How To Study The BIble

Second Reading - Next, we want to read the passage and start asking the questions like who, what, when where, how and why? Who is the passage about? Who is talking and what are they doing? To whom is the passage written? What happens and to whom does it happen? What unusual things occurred? At what are you surprised? What is the purpose of the passage, the chapter, and the book? When and where does it happen? How do things happen? Why do the people, angels or God do what they do? These questions help you start to understand the passage.

Third Reading - The third time we read the passage, we should look for key words such as nouns and verbs. Nouns usually refer to people, cities, countries, towns, and buildings that are important to understand. When we understand ancient people, places, and times, we can better understand what is happening in the passage. The verbs give us the action and help us discover what is occurring.

But what do these words mean? One approach to discovering the meaning of these words is to use a concordance along with Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament (W. E. Vine, et al, Nelson Publishing Co.). Other approaches require some knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. You will want an exhaustive concordance such as Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance or Young’s Concordance. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is highly recommended and is the most common. If you do not have one and you decide to buy one, make sure that it matches the version of Bible you have: NASB, NKJV or NIV. This is important, since different Bible versions sometimes use different words in a passage.

Let us discover how to use Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testaments. We will start by selecting the verse Hebrews 2:17. Then we will find the meaning of one of the words. The passage reads as follows:

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (NASB) Heb. 2:17

The book of Hebrews is all about Jesus our God, and the chapter in which this verse occurs is about Jesus' humbling Himself when He became a human. This verse is awesome because it tells us that as a result of all of this, Jesus is our merciful and faithful high priest. He is the one who faithfully forgives our sins and cares for us. There are several key important words that we should explore in order to better understand the meaning of this verse. But we will select only one for the purpose of illustration. We will investigate the word “merciful”. What does it mean that Jesus is merciful?