Alex Renn
Christmas is less than a week away, and the bustle of travel and last-minute shopping is upon us. But I used Verbum’s Bible Facts tool to sneak in a quick Bible study despite the chaos. Here’s how easy it was.
1. Start at the Lectionary
The daily readings are always a good place to start, and today’s was especially interesting. We hear about Gabriel telling Zechariah that he and Elizabeth will bear a child, John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–25). Lots of interesting characters—let’s learn more.
2. Open the Bible Facts tool, and type a name
I choose Zechariah as my subject. We immediately get information about who he is—father of John the Baptist and husband of Elizabeth. In this case, nothing unexpected, but succinct and accurate. More exciting, though, are his major appearances, and dictionary entries.
With a click, these jump us to, for instance, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, where we find much more interesting information: Zechariah, Hebrew for “Yahweh remembers,” could refer to more than thirty people in the Bible, but it frequently refers to a prophet or, in our case, foreshadows the prophecy after John’s birth. And one more thing before we go: here is an epic image of Zechariah being struck dumb for his disbelief:
The Bible Facts tool is a simple hub for Bible study. Open it up and poke around. See what you can learn, even if you have only 10 or 15 minutes, and keep yourself focused on the reason for the season.
Verbum
Thanks for the quick tutorial on Bible Facts. I’d mainly used its genealogy type functions in the past, and hadn’t realized how informative the Bible dictionary entries can be.