Holy war. Divine wrath. Violence in the Old Testament has long been a stumbling block for Christians and skeptics alike. Yet conventional efforts to understand this aspect of Scripture-whether by downplaying it as allegory or a relic of primitive cultures, or by dismissing the authority of Scripture altogether-tend to raise more questions than they answer. God Is a Man of War offers a fresh interpretation of Old Testament accounts of violence by exploring them through the twofold lens of Orthodox tradition and historical context. Instead of avoiding or invalidating problem passages out of discomfort, Fr. Stephen De Young inquires into what they reveal about the nature of Christ and His creation. In doing so, this book bears witness to a world filled not only with pain and suffering-often of human making-but also with the love of God, poured out through the endless centuries and generations of human strife that preceded and necessitated the Incarnation of Christ.

    

    But do you understand what it means?Baptism is the doorway into membership in the church. It's a public declaration of the washing away of our sin and the beginning of our new life in Christ. But the sacrament that is meant to unite us is often a spring of division instead.All Christians use water to baptize. All invoke the triune name. Beyond that, there's little consensus. Talk about baptism and you're immediately plunged into arguments. Whom should we baptize? What does baptism do? Why even do it at all?Peter Leithart reunifies a church divided by baptism. He recovers the baptismal imagination of the Bible, explaining how baptism works according to Scripture. Then, in conversation with Christian tradition, he shows why baptism is something worth recovering and worth agreeing on.

    But have we misread the point of the story? Is it possible that a careful reading of Genesis 22 could reveal that God was not pleased with Abraham's silent obedience?Widely respected biblical theologian, creative thinker, and public speaker J. Richard Middleton suggests we have misread and misapplied the story of the binding of Isaac and shows that God desires something other than silent obedience in difficult times. Middleton focuses on the ethical and theological problem of Abraham's silence and explores the rich biblical tradition of vigorous prayer, including the lament psalms, as a resource for faith. Middleton also examines the book of Job in terms of God validating Job's lament as "right speech," showing how the vocal Job provides an alternative to the silent Abraham.This book provides a fresh interpretation of Genesis 22 and reinforces the church's resurgent interest in lament as an appropriate response to God.

    

    Carter, a leading Christian theologian known for his provocative defenses of classical approaches to doctrine, critiques the recent trend toward modifying or rejecting classical theism in favor of modern "relational" understandings of God. The book includes a short history of trinitarian theology from its patristic origins to the modern period, and a concluding appendix provides a brief summary of classical trinitarian theology. Foreword by Carl R. Trueman.

    The question every student of Scripture needs to ask, then, is this: Are your interpretive principles and methods legitimate and ethical? In this accessible introduction to biblical hermeneutics, Nicholas G. Piotrowski presents an approach that explores three layers of context: literary, historical, and christological. Because no text exists in the abstract, interpreters must seek to understand a passage's ecology: the flow and argument of the entire biblical book, the world of the original author and audience, and the movement of redemptive history that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Careful interpretation is both a science and an art, Piotrowski argues, and it has powerful implications for what we believe and how we apply God's Word. Featuring numerous examples, further reading lists, and a glossary, In All the Scriptures equips students, pastors, and thoughtful readers to build a solid foundation for interpreting the Bible.

    While some Jews believed this translation was itself inspired Scripture, even more significantly, the authors of what would later be called the New Testament relied on this translation as they quoted Scripture. Then in the centuries that followed, many Christians argued that God had provided the Septuagint as the church’s Old Testament. But what about all the differences between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible? And what about the extra books of the Septuagint—the so-called Apocrypha or deuterocanonical literature? Written with students in mind, Translation of the Seventy explores each of these issues, with a particular focus on the role of the Septuagint in early Christianity. This fresh analysis of the New Testament’s use of the Septuagint and the complex reception of this translation in the first four centuries of Christian history will lead scholars, students, and general readers to a renewed appreciation for this first biblical translation.

    Christopher Holmes, an expert in contemporary theology, engages with the church fathers along with Augustine and Aquinas to offer a rich, accessible account of the triune God and the divine perfections. Holmes shows how we share in the life of God through imitation and participation and how the doctrines of the triune God and the divine attributes shape our understanding of the Christian life. Throughout, Holmes demonstrates the importance of theology for Christian faith and practice.

    Yet many struggle with this part of the Bible, finding it confusing, theologically troubling, or just uninteresting. Eric Seibert understands. His goal is to help students and other readers learn to love the Old Testament and actually want to read it. In Enjoying the Old Testament Seibert demonstrates how reading the Old Testament can be fun and rewarding. Beginning with a rationale for why Christians should engage these biblical books, he then offers dozens of practical suggestions and exercises for hands-on interaction with the text. Equipped with a variety of tools and creative approaches, readers discover how even the most seemingly dry passages can come to life. While many resources promise to help people understand the Old Testament, they often fail to address a prior question, Why bother reading it in the first place? Enjoying the Old Testament is uniquely designed to help readers find the beauty and wonder in the Old Testament as they explore it in all its complexity.

    But understanding even the basics about the Septuagint is helpful for academics and laypeople alike.In this book, scholars Gregory R. Lanier and William A. Ross examine what the Septuagint is and why Christians should care about it. By distilling the complexity surrounding the origin (who and where), translation philosophy, and transmission (history), the authors address not only how the church throughout history has viewed this text, but also its continued value for the study of the Old Testament and New Testament. Here is a book that serves as a springboard for anyone interested in knowing more about the Septuagint and its relationship to the Bible.

    

    There is no dispute that Joseph's story is unique, but why does it deserve such focused attention? And how does this story relate to the rest of Genesis?In Figuring Resurrection, Jeffrey Pulse presents the view that Joseph is a death-and-resurrection- figure. A close literary reading of Genesis 37-50 reveals that Joseph's story is one of rejection and restoration, descent and ascent, condemnation and exaltation, exile and return, death and resurrection. Far from a lengthy diversion, Joseph's story of "death and resurrection" plays an important role in the theology of Genesis and later Second Temple Jewish literature.Figuring Resurrection has implications for our understanding of Joseph's narrative, the book of Genesis, Hebrew thinking on the afterlife, and typology.

    It draws on a range of methodological approaches (author-, text-, and reader-centered) and reflects the growing scholarly attention to the reception history of biblical texts, increasingly viewed as a vital aspect of interpretation rather than an optional extra.

    . ." It is one of the Bible's most popular passages, retaining a special place in ministry and giving hope to the burdened.Internationally recognized Old Testament scholar Richard Briggs helps readers understand the power and vision of Psalm 23. He offers a close word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase reading of this classic and beloved text, showing how it can speak afresh to the life of the church today. Briggs explores the reception of Psalm 23 down through the ages, covers background issues, and examines the ways the psalm addresses practical questions such as stress, death, enemies, and hope. The book helps reconnect the Christian church to the Old Testament, making it perfect for sermon preparation and small group study.The Touchstone Texts series addresses key Bible passages, making high-quality biblical scholarship accessible for the church. The series editor is Stephen B. Chapman, Duke Divinity School.

    The book focuses on God's covenants as the means by which God has reached out to a fallen humanity. It examines the heart and history of God's redemptive plan and shows why the covenants are essential for our understanding of the Bible.

    Designed to keep the attention of all readers, each lively essay is both brief enough to be read in minutes and deep and substantive enough to deliver abundant food for thought. Its cornerstone is its unique four-part meditation on the Jewish heritage. After briefly summarizing a Torah portion, the commentary orbits that portion through four central pillars of Jewish life—the Torah (Torat Yisrael), the land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), the Jewish people (Am Yisrael), and Jewish thought (Mahshevet Yisrael)—illuminating how the four intersect and enrich one another. Furthering the Jewish thought motif, every essay ends with two questions for thought well suited for discussion settings. Each commentary can be used as the launchpad for a lesson, a sermon, a d’var Torah, or a discussion. Readers from beginners to experts will come away with new understandings of our Jewish heritage—and be inspired to draw closer to its four dimensions.

    These signs of God’s liberating agency have sustained oppressed people seeking deliverance over the ages. But Exodus is also a complex book. Reading the text firsthand, one encounters multilayered narratives: about entrenched socioeconomic systems that exploit the vulnerable, the mysterious action of the divine, and the giving of a new law meant to set the people of Israel apart. How does a contemporary reader make sense of it all? And what does Exodus have to say about our own systems of domination and economic excess?In Delivered out of Empire, Walter Brueggemann offers a guide to the first half of Exodus, drawing out “pivotal moments” in the text to help readers untangle it. Throughout, Brueggemann shows how Exodus consistently reveals a God in radical solidarity with the powerless.

    He demonstrates how biblical literature bears the distinct markers of a philosophical style in its use of literary and philosophical strategies to reason about the nature of reality and our place within it. Johnson questions traditional definitions of philosophy and compares the Hebraic style of philosophy with the intellectual projects of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Hellenism. Identifying the genetic features of the Hebraic philosophical style, Johnson traces its development from its hybridization in Hellenistic Judaism to its retrieval by the New Testament authors. He also shows how the Gospels and letters of Paul exhibit the same genetic markers, modes of argument, particular argument forms, and philosophical convictions that define the Hebraic style, while they engaged with Hellenistic rhetoric. His volume offers a model for thinking about philosophical styles in comparative philosophical discussions.

    Graves clearly explains and illustrates this approach with fulsome discussions of five themes that are addressed in various ways in the Bible: personal responsibility; sacrificial offerings; insiders and outsiders; marriage, polygamy, and divorce; and the afterlife. By attending to the way these topics are addressed throughout the entire biblical witness, we become better interpreters and better teachers, more adept at discerning the Bible's teaching on these topics and others for our modern world.

    This book reclaims the Old Testament as a vital resource for today's church, showing how critical study of these texts helps us understand the Bible as a dynamic testimony for our changing future.