Outline: Read the Old Testament from a Biblical-Theological Perspective. Featuring contributions from thirteen respected evangelical scholars, this gospel-centered introduction to the Old Testament will help anyone who teaches or studies Scripture to better see the initial outworking of God's plan to redeem the world through Jesus Christ.
Outline: An exploration of the parallels between Old Testament texts and contemporary writings from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East. The fifth edition expands on the first four with additional texts.
Outline : HOW TO STUDYTHE OLD TESTAMENT FOR SIGNS OF CHRIST
Since the majority of the Bible was written before Jesus's life and death on the cross, the Old Testament is often used for historical context and moral guidance alone. When studied in detail, however, we see how even the Old Testament reveals Christ as the center of God's plan for redemption. In this book, biblical scholar Vern S. Po…
College students have some familiarity with interpreting written texts from high school English classes. But after years of watching TV, movies, and music videos, most college students are more comfortable with visual media than written texts. Before even opening a Bible, I introduce interpretation using a visual text, such as a political poster from a different country or historical era...
This book is an introduction to Judaism of the Second Temple period. That is, it covers the time beginning in the Persian period and ending with the fall of the temple (539 bce–70 ce), though I find it helpful to go as late as the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–35 ce). I have already given a detailed history of the Judaism of the period in Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian (1992) and the four-volume wo…
The use of the term “Septuagint” in the title of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) requires some justification. According to legend1 it was seventy(-two) Jerusalem elders who at the behest of King Ptolemy II (285–246 BCE) and with the consent of High Priest Eleazaros translated the Scriptures of Egyptian Jewry into Greek from a Jerusalem manuscript inscribed in gold. The …
This book examines the theology and ethics of land use, especially the practices of modern industrialized agriculture, in light of critical biblical exegesis. Nine interrelated essays explore the biblical writers’ pervasive concern for the care of arable land against the background of the geography, social structures, and religious thought of ancient Israel. This approach consistently brings …
An upper-level introduction to the Old Testament that offers students a thorough understanding of three key issues: historical background, literary analysis, and theological message. This second edition of An Introduction to the Old Testament integrates recent developments in Old Testament scholarship. It has many distinctive features that set it apart from other introductions to the Old Testam…
Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry , his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative , Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew po…
Apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including that God is arrogant and jealous, punishes people too harshly, is guilty of ethnic cleansing, oppresses women, and endorses slavery. He also challenges the accusation that Christianity causes violence. Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully…
We all know the story of how Eve was created from Adam's rib. But what if, perhaps, "rib" was a mistranslation and the body part she was really created from was Adam's penis bone? This would explain why human males don't have such a bone, unlike other male mammals. That's only one of many surprising and fun biblical twists readers will encounter in The Uncensored Bible . Here readers will learn…
A companion to Reading Biblical Narrative, this volume provides an authoritative introduction and overview to biblical poetry. Fokkelman describes, in step-by-step fashion, how to understand the Bible's poetry. Full of examples, Reading Biblical Poetry makes available a holistic and integrative approach to understanding poetry found nowhere else.
Nothing confuses Christian ethics quite like the Old Testament. Some faithful readers struggle through its pages and conclude that they must obey its moral laws but may disregard its ceremonial and civil laws. Others abandon its teaching altogether in favor of a strictly New Testament ethic. Neither option, argues Chris Wright, gives the Old Testament its due.
In this innovative approach to …
The rich tapestry of the creation narrative in the early chapters of Genesis proved irresistible to the thoughtful, reflective minds of the church fathers. Within them they found the beginning threads from which to weave a theology of creation, Fall, and redemption. Following their mentor the apostle Paul, they explored the profound significance of Adam as a type of Christ, the second Adam. The…
Outline: How can we make sense of Violence in the Bible? Joshua commands the people of Israel to wipe out everyone in the promised land of Canaan, while Jesus commands of God's people to love their enemies. How are we to interpret biblical passages on violence when it is sanctioned at one point and condemned at another? The Violence of the Biblical God by L. Daniel Hawk presents a new framework…
Outline: The Bible's sixty-six books form overreaching story - the story of a Hero and his heroic mission. And this story is personal, focusing on the relationship of God and his people in the past, present, and future. On this eye-opening journey through the Old and New Testaments, Dennis Johnson shows how pervasive, recurring themes are always pointing us to Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of a…
Outline: One exciting area of study is Paul's use of the Old Testament. The apostle routinely appeals to Scripture to support his arguments and to persuade his readers. One gets the impression that Paul has a high respect for Scripture and that his knowledge of it is broad and comprehensive. And yet, there is something enigmatic about his use of the Old Testament at the same time - something el…
Outline: Charles Spurgeon once said that just as every road in England leads to London, so every text in Scripture contains a path to Christ. But there's still a chance of going the wrong way, blazing misleading trails where none previously existed. How can we be sure tha we're leading our road map correctly? The author shows us that there are established routes we can trust. Guiding us alo…
Outline: This book is for everyone who wants to learn how to observe carefully, understand accurately, evaluate fairly, feel appropriately, act rightly, and express faithfully God's revealed Word, especially as embodied in the Old Testament.
- Follow an extensively field-tested twelve-step process to deepen understanding and shape theology (biblical, systematic, and practical).
- Engage with…
Overview: This book presents eighteen commissioned articles on biblical exegesis in early Judaism, covering the period after the Hebrew Bible was written and before the beginning of rabbinic Judaism. The essays, all written by experts in the field, are arranged in seven categories: Hebrew Bible, Rewritten Bible, Qumran Literature, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, Wisdom Literature, Hell…
Overview: In this book, the author introduces readers to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude. Knowledge of this literature, the author argues, helps to bridge the perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism when Judaism is understood only in terms of the…
Overview: This book is an indispensable tool for those seeking to understand the multiformity of interpretation used in the rabbinic midrash, a collection of commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures composed during the dynamic first six centuries of the Common Era. Because this magnificent work of ancient Jewish scholarship was composed using several methods of interpretation, it must be read with …