Online Research Tips

The En-Gedi Resource Center is often called with questions about cultural or historical topics about the Bible, and where to go for more information on these topics. We enjoy helping with research and questions, while learning a lot ourselves in the process! We get questions like the following:

What was the reality of being a tax collector in the first century?
What was the link between the year of Jubilee and Jesus' ministry?
What can you tell me about shofars - ram's horn trumpets?
What were the traditions regarding the Passover lamb?
What did ancient synagogues look like?
Can you help me find a digital picture of _____?

Much of our research is done online, through links on the En-Gedi website and others. We want to share some tips and tools for using computer resources for Bible study and sermon research so that you can do it yourselves.

Tips for Online Research for Sermons & Bible Study

On the www.egrc.net Website:

The best way to find a topic quickly is the search bar on the left hand side, which is very good at finding pertinent matches on our site. If you insert multiple words it will use an "or" function to pull up all possible matches. Use quotation marks to limit your search to a particular phrase.

Researching Passages:

If you are looking for commentary on a particular Bible passage (Matthew 5:17, for instance), use the book and chapter in quotation marks ("Matthew 5"), but don't include the verse. Including the verse may disclude some articles that include that verse in a longer passage (Matthew 5:12-20).

Try the full names and common abbreviations for book names and you probably will find other matches. (For instance, try "Matt 5" and "Mt 5". Your capitalization and punctuation doesn't matter in the search.

Also, make sure to use quotation marks or else it will find every page that has the word "Matthew" or "5" in it.

Once you follow a link, you may not see your topic right away, especially if it is a long page. Use CTRL-F (Find) and type in your word there, and it will search the page and highlight the word. The CTRL-F Find function can be very useful!

We currently have links to about 250 other useful sites in the following categories, so visiting our link pages may help you find a site that has just what you need. These are the link page topics:

Our Jewish Roots - Material on the Jewish cultural background of Christianity - all are Christian sites.
Israel-Related Sites - Info about various locations in Israel, biblical sites, online tours of biblical places
Archaeology / Writings - Archaeology, biblical life and times, the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient texts
Language & Culture - Resources for understanding Judaism, beliefs, and culture - most are Jewish, not Christian, so use with discernment. Also Hebrew language sites.
Bible Study - Online encyclopedias, Bible search sites, commentaries - Old and New Testament, Paul
Biblical Feasts - Sites from Christian and Jewish sources on biblical feasts celebrated by Jews today
Children & Families - Educational sites for teaching children about the Bible's culture
Other Sites of Interest - Maps, Teaching Resources, Photography and Biblical Art (much free for educational use - good sources of images for Powerpoints)

Also, the Topical Articles page has links to about 100+ articles on topics related the links above. We have chosen some articles that we think our audience would find particularly interesting.

Other Sites for Research

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Nice general reference for Bible, easy to search - Published by Eerdmans in 1915 and now in public domain. Usually good information, even though older.

JerusalemPerspective.com - Very first reference we use about cultural context of Jesus and the gospels - has hundreds of wonderful articles online. Need membership ($60) to access many articles, but well worth it.

BiblePlaces.com - An amazing site for information and pictures of biblical sites - has pictures of hundreds of ancient locations throughout bible lands, and for each one has dozens of links for more information. (16 links just on Jericho!) Their CD set of 6000+ images is excellent too - a must-have for Powerpoint users.

JewishEncyclopedia.com - A good reference on Jewish thought on Bible - published in 1905. Even though old, has some highly acclaimed scholars writing for it. Often discusses New Testament topics with cultural insights that Christian commentaries tend to miss.

Online Study Bible at CrossWalk.com - Bible verse search tools in several translations, with commentaries, concordances, everything! A quick way to find lots of interpretations on any verse in scripture. A similar site is Search God's Word - also has many materials and translations.

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Wow! - An extensive online library of classic Christian texts - Calvin, Luther, Bunyan, Augustine, Wesley, Spurgeon, etc. Many documents are very long. It is important to use CTRL-F to search for words of interest, or read these classic works again.

Google Images - The best first place to go for digital images. For any search, hundreds of images. We use this all the time.

Your questions are still welcome anytime, but we hope this empowers you for Bible study and sermon research in a new way!

The En-Gedi Resource Center