First and for most, the best resources for Bible study is the BIBLE! And the best way to understand the message of the Bible is to ready/study a number of Bible translations at the same time.
As you know, that the Bible wasn't written in English. It was originally written in Hebrew and a little bit of Aramaic in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. A translation tries to render the original language into clear, accurate, and current English. Comparing a couple or a few different translations really helps the reader grasp what's trying to be communicated.
As you know, that the Bible wasn't written in English. It was originally written in Hebrew and a little bit of Aramaic in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. A translation tries to render the original language into clear, accurate, and current English. Comparing a couple or a few different translations really helps the reader grasp what's trying to be communicated.
Here are some recommended translations - NIV, NASB, ESV, and The Message (which is a paraphrase, but still a good and trusted resource).
#2.) ESV Study Bible
The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way—to understand the timeless truth of God’s Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality. To accomplish this, the ESV Study Bible combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text. The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published—with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources.
This helpful book has so many aids to help guide you through Scripture: a section-by-section outline of the Bible, 119 articles, a "Rapid Fact-Finder" to key people, places, events, and teachings, and more. Plus…it has pictures! Yea for pictures!
#4.) Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
#4.) Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
A Bible dictionary is very important for looking up not only key Biblical terms to help you understand an unfamiliar term, but this Bible dictionary has a vast amount of archaeological & historical data, color pictures (yea!) and maps, outlines and concise summaries for each book of the Bible and information about its authors.
By Gordan Fee and Douglas Stuart
OK, so I snuck in two suggestion as one...but this book series helps people to understand the genres of the Bible, how the Bible was translated, the structure and order of the Bible, how to read the Bible as a whole, and more. These are very helpful book by some very sound authors.
Read, Read, & Re-Read!
The problem for most Christians isn't that they can’t understand what the Bible says, it’s that they don’t read the Bible as much as they could (or should). Laziness is your biggest enemy in understanding the message of the Bible!
Devote your mind and heart to this book and it will never let you down (Psalm 19:7-14). Its truth is too powerful and its Author are too glorious to ever let that happen!
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