Understanding
When we pick up our Bible to read or study, we need to understand that what we are reading or studying is not an exact rendering of the original Biblical manuscripts. It can't be. A food product - like corn, starts out with the farmer's harvest, goes to a manufacturing plant, to a store shelf, to your kitchen, and finally to your family table. During that trip it passes through many hands each of which adds, subtracts, changes or modifies it. What finally winds up on your family table is not an exact rendering of what the farmer picked out of his field.
There are things that you need to know. The text has been changed from ancient Hebrew, through various iterations, to modern Hebrew, then to Greek, then to English. Hebrew is a very 'use' oriented language - when describing a writing pen, the ancient Hebrew would be more concerned with what it was used for. Our modern day Greek/Roman style of thinking and writing will describe what it looks like. Ancient Hebrew - a writing instrument. Greek/Roman - long, skinny, and yellow.
The ancient Hebrews that wrote the manuscripts, were nomads. They lived in tents. They moved from place to place to find grass for their flocks. Families ate, slept, lived and worked together. They had no Tvs, cell phones, schools, churches or books. We are trying to read and understand what they wrote 2000 years ago in their language, under their conditions, using their unique expressions.
We are reading a translation of an old manuscript. Probably a translation of a copy of an old manuscript passed through three different languages. In a way that's a bit depressing. How do you know that what you are reading is what was written? The fact is you don't. But, the saving grace in all of this translation stuff it this - God is handling the whole thing. When you pray and ask for help, you'll get it - God promised.
And this is a great promise:
Matthew 7:7 - "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
Remember that you are opening, reading and studying a spiritual book. It's not a history book, science digest, or technical journal. Almost all of what you will be studying will be spiritual in nature. Think in spiritual terms not literal ones.
Bible Study and Research
I use the King James Version (KJV) of the Protestant Bible. There about 120 other English versions to chose from. I use it because of the research tools that are connected with it.The KJV has mistakes (as do the other 119) but the available research tools, designed specifically for it, help me to see the original Hebrew and/or Greek. I get choices which I don't have with the other translations.
The only thing that you really need is the Bible itself. Somewhere within its pages are all the answers. God put it together that way. A concordance and lexicon help you find things a bit faster.
Study Hint
An open mind. If you go into any situation with a closed mind or an 'I'm right, you're wrong attitude' you set yourself up miss a lot of things that would improve your abilities.
The Bible is the plan of God, concocted before the foundations of the earth were laid down. Written out by God's people when they learned how. Copied and/or printed over the generations, just so you could have that copy that you are working with now.
It is a spiritual work and should always be thought of in that way when studying it. When I learned to think in spiritual terms, I began to see God's lessons in a different light. The locusts of Egypt in Exodus were real bugs, but, the locusts that will come out of the smoke from the bottomless pit in Revelation 9 are humans who will act the same way as the locust - they will destroy, burn, and wreck everything they touch. They do not think. They operate with a mob mentality. Because the attributes of a scorpion will be added to them they will begin hurting and killing humans as well.
Add spiritual thinking to all your Biblical research and study.
My Research/Study Tools
The Companion Bible (KJV) by Ethelbert W. Bullinger
Dake's Annotated Reference Bible (KJV) by Finis Dake. I like this Bible but Mr. Dake believed a couple of things that I don't - so, like eating an apple with a worm - I just eat around the worm.
The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong. This concordance gets its word meanings by comparing how the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic word was used throughout the KJV Bible. The title says 'New' but I got it in 1984.
The New Englishman's Greek Concordance and Lexicon indexed to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament indexed to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible by Jeff A. Benner (it is also indexed to Strong's). This one is new to me. I learned that in really ancient Hebrew each letter is a picture and when you put these letters together to make words they kind of make a short movie of what you're saying. This Lexicon, and Jeff's YouTube channel, shows you how that works. It's a humbling experience to think of God creating the universe by speaking these little movies.
I have a large library of Biblical reference and study books: expositories, documentaries, commentaries, manuals, and graduate research papers, essays, and term papers. When I started out I thought that this was the way to go. After all, somebody else has done all the hard work. All I have to do is copy it.
Other people's opinions are just that somebody elses opinion. Let God help you; you know His answers will be perfect.