How to Study the Bible for Beginners

Table of Contents
How Should a Beginner Read the Bible?
What Do You Need to Get Started Studying the Bible?
6 Bible Study Tips You Should Know

Studying the Bible can be a very important and revealing spiritual experience for many of us. The complexity of the texts and all the different interpretations can make it a relatively difficult process to go through. Learning how to study the Bible for beginners can change that. With the right approach, a good mindset, and an appropriate set of tools, you can turn it into a rewarding and enlightening experience.

As a beginner, you will probably benefit from having all the right tools at hand, and this is why our Bible Chat app can be a game-changer. With the power of AI at your fingertips, all you need to do is ask the questions you have and you will receive correct and insightful answers for anything that might be troubling you.

But let’s first see how to correctly approach Bible study for beginners.

How Should a Beginner Read the Bible?

Learning how to study the Bible as a beginner should start by deciding where and how to begin. As we know, the Bible we know today is actually a compilation of several books and texts written over the course of a couple of centuries.

While for some it might be tempting to figure out a way to read the Bible that has a deeper meaning, our advice for beginners is to simply start with the classic version they can find today and read it in the conventional order.

While this may be somewhat difficult considering that the Bible consists of various literary genres, including historical accounts, poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature, and letters, all written in different contexts and times, it can be a simple and relatively effective solution.

A different approach many beginners have tried and recommended is to start with the New Testament, specifically the Gospels (which tell the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ). This approach can provide a deeper understanding of the foundational Christian beliefs, which can aid the process of tackling other books in the Bible.

Another extremely important aspect of starting to read the Bible as a beginner is to be patient and give yourself time. The Bible is not an easy read, regardless of the order you start reading the books in. You should read it slowly and carefully.

What Do You Need to Get Started Studying the Bible?

The process of starting to study the Bible can be a daunting one. There are a couple of things you definitely need before you even discover the best way to study the Bible. Here are some of the most important physical and non-physical things you will need.

1. Motivation

Knowing why you read the Bible and what you are hoping to achieve by doing it is probably the most important thing when you get started. Whether you want to start your spiritual journey and dedicate some of your time to your faith or you are simply curious, you need to understand right off the bat that you will need to put in the work in order to achieve your goals.

What motivates you to embark on this spiritual journey is a personal matter. What truly matters is to use this motivation and harness its power to guide you through the process of learning how to study the Bible. At the end of the journey, you will thank yourself for the effort you put into it.

2. A Plan

Once you know why you are doing this, you will need to start working on how to do it properly. Lay down some ground rules and stick to them. Give yourself time and do some research on where you should get started.

Whether you want to simply read the Bible for an hour every day or you want to dedicate more time each day to the study, you should have a structured approach to the process.

3. Patience and an Open Mind

One thing you need to understand and take into account right from the start is that the process is going to take time. Reading or studying the Bible is not a race to the finish, it is a journey of understanding and personal growth.

You will need to be patient, absorb the information slowly, and keep an open mind. The latter is important because the text and the different possible interpretations can be challenging to comprehend and truly embrace considering how old the writings are.

4. The Bible

Getting to the physical needs, you will definitely require a Bible in order to be able to study it. You should know that there are different versions and translations of the Bible, and you should try and get your hands on a translation that is easy to understand while remaining true to the original writings.

Ideal for beginners is generally considered the New International Version (NIV) or New King James Version (NKJV).

Whether you choose a physical Bible or a digital version of the book is up to you as long as you choose a suitable version.

6 Bible Study Tips You Should Know

On top of the things listed above as necessities for starting the process of studying the Bible, you will also need a couple of tips and tricks to help you along the way. While these are a great way to improve the process, you should also try to come up with your own ways of making this easier and more meaningful for you

1. Start With Prayer

You should always start each Bible study session by praying. This will give you a chance to reflect on your motivation and will also be a good opportunity to ask for some guidance. You should ask for understanding, patience, and openness to absorb the lessons you are about to start reading about.

2. Be Patient

Maybe one of the most important things you should always keep in mind is that the Bible is about loving yourself as much as it is about loving your peers. That means that you should learn to accept yourself and be patient with the difficulties you are about to face.

Learning about the Bible, as I mentioned before, is not going to be an easy process. You should read at a slow pace, one that will allow you to truly grasp the meaning of the text, understand it in its entirety, and actually learn the lessons presented in the books.

3. Understand the Context

Another important thing to do before you even start reading or studying the Bible is to do some research and understand the background. Find out as much as possible about the times it was written in, who are the authors, and try to gain some understanding of the circumstances surrounding the period.

This is going to help you tremendously in actually understanding the teachings and putting them into a meaningful context. Knowing what was going on at the time from a historic point of view will shed light on many of the writings and events described.

4. Reflect and Meditate

Learning how to study the Bible for beginners is more about what you understand from the text rather than about actually reading it. That is why it is important to take it in one verse at a time.

Reflect on what you read, try to understand the true meaning of each section, and try to learn what the writers were trying to transmit through their...