Serious study of any ancient document will require resources and tools that help to enrich one’s understanding of the text. The Bible is no different. As both a cohesive and complete revelation of God to humanity and a library of literary masterpieces, the Bible has consumed the lifetime focus of some of history’s most brilliant minds, and yet within it lie countless treasures still to be mined.
Thankfully, tools to aid studying the Bible have never been more accessible than they are today. Since I use many of these resources in order to prepare a sermon each week, I’ve thought that it could be helpful to make a short list of the ones I tend to frequently use. So whether you are called to preach the Word, teach in a smaller setting, or just want to understand the Bible better, here are a few tools for your toolbelt.
First up is the English Standard Version website. I read and preach from the ESV because I love its “essentially literal” interpretation and its poetic readability. Although I preach from a physical Bible, I rarely read or study from one; instead, I use the website or app. Furthermore, you can also access the ESV Study Bible (although it must be purchased or accessed via a code in a physical Bible), which is the best Study Bible that I have found.
For purchasing individual commentaries, I typically consult this page, but for the classic commentaries, I use Study Light. The commentaries of Calvin, Henry, and Gill are always solid recommended readings.
I know that Blue Letter Bible features a lot of study resources, but I really only use it for two purposes: reading multiple translations of a verse and doing word studies of the Hebrew or Greek.
Open Bible has a searchable Topical Bible in which verses are voted as relevant to a particular topic by the site’s users.
The beauty of Logos is that it has all the functions of those other websites and more. It’s essentially an all-in-one source of Bible study tools. If that sounds of interest to you, then purchasing a package may be a valuable investment. I have the basic package (and I certainly understand the appeal of the software), but I rarely use it. I prefer to keep my Word document and the ESV website open while I am studying, and I open tabs to other websites as needed. But that’s just my preferred interface. Logos can be of tremendous value to you if you dive all in, but it is by no means necessary for seriously studying God’s Word.
B. C. Newton 