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Getting Started With Serious Bible Study

By Hwang Keum-Ok

Many people of faith are interested in becoming a serious student of the Bible — but they are unsure where to begin. Becoming a serious Bible student requires a real commitment and a systematic approach, but it is not as complex and confusing as some might have you believe. In this article I would like to outline a view general recommendations that will help you to get started.

A Definite Plan Needed

One of the most important points to be stressed is that in order to be successful in Bible study you must have an organized plan. Many people feel this is beyond them because they are too busy — but in reality, the busier you are the more you need a plan! With a plan in place, even if your time is limited, you will be able to know exactly where you left off in your studies — busy people don’t have time to fool around using a disorganized, hit-and-miss approach. There are, of course, a multitude of different types of Bible study schedules and plans that are available — you can find many of them from Christian book publishers and from online sources on the Internet. The important thing is to have an organized approach — if you were a student in school studying economics, for example, your instructor would map out a complete program that would take you through the entire textbook — and this is the way you must approach your study of the Bible.

The Importance of Context

Ultimately, in your study of the Scriptures, your ultimate goal is to make sense of it all — to understand it, to interpret it — properly. And one of the fundamental rules of proper Bible interpretation is to consider the context of a Bible passage. “Context” has several different levels: the immediate context, which are the verses and passages that surround the one that you are studying, the book context (how a particular Bible passage fits in with the theme or message of a particular book of the Bible), the literary context (how one prophetical writing, for example, fits in with the other prophetical writings), and finally the overall context of the entire Bible.

Understand the Historical and Cultural Background

It is also important to understand something of the cultural and historical setting in which the writings of the Bible were given. The Biblical documents were written thousands of years ago — during times far removed from our own, when different nations ruled the earth, and when different customs and ways of living prevailed. None of us is born with a built in knowledge of those ancient times — we must take the time to learn about them. Fortunately, there are a great number of resources available that can assist us in understanding the historical and cultural backgrounds of the Bible — Bible study tools such as Bible Encyclopedias and Bible dictionaries can place the vast resources of biblical scholarship at our fingertips.

Get a Larger Perspective

As you study the Scriptures, try to relate the message and meaning of a particular passage of the Bible to the overall message of that entire biblical book. For example, suppose you are studying Exodus Chapter 20, the account of the giving of the 10 Commandments. You need to ask yourself questions such as — who wrote the book of Exodus? Who was the book of Exodus written to? What is the purpose of the book of Exodus? Getting answers to these questions is critical to gaining a proper understanding of what the Bible is all about.

Use Good Tools

Again, none of us is born with this information already packed inside of our head — we will at some point need to look up and research this background using different types of biblical reference tools — which means that part of your task as a serious Bible student is to build up, over time, a small personal or family biblical reference library. It is not that you were trying to become a “bookworm” — you should view these materials as tools, just as any painter or plumber or a electrician has their set of tools which they need to get the job done.

Fundamentally a Spiritual Pursuit

Finally, I would like to stress one last point: becoming a serious student of the Bible is just not a matter of using the proper techniques and resources — fundamentally, this is a spiritual pursuit. For those of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition, our ultimate objective is to be brought closer to the creator. This is why it is necessary to combine our study of the Bible with other spiritual disciplines, such as prayer. It is also important to keep in mind that we will need to have a great deal of humility if we are to properly benefit from a study of the Bible. Many people make the mistake of believing that every idea that pops into their head — every meaning that they believe that they see in the Bible — has been given to them by God! Humility is necessary here — the willingness to subject our interpretations and ideas to close and careful scrutiny. We need also to make sure that we do not become unbalanced in our interpretations, and put forth an idea which contradicts something taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. Remember: the Bible is its own best commentary. To summarize: have an organized plan for day-to-day study — do the necessary research — use reliable tools — look to God to guide you — be willing to test your ideas and interpretations. If you follow this plan you’ll get your Bible study off to a great start.

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Features to Consider When Evaluating Bible Software : Part 1

By Michael Furtney

Reading the Bible has never been easier. With the advent of the computer and the Internet, many versions of the Bible, previously hard to find, are now available and accessible by millions of
people. In addition to the Internet, many companies publish and sell Bible Software that allows users to browse and search various texts and translations of the Bible on their home computer.

When deciding what Bible software to purchase, check to see how the software you are evaluating stacks up against the following list of features.
1. What translations does it include? - Most companies that publish Bible software try to ensure that it has the most common translations available. For English, this would include translations such as the King James Version, the American Standard Version of 1901, the Geneva Bible and others. Some publishers may include additional modern translations such as the New International Version, the New American Standard Version, the English Standard Version, among
others.
2. What original language texts does it include? - The Old Testament Scriptures were originally written in Hebrew and some Aramaic. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. It is helpful when the Bible software that you are using includes the original language
texts. For the Old Testament, it would probably have the Hebrew Masoretic Text or it might have the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. For the New Testament, it may include different Greek New Testaments such as the Nestle Aland 27th edition, or the Scrivner Greek New Testament underlying the King James Version.

Check our next article for a list of additional features to consider when purchasing Bible Software. BibleOne is a Bible software program for Microsoft Windows. It contains over 40 texts and translations along with many helpful Bible study tools. Visit Http://www.Pewbible-s.com/audio-bible for more information

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Is it True That There Are Bibles For Everyone?

By Hwang Keum-Ok

I wonder if Johannes Gutenberg knew what a storm of words he was about to unleash when the first Gutenberg Bible rolled off the early printing press? In those days, the Bible was read only by those who were either wealthy and could afford a hand-lettered, illuminated edition, or the religious communities, whose primary purpose was preserving the Scriptures (and of course, the faith!). Now there are Bibles for everyone, regardless of social status or denominational allegiance. If you go online and do a search, you will find that there are Bibles for kids, all the way from babies who can’t read to teens. My daughter’s long time favorite was The Beginner’s Bible. She referred to Jesus as “Purple Jesus” because in her Bible, Our Lord wore a purple robe!

We know from many studies that men and women process information differently, and reading the Bible is certainly no exception. Thank goodness that there are Bibles for men as well as Bibles for women! There are some very good Bibles geared to issues with which men struggle - one that my husband likes is the Promise Keeper’s Bible for men, which has studies by many different, well respected Christian authors on a variety of topics. Women can derive a great deal of insight from such examples as the Daily Study Bible for Women, with studies for every day of the year written by Jill Briscoe. This is also true of the next topic: daily devotional Bibles. These are plentiful and are geared to children, teens, men and women, with sub-specialty areas such as sexual addiction or dysfunction in families. There are daily devotional Bibles and study Bibles that deal with virtually any topic that arises as an area of concern in Christian life. The difficulty lies in choosing just one of these excellent Bibles!

For the serious Bible scholar, of course, there are many different parallel Bibles. If you’re unsure about just what this means, it is quite simply several different versions of the Bible printed side-by-side in one volume. Full text Bibles (those containing both the Old and New Testaments) can feature four or more translations per page, while the New Testament only versions can contain ten or more translations. These are terrific for clarifying things during Bible study, Sunday school or church services. And Bibles are available in many different languages, as I said above. Spanish Bibles are a tremendous outreach to the Hispanic community in the United States or anywhere in Latin America. So you see, it is absolutely true that there are indeed Bibles for everyone.