WHICH BIBLE SHOULD I BUY? — Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church • Pastor Chuck Trusty • a helper page for the How to Read the Bible course
Now I get asked this more than you would think . . . "Preacher, what kind of Bible should I get?" . . . and here is the plain answer. I preach from the King James Version and have for thirty years, and every lesson on this site is from it - so get a King James, and get one with the TWO helps built into it that the reading course leans on: the little column of references running down the MIDDLE of every page, and a concordance in the BACK. Those two are not extras. They are half the toolbox, and most of this page is about how to use them.
The Bible I recommend
KJV Giant Print Center-Column Reference Bible, from Thomas Nelson. It has big clear print that is easy on older eyes, the center column of references, a concordance in the back, the words of Christ in red, and maps - ONE Bible, and you have everything the course will ever ask you for. It comes in several covers . . . the plain black leather-look is the sturdy, no-nonsense one, and the one I would hand a new reader.
► KJV Giant Print Center-Column Reference Bible on Amazon
The same Bible at the publisher, with links to other stores
If giant print is more than you need, the very same Bible comes in a smaller Large Print - same center column, same concordance, a little lighter to carry. And understand that this is not the ONLY Bible that will do . . . any King James with references down the middle and a concordance in the back will work the course just fine. This is simply the one I can point to and know exactly what you will be holding.
The concordance that goes with it
The concordance in the back of your Bible is a short one - it lists the main verses for a word, not every one. The Helper page explains the big one, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, which lists EVERY verse for EVERY word in the King James and gives you the number behind the word. If you want it on paper, get the large print edition - the regular one is printed small enough to make you squint.
► The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Large Print, on Amazon
The handbook-size edition, if shelf room matters more than print size
And if you would rather not buy a second book at all - you do not have to. The Helper page shows you the FREE one on your phone, and it does the same work.
How to use the center column — the thing nobody shows you
Open your Bible to any page and look down the middle. That narrow column of tiny print is the reference column, and here is how it works . . . I will use Hebrews 13:5, because the course used it in Lesson 4.
1. Find the verse, and look for a tiny letter sitting up high beside one of its words - a little a or b or c, the size of a gnat. (Some Bibles use small numbers instead of letters . . . same idea.) In Hebrews 13:5 there will be one next to "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
2. Run your eye straight over to the center column and find the verse number - 5 - and under it that same little letter.
3. Beside the letter are one or more references. In most reference Bibles this one points you back to Deuteronomy 31:6 and Joshua 1:5.
4. Turn to them and READ them. Deuteronomy 31:6 - "he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Joshua 1:5 - "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Now you know something you did not know a minute ago . . . that promise in Hebrews is not a new one - God said it to Israel on the edge of the land, said it again to Joshua, and the writer of Hebrews reached back fourteen hundred years and handed the SAME words to you. That is the Bible explaining itself - Tool 5 and Tool 6 and Tool 7 from the course, done on paper, with one finger.
Now hold on to the same guard the Helper page gives you. The center column does not tell you what a verse MEANS . . . it tells you where else the Bible said something like it. You read those verses, and the Book makes its own point. The column is the helper. The Book is the judge.
How to use the concordance in the back
Turn to the back of your Bible, past the maps if they are there, to the pages headed CONCORDANCE. The words are in alphabetical order like a dictionary . . . look up "forsake," run your finger down the short list of verses under it, and turn to them. That is Tool 4 - letting the Bible define its own words - and Tool 12 - gathering the whole counsel - with no phone and no second book. When the short list is not enough, THAT is when Strong's, or the phone, earns its keep.
The free one — the same two helps on your screen, no money spent
Now if you do not want to buy anything yet - or you want to try the tools before you spend a dime - the very same two helps are sitting on a FREE website called Blue Letter Bible, the one the Helper page uses, and they are one click deep. It is a King James, every verse has a little button beside it marked TOOLS, and under that button are the center column and the Strong's numbers both . . . open the links below, do your study, and close the tab when you are done - your lesson is still right here waiting on you.
► Open the King James on Blue Letter Bible
(it opens at John 3 - type any verse in the box at the top to go somewhere else)
► See the CENTER COLUMN for Hebrews 13:5
(the tab marked Cross-Refs - every verse that says the same thing, Deuteronomy 31:6 and Joshua 1:5 right there in the list)
► See the STRONG'S NUMBERS for Hebrews 13:5
(the tab marked Interlinear - every word on its own line with its number beside it - tap G1459 and read every verse where "forsake" is that same word)
So for any verse . . . get there, click TOOLS beside it, then click Cross-Refs for the center column or Interlinear for the numbers. That is the whole trick, and it is the same trick on your phone.
Back to Begin Your Study Here • The How to Read the Bible course
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." — 2 Timothy 2:15
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