Kinds of Bibles

In order to understand the Bible, it is helpful to know which Bible you are talking about. For instance, if you are discussing the Bible with a Jewish friend, you should understand how their Bible is different from ours.

Bible Facts

• The Bible was written over a period of 1600 years with over forty authors. The authors ranged from peasants to Kings.
• All of the writings represent the inspired revelation of God.
• The Bible contains 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament
• There are 2,930 people in 1,551 places

Why Should I Study the Bible?

The Bible depicts the history of the way in which a loving God has worked with his people for over 2,000 years to bring them in relation with Him.

Since the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirt (2 Peter 1:21) it is God's revelation to us and points us to Jesus. The Bible is as relevant to us today as it was to the people to whom it was written. The Bible is meant for daily living in faith and hope and is for regular people to study, understand, and apply

God has enabled man to preserve the Bible so that people subsequent to the time of Christ can review that history so that they can apply it to their present lives. The Christian view is that the Bible is the ultimate authority on how to live one's life in obedience to Christ and service to God.

How do I Study the Bible?

This page does not attempt to teach you how to study the Bible. There are books published on that subject! It does attempt to whet your appetite and get you started.

Reading the Bible is good but it is not the same as studying the Bible. You must take notes to study. If you are not taking notes, then you are reading, not studying. The Bible can be studied using a variety of methods. A few of them are listed below.

It is important to remember that the authors of the Bible were not writing what they wanted, they wrote what the Holy Spirt told them to write.

"for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit"

2 Peter 1:21

Some things to keep in mind

• The Bible a spiritual book. When you need to gain a better understanding about what a passage means, compare the passage to similar passages in the Bible. Pray about it, ask God to help you understand.
• Do not take a passage out of context. You can show that the Bible says almost anything by doing that. Look at what the rest of the Bible has to say about a subject.

Choosing the Translation

The Bible has been translated into over 2000 languages. In the English language alone, there are multiple translations or versions of the Bible. How can you know which version you should use? Each translation was written using a set of principles to guide the translators. No one set of principles is right or wrong. They just achieve different goals. Click here and here to learn more about the popular translations. Bible translations range from literal to paraphrase. The literal translations take each Greek or Hebrew word and try to supply the correct English word. The paraphrase translations try to capture what the Bible would say if it was written today.

Because the paraphrase Bibles contain a lot of the author's opinion, they should not be trusted by themselves. However, they may be helpful in giving you insight into what the Bible is saying.

At Bethel, we prefer the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation. The NRSV is a very current translation which is both scholarly and easy to read.

Types of Bible Study

There are many different ways to study the Bible. The important thing to remember is what you learn should be meaningful to you rather than simply an academic exercise. For instance, if you are bothered by a particular attitude or attribute in your life, you might want to try to define a word that describes that attitude/attribute and then do a word study on that word.

Topical

Select a subject and trace it through the scriptures using a concordance, chain reference study Bible, and a dictionary.

• Application oriented
• Great for witness and world view
• Requires great awareness of "proof texting". Proof texting is where you only look for verses to support your point of view.

Biographical

Select a person and trace the person through the scriptures using a concordance, study Bible, and a dictionary.

Character Study

Choose a character quality that you would like to study and then see which people in the Bible exhibited that quality. Also take a look a people who did not exhibit that quality.

People

Focus on the people found in the Bible.

• They were alive and real
• They need to be real to us today
• Look at why their story is being told
• This is a good method for the historian and cultural enthusiasts

Book Survey

Select a book and understand or master it's authorship, to whom it is addressed, it's purpose, main teaching by using a concordance, study Bible, and a dictionary.

• Gives you the big picture of a called people and how God works with them
• Major Themes
• Focus on the writer, readers, and main characters
• Looks for an organization and/or outline

Chapter

Select a chapter in a book and understand or mastering it's authorship, to whom it is addressed, it's purpose, main teaching by using a concordance, study Bible, and a dictionary.

Verse/Passage

Study one verse or a small group of verses at a time

• Some are more significant than others
• Comprehend context and similar passages elsewhere

Word Study

Lookup the Hebrew or Greek word in a concordance and see how else the word is used in the Bible. It is also helpful to look up the word in a current dictionary to see what the "real" meaning is rather than the context our society has placed on the word.

• Be careful you don’t take the word out of context
• This method involves a lot of work
• Leads you to discover themes