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Our first tool is a Bible....I am assuming that if you are a Believer that you have prayed first, and if you are not then that you have opened the Bible with an open mind. The choice of Bible is up to you, if you are not an english speaker then I assume you are using a Bible in your mother tongue, if you are an english speaker then there are a number of reasonable translations around, I personally prefer the RSV if you are comfortable with another version then use that one.there seems to be , mainly in the USA a controversy over the Authorised Version or King James Bible, if you are comfortable with this one and are conversant with the english of the 1500's and understand a northern english dialect...ie you are from Yorkshire or Lancashire etc.. then use it by all means for your study, but a word of warning! english useage has changed since this most Blessed of translations came first to see the light.As an example if you can use the verse Isaiah 36:12 in a family sermon..... well then you obviously come from a far more liberal background than I!

Ok we have chosen our Bible a modern language translation, just to keep mistakes to a minimum! next a concordance is a good idea! Strongs is probably the best in the english language, for other languages ask your local pastor/priest/vicar for their recommendation! A concordance is merely a book that tells you where to find a particular word..Strongs for instance will give the position of EVERY word in the K.J. version, even if you are using another translation this book is worth it's weight (about 1kg!!) in gold!

Our next book should be a transliteral Bible O.T or N.T. depending upon which testament you are about to launch into a study of! This is a Bible which not only has a modern translation but translates word for word the original ground text, ie you would have for the New Testament both english and koiné greek, with under (or over!) each greek word the nearest equivalent english word, this wont be in the same grammatical order so it may also have a little number to shew the correct grammar for english, (or whatever!) for the Old Testament it would be hebrew and english, try for an N.T. which is based on the Textus Receptus this is a trustworthy series of documents, tried by time you might say!

Our next book should be a good commentary, preferably a modern one, new discoveries are happening almost daily and it is not wise to trust soley to an old commentary. Commentaries are not scripture they are just what other people have wriiten about the meaning of certain passages or books of the Bible, so feel free to buy a modern version, this does not mean that "Matthew Henry's" commentary (circa1700) is worthless, just that it is not up to date....... and new discoveries are casting new light on our beloved scriptures! expanding our understanding of the Word of God.....

Some really good history books that deal with the period and area in question.These books like commentaries seem to go out of date slowly, but when they do go out of date it is because of new discoveries, and these new discoveries may actually nullify previous ideas! and so always try to get the latest recommended books on the subject period or culture, it will be well worth it in expanding your understanding of scripture and the people that wrote it.

Finally a large note book, some coloured marker pens and an ordinairy pen for writing with! dont forget to mark everything of interest and take notes of all your ideas and impressions as they come to you during your study!

Well now we have our tools before us...what next?

Something to study! you can choose a topic or a book or a passage from scripture, it does not matter which..the subject is yours to choose!

A thing that you should be aware of when you read your chosen piece of scripture is that it was not written yesterday! at the least 2000 years ago at most perhaps an oral tradition going back perhaps in excess of 5000 years...these people did not think as you do!! neither was their world like yours, or language or custom or culture....In fact it has been rightly said that if a westerner has difficulty understanding a japanese who lives in the same era as we do, how much more difficult will it be to try to understand someone who lived in excess of 2000 years ago?!

Do not take it for granted that what you read is exactly what scripture means, you must read it in context, that is to say context in time, context in language, context in culture and even context in technology! All these things have to be taken into account, if you ignore the context rule you will definately do violence to scripture and your study will be incorrect, an example is the wedding feast at Cana, according to many free church pastors Jesus, turned water into fruit juice.....inspite of the bible calling it wine...inspite of the fact that 1st century Jewish people having a wedding party did not use fruit juice especially 180 gallons of it!! They drank alcoholic wine, they considered it to be one of Gods gifts , a blessing to the human race...this is only a minor point but if you do not accept the fact that there is a cultural element here you can go on to misinterpret much of scripture, scripture condemns drunkeness not alcohol, and similar mistakes can be made throughout scripture by not taking into account the Rule of Context and by adding our modern prejudices to our reading of it!

When we read scripture we should attempt to read it as though we had never read or heard of it before, nor try to interpret it in the light of our own age or lives.......this is pretty much impossible ! but we can atleast make the attempt, in the name of good scholarship! as well as to honour our God, because a true study of Him is the only way we will get to know Him short of a divine revelation such as those that saints Peter and Paul both had at varying times in their walk with Our Lord! Fortunately for us God prefers us to learn about Him through the sweat of our brows as it were! it would be very disconcerting if every time we were to try to learn a little bit more about the One in Three we had a direct visitation, christians would then be the worlds most nervous people!!

Now we open our Bible and read the section that interests us.....or do we?! I would suggest that if you are reading the New Testament or one of the Old Testaments shorter books ( such as Ruth) then read the whole book or letter, this will give you a better understanding of the author and where they are coming from, now go and have a cup of Tea (or coffee if you must!!) and think a little while about what you have just read, let it sink into your mind, then read the part that interests you, and if your bible has reference notes linked to the verses you are looking at follow those up too! jot down any thoughts you may have as you read and underline those places that seem to say something to you. You might consider here stopping for a while and having another cup of Tea ! Now pick up your commentary and see what others have written about what you have just read, compare notes! If there are any words (In the transliteral version) that seem as though they may be significant look them up in your concordance and find out what the word meant in it's original language, many times we get a whole new picture as to what Saint Paul for instance was trying to say when we see the picture that he was trying to paint for his readers 1900 years ago.

As an example one word often used by Saint Paul that we translate as elder or pastor today was originally a technical term for the prisoner on the lowest bank of oars on a Greek trireme warship, this had three banks of oarsmen all permanently chained to their rowing benches, they had no toilets and the best sort of wash they could hope for was a bucket of sea water thrown over them and what the guy on the bottom set of oars had to put up with from his fellow prisoners chained above him!..well! During the 1800's when the British Royal Navy was hunting slave trading ships off the African "fever coast" they often were alerted to the slave ship (called a blackbirder) by the stench....they could be smelled from upto 100 sea miles away....these were the sort of conditions that the Greek galleys suffered, Saint Paul uses the term in order to paint a picture as to what an elder or pastor or teacher should "cheerfully" put up with...sadly many of our teachers, elders and pastors prefer to think of themselves as captains of ocean liners rather than the filthy slave on the bottom rank of oars of a foul smelling trireme..........

(the word is ’huperetes’ by the way!)

When you are reading scripture see if you can make out "patterns" in what is written, often the writers would say the same thing twice just to get the point over, this is worth noting as you will find this to be a valuable insight into what the writer is trying to say. Try reading some of the Psalms or theBook of Proverbs where this is especially easy to see.

Finally, write down what you have learnt in some form of note book, you have just spent perhaps several hours delving into scripture, why lose it?! write it down and whenever you need to reread it you will have your hard work available. It is also a lot of fun comparing your own progress in studying the Bible and then comparing the insights and discoveries that you had when you started to study with those as you mature !

Above all have fun with your study, if you are bored and yawning........then you are doing it wrong!

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