This is the second lesson in Mel Lawrenz’ new “How to Study the Bible” series. You can catch up with last week’s lesson here. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

The first question we must answer when attempting to study the Bible is: which Bible? Every student of the Bible is going to decide, first of all, which translation or translations to use. But there is a prior issue: how much of the Bible? And the answer must be: the whole Bible.

That may seem obvious, but it really is easy for us to focus on the New Testament, or on other subsections of Scripture we are attracted to. Some people really like the Gospels. Others feel most at home in the letters of the apostle Paul. Some are attracted to the poetry of the Bible, or the historical narratives, or the prophecies. But we risk imbalance and misinterpretation if we do not study the totality of what the prophets and apostles taught, and in balance.

Commenting on Paul’s comment in Acts 20:27, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God,” New Testament scholar D. A. Carson says Paul : “taught the burden of the whole of God’s revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, never ducking the hard bits, helping believers to grasp the whole counsel of God that they themselves would become better equipped to read their Bibles intelligently, comprehensively” (in Preach the Word, Crossway, 2007).

So what about translations? Why are there so many options? Is there one “correct” translation?

Rendering the meaning of the original biblical texts from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into the language we use, is a dynamic process. The reasons there are different translations is because language changes, and because different translators have different purposes. The English we use today is different from the English 500 years ago, for instance. Many Bible readers can compensate for that (by becoming experts, really, in antique forms of English), but many prefer a modern translation that uses today’s language. (Translators refer to this as the “receptor language.”)

So-called “word-for-word” translations have the advantage of showing the reader the specific word choice and phraseology of the biblical authors. Another approach is to go “thought-for-thought.” These versions are true to the biblical author if they authentically render the intended meaning. Free translations or paraphrases often render whole sentences in new ways. These versions benefit people looking to catch the whole flow of Scripture, not so much the verse by verse meaning.

The debates over Bible translations can be intense because the Bible is important to us—which is a good thing! But we all should recognize that the most important thing is that we actually read the Bible. The best translation is the one that you will actually read and understand. If you are serious about studying the Bible you will access several versions. One of the basic skills of studying the Bible is to read and compare different translations. We’ll get to that later.

Here is a list of the most widely used Bibles (in English) today, and some of the best study Bibles.

Which Bible should you study? The whole Bible. That is because to study the Bible is to study God (remember, last time, study=zeal). In the same way that you best describe your spouse or your parent or child or friend by understanding the whole person, we will study Scripture best when we are peering intently at the whole.

If you haven’t contemplated the whole amazing sweep of Scripture lately, take a minute right now to read “the Big Picture.”

Mel Lawrenz trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a Ph.D. in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, the latest, How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See other books here.