18 Helpful Tools to Understand the Bible – Notes Download

Why do we need extra-biblical tools to help us understand the Bible?

• Different geography
• Different history
• Different cultures (ancient Near Eastern, first-century Jewish, Greco-Roman)
• Different economics
• Different literacy rates
• Different scientific and philosophical knowledge

Bible Dictionaries

• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
• Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)
• Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2015)
• The IVP Bible Dictionary Series
  • Dictionary of OT: Pentateuch (2002)
  • Dictionary of OT: Historical Books (2005)
  • Dictionary of OT: Wisdom, Poetry, & Writings (2008)
  • Dictionary of OT: Prophets (2012)
  • Dictionary of NT Background (2000)
  • Dictionary of Jesus & Gospels (2013)
  • Dictionary of Paul & Letters (2023)
  • Dictionary of the Later NT (1997)

Commentaries

• Fee & Stuart: “Jesus says, ‘…It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ You will sometimes hear it said that there was a gate in Jerusalem known as the “Needle’s Eye,” which camels could go through only by kneeling, and with great difficulty. The point of this “interpretation” is that a camel could in fact go through the “Needle’s Eye.” The trouble with this “exegesis,” however, is that it is simply not true. There never was such a gate in Jerusalem at any time in its history. The earliest known “evidence” for this idea is found in the eleventh century(!) in a commentary by a Greek churchman named Theophylact, who had the same difficulty with the text that many later readers do. After all, it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that was precisely Jesus’ point. It is impossible for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom. It takes a miracle for a rich person to get saved…”1
• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (ZIBBC – 10 vols.)
• New International Commentary (NICOT – 30 vols.; NICNT – 20 vols.)
• New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC – 12 vols.)
• The New Testament for Everyone by N. T. Wright (18 vols.)

Bible Project Videos

• Book Overviews (OT – 39 videos; NT – 26 videos)
• How to Read the Bible (19 videos)
• Themes (41 videos)
• Word Studies (21 videos)
• Many more at com/explore/

Software

• Lots of translations
• Original language resources
• Cross-references
• Outlines
• Search tools
• Accordance & Logos

Search Tools

• Artificial intelligence chat bots (openai.com)
• Crowd sourced websites (info/topics)

Review

• Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias provide short articles on places, individuals, and topics in the Bible.
• Older and free research tools sometimes contain inaccuracies that more recent scholarship has overturned or updated.
• A good commentary tells you the options for interpreting a verse, reasons for each of those options, and a suggestion for which one makes the most sense.
• The Bible Project’s book overview videos are really helpful to get a general understanding of a book of the Bible.
• Bible software on PCs, tablets, and phones provide worldclass research tools to help you study scripture.
• When searching for a phrase, a topic, or something specific, you can use a Bible app, openbible.info, or AI.

1. Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014). p. 29.