In-Depth Ways of Studying Scripture
Introduction
Welcome to our Bible Study methods resource page. Here you will find many different ways on how to study the Bible or on creating a more enriching or in-depth bible study.
A basic approach or bible study foundation takes you through a book or topic of the Bible covering small sections at a time. However, many people are not aware that there are many other methods for Bible study available for studying Scripture.
Learning other styles and patterns of Bible study can be extremely productive for increasing your use and knowledge of the Bible:
- It will spur you to concentrate on overlooked elements of a book / topic.
- It will help you develop additional Bible study / interpretation skills which you might have been lacking.
- It could spark new insights, reflections or life applications even from well-known books / topics
Some Preliminaries
Any Bible study method will yield considerably better results for your spiritual life if you can procure some basic Bible study tools.
At a minimum, I would suggest:
- A good study Bible
- A one-volume Bible commentary
- A good Bible dictionary
You can probably equip yourself for about $60-90 and if you purchase hard cover books, they will probably last you a lifetime (better yet, buy the Kindle versions and have them all instantly available in the palm of your hand).
My Bible study tools page (which you can reach by clicking the link) contains a list of highly rated and respected resources that I recommend in each of these categories.
You needn’t take my recommendations. What is important to realize is the value of these types of resources for your growth and maturity in the Bible.
Regardless of which method you choose, you will learn a great deal more about the Bible by availing yourself of the work of so many brilliant biblical scholars.
Bible Study Methods
The following Bible study avenues are guaranteed to get you thinking and reflecting on overlooked aspects of the Bible.
This is a shorter version of the method below, Study by Book.
Provides a step-by-step guide for studying a whole chapter of the Bible at once. The goal is to understand a chapter’s main themes, key principles and applications for your life.
The bible study by book is one of my favorite Bible study approaches.
The goal is not to take a book apart, section by section, but to seek to understand the whole (its author, audience, historical context, purpose for being written, main themes and arguments, etc.)
Study by Topic – COMING SOON!
This type of Bible study allows you to traverse many parts of the Bible and the different types of biblical literature. The goal is to discover what the Bible says about a particular topic.
A very interesting twist on this approach to your Bible study is to see how the New Testament adds to or develops the Old Testament on particular topics.
Study by Key Biblical Figure – COMING SOON!
This Bible study approach seeks to discover aspects of a key biblical figure’s life (e.g. Moses, David, Elijah) and the good (and not so good) examples they set in their journeys of faith.
Like in the previous study method on a topic, it is also interesting to study the portrait of each figure in the different testaments.
Inductive Bible Study – COMING SOON!
This is the standard Bible Study method which yields excellent results. It’s beauty lies in its simplicity (observe, interpret and apply) and in the way it slows you down to read what the text of the Bible actually says.