Lesson Notes

Introduction

Tonight we finish Understand & Study the Bible with a look at helpful tools. Next week we begin a new course on Developing Personal Spiritual Habits: Scripture meditation and memorization, prayer, public and private worship, giving, fasting, silence & solitude, serving, and sharing.

We have 5 to Thrive and both this current course and the next one are meant to help us develop the practices that  historically have brought Christians nearer to God with increasing godliness.

Before we talk tools, I wanted to briefly follow up on last week’s discussion of prophecy:

• I talked about what to do with foretelling-type prophecies – those making predictions – figure out the timeframe and whether it is past or present
• What about forthtelling – the majority case?
  • It isn’t just historical insight into the problems of ancient Israel!
  • These reveal God’s eternal character
  • When God condemns Israel for covenant unfaithfulness, worldliness, idolatry, and injustice toward the poor and vulnerable, recognize there’s a message for us today!
  • If God cared about it then, He still cares about it!
  • Reflect on the devastation God brought upon those nations and then make sure you and the church aren’t practicing unfaithfulness, worldliness, idolatry, or injustice toward the poor and vulnerable!

 

None of these tools are required to understand or study the Bible – you have intelligent minds and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. However, we live in a golden age of tools to help us understand, study, and teach

• We’re foolish not to take advantage of what’s widely and often cheaply available
• We also live in a golden age of garbage, so be careful!
• Not even the best of these tools is the inspired word of God, so don’t treat them that way – if something they say doesn’t make sense, it could be wrong

These items can be very expensive, but you can find some of them online for free, or if you’re always looking, you can occasionally find them at deep discounts

• Periodic sales at Lifeway, ChristianBook, Green Valley Bookfair
• Some, especially commentaries, are often much cheaper on Kindle (Amazon.com)
• BibleGateway.com has every translation and some free resources, plus other resources you can access for $4/month or $40/year
• Logos is the gold standard for Bible study software – you can get a nice beginner set with each of these kinds of resources for $50, but the sky is the limit!
• If you know what’s available and understand what would be useful, just start building your library over years, that’s what I have done

Your First Tool – Study Bibles

• The most basic tool is a Study Bible – personally I recommend everyone get one
• Good ones have short versions of all the tools I’m going to discuss tonight
  • Should have introductions to each book – major themes, outline, authorship, dating, timelines, etc.
  • Extensive notes at the bottom of each page
  • Cross-references to related passages in the margins
  • Usually a concordance in the back, plus maps
• Not all are created equal – get a general purpose one, rather than a special interest one
• Look inside it before you buy if it possible
  • See what kinds of maps and pictures are there
  • Read the notes that go with a difficult passage you’ve studied recently to see if they make sense and are helpful

Background Tools: Bible Atlases

• A collection of maps with explanations of major places mentioned in the Bible
• Very helpful in sorting out all the funny names you encounter over and over again – how nations are situated, where cities or towns are, the Sea of Galilee, etc.
• Helpful in following and understanding some of the great journeys in the Bible – Abraham, Exodus, Jesus, Paul
• Should have maps at different points in time based on the time period you’re studying – Patriarchs, Exodus, Conquest, Kingdom, post-Exile, time of Jesus, Paul’s journeys, etc.

Background Tools: Timelines

• Just what it sounds like – covers a topic (or every topic) with a detailed timeline – a standalone timeline for major events can be helpful
• Helpful for getting events straight in your mind
• Rose Publishing makes the prettiest in my opinion – about $3 each at ChristianBook, $4 at Amazon!

Background Tools: Background Guides & Commentaries

• Books that help explain the culture and customs of the day that you read about – weddings, family, food, farming, ceremonies, rituals, work, government, etc.
• Guide books cover these topics one-by-one
• Commentaries address passages or verses in order – rather than explaining the meaning of the passage like a regular commentary, they explain the cultural background

Tools for Words: Bible Dictionaries

• Super helpful – to  understand what a particular word means in a biblical context rather than simply modern English
• Ideally get one correlated to your preferred translation of the bible so the words you are interested in appear.

Tools for Words: Concordances

• An index to every usage of a particular word in the Bible – for a specific translation
• Often short ones in the back of study Bibles, but to do a deep study, get a dedicated concordance
• Words are alphabetical, then underneath are fragments of the line including that word with the book, chapter, and verse reference
• Great for finding parallels or getting illumination on how a word is used by an author or throughout the whole of the Bible
• Helpful when you can’t quite remember where a verse is, but you remember a key word – though your phone is helpful if you can remember a whole phrase

Tools for Passages: Multiple Bible Translations

• Either buy them or go to BibleGateway.com or get the YouVersion app
• My favorites for comparison: ESV, CSB, NIV, NLT, NASB

Tools for Books: Bible Handbooks

• A relatively small volume that briefly summarizes each book of the Bible individually or that addresses major eras of  history, topics, or figures in the bible
• Introduces authorship, historical context, major themes, useful background, outlines

Tools for Books: Bible Surveys

• Textbooks that delve into greater depth than handbooks regarding every book of the Bible or every book in a particular Testament
• Includes history, issues of interpretation, outlines, major themes, and section-by-section interaction

Tools for Books: Commentaries

• The most in-depth study of Bible books – generally verse by verse.
• These can vary from extremely helpful to extremely WRONG, ungodly, and/or heretical
• Often sold as parts of sets – don’t buy a set – buy the best faithful commentary for each book as you need it – I have some resources that can help you with that 
• These are often considerably cheaper on Kindle
• Commentaries broadly come in 3 different levels – lay person, pastor, and scholar
  • What’s the issue? The higher level technical commentaries require more and more knowledge of the original Greek or Hebrew and include more interaction with differing perspectives!
  • They also address more detailed or minute technical issues you may not care about