How to Read the Bible

The Bible is God's Love-Letter to Me


The Instruction Book
God's direct will and instruction for me is in His Word, the Bible.

As a plane in flight needs a chart and instruction from the tower, so I need to know God's Word for instruction and direction for my life.

Romans 15:4 "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."

To keep my direction clear and stay on the Christian course I must know God's Word.

Psalm 119:15 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

The Bible is the light for my way.

Psalms 119:11 "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee."

God has given His Word in a supernatural way.

2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

Doctrine shows you the path to follow. Reproof shows you that you are off the path. Correction shows you how to get back o the path. Instruction in righteousness shows you how to stay on the path.

2 Peter 1:21 "For the prophecy (Word) came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Bible reading provides food for my new spiritual nature.

As a newborn spiritual babe I should...

"Desire the sincere milk of the Word." 1 Peter 2:2

I need to feed my spiritual nature and partake of God's Word as much as possible in order to grow.

Matthew 4:4 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Jeremiah 15:16 "Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart;..."

2 Timothy "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth."
Study the Bible so God will approve of your work because you will truly understand His will in your life.

Bible Reading provides my strength.
Reading and knowing the scriptures is the key to overcome sin and living a victorious Christian life.

Ephesians 6:17 admonishes me to "Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God."

The Bible is my most effective tool to use in my Christian walk and warfare against the devil; It is my only defensive weapon.

Hebrews 4:12 "For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul an spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a divisor of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Methods and Suggestions
Read the Bible regularly for
• Spiritual food and strength.
• Learning more of God and His plan for mankind.
• Pleasure and blessing I receive in my newfound life in Christ.
• Discovering God's promises and deeper truths.

Read it slowly with a prayerful attitude and open mind.

Read it where you can concentrate.

Enjoy what you do understand and leave portions you do not until you are more fully acquainted with the Bible and more spiritually mature. You will understand more every time you read it.

Why Use the King James Version of the Bible?
The King James Bible is the simplest, (yes, I said the simplest) to read. It only has about 8000 different words as opposed to the NIV, which has over 14,000 different words.

In comparisons of different translations for grade level placement, one scholar came to the following assessment:
1 The King James averages grade level- 5.8 (fifth grade, eighth month)
2 New International Version- 8.4
3 New American Standard Bible- 6.1
4 The English Version-7.2
5 New KJV- 6.9

A comparison of words in the KJV and the NASB:
KJV NASB
Matt 1:11 carried away deportation
Luke 5:29 sat recline at the table
Matt 5:21 kill murder
Matt 5:19 Break annuls
Luke 11:33 bushel peck-measure
Mark 5:25 issue of blood hemorrhage
Matt 9:18 certain ruler synagogue official
Matt 9:17 bottles wineskins
Matt 9:13 mercy compassion
Matt 8:32 go be gone

You get the idea.
(This is only a mall sampling. For more information on this issue go to “New Age Bible Versions” by G.A Riplinger, 1993 or http://www.hsnp.com/gok/bible18.html)

I am convinced the KJV is the most accurate English Bible commonly available. It does have some problems, but it came from superior transcripts and had more scholarly translators who actually believed the Bible was true. Some other translation’s translators didn’t really believe the Bible was true, especially concerning Creation, before they started and this has affected how they translated certain passages. I know of people that have learned Greek and Hebrew to aid in their study of the Bible. They say that there is nothing like reading It in the original to get the full meaning, but the KJV comes closer than any of the other translations.

It also is written in the most beautiful form the English language has ever taken; Shakespearian English (No one actually spoke this way. It was a dialect used for artistic purposes). Not only is God’s Word worthy of being presented in the most beautiful form available, this near-poetic language is easier to memorize. You tell me what sticks in the brain better;

“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth--all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.” (The Message)
or

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (KJV)

Though similar, the later has a poetic cadence that makes it easier to memorize.

The unfamiliar words (form, void, etc) give you a perfect opportunity to increase your vocabulary. And since the new words are used in real life, you will remember them far better than if they had come from an abstract workbook page.

We do use other translations occasionally as study tools, to get a different perspective on a verse, but when there is a difference of translation, We go with the KJV.

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them (His Words), O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalms12:6-7)

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

“Cling to the whole Bible, not a part of it. A man can not do much with a broken sword.”

(The “thee’s and thou’s” that bother so many in the KJV have a specific purpose. In the sixteenth century, thee, thou, thy, and thine were singular pronouns while “you” was plural. In modern English “you” is both singular and plural, occasionally causing some confusion.)

Other good translations are the New King James and American Standard. The New International Version, Young’s, and others can shed some understanding on some scriptures.

Biblical Interpretation
Proper interpretation and understanding of the Bible requires three basic tools; understanding of biblical context, understanding of historical context, and understanding of original languages.

In order to understand scripture we must always take the context of scripture into account. What was the author saying in the whole chapter, the whole book? Who was he talking to? Why?

There once was a man who wanted to know God’s will in his life. He randomly opened his Bible. It fell to the scripture where Judas killed himself. Wondering what this meant for him, he randomly opened his Bible again. This time it fell open to the scripture where Jesus says “... Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:37)

Was this God telling him to kill himself? Of course not. You must take scripture in its context. You cannot take a verse here and a verse there and put them together to form a doctrine. This is mis-handling of the Word of God.

God tells some people to do things He doesn’t want everyone to do. For example, all believers are not to go preach to Nineveh as Jonah was told to do. Nor build a large boat and gather a bunch of animals onto it. Nor lay in the middle of the city, naked, eating nothing but bread and not talking for an entire year like Ezekiel was told to. We must pay attention to who each scripture was written to and why. The moral lessons taught in every scripture can be applied to our lives, but the fact of the scripture applies to who it was written to. This becomes clearer every time you read through the scriptures.

The second rule of biblical interpretation requires we see what was happening in history. For example, when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh (the capital of the Assyrian empire), it was because the Ninavites were very cruel conquerors of the entire region. They would cut the heads off of the leaders of each city-state they conquered and often torture the inhabitants. God was fed up. He sent Jonah to warn them to change their ways or else. Of course we know that it worked; they repented and God spared the city. Well, for a while anyway. History tells us that the city relapsed into its old ways and was destroyed for its cruelty a generation or so later.

We must understand the history surrounding an event to truly understand what the Bible is telling us. Again, this becomes clearer as you become more familiar with the Word. After you have become more familiar, a good history book or study guide can help you learn the history of the time.

The third tool we need to really understand the Bible is a knowledge of original languages. This is not so hard as it used to be. Any Internet-connected computer has access to a Strong’s Concordance (and they are available in book-form from any book seller for as little as $10.00). This is a list of each word in the Bible and its location AND its definition in the original language. You simply look up the words in a verse and see what the original author meant:

The Concordance
A concordance is an assemblage of every word in the Bible in alphabetical order with all of its locations. The Strong's concordance also links you to the original Hebrew or Greek word and gives the definition of that word. This better allows you to know what the author really meant when he wrote that scripture.

Let's say we want to know where the verse "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have ever lasting life" is found.

First we will pick a word to look up- “world.”

In the alphabetical listing we find that the word "world" is listed 249 times. This means that in 249 verses the translators translated a Greek or Hebrew word to mean "world." Forty-six of these are in the Old Testament. In the 203 New Testament occurrences, three different Greek words (represented by three different numbers; 165, 2889, and 3625) were translated into the word "world."

By reading the part of each verse listed we find that the one we want is John 3:16. “World” in this verse is number 2889. We turn to the Greek Lexicon in the back and find that this "world" is κόσμος or in the English alphabet; kosmos. It means:

1) An apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government
2) Ornament, decoration, adornment, i.e. the arrangement of the stars, 'the heavenly hosts', as the ornament of the heavens. (1 Peter 3:3)
a) The world, the universe
b) The circle of the earth, the earth
3) The inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family
4) The ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ
5) World affairs, the aggregate of things earthly
a) The whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ
6) Any aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort.
a) The Gentiles as contrasted to the Jews (Rom. 11:12 etc)
b) Of believers only, John 1:29; 3:16; 3:17; 6:33; 12:47 1 Corinthians 4:9; 2 Corinthians 5:19
The Strong’s is for the King James Bible. There ae concordances for other translations also.

Thompson Chain Reference Bible
This is the Bible required by many Bible colleges. It is King James.

Down the sides of each page are two columns with numbers and scripture “addresses”. The addresses take you to other scriptures on the same subject as the adjoining verses. The numbers take you to a supplement in the back that lists scriptures by subjects. Before this supplement is a Table Of Contents that lists all the different subjects so you can look up whichever one you need.

The Thompson Chain also has a concordance (not as complete as Strong's, of course), maps, charts about the life of Christ and other prominent Bible characters, summaries of each book in the Bible, and an archeological supplement.

Dickson Bible
(No longer in print, but there are several similar Study Bibles out there) In the front of it is a very good dictionary with scripture references. In the back, the concordance also gives a definition. It has in-verse definitions. It also has “The Life of ….” outline pages. It has a chart of tables and measures, a timeline and synopsis of each book, and chapter, maps, and other helps.

Center Reference
(Cambridge is one brand) These Bibles have a column down the middle of the page with small numbers or letters followed by definitions of words in the corresponding scripture and sometimes other verses on the same subjects.

Bible dictionary
This is a dictionary specific to giving you the Biblical definitions of words and terms. Vines and Ungers are good. For a good none biblical dictionary try the Webster's Original 1828 dictionary (available on line, from Amazon and from a number of booksellers).

Comparative Bible
This is a Bible that has more than one translation in the same book. It will have one translation in one column and another right next to that. These are good for Bible studies. They have from two to twelve different versions.

Interlinear Bibles
These Greek or Hebrew Bibles with the direct English translation written underneath each word.

Bible Atlas
This is a book of maps, pictures and information about the biblical region of the world (modern day Palestine). They usually have different maps of the same area marked for different time periods. For example, one map may be marked for the travels Moses and the next for Joshua’s, while a later one is marked for Christ and another for Paul.

Bible Commentary
A book (usually containing the Bible itself) that contains comments written to explain the scripture. For example:

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
(Commentary) “The word “God” here is “Elohim” which means “God” in the majestic plural tense (This is the tense royalty uses to refer to themselves. It does not mean more than one as our plural does, but a plurality of greatness.) It is using a singular verb.

This could be worded: “In the beginning of time, God made space and matter,” though it wouldn’t be as poetic.

Psalms 90:2 says “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Some put a gap of several million years here. Is this correct interpretation of the Bible?

First of all, who wrote this? The traditionally accepted author is Moses, though some believe he only compiled several books written by many previous authors. These people believe Adam himself may have written down this scripture as God dictated it to him. Either way, the purpose of this scripture was to tell all those following the author in history how the earth began. Does it make since for there to be a gap of millions of years here that is not mentioned at all? Would that fulfill its purpose?

The entire idea of “the gap” is to allow for evolution and explain the fossil record. Millions of years of evolution, dinosaurs, and many other creatures were to have lived and died between verse one and verse two.
This is also when the devil was supposed to have been a beautiful angel, leading God’s choir. He rebelled and was kicked out of heaven with a third of the angels, those who supported him in his rebellion. History tells us the first mention of any such idea was a poem written in the 1400’s by John Milton called “Paradise Lost.”

Do these ideas fit with the author’s purpose? No. It would make no sense to leave these important pieces of history out. If they occurred, God would have included them here when He dictated it. That is only logical.
Turns out we can easily explain all the “evidence” for the “Gap theory” (otherwise known as evolution) with the flood recorded later in this same book. There is NO biblical support for the “Gap Theory,” especially in this chapter.

Also, Satan can easily be explained with Isaiah 45:7- “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Satan was not a surprise, nor an accident. He was an intentional creation of God for the purpose of giving us a choice. Love is not Love if it is not a choice. He wanted us to choose to love Him, so we had to have a choice not to love Him, to love something else. There had to be an evil counterpart to God. God created the devil just as he is today.”
From “The Simple Bible”

Important!
Remember that commentaries and all these helps, as well as the Internet, are written by human beings. They are fallible. They may help us understand the Bible or they may confuse us, or even lead us into lies. Use them carefully and always check EVERYTHING out with the Bible itself.

EVERY Christian should read the entire Bible, cover to cover, at least three times and frequently thereafter (Our pastor challenges us to read through it every other year) before reading any commentaries. This applies to the Internet also. This may even be true for listening to preachers on the radio who are not your pastor. It is important to be well founded in what really is in the Bible before you listen to humans.

Online Resources
You can find the entire Bible in several translations many place including biblegateway.com and blueletterbible.com. The Blue Letter Bible also contains Strong’s concoradance linked to each word. Bible Gateway includes many translations (among them, interlinear Bibles).

Matthew Henry was a scholar who lived in the 1800’s and wrote a detailed commentary on the entire Bible. It is very complete and informative.

youtube.com has many preachers available who you can learn a great deal from. However, keep in mind they are human and can be mistaken. ALWAYS check out what they say with your Bible and your pastor.

Instructions for reading the Bible
1)Read the New Testament through first; then, read some out of both Testaments, a chapter or two out of each everyday.
2)Read it from cover to cover get the general overall view of God's Word.
3)Read the life of Jesus Christ (the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
4)Read about the Early Church (Acts, the two epistles of Peter, the three epistles of John).

5)Find out the areas you wish to pursue more deeply. Use the concordance to help you find relevant scriptures.

Take the Bible at face value; believe it means what it says and is not written in riddles.

Memorize at least one verse every week; start with your favorites. There is often a list of good verses to memorize in the back of the Bible, plus the internet has many such lists (Search for “Bible memory verse list). A box or set of cards called "Precious Promises" or “Daily Bread" is available for purchase at almost any Bible bookstore and may be helpful.

Psalm 119:89 "For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven."

Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand forever."

Scriptures to read
• When in sorrow, read John 14.
• When men fail you, read Psalm 27.
• When you have sinned, read Psalm 51.
• When you worry, read Matthew 6:19-34.
• When you are in danger, read Psalm 91.
• When you have the blues, read Psalm 34.
• When God seems far away, read Psalm 139.
• When you are discouraged, read Isaiah 40.
• If you want to be fruitful, read John 15.
• When doubts come upon you, read John 7:17.
• When you are lonely or fearful, read Psalm 23.
• When you forget your blessings, read Psalm 103.
• For Jesus' idea of a Christian, read Matthew 5.
• For James' idea of religion, read James 1:19-27.
• When your faith needs stirring, read Hebrews 11.
• When you feel down and out, read Romans 8:31-39
• When you want courage for your task, read Joshua 1.
• When the world seems bigger than God, read Psalm 90.
• When you want rest and peace, read Matthew 11:25-30.
• When you want Christian assurance, read Romans 8:1-30.
• For Paul's idea of Christianity, read 2 Corinthians 5:15-19.
• For Paul's rules on how to get along with men, Romans 12.

Why not follow Psalm 119:11 and hide some of these in your memory?