Last Sunday, I spoke during Sunday School on “How to Prepare a Bible Study”, and I’ll be concluding that study this Sunday at 9:45 a.m. I mentioned some references that I wanted to share with you here in case you were interested in obtaining them.

John R.W. Stott Understanding the Bible expanded edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999)

I have yet to find a book this good that is this short. John Stott writes as if the reader has very little understanding of the Bible (which includes must of us). He summarizes the over-all story and message of the Bible like no other book I’ve seen. It’s 216 pages long and very readable. Sadly, this book is out of print, but www.ChristianBook.com still has copies to sell. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels that the Bible is just too foreign to them to even begin to understand. In other words, if you feel you don’t know anything at all about the Bible, start with Stott!

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth 3rd Ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003)

This book is really for someone who already knows a little something about the Bible. I also think that it’s on a slightly higher reading level than Stott’s book but well worth the try. Fee and Stuart’s book is for those who struggle with questions of application. How does someone apply the book of Judges to his daily life? Why do most Christians consider certain parts of the Bible to be direct commandments to us today while leaving other parts to those who lived in the past? These guys don’t provide the easy answers so much as they give you the guiding principles to interpret and apply all the various types of literature found in the Bible.

Understanding the Bible and How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth are books that you would want to read from cover to cover so that you can have a foundation for Bible study, but the following books are reference books that you don’t read cover to cover. Instead, you would use them to “look stuff up” such as background information, words found in your Scripture text, and ideas that come up in your study.

Holman Bible Handbook David S. Docery, General Editor (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992)

This book is especially book for background information and for concise summaries of large portions of Scripture. One of the most valuable features is probably the introductions to each book of the Bible, but there are also many articles that can help you get a real feel for what life was like during the times the Bible was written. You basically need to get this and explore it to understand the wealth of information in it. If you only buy one Bible reference book, it should probably be Holman Bible Handbook. It cost $24.97, and you’ll use it for the rest of your life.

Thomas V. Brisco Holman Bible Atlas (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998)

If you only buy two Bible reference books, make this the second. As you can imagine it has lots of maps to show you where it happened and what it looked like. One of the great things about this book is the way in condenses large scopes of Bible history down to one and two paragraphs. Not lots of academic stuff, it contains just enough to help you understand the particular time and place from which your Scripture text comes. Again, it costs $29.97, but you’ll use it for the rest of your life.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Chad Brand, Charles Draper, and Archie England, General Editors (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003)

Okay so you’re on over acheiver and two just isn’t enough, so the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary is for you. As you can imagine, the articles are in alphabetical order and include Bible-land items such as “Hyssop”, place names such as “Parah”, everyone in the Bible named “Amasai”, as well as theological articles such as “love”, “forgiveness”, and “wrath”. It too has introductions and summaries to each book of the Bible just in case the handbook left you wanting more.

So there it is for your enjoyment. I say that with a little tongue in check, but only a little. I very much enjoy studying the Bible, and anyone who really loves Bible study loves it when someone else catches the “bug”. I hope you’re able to join us for the second part of the study this Sunday on “How to Prepare a Bible Study”.