If the Bible is inspired by God and is in this sense ‘God’s Word’ then - the truth of this claim ought to demonstrate itself as the Bible is read.

However the Bible is often quoted from, often preached from or about, often attacked, and frequently dissected in the name of study without actually being read to discover what its message really is.

Purpose

The purpose of this site is to provide the Bible book-by-book as - commentaries that are designed to allow the Bible to speak for itself. These move through a complete Bible book sentence by sentence and seek to show the flow of thought that the author of the book has given to us.

These have been prepared to help the reader of the Bible to see more clearly what each book of the Bible claims is its message from God. They are for anyone who has an interest in exploring and understanding the Bible.

In addition the site contains a series of studies; some stand-alone explorations of aspects of God’s word, often more detailed consideration of matters that might appear as footnotes in the commentaries, and sometimes preliminary considerations of books written in preparation for development of a commentary.

Approach

Absent from these commentaries or studies are any analyses of textual sources, or any attempt to prove or to disprove the story or argument that the Bible records. The approach in the commentaries is to consider the flow of thought in each book so that the arguments (or message) of each book can be appreciated. They have been prepared on the premise – if the Bible is the word of God, what actually is its message?

In order to concentrate on the message of each book – as it comes to us as literature - the commentaries do not attempt to explain the text by reference to the historical circumstances surrounding the writing of the book.

If the text makes reference to history or geography that is not now familiar then some help may be necessary for the reader, but where the Bible text is silent on historical or geographical detail then the message that the text has for us should not be sought in imported intelligence.

The general approach may therefore be summed up as –

If the Bible is the word of God then its message is contained within the text of the Bible itself and the historical circumstances are only of concern to the historian.

As far as is reasonably possible no previous knowledge of the Bible is presumed or required on the part of the reader. The commentary accompanying the text has been designed to provide a simple presentation of the message of each book. However the argument (or the flow of thought) of the books in the studies has not been simplified at the cost of losing important threads in the construction of the book. Where useful, hyperlinks are provided to take the reader to more detailed consideration of matters.

The articles in the studies section follow the principles as set out for commentaries.

Text

In order to achieve the above objectives it is desirable to base the studies around a modern, scholarly and reliable English translation of the original Hebrew and Greek sources. Because the New American Standard Bible (NASB) is a precise rather than an interpretative translation and will already be familiar to many readers of the Bible it is well suited to the purposes of Bible-Studies.org.uk

It is with gratitude therefore to The Lockman Foundation that acknowledgement of their kind permission to use their translation is recorded in the following notice:

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)

Use of the Commentaries

These studies are prepared for individual or small group usage. They may be downloaded and printed for such purposes provided that no payment is sought or taken in exchange for copies of them, and provided that acknowledgement of the source of the studies is included in each copy. Requests in regard to other usage of studies or site material should be made to (alvin@bible-studies.org.uk).