10. Tools for Looking at the Context
Checking the immediate context of a biblical statement requires no special tools, of course, but when we need to move to the broader context of what is said on a given topic in a whole book, the whole Old or New Testament, or the whole Bible, we need help. Many Bibles contain reference columns or notes that list related scriptures elsewhere in the Bible, and these can be helpful but are seldom complete and may not include important scriptures. Concordances and Topical Bibles Bible concordances and topical Bibles, which list all the scriptures containing a given word or on a given topic, are much more complete – but these are translation specific, of course, and will only include the scriptures having a given word in the translation on which they are based. The old but still useful Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, both based on the King James Version, are popular with many Bible students.
Online Bible sites can also be very helpful in this regard. The best ones allow a person to search all the occurrences of a given word in a number of translations – so we can get a very good approximation of the full context of a given biblical word or idea. For example, the search features of internet sites such as BibleGateway.com and BlueLetterBible.com allow the user to quickly search for all occurrences of a given word in any of their many translations, and the search can be narrowed to instances in specific Bible books or a range of books.
However, when utilizing searches of this kind it is a good idea to spend a few moments thinking of synonyms for the term you wish to research, as some Bible verses may use slightly different words for the same concept (such as "faith," "trust," etc.). Different translations will also give different results. For example, the NIV Bible contains 574 instances of the word "love," while the ESV contains 551 instances of the same word. Clearly, the ESV is using some other synonyms for love – such as compassion or affection – in its translation.
Biblical Harmonies
There are also some tools for looking at specific biblical contexts such as harmonies of the Gospels which place the material from each of the four Gospels side by side in parallel columns. Some just compare the three Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – while others also include John's Gospel, which is difficult to mesh with the others, but which often adds additional material, of course.
Harmonies of the Gospels are available from various publishers, and several free harmonies can be found online. For example, a multiple column harmony based on the New American Standard Bible can be found at: www.biblehub.com/parallelgospels/. You can also download a parallel harmony based on the NET Bible here: www.bible.org/assets/pdf/Peyton_GospelHarmony.pdf.
Whether you choose to purchase a printed harmony for use in your study of the Gospels or elect to use one of the available free online versions such as those mentioned here, using a harmony can give you a fresh and often fascinating view of the story the Gospels tell and can also often help you to better understand passages that are somewhat unclear in one of the Gospel accounts. For the Old Testament, a harmony of the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles is also available.
The use of concordances, topical Bibles, and harmonies makes it relatively simple to look at the broader context of any biblical verse.
STEP THREE:
LOOKING AT THE BACKGROUND