How to Study the BibleSample

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. So we all know that no Biblical translation is perfect. Greek has 5 million words, while English only has roughly one million! For the English word "love," you can find five different Greek words! There is no way we could ever get a perfect translation. That is why it's important to compare different ones.

The different Bible translations are broken up into three main categories:

1. Paraphrase: Living Bible, The Message, The Passion

2. Thought for Thought: NIV, NLT

3. Word for Word: NKJ, NASB, ESV

Both Paraphrase and Thought-for-Thought translations are great for devotional time. They explain the Scripture in a simpler, easy-to-understand manner. This is good when you want to read through a story in Scripture or want to read a few chapters quickly.

The Word-for-Word translations are the type of Bible you want to use when wanting to have a deeper study. This translation is better for deriving a deeper meaning from it, as it is the closest translation to our original text.

Let's Pray:

Father, thank You for the gift of Your Word. As I read it daily, I pray that You would teach me to derive Your meaning from it. Show me what You intended when You wrote it. In Jesus' name, amen.