatment of ‘blood.’Message The Message by Eugene Peterson (1991-2000s)

Tip: When considering purchasing a Bible, pray before you go, ask for discernment, choose a key verse or passage and compare the versions. Some verses to consider: I Thess. 4:15 – 18 (description of the Rapture) or Luke 1:27 and Isaiah 7:14 (Mary’s virgin birth). Note also in the study Bibles what the notes about these verses say. Do you agree? Take your time, be in the moment, think about it, and consider what you are reading. Remember – “garbage in, garbage out.”

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Simple Bible Study

1. Develop some kind of routine where you can read and study regularly . It might be in the morning or in the evening or over the lunch hour or while the little ones are napping or at school. But figure it out and make it a date!

2. Pray! Luke 24:45 says: Then he (Jesus) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Each time you sit down to read or study, ask Jesus to open your mind so you can understand what you will be reading or studying.

3. Read! Where do I start? Choose one of these methods to start.

Start with the NT – Read 1 gospel, jump to the book of Acts and read to the end of the NT. When done, choose another gospel, jump to Acts and read to the end. Continue until all gospels have been read. (That’s 4 times thru the NT)

Get a Chronological Bible and start reading. It reads like a history book so it makes the OT come alive and make sense. It will blend Kings and Chronicles together and mix in the Psalms as they come along.

Get a Bible reading schedule and read the Bible thru in a year.

Read 1 Proverb a day and 5 Psalms a day. I would add my NT reading along with this.

Get a Parallel Bible and read using one of the methods above. Cost: like any Bible you can spend from $25 to $75, depending on how many translations, Bible cover, large print, etc.

Read the words of Jesus. If you have a red-letter Bible, use that. Can use Chronological Bible or Parallel Bible also.

Choose a different version and choose one of the methods listed. Reading the same passages through different versions allows the Holy Spirit to show you something different each time.

Read parts of the Bible you have never read before (or not for a very long time).

Use an Interlinear Bible. The Interlinear Bible is keyed to the Greek and Hebrew text using Strong’s Concordance. Read the original and literal Greek or Hebrew text with Strong’s words using the King James Version or New American Standard. The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible in 1 volume retails for $69.95. CBD (Christian Book Distributors) has it on sale for $34.99 during March & April.

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4. Incorporate Writing in with your Reading

o Choose a short book, such as one of the Minor Prophets or any of the shorter NT books. Read through the book in one sitting. Read that same book every day for two weeks (or more). Then write a summary of the book and how the Holy Spirit moved in your heart during this period.

o Read a section of the Bible (chapter or passage) and journal about it.

o Keep a list of interesting words, places, things, people, etc. that catch your eye while reading. Notate the book and verse where you found this beside your entry.

o Buy a spiral notebook and start taking notes during sermons. Review the sermon notes on Sunday afternoon or during your quiet time on Monday. Have a question about something that was said? Send an email to the Pastor or another Leader and ask.

o Study the outlines that go along with the sermon each week (these are available on our church website and can be printed from there). Look up any verses that were listed on the outline whether discussed in the sermon or not. Add to your list anything you want to study about further or at another time. Keep a file of the outlines for future reference.

o Read through a book of the Bible and then outline it. Then outline each chapter as well.

o Have a box of colored pencils (or highlighters) handy. Determine each color will represent a doctrine (salvation, eternal security, baptism, what happens to body & soul when you die, rules for daily living, prayer, apostasy) As you read and find a verse that deals with one of topics, color the verse in the appropriate color. Keep a list of the verses for each color on a separate paper or in the front or back flyleaf of your Bible.

o Read through the book of Deuteronomy. Record similarities you find between the Bible and how our government is set up and run. (Deut. 13:12-15 – trials and lawyers)

5. Memorize the Word

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o Did a verse make you stop and pause, reflect, say “Oh my”, repent? Write it on an index card (with the book and verse) and stick it in your purse or on the bathroom mirror. Read it often and think about it.

o Then commit it to memory. Repeat often so the verse “sticks”.

Intermediate Study

Concordance: A concordance is an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts.There are two kinds: One is usually found at the back of your Bible.

o Commonly used words are listed and verses where those words are most commonly used. This is NOT exhaustive and does not list Greek and Hebrew words. It’s there to find verses quickly.

An example: Be STILL and KNOW that I am the Lord. Look up each key word and see if you can find the reference verse. (Ps. 46:10)

o The other is an Exhaustive Concordance. The most commonly found one is Strong’s and is keyed to the KJV. It’s good for finding verses but also great for looking up words in the original language. Strong’s is a 1000+ page index of every word in the KJV. After creating a list of every Hebrew and Greek word in the Bible, he numbered them so a reader would not need to be familiar with the order of either alphabet to look up a word. It’s this numbering system that we will reference.

There will be a difference if you are using an NIV Bible and the KJV concordance because the words aren’t always the same.

Look up a word “Guard” as you would in a dictionary. To save space, the word you are looking up will just be a letter. In this case “G”.

Find the verse in the first column – 2 Timothy 1:14. You won’t find this word in this verse. In the KJV, it is translated “keep”. So look up the word “keep” and find 2 Timothy 1:14.

In the far right column, there are ditto marks. Move your finger up until there is a number: 5442. Strong’s uses ditto marks to refer you to the same number used in a Scripture reference above. This is called a reference number found in Strong’s. Remember this number.

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The OT was written in Hebrew and the NT was written in Greek. Important to remember or this won’t make any sense.

Go to the back of the concordance past all the adjectives and very short words. You come to the Hebrew and Chaldean Dictionary and then you come to the Greek Dictionary of the NT. Make sure you are in the right one!

The numbers in italics are what you are looking for (remember: 5442). The next is the Greek word in the Greek alphabet. The next word is the English transliteration. It’s the Greek word spelled with the

English alphabet letters that correspond to the sound of the Greek alphabet letters. There is a phonetic pronunciation of the Greek word. Then there is a semicolon followed by the etymology or derivation of the word. This

is where Pastor gets the “this is where we get the word…” Then there is a second semicolon, after which in italics, comes the definition – to

guard, watch. After this comes a colon and a dash (: -) which precedes a list of all the ways

Phylasso has been translated in KJV.

Expository Dictionary. It is a cross-reference from key English words in the KJV to the original words in the Greek texts of the New Testament. This classic reference tool explains over 6,000 key biblical words. One of the best known and most widely used is Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words.

To use it, you will need to have the KJV English word (keep) and the Greek word (transliteration) from your concordance. (Phulasso).

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The first word is the transliterated word – phulasso. The second word is the Greek word in the Greek alphabet Next is the definition – in this case four definitions noted under (a), (b), (c) and (d). Some Scripture references are listed. At the end, Vine indicates that more information might be present under “beware” at

entry #3 and under “guard”, entry #1 under B. Note that 2 Timothy 1:14 is not listed here as one of the Scripture references, so in order to determine the definition, context will have to be your guide. Here, either definition (a) to guard, watch, keep watch or (b) to keep by way of protection would fit the context, but (c) and (d) don’t seem to fit.

Take it back to the verse: You would be able to see that “guard” (keep in KJV) in 2 Tim. 1:14 means “to guard, to watch, to keep by way of protection, to keep in safety, to preserve”. Take this information back to the text and see that in this context, the word “guard” means – “Guard (watch, keep in safety, protect, and preserve), through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

NOTE: The text always dictates the meaning of the word. Just choosing a certain definition that sounds good to you or fits with a certain viewpoint and then imposing that meaning into the text is not an accurate handling of God’s Word. Context rules in determining the way a word is used.

Commentary: Another source you can use to help you understand a passage better is a commentary. It is a verse by verse study of the Bible. Matthew Henry is probably the most popular but there are dozens. Henry's commentaries are primarily exegetical, dealing with the scripture text as presented, with his prime intention being explanation, for practical and devotional purposes.

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Remember: this is someone’s opinion of a Biblical passage.

Vine’s retails for $39.99 Christian Book Distributors has it on sale for $12.99 during March & April.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance retails for $29.95. CBD has it on sale for $12.99.

You can get Strong’s and Vine’s together (2 volumes) for $22.99 on sale at CBD in March & AprilNew Bible Commentary retails for $45.00. CBD has it on sale for $28.49 during March & April.

The Internet The best website I have ever come across is www.blueletterbible.org. This is a one-stop website that is dependable and thorough. Let’s take a look:

Put in 2 Timothy 1:14 and hit enter. Put cursor on each blue button on the left as introductory. Open each button and compare with what we found in the actual books.

o Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is useful if the word you are studying is listed as one of the references. In this case, it is not.

o Concordance – this is great. Notice the box on the upper right about the root word. “Through the idea of isolation”. This added more than what we were able to discern from the books. Sometimes the best way to guard or keep something is to separate away from what might be damaging to it. Further down is other places in the Bible where that same Greek word is used.

o Commentary – click on the “L” and you get a drop down menu. There are audio and video commentaries on the verse; scroll down further for other commentaries. Notice Matthew Henry that I referred to earlier.

o Versions/Translations – All kinds of different translations of the same verseo Click on the “D” – Dictionary aids. Scroll down to Vines Expository Dictionary and

then down to the word “Guard”. Scroll down to 5442. Notice other verses where that word is used.

Let’s look at another verse we were looking at earlier. Psalm 46:10 – Be STILL and KNOW that I am the Lord.

Back to the beginning. Put in Psalm 46:10 and hit enter. Notice that there is more to the verse than was remembered. Notice the squiggly line under the blue “K” button: The cursor says Hymns. Hit the drop down menu and there is one hymn taken from this verse: Be Still, My Soul. Click on it and you get some history on the hymn, photo of the writer and the words to

the hymn. Notice on Psalm 46:11 – it has an “I” blue button. Put the cursor on that and it says

Images/maps. Click on that and you get a drop down menu that shows a Cities of Refuge map.

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Back to Psalm 46:10. “K” – Scripture knowledge. Notice the blue button “TSK Help”, click on that and you get a tutorial on how to use this button more thoroughly.

This is no lexical concordance; the editors of the “TSK” are not concerned with tying words to their exact matches in other portions of Scripture (as others have accomplished such tasks admirably—a la Strong's concordance work) but instead, the editors offer a concordance of ideas, an index of thoughts. And so, each of these underlined words are the phrases around which the TSK builds its correlative framework.

The “C” is the concordance. Click on “Be Still” = 7503. Notice it says to relax, let go, to be quiet. Click on “Know” = 3045. Notice it says – learn to know, distinguish, know by experience.

Now take that back to the verse. Be still (relax, let go, be quiet) and know (learn to know, distinguish, know by experience) that I am the Lord.

“L”- Commentaries: Hit the drop down menu and notice that there is an audio/video of Elisabeth Elliott on the Path of Loneliness. She’s the wife of Jim Elliott who was murdered back in 1954 in Ecuador by the Indians who lived there.

“V”-versions. Different ways the verse is translated. NASB (New American Standard Bible) says to “cease striving”!

“D”- Dictionary Aids. Various topics to consider.

Other Bible Study online websites:

http://biblos.com/www.Studylight.org

Suggestions for Study: Choose a word & reference that you wrote down sometime as you were reading. Open

the Exhaustive Concordance and note the Strong’s number used for that verse. Look up each verse that uses the same Strong’s number. Pay special attention to the first time that word is used in the Bible called the “Law of First Mention” which simply means that the very first time any important word is mentioned in the Bible. Scripture gives that word its most complete, and accurate, meaning to not only serve as a "key" in understanding the word's Biblical concept, but to also provide a foundation for its fuller development in later parts of the Bible.

Struggling with a particular problem, sin, temptation, etc and can’t seem to get a handle on it? Determine a key word for that area – tongue, words, mouth, worry or trust for instance. Look up the key word(s) in the Exhaustive Concordance, noting the verses. Look up each Bible verse. Write out those verses that impact you the most on index cards. Commit those verses to memory or at least a good working knowledge of them. Post them on the bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, the dashboard of your car, in your purse or pocket. Refer to those verses often. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to bring these verses to “top-of-mind” each time you confront your particular struggle. Ask Him to give you the victory over this area.

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Fascinated by a character in the Bible? Use your concordance to find out where in the Bible this character appears. Remember the “Law of First Mention”. Read all the passages about that person. List their strengths and accomplishments and their weaknesses and mistakes. What lessons from their life can you learn? Note their “vital statistics” such as occupation, where they lived, who were their contemporaries, etc. Also, note a key verse about that person’s life. Is this a person you should emulate or avoid?

Interested in a particular location in the Bible? Follow the same questions as the bullet point above. Is this a place you would like to visit or avoid? Compare what you find in the Bible with its same location in modern times? Has it grown or decreased? Does it still have the same name? In what country is it located?

Inductive Bible study

There are 3 principle parts to inductive Bible study: Observation, Interpretation and Application

Observation: What does the passage say? It is the foundation which must be laid if you want to accurately interpret and properly apply God’s Word.

Interpretation: What does the passage mean? The basis for accurate interpretation is always careful observation. It is the process of discovering what the passage means. As you observe Scripture, the meaning will become apparent. However, if you rush into interpretation without laying the vital foundation of accurate observation, your understanding will be colored by your presuppositions – what YOU think, what YOU feel, or what OTHER PEOPLE have said, (remember reading those books found in the Christian book store?), rather than what God says. Hand-in-hand with observation is cross-references in the Bible. Always let Scripture interpret Scripture. And remember that the Bible passage may include figures of speech, parables or allegories.

Application: How does the meaning of this passage apply to me? Proper application actually begins with belief which then results in being and doing. Once you know what a passage means, you are not only responsible for putting it into practice in your own life, but accountable if you don’t!

Step 1: Choose your verse: Let’s look at I Samual 3:7-10 . Read it Underline, circle or mark text if you would like

Step 2: List the facts: (Observation) What does the passage say? Make a verse-by-verse list of the most outstanding, obvious facts Consider who, what, when, where and how Don’t paraphrase, be literal as you list the facts

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Step 3: Learn the Lessons: (Interpretation) What does the passage mean? Remember - context rules Consider the theme of the book, figures of speech, parables or allegories Do any cross-references come to mind? Are any given in your Bible? Look up any key words in a concordance or expository dictionary to add clarity Check your conclusions by using reliable commentaries Identify a lesson to learn from each fact. Focus on spiritual lessons

Step 4: Listen to His voice: (Prayer) What does the passage mean to me? Rewrite the lessons from step 3 in the form of questions Be personal as you formulate your questions.

Step 5: Live in Response: (Application) Pinpoint what God is saying to you from this passage. How will you respond? Write down today’s date and what you will do now about what He has said.

Practice these steps using: 2 Timothy 1:8-14

Suggestions for Study: Choose a short book, such as one of the Minor Prophets or most of the NT books. Read through the book in one sitting. Proceed through the 5 steps above.

Questions to consider when reading chapters of scripture:o What I learned (summary of reading)o The verse or verses most directly apply to meo What I must do to obey

The following questions are adapted from Age of Opportunity, by Paul David Tripp, page 161:

1. What does this passage teach us about God, his character, and his plan?2. What do we learn about ourselves, our nature, our struggle, and the purpose of our lives?3. What does this passage teach us about right and wrong, good and bad, and true and false?4. What instruction is here about relationships, about love, authority, etc.?5. What does this passage teach us about life, its meaning and purpose?6. What does this passage teach us about the inner man, the heart and how it functions?7. What have we learned from this passage that would guide the way we live and make decisions?8. How does this passage help us understand and critique our culture? Prayer:

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Confess and repent of sin revealed (Psalm 52:1-4)Give thanks for God and His help to be obedient to what you have learned (Hebrews 2:18)

List of books and authors who can help you learn about inductive Bible study:

Anne Graham Lotz – God’s Story; Finding Meaning for Your Life Through Knowing God. Through this Bible study, she teaches the inductive method.

Kay Arthur – The New How to Study Your Bible (she also has a kids version to make it even easier)

John MacArthur – How to Study the Bible Tim LaHaye – How to Study the Bible for Yourself

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