Essential Bible Study Tools

Essential Bible Study Tools

What are the most helpful tools or aids — besides Scripture itself — that should be in our personal libraries? Some may still study “unplugged”!

Concordances

Cruden’s — Alexander Cruden, A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures (London: 3 editions between 1737 and 1769).

Strong’s — James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 1890); original title: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order: Together with A Comparative Concordance of the Authorized and Revised Versions, Including the American Variations; Also Brief Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words.

Young’s — Robert Young, Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible (8 British editions from 1879 to 1938; 20th American edition, 1910).

Bible Dictionaries

Multiple authors, multiple volumes: A Dictionary of the Bible,  Dealing with its Language, Literature, and Contents, Including the Biblical Theology, ed. James Hastings, 5 vols. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, n.d.; 1988 reprint ed. of 1898 orig. by T&T Clark, Edinburgh); on Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hastings [accessed 13 JUL  2018].

Multiple authors, single volume: The New Bible Dictionary, eds. J. D. Douglas, F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, R. V. G. Tasker, and D. J. Wiseman (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962); and New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., eds. D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, and D. J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996).

Single author, single volume: Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody, 1957).

Multiple authors, single volume: The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, gen ed. Merrill C. Tenney, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963, 1964, 1967).

English Dictionary

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), on American Dictionary of the English Language at http://webstersdictionary1828.com/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Bible Encyclopedias

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, eds. W. A. Elwell and B. J. Beitzel (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988).

The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, eds. James Strong and John McClintock (New York: Haper and Brothers, 1880; 2016 digital ed. by StudyLamp Software, LLC), on McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia at

http://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, eds. James Orr, John Nuelsen, Edgar Mullins, Morris Evans, and Melvin Grove Kyle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), on International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online (Study Lamp Software, 2015) at

http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/ [accessed 3 NOV 2016].

Internet

Bible Gateway at https://www.biblegateway.com/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Bible Hub at https://biblehub.com/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Bible Study Tools at https://www.biblestudytools.com/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Biblical Studies at https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Blue Letter Bible at https://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

NET Bible at https://net.bible.org/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020]; and on Lumina at https://lumina.bible.org/bible/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].

Study Light at https://www.studylight.org/ [accessed 20 MAY 2020].