I’ve decided to take my notes from a class I taught on Understanding Scripture last year and upload them as posts to this Blog. This post is about using various tools to help you understand the Bible. Originally, this material was taught in five sections. Here, it has been split into more manageable chucks. Several posts came before this one. You may want to check them out before you start this one.
Why use tools?
By tools I mean those things which can aid you in understanding a given text. Dictionaries, other translations, commentaries, study Bible notes, and the like. The problem is that our culture is so far removed from the culture of the Biblical audiences, that we need help understanding many things if we are to understand the Bible properly. Many of the questions you asked when you marked up your text are going to be hard to answer without someone else’s help. Hopefully, we’re not so prideful that we cannot accept the help of others who have studied these things more than we have.
Tools for understanding words
Other Translations
Translations are the first step we take toward understanding an original text. The Bible was not written in English; parts of it were written in Hebrew, parts in Aramaic, and parts in Greek. Some translations aim to capture the thoughts of the original author and translate them (the niv, nlt, cev, etc.); this results in a more readable translation. Other translations seek to translate word for word what the author originally said, seeking to let you do the work of understanding the author’s thoughts. Translations like this include the nasb, the esv, the nkjv, the kjv, the ylt, and others. One other type of translation is a paraphrase (“the Message,” “the Living Bible”), these should be avoided because they sacrifice far too much.
For studying purposes, a word-for-word translation is best. There’s nothing wrong with reading a thought-for-thought translation, but when you’re studying you want to get as close to the original text as you can. The nasb and the esv are my two favorites, but there is no such thing as a perfect translation. All translations have their problems. The nasb tends to sacrifice the feeling of a passage in favor of having a more precise translation; it sounds rigid or wooden at times when it probably shouldn’t. The esv tends to be less precise while trying to preserve the original feeling of the text. I like to read both.
The kjv and the ylt were both translated a very long time ago and were not translated from the same manuscripts as modern translations. That means that sometimes the kjv or ylt will have an extra word or even an extra verse. The debate over which manuscripts are closer to the originals is outside of the scope of this series; I personally prefer the manuscripts from which the newer translations are made (they’ve been proven to be older). The problem with using the older translations, outside of the manuscripts issue, is that they will use language that we don’t use anymore. That adds another layer of obfuscation between the reader and the text because not many people know (for example) what Rebekah did in Genesis 24:64 when the kjv says she “lighted off the camel.”
In short, read lots of translations. Seeing how each translation did things should help you a lot. Your primary Bible for studying, though, should probably be a nasb or an esv.
Dictionaries
In the days of old the only way to look up a word in the Bible was to have an absolutely massive dictionary that indexed every word in the Bible; this dictionary was named the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” after the man who made it and (presumably) how he felt after he was done making it. Fast forward to today and you can do Bible word lookups on your computer or even iPhone. There are lots of choices on how to do this: e-Sword is a really good free option for PC’s.
These dictionaries are directly tied into a translation. Translations don’t always translate a word in the original text the same way throughout the entire Bible. Often (but not always), this is for good reason; words in the original languages sometimes had more than one meaning. Looking through the Bible to see how a particular Greek word is translated in other places can give you a better idea of what that word means. Doing this is far better than going to a normal English dictionary because you are closer to the original text. Websites like biblestudytools.com will let you go to a passage in the nasb and see all the words as links that you can click in; clicking on a link will take you to a page where you can see the original Greek word, some notes about its translation, and all the other places in the Bible where that word is used.
Other Tools
Cross-References
Cross-references can be extremely useful. Sometimes they’re related to the original language, showing where another word or phrase has been used before. Other times they are just things that the translators thought looked related; these aren’t as helpful, but they can provide useful insight. Cross references in the New Testament that reference the Old Testament are often my favorites; they’re often very helpful.
Commentaries
There are many kinds of commentaries, and you need to be careful. Some commentaries are more like sermons; explaining the message of the book instead of just giving you the information you need to find the message for yourself. That’s not the kind of commentary you’re looking for if you want to be serious about Bible study. You’re looking for exegetical, technical commentaries. They will almost certainly be a little over your head (hard to understand), but they will allow you to figure out for yourself what the author is saying, rather than simply being told. BestCommentaries.com provides a helpful list of user-rated and categorized commentaries.
Websites
You need to be careful with websites; they’re not always reliable. Still, though, looking up a place or a concept on Wikipedia (or elsewhere) can be a helpful and quick way to get a brief overview of something. Another helpful site is net.bible.org; they provide insights into why the net committee translated things the way they did. Bibleplaces.com is great for pictures of Biblical locations, and bibleatlas.org is helpful for maps. There’s also Google.
Other People
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are probably people at your church or school who know more about the Bible than you do. There are also probably people who simply have a unique perspective on things. Don’t be afraid to ask; I’m sure they’d love to help. Even if they can’t help you understand something, you might end up accidentally helping them with something; that’s always cool. You should also make a point to ask people who you know will disagree with you, not to correct them but with a heart that is willing to learn.
Pray
We’ve talked about this before, so I won’t spend too much time on it. God can teach anyone He wants anything He wants, regardless of how dumb or inadequate we feel. You need to humble yourself and ask Him for help. Your Father will help you get to know Him if you ask Him; He loves you.
Summary
There are lots of tools out there. Try them out. If you need help, ask. Make sure, though, that your goal is to understand the original author’s message. There is a lot out there and it’s easy to be led away from the text and spend all your time reading other things. God’s words are found in His Word. The tools exist to help you understand it, not to take its place.
We’ll go over, in more detail, how to use each of the tools in class.
