How to Read and Study the Bible Effectively

first of all i think it's helpful for us to read the bible daily i try to read at least a little bit every day and if for some reason i'm not able then i catch up i typically try to read the bible through every year and for the past 10 years or so i've used different translations in order to evaluate them but also to glean fresh insight and then i will compare them of course i was raised with the king james version so if i use a different translation especially if i see some new insight or doctrinal point that i hadn't really thought about i'll go back to the king james the new king james and compare them to make sure i think they're you know they're on the right track and of course try to dig into the underlying hebrew and greek text so what i would first of all suggest is make a habit of reading the bible regularly and consistently read it devotionally sometimes i like to read it fast so like to take the whole book uh one book of the bible and read it all in one setting or if it's a long book maybe in two or three days but to read the whole thing to get the whole context other times i like to slow down maybe just read a few verses or a chapter because i'm digging into the content but in addition to the daily devotional reading of the bible you can also study book by book so you take a book and you study the circumstances surrounding that book the the context the historical context why it was written who wrote it to whom was it originally written and what's what what are the main themes perhaps even look at an outline or make your own outline of the book so you're digging into that particular book that's a way to do a more in-depth study another way is a topical study so you take a subject such as spiritual gifts or love or hospitality or marriage and you trace it through the bible and i would always say you've got to make sure you end up in the new testaments because that's the greatest revelation to us and instructions for the church today but you study everything the bible has to say on a particular topic so that's another way to study now we really need to give some attention to how we interpret the bible and you may say well i just read it i don't i don't need any rules of interpretation i just read it well if you do that you do have rules of interpretation you just don't know what they are you're just coming to the text with your own presuppositions and you've never carefully analyzed what those are so i suggest that you carefully study and develop your rules of interpretation so to speak and then try to be consistent in applying them so i've written a book on that subject it's called understanding god's word and it goes step by step using the bible itself as a source what is the right way to read and understand what's the right way to study and interpret god's word or what's technically known as hermeneutics principles of interpretation so i do recommend that you read my book understanding god's word that will help you go beyond the surface and dig more deeply into the meaning of the text now once you start doing that then you need tools for study so you start and many sources are online and many sources you can do if you haven't if you have a bible reading program that's uh digital then of course you can do word searches and so on but several tools that you should have a concordance which helps you look up words and something like strong's concordance or young's concordance will help you start digging into the underlying meaning of the hebrew and greek word so you're not just searching for an english word and seeing what it means in english but you're studying the greek and hebrew words that are used in scripture so even if you don't know hebrew and greek those concordances and their other resources strong has numbers so the hebrew and greek words are numbered and see many other resources are key to those numbers so that you can use another resource and even if you don't know hebrew and greek you can study that word in that verse and get the meaning word studies then so if you don't know those languages they're good word studies like for the old testament a classic as nelson for the new testament classic is vine or a longer study is vincent and these are studies that help you dig into the meanings of the words then going beyond that bible dictionaries and more extensively bible encyclopedias they will give you information on certain subjects so if you're reading about jericho you can go and see what everything the bible has to say about jericho and maybe historical research archaeological research so a bible dictionary or a bible encyclopedia will give you more extensive knowledge of that particular subject there are all kinds of encyclopedias some are conservative some are not so you want to look at those that are produced by conservative bible-believing scholars evangelical scholars such one example b zondervan has a dictionary and also an encyclopedia the classic standard for a bible encyclopedia although it's not evangelical is the anchor um in bible encyclopedia and then going beyond that commentaries now i like to read commentaries that dig into the meaning of the text exegetical commentaries as opposed to commentaries that focus on making sermons which would be homolytical good examples that are conservative not too technical not too expensive the tyndale old testament commentaries the tyndale new testament commentaries they can be purchased individual volumes the new international commentary on the old testament the new international commentary on the new testament those are more extensive more expensive but still conservative evangelical the wycliffe bible commentary is a one-volume commentary and of course there are many others my book understanding god's word has an appendix that has tools for study and it breaks down each category including these that i've mentioned as well as some others and it gives you a list of resources under each category some of the older classic ones as i said are available free online some of the newer ones can be purchased online or of course hard copy but if you really want to do serious study of the bible you need to assemble some tools a small library of reference works that help you dig into the underlying meaning of the text so i i believe that we can study the bible through prayer through daily reading for careful thought but we also need to make sure we understand some important principles of interpretation and then once we do that we'll become more consistent in our study of the word and then developing these tools and i mentioned earlier using various translations so i have another podcast on that subject but i do recommend using a literal translation like the king james the new king james there are several others in modern english the modern english version but then also using a more idiomatic translation such as the new international version the new living translation and there are others and comparing them back and forth don't just make a major doctrinal point out of one wording make sure you look at several translations so that you have a good grasp and then as i said you could even use tools to go back into the underlying words in hebrew and greek to give you further uh further understanding i will say this don't let somebody intimidate you by saying well the greek means this and and the hebrew means this and so your doctrine is wrong the same arguments in hebrew and greek can be translated back into english and you're not going to establish a major doctrinal point just on the definition of one word you're going to establish a major doctrinal point by looking at the total context and looking at many passages relate to relate to that so while a study of the original languages is helpful and if you don't know those languages using tools that help you dig into those languages while that is definitely helpful can give you insight don't be intimidated as if you are not competent to understand god's word if all you know is english no you can understand god's word and god wants us to understand his word the entire protestant reformation was based on the understanding the word of god is not reserved for a few technical experts or for the church to tell you what it means or for the priest to tell you what it means but every one of us can read and study god's word and god's word will speak to us and we can know the truth there may be some passages that are difficult to understand where we have differences of opinion but all major doctrines and everything we need to be saved and to live a christian life and to exercise christian ministry can be clearly understood if we will faithfully read and study god's word