Best Resources for Bible Study

When people find out I’ve been to seminary, I get one of three reactions. Some people assume that a seminary degree means I suddenly have all of the answers about the Bible and faith. As much as this sentiment may flatter my pride, it is far from the truth. This is not true of me and, I would argue, is not true of even the best of biblical scholars.

Others shrug their shoulders at this information, as if asking “so what?” They are skeptical of scholarship and question what a seminary education could offer that they can’t find in their own Bible reading. They doubt that understanding more about the culture or language that gave birth to the Bible—and to our Savior—could offer any further insight into what the Bible teaches us.

I find both of these reactions to be problematic, but we can save that discussion for another time. To be brief, as we think about studying theology or the Bible, we must chart a way between these two extremes. We must learn to read and study for ourselves—prayerfully, thoughtfully, and habitually reading the whole of the Bible, not merely listening to whomever we have deemed our approved expert. You do not need to go to seminary to learn to study the Bible well for yourself. But, as we are always reading the Bible in translation and across cultures, we benefit from additional resources that help us understand things like word plays we may miss, cultural asides and assumptions that would have been understood by the Bible’s first readers (or, rather, hearers), or people and places foreign to us.

This is why I appreciate the third reaction I receive. These people don’t assume I have all the answers, but they do assume I may have something to bring to the table here and there based on my additional study. They know their own life experience and personal study are important as they seek to understand and apply God’s Word—but they are open to additional insight that may add to, clarify, or enhance it.

As is the case with most training and schooling, I left seminary not with all the answers but equipped with better resources to know where to look for answers. Today I want to share with you some of my favorite resources and tools for studying the Bible. They will help us walk in this balance between learning from the Bible itself—and receiving help from those who have been doing it much longer and more in-depth than we have. I personally find them to be well-grounded and balanced when it comes to most theological issues, and I believe them to be fairly accessible and helpful regardless of your level of biblical and theological study.

Pen & Paper

I start here because I can’t imagine doing any sort of study without pen and paper by my side. Write down your questions, the things that stand out to you, the connections you find between different passages. Keep track of the ways you sense God speaking to you in the Scriptures or of what you’ve learned new. In the moment, it’ll be a helpful way to keep track of your thoughts, and in the future it will offer a reminder of the things you once knew but forgot and of how God has been at work in your study of His Word.

Study Bible

A good study Bible is a great foundation for Bible study. It should provide basic information on each book of the Bible (historical context, major themes, an outline, etc.) as well as footnotes throughout with tidbits about translation, culture, related passages, and more. I would recommend choosing a study Bible that is compiled by a panel of scholars and pastors, not one by merely one person.

Another helpful feature of a study Bible (though some standard Bibles also have this) is a cross reference list. You’ll see this running in parallel as you read the Bible. It’s usually a smaller-text column with Bible references. (The cross reference list in my study Bible is placed in the crease of the center binding of each page.) This list is an excellent way to find other passages of the Bible that relate to the one you’re studying. Seeing how the Bible refers to itself and is in conversation with itself will give you a fuller understanding as you study.

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary

This hefty book contains maps, color photos, and vivid descriptions of people, places, and cultural practices during biblical times. A Bible dictionary is an important basic tool for personal study, and there are other Bible dictionaries available that you may want to explore. (I know buying this one new may be a little investment.) But I have the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary for my own study, and I’ve found it to be a wonderful resource.

Hard Sayings of the Bible

Have you ever read a passage in the Bible that leaves you scratching your head? The logic turns you around, perhaps? Or you hear differing interpretations and don’t know what to think? Or perhaps it’s a hard-to-grasp passage about God’s wrath or justice or knowledge? Hard Sayings of the Bible is a great resource to turn to. The authors offer thoughtful yet easy to read explanations for these “hard sayings,” putting them into biblical, historical, and pastoral context. This is one I come back to again and again when I hit challenging passages.

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth will help you pay attention to biblical genres. How do we read, study, and interpret historical books as opposed to poetic ones? What should we be aware of when we read epistles, like Paul’s letters in the New Testament? Are the Gospels biographies in the sense we read now? The authors walk through each literary genre in the Bible and give specific examples of how paying attention to genre should guide our interpretation of biblical texts. And they do it in a way that’s easy to understand, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a scholar of literature or of the Bible.

A follow-up book, How to Read the Bible Book by Book, continues this approach, but through brief entries for each book of the Bible, which include some simple guidelines and suggestions for how to read, study, and interpret it well.

CASKET EMPTY Timeline and Study Guide

The CASKET EMPTY resources will help you put each biblical book in the context of the whole story of the Bible. Not sure how the prophets compare to stories about Abraham? Not sure how the New Testament letters fit into a historic timeline? How do the various parts of the Bible fit together? CASKET EMPTY answers these questions and more with its colorful and beautifully designed timelines for the Old and New Testaments and the accompanying study guides. This resource adds the depth of biblical context to your study by keeping you grounded within the grand story of the Bible.

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These are some of my top-shelf resources for Bible study. Do you have any you would add to the list?

Literary Genres in the Bible and Why They Matter for Bible Study

This post is part of an ongoing series on reading, interpreting, and studying the Bible. Click here for all the posts in this series.

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When you read a story to a child, do you read it the same way as you would an encyclopedia article? Do you read the newspaper the same way you read a poem? 

We instinctively know that we can’t read everything the same way. The style and form—or genre—of what we’re reading shapes our expectations and interpretation. The genre gives us reading "rules."

If we look for metaphors and deeper layers of meaning in an instructional manual, we’d be missing the point. Likewise, if we expect a children’s storybook to give us nuanced answers for our self-help predicament. We pay attention to genre to read well.

Genre and How We Study the Bible

Do you know the Bible contains several different literary genres? As we read and interpret Scripture, we must pay attention to it to read well and read the passage as it was intended to be read. 

When you read a passage of Scripture, ask, “What is the genre of this book/passage? How does that genre inform the way I should read, interpret, and apply this?”

One of the best single resources I know for this endeavor is How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart. This book is well worth having on your shelf.

For each of the genres in Scripture, the authors explain the main features of the genre, the Biblical books it applies to, and the basic principles for reading and interpreting the genre. They keep everything practical and accessible, focus on broadly applicable principles that can guide our reading, and pepper these principles with examples. 

For our purposes here, I’ll give a brief overview of the biblical genres—but I’d encourage you to get a copy of How to Read to learn more.  

Biblical Genres At A Glance

Narrative 

The narratives in the Bible tell us about God’s work in history. These stories from the past are intended to shape us in the present, but they are not intended to be moralized. They may illustrate implicitly a principle or standard of morality (positively or negatively) that is explicitly taught somewhere else in Scripture, but they do not always give us a clear judgment of people’s behavior.  

Law

The Law was a binding covenant, or legal agreement, between Israel and God, and explains how the nation of Israel was to behave and worship, individually and as a society. It included specific blessings and curses that would come as a result of their faithfulness or unfaithfulness (see Deut. 28). These blessings and curses are important to understand the rest of Israel’s history, particularly the prophets and the exile. 

Poetry

Poetry uses evocative and imagery-laden language and is peppered with metaphors and similes. The Psalms (the largest collection of poetry in the Bible) are songs and poems to and about God, intended to give voice to the praise and prayer of God’s people. They are music, not in-depth or extensive explanations of doctrine. They are properly interpreted as a whole, with each line understood in light of the ones around it. 

One feature to keep an eye out for: parallelism. The writer puts two lines of poetry in parallel with each other, to add a depth of meaning—and beauty—by the way they compare to each other or build on each other. Once you start looking for it, you’ll see how frequent it is. For example, Psalm 19:1:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, 
And the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

Wisdom

Wisdom literature in the Bible uses poetry to give practical, pithy statements about how to make godly choices and think and act based on God’s truth. By nature it is inexact and not exhaustive. It gives us a memorable snippet of truth but doesn’t tell us all about it. This is why all wisdom literature must be read and interpreted based on the entirety of Scripture.  

Prophecy

The prophets spoke for God to specific people in a specific situation. They announce God’s enforcement of the covenant, as given in the Law, and declare both judgment and hope. They must be read in light of the historic setting and background of the audience and in light of the blessings and curses of the Law. The prophets often convey their message using poetry, so we should remember to pay attention to the imagery, metaphors, and parallelism in their message, just as we do in the Psalms. 

Gospels

The Gospels are selective presentations of the life, work, and teaching of Christ, for a specific audience. The differences in the Gospels are intentional, and paying attention to these differences will help us understand what is being emphasized and communicated by each Gospel writer. Just as we pay attention to the intended audience of the Gospel writer, we pay attention to the audience of Jesus’ teaching. His parables and stories expect a response, and they are properly understood when we remember who he is calling to respond in that moment (disciples, crowds, Pharisees, etc.).

Epistles

The Epistles were letters written by apostles to a specific group of Christians for a specific purpose and to a specific situation. Since we’re only given one "side" of the conversation, we need to pay attention to the historical context and to the clues we’re given about the “other side” of the conversation. It’s crucial to read these books with an eye for the entire argument and flow of logic. We must constantly be asking what the author’s words would have meant to his original audience, and then (and only then) we can consider what a comparable situation and application it has for today.

Apocalyptic

The word apocalypse means “revelation, disclosure, unveiling” and refers to an unveiling of unseen or future spiritual or earthly events and realities. It heavily uses symbolism and visions, and it is concerned about future judgment, justice, and salvation. It is important to remember that apocalypse (which appears in Revelation, Daniel, and prophets like Ezekiel) is a form of literature, and one that is heavily stylized and artistic in its imagery, use of numbers, structure, etc.