Last week, in talking about ways that Bible Gateway can be useful to students, we mentioned the existence of Bible commentaries on Bible Gateway. For the benefit of those of you who haven’t ever used (or known about) our Bible commentaries, I thought it might be a good idea to review how to access them.
Bible commentaries are meant to aid your Bible reading by explaining difficult Bible passages or highlighting details and background information to help you better understand what you’re reading. They’re not just for pastors or seminarians—they’re written to help everyday Bible readers get more out of their devotional reading.
When you read a Bible verse or passage, Bible Gateway automatically finds Bible commentary material that’s relevant to the passage you’re reading and makes it available in what we call the Resource Drawer.
To access these commentaries, first look up a passage on Bible Gateway—for example, John 3:16. Look to the top right for the Show resources link:
Clicking on Show resources opens a new column and menu next to the Bible passage without taking you away from the current page. The new column lists all of the Bible commentaries that discuss the passage you’re reading, usually organized by verse. It looks like this:
To view a commentary, just click on the title of the one you want and it will open in the same column, so you can read it alongside the Bible passage. To hide the commentary, just click the X in the top right; or to go back to the list of available commentaries, click Back.
That’s it! If you’ve never used a Bible commentary before, you’ll be amazed at how much useful information they contain, and how helpful they can be in understanding a Bible passage. If you’re overwhelmed by the number of available Bible commentaries, try using just one until you get a feel for it—the Reformation Study Bible and The IVP New Testament Commentary Series are good places to start.
We hope you find this useful, whether you’re exploring a Bible passage for your own spiritual benefit, researching a paper on a Bible topic, or preparing a Bible study!