Who Will Help Me Interpret the Bible?

Acts 8:27-31: Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” ³⁰So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

The library of books composing the Bible, with texts spanning thousands of years, can get complicated. Jumping right in with no one to help you can leave you feeling like the Ethiopian court official trying to understand the book of Isaiah. This is especially true if you are new to the faith, rather than someone who was raised in the church and become familiar with the Bible's contents through Sunday school, sermons, Bible studies, and more. Here are a few sources that will help.

To begin with, you might want to pick up a Bible paraphrase. This brings the Bible to you in an abbreviated format with language that is easily understood. This will give you a grounding in what the various authors of the Bible's 66 books are telling you.

From there you can take up a study Bibles. I have two: a New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) called the Annotated Study Bible and the New International Version (NIV) Archaeological Study Bible. (Don't worry about NRSV & NIV for now. Those are different translations and something to worry about much further down the road.) These will provide you with text at the beginning of each book setting the scene, telling you who was writing, who the audience was, when it was written, and under what circumstances. Notes throughout the text will help explain various passages. If you have a computer, you can try the GLO Study Bible, which includes many photos, encyclopedic references, and videos. It is a great browsing Bible.

Now, when you are deeply involved with your Bible, you can also call on Bible Commentaries for help. These are books that explain the passages of books of the Bible from a scholarly point of view. Using these is like having Phillip run up to you and ask "Do you understand what you are reading" and then sitting with you and explaining the passages in detail. You can find many good Bible commentaries in bookstores and online. You may find some very old Commentaries (scholars have been writing commentaries for thousands of years) online for free. Highly favored among these are Matthew Henry's commentaries (written in the early 1700s), which are lively and approachable. Good luck with your exploration of the Bible. Through the Bible God speaks to us most directly. I hope you have a wonderful encounter with God today!