I learned about an amazing Bible study resource a few weeks ago at my Bible study. When I learn amazing, applicable things I like to share them with you. This one is good…and I apologize for taking so very long to get it up on the blog for you.
I’m guessing you won’t dispute that computers have changed the way we do things. I spend most of my day on the ol’ lap top. I make lists on it, I brainstorm on it, I conduct business on it. There is one point during my day that I almost always close the lap top, though. It’s when I sit down to do my Bible study. But now, that’s changing too.
Derek and I have come to the end of the Bible, and we are about to start again at the beginning. This time, digging deeper and approaching it with an attitude of study. We have read through several times, so we know what it says…now we want to go deeper. We want to know all the things that the text doesn’t say.
Sound weird? Here’s what I’m talking about. Much of the Biblical text can be enriched when we fully understand its context. That means understanding who wrote what books, understanding culture, political climate, and the use of words. This may come as a shock…but the Bible wasn’t even originally written in English. So even looking at the original meanings of the Greek and Hebrew words can give us a greater understanding of what is being said. Can you tell I get jazzed about this? Geeky, I know.
So tonight is the night that we flip back to Genesis and start at “In the beginning.” This time through we are armed with a very large commentary as well as our concordance…and a new electronic resource: Blue Letter Bible. Now that I’ve made a case for studying the Word, let me tell you about BLB.
Pretty much, it’s every Bible study resource you will ever need in one place. Yes, I did just say that we have paper copies of some of these things. I’m still old school. But the study tools at BLB are so easy and quick to use it’d be silly for us not to have the lap top on hand as well as our book resources. For years I’ve been a big fan of Bible Gateway. Many of you probably know of it and use it too. It’s a great site. But…BLB takes all the features I love and makes them even easier to use…and adds some extras on top of it.
You can search for any passage or word and choose which translation you’d like to use. For my example, I’ll use a traditionally misunderstood, scary verse. 1 Timothy 2:12. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. Once the text comes up it is separated into individual verses like this.
Beside each verse is a “tools” button. If you click there, you’ll get a box with six tabs across the top. This is your gateway to study bliss. You can see the original language translation, different translations, cross references, dictionaries, and miscellaneous tools like maps, video or audio clips.
My favorite tabs are the “Bibles” tab and the “Dictionaries” tab. I love that many translations of the verse will appear in the tool box instead of navigating you away from your original page of text. In the “Dictionary” tab you can select any word that appears in the verse you are examining to get more details about it. There are also options that will give you more information about the general topic a verse speaks to or an overarching topic.
For instance, in the famously misunderstood verse {1 Timothy 2:12} you can learn from the Dictionaries tab that the word “quiet” used in this verse actually refers to maintaining tranquility/peacefulness, not absolute silence, as many assume. Under the Commentaries tab you can learn even more about this verse by understanding the culture of the time. We learn there that in the churches of Paul and Timothy’s time, men and women often sat in separate sections during a teaching. Timothy’s congregation was having issues because wives were shouting out comments and questions to their husbands across the aisle, causing a stir in their congregational meeting time. Paul was simply insisting that women listen and remain tranquil/peaceful, so that everyone could have a better learning experience.
Suddenly, thanks to in depth study tools this verse doesn’t seem so sexist and scary. Just imagine what else you can discover. But seriously, Blue Letter Bible. Check it out.
Amy
