Course Review: Bible Word Nerd
What is this course?
Bible Word Nerd is an online course created by Dr. Johnny Cisneros, a theologian who has specialised in e-research and technology-enhanced learning.
It has been designed to teach anyone how to understand and complete an effective Bible word study and use free online Bible study tools to do this. It's available on biblewordnerd.com which offers the once-off purchase single course for US$97 or a two-course bundle for US$127 which includes bonus written material - I purchased the two-course bundle.
Who is this for?
This is for anyone who is wanting to understand how to do a WORD STUDY.
A word study is a specific type of Bible study that explores the meaning and usage of a word in the Bible and its original language.
You may be familiar with Bible dictionaries and how to look up a word’s original meaning in Hebrew or Greek, but if you stop at that point then you’re going to miss quite a lot of information that is very helpful to a word study.
Proposed outcomes?
By the end of this course, the goal is for you to understand what an effective word study is and how to do one with free online tools. It does this with 19 bite-sized video tutorials, 4+ hours of foundational instruction on word studies (which you could easily do over a weekend), AND 389 pages of downloadable bonus materials.
What did I get out of it?
I really enjoyed this course. I’ve been able to complete a formal Degree, but I found there were a lot of great insights and advice from this course that was new to me and my own personal Bible studies.
The methodology outlined has various steps to it, but they are all very simple and repeatable.
What I also learnt is the significance of the understanding context of specific words and how they should be understood in relation to words surrounding content.
There is also a fantastic lesson on having a healthy mindset toward word study. This isn’t about achieving a technical and academic outcome, but ensuring your motivation is to explore to joy and wonders of the Bible to grow your own relationship with God.****
What could you get out of it?
If you’re wanting to advance in your own personal Bible studies, then a word study is a great step forward. It is one of the great studying techniques that can add a lot to building your own Bible roadmap, and help others in understanding the Scriptures too.
I found the way that this course was taught and articulated incredibly well done. If you’re someone who struggles with online learning and navigating websites, the lessons are organised in a way for you to comprehend what is being taught, and even how to navigate complex web pages.
The final section of the course dedicated to common mistakes when attempting a word study - this is very helpful to someone who may be new to studying the Bible or unsure how to appropriately treat the information you’re able to learn from doing this.
There is a great podcast episode where the course creator is interviewed and gives you a great insight to the motivation and the content of the course if you wanted to learn more about it before purchasing it. Please check out “The Naked Bible Podcast” episode Naked Bible 125: Bible Study Tools.
For those who are wanting to overcome the HOW roadblock of building your Bible roadmap, this is a great course to help with that.