How can I do understand the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek text of scripture on my own?
Ideally, every student of the Bible would learn the ancient Hebrew and Greek languages of the Old and New Testaments, but of course few have the time or inclination to do so.
Fortunately, it's not necessary to learn the languages to understand scripture properly, nor is it required to gain a working knowledge of important words or phrases used in scripture. Modern study tools make it relatively easy for every student to uncover the meaning of the words in the original languages, though care must be taken to avoid improper interpretations.
The main tool required to understand the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Bible is a concordance, which is a dictionary of Greek and Hebrew words found in the Bible crossed-referenced to English translations in the Bible.
Today, the easiest way to access a concordance is online at websites like Blue Letter Bible or using software like Accordance. You can find many helpful resources online for how to use a concordance properly, including Mercer University.
