All things Bible

There are many Bible study resources available to use to help you understand the Bible, the context in which it was written, the history around it, the language that was used and the meaning of difficult passages.

In this post, we touch mainly on three of the well-known general areas of Bible study help with a brief summary: Bible Dictionaries, Bible Concordances, Bible Commentaries and other resources.

Before you dive into the various possibilities you can use to help you study the Bible, perhaps you might need to buy a Bible first! You can start your search for the Bible you prefer here in our own unique affiliate Christian bookshop with Bookshop.org.

See the full range of Bibles and search for all books Bible related. Make a purchase and you’ll be supporting UKCW as well as general indy bookshops…

 

Bible Dictionaries

A bible dictionary attempts to list the main words, topics and characters in the bible so you can easily find things you’re looking for. For example if you want to know about swords in the bible, you could either go through the references in the concordance at the back of your bible or use a bible dictionary. Typically a bible dictionary would give more complete references and discussion and would be easier to use in these circumstances.

 

Bible Concordances

A bible concordance lists words in alphabetical order similar to a bible dictionary. Rather than explain the meaning or application of the word (or sometimes a phrase), a bible concordance lists the bible references where such a word is used.

 

Bible Commentary

A bible commentary has been written by an author who hopes to make sense of the bible. It is their interpretation of what is being said and often goes on to say how this might be applied in our lives. It is important to note that commentaries whilst being useful at stimulating thought and understanding they represent the opinions of the author. You must decide for yourself their validity.

See the full range of Bibles and search for all books Bible related. Make a purchase and you’ll be supporting UKCW as well as general indy bookshops…

 

Other Options

There are numerous other types of books in the market that aim to help us understand the bible better. These include bible application handbooks, which take sections of the bible and show how we might apply them to our lives, bible chronicles, which present the sequence of events in the bible (it’s very difficult to picture where and when events happened without extensive study), graphical bibles, which put pictures and graphics around events in the bible to draw our their meaning, etc. You can even read the bible told as a fast moving novel.

You can also choose to study more about the Bible and theology by doing a course in a subject that interests you at Bible college. There are many courses and options on how you study from short courses to BAs and MAs and study on-campus full-time through to part-time distance learning online. Visit our list of UK Bible Colleges for more information about studying theology and Christianity.