1.         Word Study

2.         Subject Study

3.         Thesis Study

4.         Difficult Scripture Study

5.         Book Study

6          Character Study

7.         Historical study

References

1.         What word do you want to study? 

2.         Look that word up and find all the verses containing that word or related words.  For example, if you’re searching for “clean”, you might also want “cleanse” or “cleansing”.  Make that determination.

            a.         Use a bible computer program to search for the word.
            b.         Use a concordance such as Strong’s.

3.         If there are too many verses to deal with, decide how you want to proceed with the enormous number of verses.

            a.         You can choose to study each an every one of them.
            b.         You can choose to take a number from the old testament and a
                        number from the new testament.

4.         Read the verses by looking them up in your bible.  Do not rely only on the computer program for the verses.  It is important to actually look them up in your bible so you know where they are.

5.         Look up the Hebrew and/or Greek original word in a lexicon.  If you look the words up in Strong’s Concordance, that number will direct you to the correct word in Hebrew or Greek.

6.         Look up the word in other sources:
            a.         Bible Dictionary
            b.         Bible Commentaries
            c.         Bible Encyclopedia
            d.         Webster’s Dictionary
            e.         Other translations of the Bible

SUBJECT STUDY

1.         What subject do you want to study?

2.         What keywords are related to that subject?  For example, if you are studying Christmas, you aren’t going to find the word “Christmas” in the Bible, so figure out other words that might be related.  You might try holy days, or Sabbath(s), etc.  You’ll at least get an idea of what God does want you to celebrate.

3.         Use the encyclopedia to look up the subject.  You can use secular books as well.  Another great source is the Catholic encyclopedia.

4.         Use commentaries to look up the verses you do find.

5.         Use the Church’s booklets on that subject.  Read the booklet, look up the verses.

THESIS STUDY

1.         Start with a thesis.  What do you want to prove or disprove?  Start off with a thesis statement (or question), for example, “God’s hygiene laws of the Old Testament helped Israel, and in particular Jews, throughout history, maintain a better level of health thereby protecting them from many of the diseases and illnesses that wiped out large populations.

• Take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree.
• Express one main idea.
• Assert your conclusions about a subject.  A strong thesis takes some sort of stand.

2.         Write down the keywords or chapters in the Bible where these topics might be covered.

3.         Use other helps such as Bible encyclopedia, Bible commentaries, secular encyclopedias, and historical books at the library.

4.         Do your research.

• Use specific language –
• The Bible says . . .
• Archaeologists state . . .
• Modern theologians say . . .

5.         Consider if the research proves or disproves your original thesis.

DIFFICULT SCRIPTURE STUDY

1.         If you come across a scripture that is confusing or hotly debated, choose that scripture to do a specific study on.

2.         Write down the scripture.

3.         Look that scripture up in different translations of the Bible.

4.         Read the chapter or chapters prior to the verse to get the context of the verse.

5.         Look at other verses in the Bible that pertain to similar subjects and see how God wants you to view that subject.  How does it relate to the verse you’re looking at?

6.         Who was the scripture directed to?  Why?

7.         Consider the literary context (how the paragraph or section relates to the surrounding text).
a.         Why did the writer say this particular thing?
b.         Why did the writer say this particular thing at this particular point?
c.         What contribution does this paragraph or section make to the
            overall purpose of the book?
d.         Write an explanation of how this paragraph or section relates to its
            context.

1.         Choose a particular book (i.e., Psalms, Esther) or all the books written by a certain person (i.e., the first five books written down by Moses, or the Epistles of Paul).

2.         If you are comparing multiple books, what similarities do you find in those books?  What differences do you find?

3.         If the book is a letter (epistle), to whom was the book addressed?

4.         Outline the theme(s) of the book.  Do themes or ideas end where chapters end?  If not, outline where they begin and end.

5.         What overall message is the writer attempting to convey?

6.         Do you feel there was a change in the person writing the book(s) over the course of the book or series of books.

7.         This type of study may also encompass the next study.

8.         Consider the historical context.
a.         Why did the writer write these particular things at this time? What was going on in locally or globally at the time that might have necessitated the need for the book to be written?
b.         Why did the writer write to these particular people?
c.         Write an explanation of how the historical and cultural setting influenced this book, either in why it was written or how the first readers heard it.

CHARACTER STUDY

1.         Choose a particular character mentioned in the bible to study.

2.         Read the books he wrote or the sections in the bible about this character. 

3.         If you have a study bible, read the sections in the front of the books pertaining to that character to get more information on the life of that person and the time in which they lived.

4.         Look into secular books, such as “The Search for the Twelve Apostles” by William S. McBirnie, or “All The Women of the Bible” by Edith Deen, or “All The Men of the Bible” by Herbert Lockyer.

5.         What was that person’s life like?  What was their role in the Bible?

6.         How did God use the person?

7.         What aspects about their life reflect God’s way and what aspects reflect normal human character or worldly influence?

8.         Did this person have lessons to learn?

9.         Did he/she learn those lessons?     What lessons does that give to us?

10.       How does this person’s life compare to ours?  How are the times comparable?

11.       Did this person change from the type of person they were at the beginning of the book or study to the end of the book or study?

12.       What can we learn from their life and experiences?

HISTORICAL STUDY

1.         Choose an event that occurred in Biblical history, i.e., the Exodus from Egypt.

2.         Read the related verses in the Bible to your top.

3.         Read the commentaries on those verses or chapters.

4.         Look up the subject in other sources (see Reference section):
a.         Encyclopedia
b.         Biblical encyclopedia
c.         “Oxford History of the Biblical World” by Michael D. Coogan
            d.         Biblical Archaeology magazine

5.         How do those historical events correlate to present day, i.e., did it significantly affect the type of church we have today?

References:

• Bible, New King James Version
• Bible, New Revised Standard Version
• Tanakh (Old Testament)
• Strong’s Concordance
• Nave’s Topical Bible – Orville Nave
• Introduction to the Old Testament - R.K. Harrison
• Old Testament Survey – William LaSor
• New Testament Introduction – Donald Guthrie
• New Bible Commentary, Revised – D.A. Carson
• Expositor’s Bible Commentary
• William Barclay’s Commentaries
• Word Studies (several books) – Spiros Zodhiates
• Vines Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words
• The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus
• Eusebius, the Church History: A New Translation With Commentary – Eusebius, Paul L. Maier
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentaries
• Online of JFB Commentaries
• Oxford History of the Biblical World - Michael D. Coogan
• Biblical Archaeology Review (Magazine)
• The Search for the Twelve Apostles - William S. McBirnie
• All The Women of the Bible - Edith Deen **
• All The Men of the Bible - Herbert Lockyer **

** Authors tend to take certain liberties with the stories about characters in the Bible, so be careful with these.