Hermeneutics: How to Read
and Understand the Bible
Bible Study Tools
Word-based | Verse-based | Concept-based |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance | Treasury of Scripture Knowledge | Nave's Topical Bible |
| This reference tool contains every occurrence of each word in the Bible. Organized alphabetically, it is the best tool to find a verse from a word and/or to find all the occurrences of a word. It also contains the Hebrew and Greek words behind each English word, and their definitions. Strong's is the best, for it is exhaustive with several helpful features and the Hebrew and Greek. Young's has phrases, allowing precise searches. A concordance is word based – here is its value and its limitations. | This reference tool contains over 500,000 cross references to the verses in the Bible. Organized Scripturally, it provides verses helping explain the text under study. The verses were drawn from numerous conservative and Protestant commentaries before 1900. Within a verse, it lists its cross-references according to phrases within the verse. It is the best tool for finding explanatory verses that may not contain the key words of your subject text. The Treasury is verse based – here is its value and its limitations. | This topical handbook organizes Bible verses and passages by well-known topics. By using key verses more than once, it contains over 100,000 references in over 20,000 topics. The Scriptures are fully printed, so you do not need your Bible to read the text. It also features a reverse lookup that allows you to find the topics where a verse has been used, in order to find other related verses by that topical classification. It is topic based. |
Bible Dictionary | Bible Commentaries | Systematic Theology |
| Organized alphabetically, it contains most every word in the Bible with a definition, illustration, description, historical reference, explanation, and/or cross-references. By its nature, it may include the author's bias. It is word based. Useful dictionaries include Davis, Smith, Easton, ISBE, and others. | Organized Scripturally, they provide the authors' interpretations for each verse in the Bible. Due to its organization, you may quickly obtain an opinion on the interpretation of any verse, often with cross-references. It is verse based. Useful commentaries include Poole, Henry, Barnes, Gill, and Clarke. | A handbook organized according to the author's outline of theology with the author's opinion and references providing the material under each heading. It is topic based. Useful theologies include Gill, Dagg, Boyce, Berkhof, and Dabney. There are many more, but few add much. |
All these tools are readily available with the Online Bible program and/or access to the Internet. We are blessed to have such tools, and therefore we will be held accountable to know our Bibles better.