Bible Study Tools

Tools Of The Trade

Here is where you’ll find what Bible study tools we use and where you can get them. Once you have them you can join us in our upcoming Online Bible Study (OBS) and download each lesson. These lessons are a mirror of what we are going over when we gather on Sunday mornings here at BHF. There will be audio as well as written commentary for your own personal study. Also, if you have any questions, there will always be someone there that you can contact. Look for this to come soon.

In the meantime, there are a couple of tools that you’re going to need to get the most out of each study.

Bible

The first and most important one is a Bible. Go figure huh? I suggest the KJV, ASV, NKJV or RSV but you can follow along with just about any.  I don’t recommend anything like the Good News Bible or the Living Bible as these translations are grossly inferior and not as accurate as most of the other translations.

Two of these versions you can get for free with a fantastic program called E-Sword.  You can download this  and you’ll have all your study material in one place on your screen. It’s HIGHLY recommended that you download and install this program. Some of the add ons do cost but they are very affordable and you can add as you desire instead of buying them as part of a package. When you can, bless the guy with a monetary donation. He did a great job with this.

If you’re looking for some more in depth software, there’s Quickverse , PC Study Bible, and Logos, another fantastic program which is for Mac users as well as Accordance. The latter two can be a little on the pricey side (as all things Mac are) but if you have the money and the dedication, they are excellent study aids.

Concordance

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. A concordance is indispensable in understanding exactly what a passage means by looking at the original language and the meaning behind those words literally. This is included with E-Sword in the KJV+ version. The small green numbers reference the original language and it’s literal meaning. All you have to do is move your cursor over the number and a small box pops up with the definition details.

Bible Dictionary

There are a lot of good bible dictionaries out there but I prefer you use one of three: Easton (comes with E-Sword once downloaded), Unger’s, and Holman’s. I won’t take definitions from any other.

Having these will further give insight to the culture, background, and attitudes of the people in the Bible.

These are essential to go through our studies. The following are optional if you want to further your education in God’s word.

Commentaries

These are writings from various Bible scholars, theologians, and teachers that can unfold and explain a passage in a way that will be easy for you to understand. They do not all agree on every single point but the majority of them agree on about 85% to 90%. Having more than one helps. Some of the ones are Matthew Henry (available for free with E-Sword), Warren Wiersbe (of which there are Old and New Testament versions), John MacArthur and William McDonald (Believers Bible Commentary).

Maps

It’s good to have a general lay of the land of the biblical era and to know where the many places mentioned in the bible were in relation to one another as well as how this has changed today. These also can be downloaded for free with E-Sword or many Bible’s have these.