So many outstanding Bible study tools are available these days!
I’ve taught Bible study in a variety of settings and churches since I graduated from college in the Dark Ages.
My English Literature degree actually helped me at first.
I’d been taught how to examine the text, take it apart, and recognize patterns.
(As a writer, I’ve laughed at how the same names cropping up in the Gospels, for example, prove the Bible isn’t fiction.
(No good fiction writer would use the same names in the same stories–it would cause too much confusion).
As my years of teaching have continued, the amount of information available to help the Bible has exploded.
Understanding what the Bible says has never been easier and tools making the experience richer and more exciting are everywhere!
Here are five of my favorite Bible study tools.
1. Bottom of the Bible notes
My friend Gary always refers to the notes at the bottom of the Bible pages as “BOB.”
I love the BOBs found at the bottom of my Life Application Bible (New King James Version).
Since I teach a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church women’s study, I also use the Lutheran Study Bible (English Standard Version).
The notes ask me to consider things I’d not realized.
They point me to other resources or parallel Scriptures.
I never teach without consulting BOB.
2. The Bible Project
This is a new series for me, but it’s so powerful, I use the videos to launch every book Bible study I teach.
Free on Youtube, the Bible Project provides a video overview of each book of the Bible.
The videos are clever and don’t last more than seven or eight minutes long.
They’re designed to give a general explanation, though the site provides many more tools.
I start with the Bible Project, then move into my own Bible study workbook.
Here’s a video I recently showed at the start of our Nehemiah study. (Free videos are all available on Youtube)
3. David Guzik’s Bible Commentary
David Guzik’s free Bible study tools are available on his website, Enduring Word.
This is the type of study I love–basically, an enhanced version of the notes at the bottom of the Bible.
What I love about his commentary is how he puts everything into historical context.
Not just Biblical context, but actual political history–which is incredibly helpful.
I have learned so much about the history of the world as a result of these commentaries that it makes me a far better teacher.
Guzik is the teaching pastor at Calvary Chapel of Santa Barbara.
4. Bible Gateway and Blue Letter Bible
Who can read the Bible without perusing the BOB notes?
Both of these websites provide a boatload of free Bible study tools.
If you type a Bible verse in Google, they vie for your attention.
I use Bible Gateway for word studies.
It provides tools for word tracing in all sorts of versions.
The Blue Letter Bible website also has a variety of versions but I use it primarily to examine commentaries.
I found David Guzik, for example, while exploring commentaries in preparation for teaching a Bible study.
The two are very similar in outlook and what they provide.
It’s just a matter of which interface you prefer for what you seek.
5. Logos Bible Software
The big daddy of Internet Bible study tools, Bible Logos is not free.
I used it a great deal when I wrote my book Mrs. Oswald Chambers: The Woman Behind the World’s Bestselling Devotional.
Bible Logos is a mammoth site with many, many books available for its users.
Pastors or anyone doing a lot of teaching–particularly if you don’t have the budget or room for books–should take a look at it.
For my part, I made great use of the Oswald Chambers concordance available on the site. I could easily do a fast word search of all his books.
That enabled me to write an in-depth analysis of how Biddy compiled My Utmost for His Highest.
The site is full of references I’d be using if I were a pastor or teaching leader. The maps, for example, are great.
My friend Chase Replogle of the PastorWriter podcast (another terrific free resource) interviewed Scott Lindsay about Logos Bible software last year.
(Here’s the interview he did with me on the same show).
What other tools are out there?
I use these Bible study tools regularly, but I’m always interested in learning about others.
As a teacher, I want to provide my students with the best information and keenest insight I can glean about the Scriptures.
Of course, there’s one free Bible study tool I didn’t mention–and it’s the best one of all.
Or two.
Prayer and the Holy Spirit.
What can you suggest I examine?
Tweetables
Terrific Bible Study tools easily available for all. Click to Tweet
5 excellent Bible Study tools, mostly available on the Internet. Click to Tweet
BOB (Bottom of the Bible) and other Bible study tools worth using. Click to Tweet
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