Bible Study Tools
Whether you’re a mature Christian or a new believer, End of the Age News wants to help you discover more about God’s Word. We think the best way to do that is to first submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He wrote the entire Bible by divine inspiration and He wants to be your lifelong guide to understanding His Word. So every time you read your Bible, ask Him through prayer to open your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to what He wants you to know.
In addition to yielding to the Holy Spirit, we suggest spending time learning from good Bible teachers. Our Pastors and Teachers pages feature great Bible teachers who have years of experience teaching through the Bible. We have learned so much from them and we know they will help you understand the scriptures better.
The following Bible study tools that have helped us and we hope they help you. If you have favorite tools not on our list please submit them on our Contact page so we can share them with fellow believers. Thank you and may God richly bless your Bible study.
Bible Translations
There are many English Bible translations available today, but which ones should we use? The original manuscripts were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Hebrew and Aramaic for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. Most English speakers don’t read these languages so translations are needed.
If you want to know more about how we got our modern Bible start here, but for now, we will concentrate on the three translation categories. They are word-for-word (Formal Equivalence), thought-for-thought (Dynamic Equivalence), and paraphrase (Retelling). End of the Age News uses the following word-for-word translations on our website. New King James Version (NKJV), Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), and the English Standard Version (ESV). We believe word-for-word Bibles are more accurate and more closely describe “God’s thoughts” from the original manuscripts. There are other good English word-for-word translations available that we don’t use here. By listing the ones we use we are not saying one is better than another, We are saying the closer you get to the original manuscripts the better.
We will confess, that we use some of the translations in the middle and right sides as Bible commentaries for Bible study. We especially like the NLT for its readability. Bible translation is a complicated and somewhat controversial topic, so please ask God for His guidance first.
Click the image below for links to Bible translation charts. One thing to remember as you examine the charts is the left side is better than the right. The translations listed on the left are the most literal. Where possible, they replace the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek words with an English word. The middle and left translations replace the original words with what they think the authors meant. You can see as you go right on the chart you get less of God’s thoughts and more of man’s thoughts.
Dr. John Barnett does a great job explaining his thoughts on the Bible Translations in the videos below.
Bible Websites and Apps
Once you have an idea of what Bible translations you want to use you’ll need some online websites for studying at home or on the go. You might be saying, “Nope, I’ll stick with my paper Bible, thank you!” You’re right, you should have a paper Bible, but you also shouldn’t sell these bible study websites short. They have many resources in addition to dozens of Bible translations. You’re probably familiar with most of these, but if not please know they have all been around for a very long time and are completely trustworthy. All have mobile versions as well, so try them out to see which ones you might use.
Bible Gateway is an awesome Bible study website. It was founded in 1993 before the internet really got going and has become one of the predominant Bible study resources on the internet. There are too many features to mention, but it has dozens of Bible translations, a devotional verse of the day, several reading plans including Old & New Testaments and Chronological, search for specific passages-keywords-topics, read up to 5 parallel Bible translations at one time, you can remove cross-references-footnotes-verse numbers-headings for easier reading, it also has audio Bibles in different languages. Bible Gateway is a complete Bible resource that we know you will enjoy.
Blue Letter Bible is another comprehensive Bible study site. It was first published in March of 1996 and has seen substantial growth ever since. You can read all about it here. BLB emphasizes Bible-centered resources to help you like the Lexicon search tool that gives access to original Hebrew and Greek words, several English Bible translations, Strong’s concordance, reading plans, audio Bibles, commentaries, topical indexes, theological resources, daily devotionals, free Bible courses, Bible maps and charts, plus much more. Blue Letter Bible is a trusted source of truth and knowledge that you will find useful for your study of God’s word.
Bible Hub is a great resource for your online Bible study. It started as a parallel Bible verse tool but has been added to and merged with other tools developed by its makers to become an all-inclusive Bible study website and app. There are dozens of Bible translations, parallel Bible reading tools, lots of maps, topical studies, Greek and Hebrew Lexicon, concordances, commentaries, dictionaries, sermons, devotions, Bible timelines, Bible outlines, Bible book summaries with topics-people-locations-questions, Strong’s concordance, and many other tools. Bible Hub will be very beneficial as you use it to study the Bible.
Got Questions Is one of our favorite Bible study websites. Founded in 2002 Got Questions quickly became one of the premier Bible answer websites on the internet. They currently have a team of 250 members that have answered almost 750,000 Bible-related questions. Their Question of the Week newsletter has around 350,000 subscribers. By using SEO GotQuestions.org is able to place near the top of Google’s search results for many Bible questions. This is a tremendous help to new believers as they begin their walk with the Lord. In addition to Got Questions, the team has also created several other question websites focused on kids, apologetics, reference, and teens. We use them almost every day and we believe you should too.
BibleProject was made for visual learners. It started in 2014 with two videos and now has over 180 explaining the overall theme of every book of the Bible. In addition to their videos, they also feature 350 podcasts where the founders explore different topics of the Bible. The website, app, and YouTube channel has over 620 million views from more than 200 countries. They are literally reaching the world with their ministry. In addition to their Bible summary videos, they also post articles, how-to-read Bible lessons, word studies, and commentaries. We really enjoy watching their videos and we know you will too.
Logos, owned by Faithlife, LLC, is probably the largest study resource on our list. The company started with a simple program written in 1986 to quickly search the King James Bible. A few years later that programmer, his father, and a fellow employee founded Logos Research Systems. Since then the company has steadily grown into one of the largest sources for Christian study on the internet. Logos offers free and paid services that include a downloadable desktop app, web app (no download), mobile app, and a free edition. We have been using their mobile Bible app for years and we love it. Logos is an extensive source that has all you need to further your knowledge of the Bible.
Bible Study Accessories
If you’re a note-taker and don’t mind marking your Bible, we would like to suggest the following items that will hopefully make your Bible study more productive.
These pens are great for writing in your Bible. They have special ink invented over thirty years ago that does not bleed, fade, or run and they come in a variety of tip widths and colors. We have used these pens for years and absolutely love them.
Pentel knocked it out of the ballpark with this one. This pencil has been around for a while with good reason. It is highly crafted and durable enough for heavy use. It comes loaded with 8 different colored leads that you can select by twisting the clip. All mechanical pencils are a bit temperamental so be patient when switching colors, and replacing lead.
Bible paper is thin and one of the problems with highlighting is that it bleeds through onto the opposite page. Mr. Pen’s Highlighters have taken care of this problem with their no bleed gel highlighters. One of the cool features of these highlighters is they can be sharpened with a regular pencil sharpener. If you like highlighting scripture give these a try.
The NuFlex Rechargeable Book Light is great for low light reading conditions. It is lightweight with a strong clip, it has a flexible arm for different positions, and three powerful LED lights that will light up your Bible in the darkest rooms. It’s rechargeable battery lasts for 5 hours on high and 24 hours on low.
Not the most expensive tool in our toolbox, but we think the books of the Bible ruler is priceless. It is made of clear plastic and is a must for underlining key scriptures. An added bonus is the 66 books of the Bible listed by Old and New Testament. Pick one up as you’re shopping for other things.
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