Recommendations needed for add on's

[Woody]

I am a new Accordance user and I'm also relatively new to bible study in general. I purchased the Bible Study package and need some recommendations for my purchases.

 

I am considering the following, but if I'm going in the wrong direction, please set me straight. I do not have any command of Greek or Hebrew. Please give me your order of preference:

 

Essential IVP Reference Collection 3

Anchor dictionary 6 vol.

ISBE Revised

NIBD 5 vol.

Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible

 

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions!!!

Blessings,

Michael

[Michael Hunt]

Hi Michael,

 

You already have some great tools as part of the Bible Study collection, so don't feel that you need to rush off and purchase additional modules just yet.

 

My suggestion would be to checkout Dr J's Bible Study Methods (under Biblical Studies in your library) and get the set of How To books from Zondervan that he recommends (http://www.accordancebible.com/store/details/?pid=How+To-Bible+Set-4+%284%29). Also take a look at Beginning in Mark (also under Biblical Studies in your library) as well as BiblicalTraining.org: Biblical Studies.

 

The Tyndale commentaries and the NET notes will give you good information as to what is happening at the verse level, while the Holman and Eerdmans dictionaries will give you good background material. In fact all of this material can be overwhelming at first so take time to digest and use it before jumping into any further purchases.

 

If after using these tools for a while you wanted to dig deeper then your top two choices (Essential IVP and Anchor Yale) would be the ones I would go after. These give you the best bang for your buck though they are of a very scholarly nature. The IVP probably nudges out the Anchor slightly as a first purchase (mainly due to cost). But keep in mind the fact that some of it's dictionaries are more niche (i. Dictionary of Paul and his letters) than the more general Anchor Yale.

 

Don't underestimate the value of graphic resources. I would look at getting the Graphic's bundle (http://www.accordancebible.com/store/details/?pid=GraphicsBundle) as an Atlas and pictures are also going to unlock a lot of understanding. Also the N.T. Wright bundle ( http://www.accordancebible.com/store/details/?pid=NTW-For%20Everyone%20Set ) would be a great addition and depending on how you are finding your studies may be a better first purchase over the IVP dictionaries.

 

Michael

Edited April 30, 2015 by oddsocks