How can I study my Bible better? It’s a question I hear all the time, and there’s a million ways to answer it. In this post I cover the first Bible study resources that I’d purchase if I was starting from scratch.
Here are a couple books I’d tell you to buy if you’re just starting to study the Bible seriously.
1. How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth- Fee and Stuart
I know what you’re thinking. “You want me to read a book about how to read a book?” I thought the same thing when I had to read this 250 page gem. Here’s the deal. God’s inspired word comes to us in the form of 66 different books made up of all different types of literature. From historical narrative to poetry there’s plenty of literary ground to cover as a Bible student and the better you are at reading and understanding these types of literature, the better Bible student you’ll be. Fee and Stuart give you a chapter for every different kind of Biblical genre you’ll encounter. They explain the concepts, then demonstrate them in a passage of scripture. You won’t regret this read.
2. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary- Brand, Draper, & England
I reference this dictionary every time I preach a sermon. When you read the Bible you encounter unfamiliar terms, geography, weights, measurements, and names. Having a good dictionary close at hand can be a life saver. The Holman Illustrated Dictionary brings the unfamiliar into reach with full color printing and encyclopedic (or Wikipedic???) style summaries.