Teach Yourself Bible Study Part I

The Bible is the single most important book for Christians.
Nothing comes before it. But it was not written in our own language and therefore there is a problem of reaching a better understanding of what it says. Fortunately we do not have to be familiar with Greek or Hebrew for this.

What follows in this article relates mainly to the New Testament,
although the general principles will apply equally to the Old
Testament also

PURPOSE
The purpose of Bible study is to increase and deepen our
understanding of what God has said to us through it and, indeed, what he continues to say to us.

The various translations available to us are very competent works
and, to a large extent, the one we use is a matter of personal
choice. But which translation we opt for, it is bound to be
imperfect. Remember the old adage: "The Greeks have a word for it"? Well, they always do, but very often we do not have a corresponding word in English. Translators therefore have to select their best option, and very often they choose different ones. Sometimes it would take several English words to express adequately what is meant by one Greek word, but translators usually have to pick one.

Then again, the meaning of a word or phrase might be strongly
affected by time and culture. So the same word today might not
be understood in the same way. The purpose of Bible study is,
therefore, also to uncover these differences in meaning.

THE TOOLS
There are a number of tools available to those of us who are not
acquainted with New testament Greek. These can be very helpful in taking us to new depths of understanding. Moreover, the range
available offers to us different depths of study, depending on
how far we want to go. It might be useful, therefore, to indicate,
say, three levels and the kinds of tools which can take us to them.

Level One: a study/student's bible; a popular type of general Bible commentary.
Level Two: a more scholarly Bible commentary; special commentaries on Bible books of particular interest (e.g. Luke's
gospel); an inexpensive concordance; two or three different translations of the Bible.
Level Three: a Parallel New Testament In Greek and English; Strong's Concordance; one or more Bible word studies.

The nature of some of these might not be known to every reader. A study Bible has the usual text of the Bible (in whatever translation) plus very detailed notes on the text. The notes explain various aspects, such as the meaning of some words or phrases, the context or culture in which they were used, references to the people who wrote the text and their attitudes, etc. Obviously, as soon as we move away from the Bible text itself, we have to be aware that the commentator will himself have particular values and judgements which influence
the way he writes and what he says.

The latter remarks clearly also apply to Bible commentaries. On the other hand, much study and expertise lies behind the expositions which are given in commentaries. So we need also to be aware of the degree of scholarship which lies behind these works. However, what we have called "popular" commentaries do not go into too much depth and hence are relatively quite short and inexpensive. At Level Two we are considering commentaries which do go into considerable depth, are much longer and relatively more expensive. They may also be rather more difficult to understand. Special commentaries come in a range of sizes, levels and sizes, so one need to have a good look at the shelves in bookstores or libraries before buying.

A concordance lists all the words in the Bible. Some are extensive, some are complete in what they include. Cruden's is an inexpensive, though complete concordance. Strong's Concordance is worth its weight in gold -- and that is a very great deal of weight! But it is exhaustive, and every word has a specific number and there are definitions of them all as well as cross references relating to how they were derived.

Word studies concern themselves with a limited selection of words which the author considers to be particularly important or
problematic or which need special explanation of their context
and the way they were used at the time.

A parallel New Testament in Greek and English is a really good
buy and very useful. For example, "The Zondervan Parallel New
Testament In Greek And English" comes with three versions of the New Testament, including a literal translation of the Greek which is placed under the Greek text itself so one can see much more easily and more exactly what is being said.

BUYING FROM THE INTERNET
It may sound very expensive to acquire all these volumes, and so
it can be if all are bought new. But it is usually possible to
obtain many, if not all of them, from sites such as Amazon and
Abe's Books as used copies. These are often in very good condition.

In Part II of this article we shall look at the methods for using
these various tools

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