Why use bible commentaries

Receive each Sunday morning the poetic lyrics to one inspiring hymn and its supporting Scripture along with additional readings for reflection. Verse of the Day For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

How much time do you spend reading the Bible each day? View Results. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible. July 26, Andy Rau. Andy is the former senior manager of content for Bible Gateway.

He currently works at Calvin College. Step 1: Start reading a Bible passage. Encyclopedias provide in-depth information organized by name or concept. Commentaries feature Bible scholarship that goes into significant depth about Bible passages, and are meant for serious and focused Bible study, as well as for sermon preparation and research.

Videos offer background and context to certain biblical texts. Select a study resource. Click on an individual entry to read it: You can cycle through relevant entries by clicking on the arrow icon s below the text of an entry, in the bottom corner.

Plan your Bible study approach. Optional Expand your study library with a Bible Gateway Plus membership. Filed under Bible Study , Commentaries , Support Tagged as annotation , bible commentaries , bible references , Bible Study , tutorial. Search the Blog. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance.

Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Mary Fairchild. Christianity Expert. Mary Fairchild is a full-time Christian minister, writer, and editor of two Christian anthologies, including "Stories of Cavalry. Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter. Cite this Article Format. Fairchild, Mary. What Is a Commentary? It has been often stated: the Bible is its own best commentary.

As men and women of the Word, we must allow Scripture to speak and interpret itself. Commentaries are not Scripture, Scripture is Scripture. And we must allow the Word to speak, define, clarify, and give context to the passage we are studying.

Yes they can be, but we must not rely or turn to them first. There is a tremendous profit in wrestling long over a text.

Here is my suggestion: if you are going to use commentaries, use them last. There are several commentaries I like and I have found that God has used them to spark a thought or greater truth, but I turn to them only after I have spent a significant amount of time in the text wrestling.