How do you study the Bible

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What tools do you use to study the Bible? Do you use a paper copy, the internet, or Bible software? Do you use commentaries, dictionaries or lexicons. How do you decide what passage to study?

I will start. I use Verbum bible software. I have several Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, and a lexicon. I mostly decide what to study based on the book I am reading. When they reference scripture I study the verses around it. Right now I am reading the New Testament from beginning to end and creating a passage list of verses I want to remember. I occasionally google a greek word such as eis and kecharitomene
 
I use Verbum also…My library is at about 2400 books now. For Bible Study I use various books in my Verbum collection, including Greek and Hebrew interlinear bibles, the writings of the Church Fathers, Church Documents, and the CCC…I do, also, occasionally use commentaries from my collection, just to get another (or several other) point of view.
 
I’m old school and use several Bible translations. I highlight, underline, make notations in my Bibles. Now, I also refer to the CCC and google words or traditions I don’t understand. We’re currently using Jeff Cavins’ Revelation study, two remaining lessons.
 
I just looked at the link - wow!. An impressive study program. How many participants do you average?
 
Just familiarize yourself with the Bible by constant reading of it.
Thirty minutes a day - a book a day ?

One thing that helped me fine tune my learning…
I bought a game called Bible Trivia -
The blue cards are the easy cards -
The white cards are tougher.

Eventually I knew all the blue card answers.
The Bible - is a library - in of itself.
Incredible how it retains mystery - and newness.
 
All in electronic form, the primary references I use are:

Church Fathers
Haydock’s commentary
Several old and modern translations (except the NAB)
The Orthodox Study Bible
The Septuagint
The Complete Koine-English Reference Bible

I seek out comments and research posted on CAF and other Christian sites. CAF has many excellent posters whose insights are invaluable and worth weeks or years of study.

I listen to the Complete NIV Audio Bible read by David Suchet throughout the day and night.

I have a few books on Verbum, but seldom use it.

I decide to study a passage when a question pops into my head or if I see an interesting comment or question on the Internet.
 
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i don’t “study the bible”
i listen to the scriptures at Sunday Mass & the homily

i don’t attempt to to interpret scripture privately

private interpretation o of scripture is a protestant thing
 
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i’m not not sure what you are asking

i’ve 26 years of catholic education

never heard of a “lectionary”

is that a protestant thing?
 
It is good to study the Bible, more so if one is an academic or for the purpose of teaching.

My spiritual life revolves around the Bible. However, the so-called Bible study is never formal. It is important to know your Bible of course. For me it is for my own growth and daily needs (sometimes also I do use the scripture references for teaching).

I could never count myself as a Bible scholar and so I do not exegete it that way.

Before the internet was widely in use, my Bible tools were either the commentary or the concordance.

As a practical usage of the Bible, it would be in prayers, meditation and reflection. I would use the Lectio Divina style loosely by reading certain passages (usually the daily readings of the mass – killing two birds with one stone, helps me to prepare for the mass as well) and then do the following:
  1. What does the passage say generally (trying to understand it)?
  2. What does it say to me personally (in addressing my current situation in life)? Which word strike me to become my memory verse of the day?
  3. What is my response to the passage?
  4. Praying to bring it to God – thanking Him for His word, asking for blessing that the word may grow in my life and the strength to faithfully live out the word given.
On top of that we have cell group (we are a committed community) where we meet once a week for sharing of the word and lives. Then there are the leaders meeting, again the focus is always on the word.

So if you are doing this for the last twenty years, you would probably have gone through those passages many times. And yet each time, the sharing often differs because our lives are dynamic and the word is always seen and understood as addressing our lives at that moment in time.

So there are two ways about it – academically, which I am not up to it, and for personal growth, which I use it for.

God bless.
 

The pericopes for the first reading along with the psalms are arranged in a two-year cycle. The Gospels are arranged so that portions of all four are read every year. This weekday lectionary has also been adapted by some denominations with
 
private (and/or group) bible studies are not catholic

we depend on the majestrium of Mother Church
 
i will never get the point of of a group of well intetioned folks who go into the parish community room& attempt to interpret scripture

that is what protestants do

catholics already have a “teaching” authority

guess what; it ain’t you
 
brian_custer said:
en.wikipedia.org

Lectionary​

A lectionary (Latin: Lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a “gospel lectionary” or evangeliary, and an epistolary with the readings from the New Testament Epistles. The Talmud claims that the practice of reading appointed Scriptures on given days or occasions dates back to the time of Moses and began with the annual religious festivals of Passover, Pen…

The pericopes for the first reading along with the psalms are arranged in a two-year cycle. The Gospels are arranged so that portions of all four are read every year. This weekday lectionary has also been adapted by some denominations with
Click to expand...
What’s nice about the Revised Common Lectionary is that the readings in each cycle (A,B, and C) are used by Christians all over the world. Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc. I love that we are all reading the same Gospel, Epistle, OT lesson, Psalm. Which means that many of our clergy are preaching on the same texts.
 
it could be

i’ll accept the magsterium, thank you
 
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I also wouldn’t call my reading of the Bible as “studying”. I read the scripture of the day, the Apostle of the day, but not everyday. 😊 Sometimes an idea pops in my head about reading from certain books and I often take up on that idea.
I use Android phone apps for most of the time. I can read even if it sounds strange and use it just to concentrate on God and call God and make this a way for Him to be in my life. But at extreme times I would rather say prayers. Many of them contain rephrased passages of the Bible.
 
The Magisterium still encourages us to read the Bible on our own time.
 
Try to have a nice thread about Bible study (something the Magisterium of the Catholic Church calls on ALL of us to do), and the Rad Trad quotient tries to disparage it :roll_eyes:
 
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