Here are some study methods for the Word. https://www.pexels.com/el-gr/photo/1296720/
First, A Note About Versions of the Bible
[Making time to daily read the Bible is more important than which version you read. There are over 450 English versions of the Bible. My dad used to say we should read them all. Some are paraphrases and are usually labeled as such. A paraphrase doesn’t try to translate from the original language, but attempts to create a simplified easier to read version and can often wander from the meanings found in the original text. These are alright for easy reading but any serious study should use a one of the more widely used translations. One version deliberately changes the meaning found in the original text is The New World Translation (NWT) by Watchtower Publishers. The NWT inaccurately changes many of the passages that say that Jesus is God, denying His Deity. Most of the widely used translations are available online. Here are some free online Bible resources with the more widely used translations available for further study:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/ (14 English translations and paraphrase versions with study tools such as Strong’s Concordance.)
https://www.biblegateway.com/ (60 English translations and paraphrase versions and hundreds of languages)
http://worldbibles.org/ (Bible translated into over 4,000 languages, free for downloading.)
Some Bibles are called study Bibles and contain background on the setting, geography, and history behind the stories in the Bible. If you are good with maps, check out the maps in the back of many Bibles, or lookup the location and setting in a Bible atlas or even Google maps. Here is a map resource with locations for nearly every story in the Bible— https://www.bible.ca/maps/ . You can also use the Internet to see if you can find a picture of where the event happened. Look up some of the more difficult words in a Bible dictionary or Biblical encyclopedia on resources such as www.blueletterbible.org and www.biblegateway.com . As you do these things, you will find you are forming a picture like a movie in your mind that God can use to communicate with you through the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember, God’s Word is not from man but from God, through the Holy Spirit, and it is supernatural—its alive! To experience this quickening of the Word, see tip 2) The Best Prayer You Can Ever Pray.
Don’t Just Read the Bible – Study the Context – The Bible is a historical account but includes sections that can be literal, historical, proverbial, allegorical, and prophetic all at the same time. Many passages are called “types” or typological, meaning the historical activity foreshadows some future activity. For example, the account of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea foreshadows the practice of baptism in the N.T.
As mentioned previously, the Word is unlike any other book in that it is alive. Understanding the Word can be unlocked with the Helper, God’s Holy Spirit—see tip 2) The Best Prayer You Can Ever Pray, along with some key elements of knowledge. A study Bible can help provide knowledge of the historical, cultural, and wider context of the passage you are reading.
Taking a passage out of its context can be dangerous. For example, the laws in Deuteronomy about the sacrifice of animals based on the wider context of the N.T., does not mean we sacrifice animals today, but foreshadows Jesus as our sacrificial lamb who will once and for all take away our sins.
Understanding the closer context of a portion of the Word you are reading can be critical as well. If you try to believe God is speaking to you by randomly opening your Bible and reading a phrase out of context, the results can be disastrous. For example, the passage:] [Mat 27:5b NKJV] 5 …, and went and hanged himself. [clearly is Satan’s will for you, not God’s based on:]
[Jhn 10:10 NKJV] 10 "The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly.
[Note that God can speak to you with a passage that may have a meaning separate from its context. For example, here is an interesting passage where God tells Jerimiah not to pray for Israel.]
[Jer 7:16 NKJV] 16 "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.
God promised—in the first five Books of the Bible containing the Old Covenant between the children of Israel and God—that if Israel agreed to keep the Ten Commandments, including not to worship idols, and God would bless them. However, if they disobeyed, He would eventually allow them to be carried off into captivity. In the context here the children of Israel were violating their covenant with God as they had done on and off for the past 900 years. God wanted them to receive the consequences of their sin for a time, and then He would restore them to the promised land. Although we are no longer under the Old Covenant of the Law, but a new Covenant of grace, God may at times want someone to experience the consequences of their sin so they will come back to Him willingly. In those cases it is ok to pray that they experience those consequences and that God would bring back to remembrance the truth of His Word to them as well as laborers for the harvest into their life to speak the Word of truth that will set them free from the lies of the adversary—see tip 34) How to Pray that We Complete the Great Commission and See Salvation for Ohers. This is an example how a prayer prayed under the context of the Old Covenant can be re-applied in the context of the New Covenant. Again, the key is to make sure that what you think may be from God is in-line with the broader message of Scripture.
Don’t Just Read the Bible – Pray for Understanding – Asking God is another important note about understanding context and how to apply what you are reading.]
[Psa 119:18 NKJV] 18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law[the Word].
[Luk 24:45 NKJV] 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
[Jer 20:9b NKJV] 9 … But [His word] was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding [it] back, And I could not.
[Jhn 14:26 NKJV] 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Check your attitude when you go to the Word. Be careful to not just do your daily reading as a duty, but do it with expectancy that God is going to reveal something new to you. I pray a prayer like this before I begin reading the Word: “Father in Heaven, teach me how to learn and to ask You questions. Soften my heart so that I have ears to hear, understand and remember what you want me to learn from your Word. Thank you for teaching me.” It’s all about your heart attitude when it comes to studying the Word. We should approach the Word with expectancy and excitement of what He is going to reveal to us, knowing the Holy Spirit will reveal the Word of truth to you.
Living Out Four Types of Bible Study
1) Systematically Reading Through the Bible – After you have read the suggested first time reading order—see the suggested order in the abbreviations section below—you need to select a daily Bible reading plan to begin regularly reading through the entire Bible. There are numerous reading plans that divide up the Bible chapters so you can read through in 1-year, 6-months, or 2 years. It is good to start with the N.T. You can search online for a reading plan to read through the entire N.T. in 40 days taking just 45 min. per day. Some reading plans and daily reading Bibles organize the passages chronologically, while others try to mix in a daily Psalm and/or Proverb along with a mix of O.T. and N.T. readings every day. I like both the chronological Bible tools like the Harmony of the Gospels where the 4 Gospels are organized in parallel columns so you can see the overlap between the 4 accounts. I also like the reading plans that regularly intersperse a passage of reading from the N.T with the O.T readings. I find that often the N.T. passage I read has links to the O.T. passage I recently read. To make time for the other forms of Bible study listed below, I am currently on a 2-year reading plan which only takes about 15 minutes a day, allowing me time for these other forms of Bible Study below.
2) Topical Study – After you have read through the entire Bible several times, including at least once chronologically, continue but slow down your through-the-Bible reading and start a topical study. Topical studies use Bible study tools like an online Scripture word search, concordance, Bible dictionary and other tools, to research a specific topic (i.e. prayer, peace, healing, grace, etc.). This prayer guide is an example of an in-depth topical study on the subject of prayer. I found that the free online resource www.blueletterbible.org has powerful tools to study a specific subject, including commentaries by Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and others. Another resource I used is Andrew Wommack’s Living Commentary https://lc.awmi.net/ which includes continually updated comments on over 24,000 of the Bible’s 31,102 verses and is updated monthly. His commentary includes comments on more than 95% of the verses in the N.T. and 75% of the verses in the O.T. But remember, commentaries are the last resource you should use when studying Scripture. The best commentary of the Word is other passages in the Word. www.blueletterbible.org includes a word search tool that will call up every occurrence of a word or phrase, and tell you how many times that word occurs in over one dozen different English translations, and if you select the KJV or NASB versions you get access to Strong’s Concordance which show you the how the word was translated in other locations in Scripture, and easy access to all those locations. This looking up of a word in a Concordance is known as a Word Study.
3) Word Study – In the process of a topical study you may want to look up the word you are interested in, in its original language. You can do this without knowing the original language by using a Concordance. Most Concordances use the Strong’s number system, where every word used in the O.T. and N.T. are assigned a number. You can then easily use this numbering system to look up all the occurrences of the word and see how the translators translated it in the KJV or NASB versions. For example, if you look up the word “pray” in the N.T. (Gr. erotao, Strong’s no. G2065) here is some of the information you will find using the online concordance at www.blueletterbible.org:
KJV Translation Count – Total: 58x
The KJV translates Strong’s G2065 in the following manner:
ask (23x), beseech (14x), pray (14x), desire (6x), intreat (1x).
Outline of Biblical Usage:
I. To question
II. To ask
a. To request, entreat, beg, beseech
Synonyms (other words all translated “pray”):
aiteo G154 – denotes a request for the will
deomai G1189 – the asking of the need
erotao G2065 – denotes the form of the request
Vines Dictionary G2065 – Pray
Ask: more frequently suggests that the petitioner is on a footing of equality or familiarity with the person whom he requests. It is used of a king in making request from another king, Luk 14:32 of the Pharisee who "desired" Christ that He would eat with him, an indication of the inferior conception he had of Christ, Luk 7:35; cp. Luk 11:37; Jhn 9:15; 18:19….
The concordance shows us that the Greek word erotao (Strong’s G2065) is translated more often (23 times) as the word “ask” and only 14 times as the word pray. It also shows three other synonyms to the word pray that we could also look up in the concordance. In addition, the www.blueletterbible.org site provides access to other resources such as Vine’s Bible Dictionary, providing a more detailed definition of G2065. The site also includes other tools such as Trench’s Synonyms, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, as well as lists every verse where the word is used so you can explore the local context where it is used. This is a powerful way to gain insight into the meaning of the word in the original languages the Bible was written in.
Another easy to use resources is the Amplified Bible. It is literal translation available free online at: https://www.studylight.org/bible/amp.html.
The translation expands and provides additional verbiage to explain the meaning of the Word or phrase. The Amplified Bile Translation is more than twice as long as most translations and is difficult to read all the way through, but is good when studying a few verses at a time as part of a more in-depth word study.
4) Spirit Led Meditation Study – Not to be confused with new age, eastern meditation or chanting, meditation in the Word is a positive imagination, thinking about the Word, the Law and its precepts, the history, the prophecy, the parables, and the teachings found in the Word.]
[Jos 1:8 NKJV] 8 "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
[Psa 1:1-2 NKJV] 1 Blessed [is] the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
[How do you stay in the Word and meditate on it day and night?]
[Isa 26:3 NKJV] 3 You will keep [him] in perfect peace, [Whose] mind [is] stayed [on You] [the Lord], Because he trusts in You.
[The word “mind” (in Hebrew, “yester”) here is found 9 times in the O.T. More than half the time the word is translated “imagination.” The way you meditate on the Word day and night is to keep your imagination stayed on the Lord. A negative form of imagination is worry. We often can worry while we are doing various tasks—driving, doing dishes, etc. This is a negative use of our imagination that robs us of our peace. A positive form of imagination is hope.]
[Heb 11:1 NKJV] 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[Thinking, imagining about the Word we have read each day, picturing it in our minds, is meditating on the Word. Here is an example of some of the revelation I have received from the Holy Spirit by studying and meditating on the who, what, when, where, why and how the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. How the army of Egypt was swallowed up by when the sea closed up again. It’s like creating a movie in your mind of what you have read, imagining all the aspects of what happened. The exercise of your imagination based on the Word, builds your faith and allows the Holy Spirit to come alive in you. For example, my studying has revealed to me things about the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea and Jordan River, that foreshadow two of the baptisms discussed in the N.T.]
[Psa 78:13 NKJV] 13 He divided the [Red] sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters [of the Jordan] stand up like a heap.
[Contrasting Scriptures are often found in the Word. In this passage, both of these waters lie within the same Great Rift Valley. The same Valley that contains the Dead Sea and the destroyed wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The first crossing to the South was through salt water sea and the second was 200 miles North through a fresh water river. At the first crossing the waters were divided, the second, the waters were piled up. The first parting of the waters, or baptism led, out of slavery and into their covenant with God and Mt. Horeb and rebellious wanderings in the wilderness. The second led into the Promised Land and rest from wandering. One can draw a parallel between this wilderness experience and the life of many followers of Jesus who are saved from the slavery of sin but continue to rebel and sin anyway after they are saved and even water baptized. Entering into that Promised Land rest could be a foreshadowing of a second work of baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to note that the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan in the same area where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Combine this fact with Heb. 3:7 to 4:10, which further discuss how entering into the promised land was a foreshadowing of the coming of the Holy Spirit and you can begin to see how deep the Word really is, and how the Word is the best commentary on the Word.
The books of the Bible are true accounts and beautiful writings that are rich and deep with meaning that can only be revealed when someone diligently studies and mediates on the Word with the insight and power of the Holy Spirit.
I challenge you to find and read Heb. 3:7 to 4:10 and meditate on it. After you have studied the passage thoroughly, studying the context of the old testament passages quoted, doing a topical study on words like “rest.” Then close your Bible and begin to meditate on it. Your imagination is the ability to see something with your heart rather than with your mind. You are thinking about something all the time. You can choose what you think about. Choose to think on the Word of God and what you have spent hours studying. The way you see yourself on the inside will transfer the way you are throughout. That transformation is how you gradually develop a close friendship with your Creator.]
[Pro 23:7a NKJV] 7 For as he thinks in his heart, so [is] he…
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