All Christians need to read their Bibles to stay connected to God. It is also good for us to step in further and study the word. We have another article that covers in depth why all Christians should study the Bible. Be sure to go read it here if you haven’t yet. Studying the Bible helps us to understand the time period and why certain things were written. However, finding a good source is not always easy. Through a lot of research and reading some not so great books. I have been able to find some books to help anyone study the Bible.
The Bible
You are probably wondering how the Bible can help you study the Bible. Well if you want to study God’s word you need to always first start in the original source. That being the Bible. Many books can give you the information from the Bible in another forum. However, some people may take certain verses out of context to help justify their specific beliefs. Be sure to have a good knowledge of the Bible so when you do read other peoples works about the Bible you do not get confused.
You also need to form your own understanding of the Bible. Make sure that it makes sense to you. We should never just take anyone’s word, outside of the word of the Bible, and apply it to our life as our opinion. That really goes for anything everyone is biased to their personal beliefs so they may only show you one side of a story. So be sure to always do your research and come to your own conclusion based on fact and not opinion. The only sure fire way to do this when dealing with the opinions of Christians is to compare what they say to the truth you find in your own Bible.
Bible Encyclopedia
Yes, these do exist, in fact, if you search for a Bible encyclopedia on Amazon you will see a bunch of them. I actually found one that I am interested in while doing research for this article. It is called the Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines. These specific book looks great because it offers many great color charts that help illustrate the history of the Bible. I currently have an older one that discusses mainly the time and culture of the Bible.
Bible Encyclopedias are great because they offer so much useful information. Plus they are easily affordable and easily found at used bookstores. They work great for Children and adults alike due to the great illustrations many offers. Now if you are just interested in facts you can find many that do not include fancy illustrations. However, I personally like to keep things a little fun when trying to learn what can often be difficult concepts.
Strong’s Strongest Concordance
A Strong’s Concordance is a must have for anyone trying to get deeper into the word. It allows you to see any occurrence of a word throughout the entire Bible. If you want to learn more about prayer. Just find the word prayer in your concordance and you will be able to see ever passage that includes the word prayer. You can learn how it was used in the Old Testament and then head into how Jesus prayed in the New Testament.
These books have been around forever and somehow they keep updating them. You can often find an older copy at a used book store for a very reasonable price. Even now they are normally no more than 40 dollars. Some of them even include a complete dictionary of Biblical words in them. Allowing you to learn even more from just one book.
TouchPoints For Men
Sometimes it can be hard to find the exact answer you are looking for in the Bible. This book really makes that really easy. You can look up any issue or theme and it will give you a biblical answer. Along with the scripture to back it up. The book uses the New Living Translation for the verses. I highly recommend this book to help anyone looking to answer questions biblically. You can find a version of it on Amazon here. That is the best part of the deal, it only costs five bucks. It is probably the cheapest resource I have in my arsenal.
Different Bible Translation
Hold on isn’t the King James Version of the Bible the only true translation? Aren’t all others full of errors and missing key scripture? Yeah, we are definitely not jumping into that fire today. If you want to have those discussions you can find many other articles and even videos. I will say that sometimes reading from a different translation can help you to see things you may have missed in a translation like the King James.
Often times at church the preacher will explain something by saying well when this was written that word meant something else. For instance, the word bowels in the King James version of the Bible means compassionate feelings. Well, that is a completely different meaning then we have today. So when you read Philippians 1:8 in the King James.
8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
It makes far less sense to us today. If you read it in the New Living Translation it makes far more sense.
8 God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.
I will often read from the different Bible version to try an better understand certain scripture. It also helps to keep me focused and not get to used to the same old same old. The best thing is you really don’t have to by another Bible either. Apps like the YouVersion Bible app allow you to read from almost any translation for no cost. Some apps even allow you to view two translations side by side. I would definitely recommend that anyone looking to gain a better understanding of the Bible picks up another translation from time to time.
Conclusion
There are so many great books you can get to further your knowledge of the Bible. This list just consists of books and types of books I have found great success in using. Since we are always discovering new resources be sure to keep up with the website. I am sure we will share more great resources in another article down the line. For instance, we are starting to look into some Bible commentaries, but have not used any enough to really give our opinion on them. If you have any book recommendations that help study the Bible please let us know in the comments.
Thanks For Reading
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