Word Studies
One of the great things about the internet is that there are some great Bible study resources that can be used for free. If you don’t have the internet or prefer not to use it, most of these tools are available in book form.
You can make a word study brief or detailed depending on your time and interest in the word. Here are some basic steps adapted from David Sargent’s “Bible Study Methods.” Try to at least do steps two and three.
1. Find its English definition in the English dictionary.
Merriam-webster.com and Dictionary.com are two of the good online dictionaries.
2. Compare words used to translate the word in various translations.
Compare a more literal version like New American Standard or King James Version with the New KJV or English Standard Version and with a more dynamic translation like the New International Version, NET Bible or New Living Translation. You can find these at www.Biblegateway.com (Also see http://greattreasures.org/gnt/main.do)
3. Note the definition of the original word (Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic). You can also find the origin and root meaning of the word, how the word was used by the secular culture of the day. www.blueletterbible.org is a good place to get this information.
4. Discover just where the word is used in the Bible. Where does the word first appear? Where does it first appear in the book you are studying? How is it used in other places by the author of your passage and in other places? Which writers or books used the word more often? www.biblestudytools.com has this information in is lexicon function.
5. It is also helpful to determine how the word was used in the Bible and how it would have been understood in the culture to which the Bible was originally addressed. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testaments Words (http://www2.mf.no/bibel/vines.html) and the Precept Austin (www.preceptaustin.org) and click on the “Greek Word Studies” button) websites are helpful here.
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