“Regardless of the version you are using, you should be able to enjoy reading your Bible. The ultimate goal is to be able to hear from God and receive His wisdom and encouragement for your life. Bibles generally land on a continuum between translations and paraphrases.
A paraphrase is like a watercolor painting, and a translation is like a photograph.” – Pastor Mark Beeson

Translations (e.g., KJV, NIV, Interlinear, NASB, ESV) focus on the meaning of a word and use the original language, setting and story to provide an accurate “word-for-word” conversion of the original text (e.g. Aristotle’s focus on the particulars vs. Plato’s universals). Paraphrases (e.g., The Message, Living Bible) involve interpretation and what the translator believes the text was meant to say. They focus more on providing a compelling story than an exact quote. They are described as “thought-for-thought” rather than “word-for-word” translations. Translations can be compared to news articles that strictly report what happened, whereas paraphrases are more like news reports that have some editorial content in them. We recommend using a translation for study, and a paraphrase for story (reading). Notice how they each contribute to your understanding of a passage. Having access to one or two (or more) of each can be very helpful in rounding out your understanding of a passage. Here are some links that give a little more detail on the differences between translations and paraphrases:
A review of various translations and how they differ
Where translations fall on the Thought vs. Word spectrum
An (almost) exhaustive list of Bible translations
Criticism of the numerous translations

You can find most Bible translations and paraphrases, free at online sites like Bible Gateway. On Bible Gateway, if you look under the box that says “Select Versions,” you will see a link to “Lookup passage in multiple versions.” This will allow you to compare different translations and paraphrases side by side. Try it! You can also download the mobile Bible app YouVersion to your smartphone. It contains nearly 40 versions in the English language and is completely free. You can also find the Bible in many different languages as well as Audio Bibles on many of the online Bible sites listed in this document and on YouVersion.

Parallel Bibles are great tools for looking at different translations at the same time. This is also recommended if you would like to hop between thought-for-thought and word-for-word versions. Recommended Links:

Bible Gateway
Bible Study Tools (compare)
Bible Study Tools (parallel)
Online Parallel Bible
Comparison of translations

Old Testament
Old Law or Covenant (Pentateuch – Genesis to Deuteronomy)
History of the Patriarchs (Joshua to Job)
Poetry (Psalms-Song of Solomon)
Prophecy (Isaiah-Malachi)

New Testament
New Law or New Covenant (Gospels – Jesus)
History of the Early Church (Acts)
Letters from the Apostles (Romans-Jude)
Prophecy of John (Revelation)

An Interlinear Bible may seem daunting or too technical, but it simply means “written or printed between the lines of a text.” Believe it or not, the Bible was not written in English, and Jesus (while on earth) did not eat cheeseburgers and root for Notre Dame (although He’s always been a major fan). The Bible is written originally in three languages: Hebrew/Aramaic in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. Interlinear Bibles aim to bring in the original languages of the Bible and the highlighted links will give you the text in its original language, plus their transliteration (literal translation) into English. Links:
Bible Hub Interlinear
Bible Study Tools Interlinear
Bible Gateway Interlinear

You might be wondering, “Why is it important to know what the original Bible languages are (much less study them)?” That’s a totally valid question. Here is the rationale: Original languages have their own time, setting, flavor, nuance, mindset, background, etc. Knowing what was being written in the original context is instrumental to a deeper understand of the text when studying the Bible. When dealing with any paraphrase or translation, they all come from the original three languages. (For more on that see the first question, “Which Bible version should I use?”). The full meaning of a word or phrase may not translate into our language, or may have multiple translations.

Untranslatable thoughts – A good example is the word “Han” found in the Korean language. This word cannot be easily understood using our English vocabulary. Although we have a basic meaning for it, to gain a full understanding, you would need to spend a while in the nuance and idiosyncrasies of the language to know the meaning. Even though we have people who dedicate their lives to the continual research of the original Bible languages, work is still required on our part to expand ourselves into the language of the Bible.

Hidden meanings – The word “love” in the New Testament has four common Greek meanings. Without studying the Greek language through concordances or lexicons, you might not know that Paul is using different words for love in different passages. They mean different things, but are all translated “love”. For example, imagine thinking a word for “love” means unconditional love, when Paul is actually talking about affectionate love.

An exhaustive concordance will show you the Hebrew or Greek word that was used, and where the same word is used elsewhere in the Bible. There are exhaustive concordances available for the KJV, NASB and NIV translations, although the only one available free online is Strong’s KJV. If you don’t use one of these three translations for study, you can keep one of them available or look at it online to find the actual word used, and then find it in the concordance. There is a limited or “non-exhaustive” concordance in the back of many Bibles. That is useful, although you may miss some uses of the word. It depends on how thorough a study you are doing. Once you have found the word in the concordance, a Bible dictionary or word study will give more detail to the meaning of the word, and also different ways the word is translated in different verses. Different translations or paraphrases will also help fill out the meaning of the word. A parallel Bible is very useful for this and they are available online. You can compare two or more versions and flip through several very quickly online. Even if you read a paraphrase you might not know what a Shofar is or how to eat shewbread (not recommended, by the way!). Bible dictionaries and topical indices work wonders here.

Outlines are found in most Study Bibles in the introduction to each book. When someone writes an outline they are structuring the text in the way they understand it. This is helpful, but you always want to be aware that this is one person’s (or group’s) way of understanding the passage. Helpful Links:

NIV Study Bible
Short Summaries of each book in the Bible
Longer Summaries of each book in the Bible
Introductions to each book in the Bible (including outlines)

You can find this in Bible handbooks and Bible Encyclopedias as well as these links:
Physical Settings of the Bible
NIV Study Bible Book Introductions
How to Understand the Setting of a Bible Passage

A timeline takes scripture and lays it out chronologically, usually through a combination of Biblical and historical analysis. Timelines are found in most study Bibles, and many Bible handbooks which can be found in the Café and Bookstore. Links:
Bible Hub Timeline
BibleHistory.com
Blue Letter Bible Timeline

Maps are maps. But Bible Maps are historical guides to Biblical events and places. Many Bibles have a map section in the back which is perfectly adequate for most study. You can get more detail in a book or website of Bible maps. Links:

OpenBible Geocoding is a little more complicated, but this hooks into Google Earth (the program version that you would download), although there is a link to a slow-loading online version.

You can look in a Topical Bible (or topical index online), which will list many of the most helpful passages on that topic in the Bible. Some topics are major themes through the Bible and are broad in scope. They can be a lengthy study, e.g. sin, grace, redemption. Another option is to use an Online Bible to search for a topic.

If you do a search in a Topical index you can bring up passages where the person is found. Just like the concordance, the index in the back of your Bible may not be exhaustive and you may miss some references to a person by looking there. In a Bible Dictionary you can look up the name and find a brief summary of the life and significance of the Bible character. You can find the meaning of the name of the person in Hitchcock’s Bible Names. It is also often listed in a footnote in many Bibles. You can also use an Online Bible to search for a person. Simply search for the name of the Bible character and then follow the links to passages about that person.

Using mystudybible.com you can look up a passage and then see the cross-referenced passages at the bottom of the page. The Thompson Chain Reference Bible is another great place to do topical searches. Your Bible may also have cross-references in the margin.

Commentaries are written by Bible scholars to assist others as they try to understand a passage. The discussion found in commentaries is the opinion of the writer about what the Bible is saying in that particular passage. It is the results of that writer’s own study of the passage. This is very helpful when you have already studied a text and would like to see how others have understood it.

Commentaries:
Bible Study Tools
Bible Gateway
Study Light
Blue Letter Bible

See the links below:
YouVersion
My Study Bible

Basic Bible Study Tools
Study Bible Versions – translation preferred, paraphrases helpful to compare
Concordance – exhaustive if possible
Bible Dictionary
Topical Bible
Bible Handbook
Commentary (1-2 volume)

Additional Bible Study Tools
Parallel Bibles
Bible Atlas
Bible Encyclopedia
Commentary (multi-volume sets)
Word Studies
Old and New Testament Surveys
Individual Book Commentaries
Interlinear Bibles

Websites
biblestudytools.com
biblegateway.com
studylight.org
blueletterbible.org
mystudybible.com
biblia.com
YouVersion
bible.christiansunite.com
dailybibleonline.com
youversion.com

References
Concordances: biblestudytools.com/concordances
Dictionaries: biblestudytools.com/dictionaries
Word Study: mystudybible.com
Parallel Bibles: biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible
Topical Bibles: biblegateway.com/topical
Live Study Bible: mystudybible.com
Treasury of Scripture: biblestudytools…/treasury-of-scripture-knowledge
Downloadable Bible: http://www.e-sword.net/index.html
Commentaries: biblestudytools.com/commentaries
Social Networking Online Bible / Mobile App: youversion.com