Understanding the Scriptures: Two Essential Tips | Feb 2026 pt5 & Mar 2026 pt1 | Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young

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2 Must-Have Study Tips for Genesis 18–23 (Find Jesus + Actually Understand the Old Testament)

Since this week spans both Feb and March, you’re getting two study tips! We’ll talk about how understanding is absolutely essential, and Cindy shows you how to find Church approved Bible translations that can hep you better understand the difficult language of the Old Testament. Finally, she teaches a method to help you easily find Jesus in Old Testament stories that don’t even mention Him!

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
Young Women
Young Men
Temple
Aaronic Priesthood
Scripture Study
Study Tips

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yes, I'm a little late with thisweek's episode, and yes, this is an
audio only episode, so my apologies.
Don't forget to get the free worksheetfrom my website, primarily scripture.com.
It's a free resource for anyonewho wants a little extra help in
learning to study the scriptures.
In February, I've been sharing tips abouthow to make Jesus the focus of your study.

(00:27):
And coming up in March, we're talkingabout strategies to help you understand
what you're reading because that'sa huge hurdle for a lot of us.
And since most of this week is February,but then we also end the week in
March, today I am giving you two tips.
One to help you focus more on theSavior, and a really important one

(00:50):
for understanding the Old Testament.
I'm Cindy Young, and thisis Primarily Scripture.
All right.
Thank you so much for being here.
This week's Come Follow Me is inGenesis chapters 18 through 23.

(01:10):
And there's a lot in here.
We get the story of Abrahamand Isaac, but there are also
some really confusing parts.
In February, all of my studytips were all about finding and
focusing on Jesus as you study.
And I have one more for you, butI also think you need the first
study tip for March this week,because March is all about helping

(01:33):
you understand what you read.
Understanding really is the firststep if you're going to read
and study any of the scriptures.
If you don't understand what you'rereading, you might as well be
reading it in a different language.
You are not gonna be able to findthe messages and the lessons or learn
anything if you don't understand.
So let's talk about my tip forunderstanding the Bible first.

(01:56):
Okay, here it is.
Use other translations to help you.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew,and not many of us speak Hebrew anymore,
and then it was translated into otherlanguages, and we are so grateful for the
work that these people in history did.
There were a lot of people who just keptthe records safe, and would write them

(02:18):
down, make copies, and eventually theywere translated into other languages.
But most of the people who didall this were not prophets.
And sometimes things werechanged or left out, and there
are various reasons for that.
We don't even know a lot of them.
And that's why the eighth Article ofFaith says, "We believe the Bible to

(02:40):
be the word of God, as far as it istranslated correctly..." There are
a lot of places in the Bible wherethere was something mistranslated.
So the very first version that I'm goingto encourage you to look at - besides your
regular King James Bible (which is theofficial English version the church uses)

(03:00):
- the first version you should look at afterthat is the Joseph Smith translation.
To find that you can either flip tothe very back of your paper Bible,
it's next to the Bible Dictionary,or go into your Gospel Library app.
You click on "Scriptures," and"Study Helps," and then click

(03:21):
on "Joseph Smith Translation."There's an introduction here, and
that clarifies that this is more of arevelation than it is a translation.
Joseph Smith wasn't looking atthe Hebrew and retranslating it.
He did this by inspiration and revelation.

(03:41):
So you can read this introduction ifyou have any more questions about that.
From there, you can see that it'sdivided up by books, and we can click
on Genesis, and we see that there aresignificant parts of Genesis chapters
19 and 21 that have changes made here inthis JST, or Joseph Smith Translation.

(04:04):
Other chapters of Genesis, too,but 19 and 21 are the ones that
are within this week's reading.
So the JST verses in chapter 21 clarifya few things about like who was planting
the trees and some things like that.
You probably won't get lostif you don't read this JST.
But in chapter 19, there is a parthere that if you don't have the

(04:29):
JST version, then you might beconfused, because it makes it sound
like Abraham's nephew, Lot, didn'tcare about protecting his daughters.
But the JST version clarifies thatLot was indeed actually trying to
protect his daughters from wicked men.

(04:49):
So the King James version actuallysays the wrong thing right here.
It was translated incorrectly.
So be sure you're checking theJoseph Smith translation, both
in the study helps, and you canalso find JST in the footnotes.
The other translations that you canuse are actually newly recommended

(05:10):
in the handbook of the church,and I'm super excited about this!
I think everybody should go look at this!In your Gospel Library app, go to
"Scriptures" and scroll all the waydown to the bottom, and you'll see
"Translations and Formats." Fromthere, click on "Holy Bible" and you
can scroll to find your language.

(05:32):
And here in English you'll seethat it first tells us the official
version that the church uses, andthat's the King James version.
But then, it lists othertranslations that have been approved.
This means that these specific versionswere checked, and the church found
that these versions did a good jobof keeping true to the King James

(05:55):
Bible, but they've been written ina way that's easier to understand.
You'll see there are several versions hereto choose from, and, this is really great,
they're labeled by their reading level.
So just pick the version that youthink would help you to understand the
scriptures the best, and click on it.
It does take you to a place to downloadthe Holy Bible app, and this app lets

(06:19):
you load all of the versions onto it.
I ended up downloading all ofthese versions that are listed
into my Holy Bible app, and it'sreally great because you can easily
switch between them as you read.
Understanding what you read is suchan important part of scripture study.
This is like, my very firsttip for anybody, and I include

(06:40):
it in every single worksheet!If you look at this week's worksheet
or any of the worksheets for thatmatter, you'll see that the first column
here on the left is pure scripture.
And then in the second column,it's written out again, but
in easier to understand words.
We don't speak the same way todaythat they spoke back then, and so

(07:03):
sometimes it just feels confusing,almost like you're reading Shakespeare!
So I've rewritten it in easierto understand modern day terms.
But I don't make worksheetsthat cover the entire Bible.
Each week I only covera handful of verses.
So if you're feeling like you reallydon't understand the Old Testament,

(07:25):
try one of these other translations.
And of course, don't forgetto check that Joseph Smith
translation every now and then.
All right.
Now let's talk about our final tip forfinding Jesus in the Old Testament.
When you are reading a story aboutsomeone in the Bible, it might
be Abraham or Sarah or Daniel orRebecca, I want you to ask yourself,

(07:49):
how does this remind me of Jesus?
Because Jesus isn't always mentioned,but there is a lot in here talking
about the stories of the people.
We read all about the goodand bad things that people do.
So if you're reading about a goodthing that someone did ask yourself,
when did Jesus do this same kind ofthing, or when did he teach about it?

(08:13):
For instance, if Daniel prayed,ask yourself, when did Jesus pray?
When Jacob shows patience, ask,how did Jesus show patience?
When Rebecca is kind, ask yourself, whatdid Jesus teach about kindness and how
did he show that kindness to others?
Do you see where I'm going with this?

(08:35):
Every good attribute that anybodyhas in the Old Testament can
remind you of Jesus Christ.
All you have to do is take a minuteto connect those good things to Jesus.
It's your job to make that connection.
Now what if you're reading a story andthere's something bad that someone does?

(08:56):
Well, then I would encourage you toask, what did Jesus teach about this?
When Sarah doubts remember thatJesus told Peter to doubt not.
And when evil men are trying to getLot's daughters and the holy men,
remember that Jesus taught not onlyto not commit adultery, which is one

(09:16):
of the 10 commandments, but Jesussaid to not even lust after another
person- He taught the higher law.
When Solomon builds a temple, rememberJesus teaching in the temple and cleansing
the temple and prophesying that thetemple of his body would be destroyed
and then rise again three days later.

(09:37):
Remember that Jesus said, "search thescriptures... they are they which testify
of me." When Jesus said this, He wastalking to the Jews, but He couldn't have
been talking about the Book of Mormon.
The Jews didn't have theBook of Mormon to read.
He couldn't have been talking about theDoctrine and Covenants - that wouldn't
come forth for thousands of years still.

(10:00):
And he wasn't talking aboutthe New Testament because
that's the story of his life!It was happening still!
He was talking about the Old Testament!"Search the scriptures, they testify
of me!" And it may seem like theOld Testament doesn't talk about
Jesus as much as the other books ofscripture, but Jesus himself said
that they definitely do teach of Him.

(10:26):
So use this trick and ask yourself howeach person and their attributes and
their actions can remind you of thelife and teachings of Jesus Christ.
It can help you to find Him,even if His name hadn't been
mentioned in the whole chapter!And it's especially important
when you're reading about Abrahamand Isaac, because that whole
story points us to Jesus Christ.

(10:50):
I hope you find these tipshelpful as you study this week.
I'm Cindy Young.
Thank you for joining mehere on Primarily Scripture.
Thanks for tuning into primarilyScripture with Cindy Young.
Don't forget you can subscribe to thenewsletter and download free worksheets
on the website, primarily scripture.com.

(11:10):
And if you like the channel,be sure to subscribe, like,
share, and leave a review.
See you next time.