BASIC BIBLE STUDY TOOLS

can be very helpful, but also very expensive. However, a kind-hearted man named Rick Meyer has worked extremely hard to make a powerful FREE Bible study tool to use on your computer called E-Sword. There are also free apps for android phones (called MySword), i-phones, i-pads, etc. E-Sword is now available for android and iPhones for a very small fee - $1.99.

With the basic installation you get a King James Version Bible (KJV), plus a King James Version Bible with Strong’s numbers next to it (KJV+), Strong’s Dictionary, and Smith’s Bible Dictionary.

With the KJV (or any Bible you install), you can type in a word or phrase and search to see where it is found in the Bible. This is like a built-in concordance. You can also do this with other books you may download.

E-Sword comes with Strong’s Dictionary. What Mr. Strong did was alphabetize every Hebrew and Greek word in the Bible and assign it a number. You can do a word search with the number, and find where in the Bible any given Greek or Hebrew word is found, even though different English words were used to translate those words. These numbers are next to every word in the KJV+ Bible in E-Sword. If you hover your cursor over the number, Strong’s simple Hebrew or Greek definition will pop up in a separate box on your screen.

Besides these basic features there are many study helps that are in the public domain. After you download the basic download, these can be downloaded for free. Other, more modern study helps that are not in the public domain can be purchased, but, with one exception (below), I do not believe you need to purchase any of them to do effective Bible study.

Bibles:  Of the Bibles I recommend, only the ESV is in the public domain. If you use the NKJV, I strongly suggest that you buy the package for $29.95 that includes the NKJV and Vine’s NT dictionary. You would probably have to pay the equivalent of $29 for the Vine’s alone if you went to a bookstore and bought it, and Vine’s is the best NT Bible Dictionary. There are also free Bibles in some of the African languages such as Chichewa, Swahili, and Xhosa. If you want to see my article on which Bibles I recommend and why, click here:

Bible Dictionaries: Besides Vine’s, I suggest Thayer’s, Brown-Driver-Briggs, and Nave’s. You can also download Webster’s English Dictionary to help you understand the definition of English words you do not know. However, we find it easier to just Google definitions.

Graphics: You can check out the different maps and timelines. They could be quite useful to you. We prefer the excellent free maps and timelines available here: http://www.bible.ca or https://bibleatlas.org/

Cross-references: This is an extremely important Bible study aid that is not included in E-Sword, and I urge you to invest in a Bible that has extensive center-column references. What these references do is show you other verses in the Bible that are saying the same thing, or almost the same thing. If you look up the cross-reference(s), you will often find it leads to another, and another. Then you will get a more complete picture of what God says about any particular subject and this greatly aids your understanding.

You should use the tools mentioned above to do your studying and come to a conclusion about what a Bible passage means BEFORE using a commentary. Only then, you may wish to consult a commentary to see what conclusions others have come to. If you consult a commentary first, before reaching your own conclusion, it will be easy for you to just accept what some man says about the Bible instead of letting God Himself speak to you through His word.

Free Commentaries in E-Sword: Commentaries serve a good purpose, but one needs to be very careful. All of the commentaries in E-Sword were written by men in denominations and contain denominational error. However, these men were very careful Bible scholars, and one can learn much from them. At times a commentator may even show you where you did not reason properly in your study, or where you failed to take into consideration another Scripture, and so came to a wrong conclusion. I suggest Barnes, K&D, Pulpit, Henry, and the People’s NT. Also Robertson’s and Vincent’s word studies. If you use a commentary, do not rely on one only, get different opinions from different commentators.

Free Reference books in E-Sword: These are not necessary to Bible study, but you may find them interesting. Ante-Nicene Fathers is a collection of articles written by Christians from AD100-600. They are interesting, but not inspired, and they are not always true to Scripture. History of the Christian Church is a lengthy history book that traces how the original church of Christ evolved into the Catholic Church and then up to what happened in the Reformation when denominations began. Sketches of Jewish Social Life gives insight on the daily lives of people in Bible times. For short, interesting, illustrated articles about Bible times, places, and recent archaeological discoveries visit https://ferrelljenkins.blog/

E-Sword contains a basic word processor where you can make study notes. Personally, I prefer to select material and paste into MSWord and save everything as a docx file. You can do the same with Power Point presentations. That way I can easily share what I have learned with others.

With this one powerful tool, you have most Bible study tools you will need with the exception of a cross-reference Bible and commentaries on specific books of the Bible. Good commentaries, however, are expensive, and shipping from the USA adds to that expense. Therefore, I suggest you start with E-Sword and add other books as you have opportunity. Ask men whose Bible knowledge you respect for recommendations on commentaries for specific books. You can download E-Sword here: https://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html

Remember, the goal of Bible study is not simply to know the Bible better, but to better understand what God wants of you so you can DO it. These extra tools can be helpful, but be careful, it is GOD’s word that is going to judge us in the last day. May the Lord bless you as you study.