02.03. Introduction
Introduction As I think back to the time when I first became a Christian starting to study the Scriptures, I look at what was taught and what was not taught in the Church, at Bible College and at the Seminary. This article is an attempt to provide some of the basics that I wish I would have had.
Whenever we study or evaluate anything, we have presuppositions that we may or may not be aware of. Since these presuppositions affect our evaluation and understanding of what we are studying, we must first uncover our presuppositions and then evaluate them. Once we have done that, we can then understand what we are studying in a more open and accurate way.
While much material has been written on the Scriptures and doctrines, we should really study the actual Scriptures first to understand what is written without being swayed by what others have written. Good resources would include maps, charts, timelines and a brief overview of the Bible. An electronic Bible such as E Sword is very helpful in searching for a specific Scripture and comparing Scriptures and words. A good Hebrew Lexicon (Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions) and a Greek Lexicon (Thayer’s Greek Definitions) is available for E Sword. The “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia” provides a lot of good information on many topics but has some theological and presuppositional biases. In terms of some commentaries, the following would be suggested, keeping in mind that they will have some doctrinal and presuppositional biases and should only be consulted after doing your own study. (These are all available free with E Sword)
David Guzik’s Enduring Word Commentary
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary
It is helpful to have Strong’s Concordance or use a Bible that has Strong’s numbers in E Sword such as the King James Version (KJV) or the New American Standard Bible (NASB). The KJV comes free with E Sword, whereas the NASB is a paid add on. With these, searches can be done on the original language words.
R. A. Torrey has written an excellent book on “How to Study the Bible”
In our studies, we need to keep Jesus’ statement in mind as to our purpose in studying: