COMMENTARY A Bible commentary, as the name suggests, interprets the meaning of each Bible passage–verse by verse. For hundreds of years Bible scholars and spiritual leaders have recorded the results of their studies, and much of this has been gathered in various commentaries.
Some commentaries are the work of a single author, while others are a compilation of the efforts of several scholars and range in size from one volume to well over 50 volumes. Three of the better-known versions are Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s New Commentary on the Whole Bible; and The Wycliffe Bible Commentary by Everett F. Harrison and Charles F. Pfeiffer.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES The Complete WordStudy Dictionary: New Testament (1992) and The Complete WordStudy New Testament, both by Spiros Zodhiates, are wonderful tools for studying the words in the original languages. They give invaluable help in the digging of silver.
Nave’s Topical Bible is a kind of concordance with full texts, a digest of 20,000 topics and subtopics and 100,000 references to the Scriptures. Also, another valuable tool for study, and a mine of general Bible information, is Halley’s Bible Handbook.
My purpose here is to introduce the believer to a variety of effective tools for serious study of the Word. This list is limited, but perhaps it will serve as a help to those who are beginning to develop a Bible study library.
It is important to note that the serious study of the hidden treasure in the Scriptures will not always be convenient. With all of our time-saving devices, we are still the busiest generation that ever lived. It will require sacrifice just to come to a place of study.
Once there, we need to be willing to exert effort in study and prayer in order to uncover the rich veins of silver awaiting us in the revelation of the Word of God. Whatever sacrifices and efforts are required, it will be worth it all to savor the presence of God in your soul, which is the only source of true satisfaction we can know.
The late Fuchsia Pickett was a noted Bible teacher and author of numerous books, including Receiving Divine Revelation and How to Search the Scriptures, from which this article is adapted.
