Notes · 2026-08-30

A simple way to study a passage

A repeatable loop for working through any chapter on this site:

1. Read it whole, twice. Once in the World English Bible for plain modern English, once in the KJV or ASV. Turn on the parallel view and notice where the translations diverge — those spots are usually where the Hebrew or Greek is doing something interesting.

2. Place it. Open the ✦ panel on the first verse and check the People and Places links. Who is speaking? Where are they standing? Follow a place link to see it on the map and read its dictionary entry.

3. Follow the threads. The Cross references are ordered by strength. The top two or three almost always point at the passage the writer had in mind, or at how the rest of Scripture picks this moment up.

4. Dig into one word. Pick the word the passage seems to turn on. Open its entry from the interlinear strip. Read the definition, the range of ways it gets translated, and skim its other occurrences. A word means what it does across the whole canon, not just here.

5. Hear the older readers. Expand the commentary. Matthew Henry is warm and devotional; Jamieson-Fausset-Brown is terse and technical. Let them raise questions you didn't think to ask.

You won't do all five every time. Even one, done slowly, is a study.