Studying the Bible can get expensive.  It should be obvious from this space that you could spend thousands upon thousands of dollars just on Study Bibles.  Once you move into the Bible Commentary side of things, costs ramp up quickly and exponentially.  How in the world do you build a library and not go broke?  The good news is you really don’t have to build one by purchasing much of anything, presuming you already have a decent Study Bible or a Bible Handbook to go along with your non-Study Bible.

You might have heard that having a virtual or online library is expensive and you can certainly go that route if you have the desire and the dollars.  I haven’t checked what LOGOS is selling for these days, but that’s because I was once told that if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.  On a serious note, LOGOS, which is a Bible software program, has gone to a subscription model.  Those prices range from $9.99 to $19.99 a month depending on how many features and library access you want/need.  You can also add (for $$$) more books and resources to what is already offered in your initial package.  Bible Gateway is another resource that has a free component to it, which includes more translations of the Bible than you probably knew existed.  For less than $4.00 a month you can add notes from scores of Study Bibles and a decent little list of commentaries, something they call “Bible Gateway Plus.”

I thought you said I wouldn’t have to spend any money.  You don’t, but sometimes to appreciate what you get for free; you have to know what some things cost.  There are two programs that I use daily, neither of which cost me a cent.  I’ll try my best to explain them both and then you can check them out for yourself.

BibleHub:   What a gift BibleHub has been for me.   Through this website I was introduced to the Berean Standard translation, which quickly zoomed into my top three Bible translations.  Beyond just being the basic home for the BSB translation, BibleHub offers scores of translations just like Bible Gateway.  Unlike Bible Gateway, BibleHub also offers (for free) a plethora of Bibel Study tools.  There is artwork, maps, a Bible Dictionary, and free commentaries.  There are about two dozen commentaries available, including two of my personal favorites, Barnes Note’s, and the Pulpit Commentary.   The tools also include Bible Study questions, timelines, and outlines of each book.  I love it and it is a wonderful website that is totally free.

e-Sword:   This is an App and not a website.   On your computer, you wouldn’t know the difference once it’s pulled up.  Just like BibleHub, you get free commentaries including Barnes and Pulpit as well as a couple others like FB Meyer and the Expositor’s Bible Commentary.  The list isn’t as expensive as BibleHub, but for me the layout is a touch easier to manipulate and you can arrange the screen any way that you would like.  You are also limited in the number of Bible translations compared to BibleHub, but you do get two that I have never seen anywhere else, the KJV+ and the ESV+.   The KJV+ is especially good as nearly every word in the passage is linked directly to a definition from Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionary.  It truly is a fantastic tool and if you have the ability to split your screen you can pull up parallels on BibleHub or Bible Gateway and see if it’s a word that is used in your preferred translation.  I guess you could also just have your Bible out on your desk and look at it as opposed to splitting your screen, but I like to see if a particular word shows up in multiple translations instead of just one.  Word study can get a bit dangerous if there’s not a consensus amongst the translations on its use.

There are other free sources and websites as well, these are just the two I use most often and am most fond of.  I hear people rave about “The Blue Letter Bible” but I have not spent much time with it.   That website is nice in the fact that there are numerous video tutorials on how to use each feature and resource on the site.

There is another option as well if you are like me and want to hold books in your hand.  The 50-plus Bibles and numerous commentary sets I own and others that belong to the church are sitting here every single day to look at and borrow.  There is a library downstairs with comfortable chairs to sit in or a desk to lay things out to look at.  I’d love the company and might even be able to provide some direction depending on what you’re looking for.

Happy studying!