BOOKS I USE IN STUDY AND WHY
Preachers like to read what others use in their study and where they glean help.
Below are some of the tools I use and why I find them so helpful.
1. THE COMPANION BIBLE BY E.W. BULLINGER:
You cannot talk about Bullinger and his writings/Bible without any
qualification. He was a Dispensationalist and this colours many of his
notes. He also believed in soul sleep and is, at best, suspiciously
quiet about the eternal torments of the damned. He rightly bases his
comments on the Authorised Version, but his sympathies lay with the
Westcott and Hort camp, yet not consistently. Having said all that, he
often gives powerful outlines on Bible passages, observing either the
introverted and/or the alternated structure of the passage. He gives
very helpful notes on the original languages especially the
prepositions of the Greek and also the alternative Greek readings from
"the texts" i.e. the W&H readings (which barely rises above
"interesting" in my estimation) Sometimes his notes cover 3/4 of the
page. He is also helpful in his classification of the English language.
There are nearly 200 appendices at the back of the Bible on different
subjects which make for profitable reading also, although I am not a
great fan of his fixation with the numerals of scripture (beyond the
basic ones) nor am I inclined to believe that the zodiac was once used
to convey the gospel. It's funny how I always feel when commenting on
Bullinger, that some folk may think that I've killed off any interest
in him with all my qualifications, but this is not the case. To the
discerning reader who knows his theological right hand from his left, I
do recommend use of his Bible. I use it also for my own private
readings. The presence of the notes does slow you down when reading,
but that is generally a good thing.
2. DAKE'S BIBLE:
Like Bullinger, Dake held to some left of centre views including
Dispensationalism. Dake's determination to maintain the literal at
whatever cost brought him into maintaining that God had bodily parts.
He also believed that healing was in the atonement, that men could be
saved and lost and that Christ only became the Messiah when baptised at
the beginning of his ministry. However, his Bible is a great asset
because of the way he classifies many Scriptures for us. Again, using
his Bible in Bible reading does tend to slow you down as you invariably
want to see what he has to say. I use Bullinger more than I do Dake,
but if you can get Dake at a good price, do go for it.
3. YOUNG'S CRITICAL AND CONCISE COMMENTS:
This is the Robert Young of concordance fame who also produced his own
very literal translation of the Bible. This book is the handbook to
that translation and explains some of the differences between his
translation and the AV (which he calls the CV or "Common version") He
can be pretty scathing at times re: the AV which detracts from the
book, but his concise comments especially in the historical books are
very helpful. He gives the other occurrences of a word and so this book
serves as a mini concordance as well.
4) TREASURY OF SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE:
This book has been around for a long time. My first copy of it carries
a foreword by R.A. Torrey who speaks about the blessing he received
from using it. It basically collects together the marginal references
from a host of AV Bibles into one volume. A couple of years ago, I got
the latest edition which has been greatly updated. Edited by Jerome H.
Smith, it includes all that is in the previous editions but also
includes a wealth of other stuff as well. It gives notes from the
Companion Bible, Bullinger's "Figure's of speech" and Young's Concise
Comments (adding therefore to the comments above on the usefulness of
these publications) He also covers every major topic in the Bible and
is well indexed. Again, there are some little theological quirks
appear, but leave aside the bones and enjoy the rest of the meal.
5) COMMENTARIES:
We are to come to the commentaries with questions, rather than using
them immediately. I use a number of commentaries in this way. Usually
the first commentary I use is that of John Gill. This is the default
commentary on my Online Bible. He is very good and thorough, although
he does tend to see things in every last detail which are sometimes
forced. He also tends to push his Calvinism also into places when there
is no exegetical reason to do so. John Calvin is also consulted. You do
have to read a couple of pages to pick up Calvin's drift, but this is
well worth the effort. Very sane in his comments. Matthew Poole is
terse in his comments but again very good, especially for sorting out
difficult verses. Matthew Henry is good for application. There is also
a host of other commentators who never really got round to commenting
on the whole Bible. (Actually Calvin didn't either, but covered many of
the books) Favourites include Bishop JC Ryle, William Henriksen and
Albert Barnes. (My list here is limited two ways. One: to those I
actually have in my library and, two: those I use regularly. The list
is not meant to be extensive.)
6) CONCORDANCES:
I use Strong's Concordance through the Online Bible. I also have
Young's Concordance which sets out the subject matter in a different
format and also Crudens Concordance. The search engine in my Online
Strong's makes the other concordances (including my large hard copy of
Strong) almost redundant. It is good to look up Strong and see how a
word in the AV is rendered elsewhere. I don't think it compromises the
translators of the AV to sometimes slip in another English rendering of
the Greek word as it appears elsewhere. The word that is translated
"freely" in Romans 3:24 re: our justification by His grace is
translated by the phrase "without a cause" in John 15:25. Again, the
word that is translated "come short" in Romans 3:23 is translated as
"destitute" in Hebrews 11:37 and also "began to be in want" as it
relates to the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:14. This opens up exciting word
pictures to help expound doctrinal passages.
7) THEOLOGICAL WORKS:
For help with doctrinal messages, I find a number of men particularly
helpful. I do have a number of theological works, but the ones that I
tend to reach for first are: Systematic Theology by John Brown of
Haddington This work is quite terse in its presentation with one or two
line observations, followed by a number of Scriptural references as
proof. Brown certainly was thorough in his presentation. He follows up
his comments with answering objections and then an almost devotional
paragraph or two at the back as if to remind us that theology is for
the heart and not just for the brain. In a similar mode, Patterson on
the Shorter Catechism is most useful. Although obviously limited to the
Shorter Catechism, yet the wide range theology covered in such a narrow
compass makes both the catechism and its expositor very useful. R.L.
Dabney's Systematic Theology is also terse in its comments but thorough
too. Outlines of Theology by A.A. Hodge uses the question and answer
method which makes for easy reading. I also have some volumes of Louis
Berkhof, but by the time I read the others listed, I generally have
enough. This being said, Berkhof's Summary of Christian Doctrine is a
very useful book as well. I cannot leave this section without
mentioning Alan Cairns "Theological Dictionary" which is helpful and
concise also. While I do have Calvin's Institutes of the Christian
Religion, and find them helpful, I generally do not use them in the
study. As you will see above, I like those works which are terse and
this can never be said of Calvin.
8) BACKGROUND WORKS:
A useful book I picked up brand new at about one third of the asking
price was Manners and Customs of the Bible by James M. Freeman. This is
like a Bible Dictionary, although it is set forth chronologically
rather than by subject. Often you wouldn't even think of looking up a
subject in the other Bible dictionaries but Mr Freeman has anticipated
that and is invaluable. If I do use a conventional Bible Dictionary, I
have the Revised Easton's Dictionary on my Online Bible and also a hard
copy of the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. However, often the
relevant background details are supplied by the commentators.
9) OVERVIEW HELPS:
For overview of whole Bible books, I find Robert Lee's The Outlined
Bible very helpful, especially seeing each book's outline is covered on
one large page. It may be "unwieldy" as the author admits, but it is
ten times easier having it all at a glance than spread over a number of
pages. Another useful book in this regard is Irving Jensen's Simply
Understanding the Bible. Not as unwieldy as Robert Lee's book, but then
a number of pages are needed for all that is needed to be said. I also
have William Hendriksen's Survey of the Bible on the shelf, but I
generally find the first two listed sufficient. As for chapter
overviews, I recently purchased Willmington's Outline Bible which
provides a detailed outline on every chapter in the Bible. If
alliteration is your thing - it is not generally mine - then you will
love this book. Sadly any Bible references in it are from the New
Living Translation - a resuscitated Living Bible for those who think
the gutter language of New York in the 1970's is a suitable medium to
convey God's Holy Word. Despite this flaw, however, Willmington's book
is very useful. In less detail, Warren Wiersbe's With the Word covers
every chapter also with an outline - again alliterated. Search the
Scriptures as edited by Alan Stibbs really helps you get to the heart
of any passage. It is conducted more on a Bible study idea, but by the
time you have answered the two or more questions, you really have
covered the set passage. Personally though, I like to study the passage
as I go along in sermon preparation. If you start barking up a wrong
tree, you can always delete and get back on course. Brooks Bible
Summarised Handbook tends to be too concise, but can be useful. Of
course the best way to get to the kernel of any passage is to look for
the following:
1. Prepare your own outline of the passage.
2) Identify the main characters.
3) Identify and obey any precepts.
4) Identify and claim any promises
5) Identify and heed any warnings
6) What does the passage say about the word of God itself?
7) What does the passage reveal about Christ?
10) OUTLINES:
I generally construct my own outlines which I find easier to preach.
However I have gleaned a lot of help from various sources. To any
budding preachers, I would recommend those of CH Spurgeon, especially
in the (originally) 4 volume set of outlines. Of course if you have
access to all of Spurgeon's sermons, then you can consult him even more
widely. I have all his sermons on CD Rom. I picked up 800 outlines of
Jabez Burns reasonably cheap which I find pretty useful also. Some of
these are available in 301 outlines etc., by the same preacher. I have
some odd volumes of the famous Charles Simeon outlines and also some by
Charles Bridges in a very slim volume…again all pretty useful
stuff. Even if you can get your main outline, the sub points can often
be difficult. A few years ago I went through all my books of other
men's sermons - McCheyne, Edwards, Griffin etc., and catalogued their
sermons. It seems an awful pity to be struggling with a text and all
the time you are unaware that you have the sermon of some mighty pulpit
giant on it tucked in away in some book. It certainly took a while to
do, but bit by bit we - my wife and I - got there. I'll have to update
it sometime. Another useful book here at times is 'Handfuls on purpose'
by Smith and Lee which I picked up at a massive discount recently.
Doesn't cover every text or passage (none of them do) but beneficial
nevertheless.
11) ILLUSTRATIONS:
The illustrations in my sermons tend to come on the hoof and hardly
ever make it into my notes. I tend to glean them from gospel tracts and
rely on my memory to do so. I recently picked up a copy of
McCartney's Illustrations which are those of Clarence McCartney who had
an acceptable gospel ministry in the United States. Vernon McGhee uses
a lot of illustrations in his commentaries which can be useful, despite
his Arminian and Dispensationalist tendencies.
12) QUAINT INSIGHTS:
There are many types of commentary. We look first of all for those
which are faithful to the exposition of the Bible text. As indicated
above, Calvin excels here as does Gill and Poole etc., But we are also
looking for those sources who have the wonderful ability to word
something so that it will be remembered. While it may be open to the
charge of "tickling our ears" yet it can also serve to challenge our
hearts if it is remembered. In my library, I enjoy such things from
Hall's Contemplations This old Puritan COE Bishop covers most of the
historical portions of Holy Writ. Spurgeon can be good here as well and
FB Meyer also leaves a sweet taste in my mouth. I have "rare old John
Trapp" (as Spurgeon used to refer to him) on the NT and he is always
worth looking up.
So that's it. I hope these ramblings through my study will benefit some reader!
THE END
Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland