If you buy a fifth book for
studying the Bible, you are probably running out of money. But save up and get a Word-Study book. 

Buy at ChristianBook.com


The people of the Bible are our kinsmen.  Their God is our God. It is not surprising that we would want to know as much as we can about their lives.

 

We have the Holy Spirit and the words in the Bible to bring the events of the Bible into our knowledge.  It's not wrong to get a little help understanding the words. 

A word study book has brief articles (definitions, usages, comparisons) on significant words and is typically arranged in alphabetical order.  It's a window to the original Hebrew (for the Old Testament) and Greek (for the New Testament) for English-only Christians.

The battle is the Lord's, it is He who saves.  The Hebrew word for "saved" comes from a word meaning "make wide" or "make sufficient."  - (From the TWOT, cited on this page, which devotes about two pages to a discussion of the uses and theology behind "saved" in the Old Testament.)

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
By: W.E. Vine
Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 0785211608
About $23
This should be your first word study book.

Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 4 Volumes 
By: Kenneth Wuest
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1961 
ISBN: 0802822800 
About $29
A classic.

Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies
By: William Wilson
Hendrickson Publishers, 1993 
ISBN: 0917006275
About $12.
A cost-effective guide to OT words.

 

Word Pictures in the New Testament 6 Volumes
By: A.T. Robertson
Broadman / Holman, 1973 
ISBN: 0805413073
About $90.
A recognized authority.  But consider buying software that includes this work.  You will spend over $280 for PC Bible, but the dollar-for-dollar value is with software if you think you might buy a few more $90 sets.

Word-study books are often thought to be for those wanting the boringly-small details. It may be better to think of them as helping us see to the horizon.

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, (TWOT) 2 volumes
By: Edited by R.L. Harris, G.L. Archer, Jr. & B.K. Waltke
Moody Press, 1980 
ISBN: 0802486312
About $50.
The "TWOT" is a standard reference work, often cited.

 

 

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume
By: Gerhard Kittel, ed.; G.W. Bromiley, trans.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985 
ISBN: 0802824048
About $50
The essence of the classic 10-volume set in one volume.  

 

Did you notice how the Bible dictionaries are really like little encyclopedias, and the word-study books are more like dictionaries? Must have been a system thought up by the same smart folks who wrote the books.