Criticism Interpretation category: 2013 books

Early Americans have long been considered "A People of the Book" Because the nickname was coined primarily to invoke close associations between Americans and the Bible, it is easy to overlook the central fact that it was a book-not a geographic location, a monarch, or even a shared language-that has...

That Christian missionary efforts have long gone hand-in-hand with European colonization and American imperialist expansion. The role played in those efforts by the “Great Commission” – the risen Christ’s command to “teach all nations” – has more often been observed than analyzed. With...

The New Testament is the definitive narrative of God’s message of love, redemption and a plan for human history. Countless millions have read the New Testament for over 2,000 years to receive enlightenment, guidance and comfort. Know the New Testament will assist you to understand the background...

This new edition of a bestselling evangelical survey of the Old Testament (over 180,000 copies sold) has been thoroughly updated and features a beautiful new interior design. It is lavishly illustrated with four-color images, maps, and charts and retains the pedagogical features that have made the...

For far too long, Lauri Thuren argues, the parables of Jesus have been read either as allegories encoding Christian theology—including the theological message of one or another Gospel writer—or as tantalizing clues to the authentic voice of Jesus. Thuren proposes instead to read the parables “unplugged”...

Updated Edition of a Bestselling Study of Jesus and the Gospels In this work Darrell Bock, a leading evangelical New Testament scholar who speaks and teaches around the world, and Benjamin Simpson show that a coherent portrait of Jesus emerges from the four Gospels when they are taken seriously...

Christians around the world recite the “Lord’s Prayer” daily, but what exactly are they praying for—and what relationship does it have with Jesus’ own context? Jeffrey B. Gibson reviews scholarship that derives the so-called Lord’s Prayer from Jewish synagogal prayers and refutes it. The...

Eve, Noah's wife, Sarah, Tamar, Asenath, and others played a critical role in shaping the nation and faith of Israel. But we need to look closely at their stories to fully understand their impact. Respected Hebrew scholar and archaeologist Tammi Schneider takes us into the biblical account by carefully...

John J. Collins’s Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is one of the most widely used textbooks in the world, and for good reason. Balanced and richly informative, it introduces current thinking and leads the student into the important interpretive questions. This Study Companion is tied directly to...

In a comprehensive and detailed survey on its remarkably widespread employment in the Roman empire, Dr. Hengel examines the way in which "the most vile death of the cross" was regarded in the Greek-speaking world and particularly in Roman-occupied Palestine. His conclusions bring out more starkly...

Scholars have long puzzled over the distinctive themes and sequence of John’s narrative in contrast to the accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. Brian Neil Peterson now offers a remarkable explanation for some of the most unusual features of the Fourth Gospel, including the exalted language of the Johannine...

The problematic literary relationship among the Synoptic Gospels has given rise to numerous theories of authorship and priority. The primary objective of Rethinking the Synoptic Problem is to familiarize students with the main positions held by New Testament scholars in this much-debated area of research. The...

Introducing the New Testament presents the complex and often challenging texts and history of the New Testament in a clear and informative manner. The book begins with a section that gives readers a clear idea of how to use it most effectively for study and personal research, followed by a chapter...

Today's Church leadership needs to take a second look into the Scriptures to define the character of God as it truthfully is revealed to us. Many Scriptures are being avoided or transcribed in order to present a more humanistic God who is more palatable for the human mind. If this is what God had wanted, He would have simply allowed any religion to suffice showing His character.