Inductive Reading Tools

So you decide you want to try inductive reading. And then you vapor lock because there are just so many options in study tools. How do you decide what to use? Let me offer a little advice on that.

First, let me take some of the pressure off: Anything is better than nothing. You won’t get the perfect study Bible or Bible dictionary because there is none, but anything you get will be better than not having one at all. However, I think we can make some distinctions that will help you make better purchasing choices.

So you need a writing Bible, something like a single-column journaling or wide margin Bible. (Single-column will work better for this than a double-column layout.) Again, these are available in most translations, but I will offer that the ESV ones tend to go on sale a lot.

For your “other translation”, don’t use a paraphrase like The Message. It’s almost like reading a commentary. Stick with the NLT or anything stricter than that.

Study Bible
What about your study Bible? Here we need to be a little more choosy. You need good explanatory notes. You don’t want a devotional study Bible (eg, a “men’s study Bible”). The venerable Life Application Study Bible will not provide what we need for this. I also suggest avoiding a study Bible with one person’s name on the front. Those are usually more about teaching the passage than explaining the details. We want something that explains the details.

My go-to in the narratives tends to be the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible^§ (available in NIV, NRSV, and NKJV). The NIV Archaeological Study Bible or the ESV Archaeology Study Bible would be good, too.

In the epistles, I turn first to the Zondervan Biblical Theology Study Bible, but it’s good in the narratives, too; if I had to pick one, it’d probably be this. The ESV Study Bible and NIV Study Bible are also helpful. You’re looking for one that will explain the background or this unusual word, not tell you what the passage means and what to do with it — that’s what we’re trying to learn to do for ourselves.

Other tools
A Bible dictionary is different than a regular Webster’s dictionary. It’s more like an encyclopedia, really. It’ll tell you how the Bible uses a word. They come in all sizes. The small ones will have fewer words and briefer entries. You want a big one, 1500+ pages. If you drop it on your toe, it should hurt. Spend a little more on a good one that will meet your needs for years to come. I have the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary on my shelf.

Study Bibles are really very brief commentaries. Editors put in just the essentials. A single-volume commentary will go into a little more detail. A two-volume commentary will go into more detail still. If you really want to go deep, you’ll want a commentary specific to that book of the Bible. If you buy a whole Bible commentary, I suggest going straight to a two-volume set like the Bible Knowledge Commentary. If you decide you need or want a commentary on a specific book of the Bible, DA Carson’s New Testament Commentary Survey and Tremper Longman’s Old Testament Commentary Survey will point you toward quality commentaries that fit your needs and skill level.

Online tools
You need a physical writing Bible. Everything else could exist online. Or you can mix physical with digital tools.

Two very useful websites are BibleGateway.com and BlueLetterBible.org. Both give you access to many translations, and both will let you look up words like a concordance. Where else is this word used in the Bible? A digital search is far quicker than looking it up in a book.

They will also give you access to commentaries and other tools. The free tools, though, tend to be pretty dated. For a fairly modest fee, BibleGateway’s membership gives users access to several study Bibles (including the Cultural Backgrounds and Biblical Theology Study Bibles), commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and Bible atlases. This might be a cost- and space-effective option. The downside is it requires you to have the discipline not to check your email, etc, while you’re supposed to be reading the Bible.


I hope this helps you navigate the choices that are out there. But, again, anything is better than nothing. And the most important part of the process is what happens in your writing Bible with your pen. Paying close attention to the text and making life changes based on what you see there, this is what will cause spiritual growth.


§ Amazon links are referral links, in which case the author may receive a commission based on your purchase. This in no way affects the price you pay.

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