The Bible is accessible. It’s meant to be read and comprehended by everyone from armchair readers to seminary students. A few essential insights into the Bible can clear up a lot of misconceptions and help you grasp the meaning of Scripture and its application to your 21st-century life.More than half a million people have turned to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to inform their reading of the Bible. This third edition features substantial revisions that keep pace with current scholarship, resources, and culture. Changes include:•Updated language•A new authors’ preface•Several chapters rewritten for better readability•Updated list of recommended commentaries and resourcesCovering everything from translational concerns to different genres of biblical writing, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is used all around the world. In clear, simple language, it helps you accurately understand the different parts of the Bible—their meaning for ancient audiences and their implications for you today—so you can uncover the inexhaustible worth that is in God’s Word.

    Though there is currently a large body of material on the theological interpretation of Scripture, most of it is highly specific and extremely technical. J. Todd Billings here provides a straightforward entryway for students and pastors to understand why theological interpretation matters and how it can be done. / A solid, constructive theological work, The Word of God for the People of God presents a distinctive Trinitarian, participatory approach toward reading Scripture as the church. Billings's accessible yet substantial argument for a theological hermeneutic is rooted in a historic vision of the practice of scriptural interpretation even as it engages a wide range of contemporary issues and includes several exegetical examples that apply to concrete Christian ministry situations.

    A 1989 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner! How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture? Who decided what shape the canon should take? What criteria influenced these decisions? After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture still remains an issue of debate. Protestants, Catholics and the Orthodox all have slightly differing collections of documents in their Bibles. Martin Luther, one of the early leaders of the Reformation, questioned the inclusion of the book of James in the canon. And many Christians today, while confessing the authority of all of Scripture, tend to rely on only a few books and particular themes while ignoring the rest. Scholars have raised many other questions as well. Research into second-century Gnostic texts have led some to argue that politics played a significant role in the formation of the Christian canon. Assessing the influence of ancient communities and a variety of disputes on the final shaping of the canon call for ongoing study. In this significant historical study, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear in answering the questions and clearing away the confusion surrounding the Christian canon of Scripture. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, he brings a rare comprehensive perspective to his task. Though some issues have shifted since the original publication of this book, it still remains a significant landmark and touchstone for further studies.

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    It undergirds the entire framework of Scripture, serving as the backdrop against which all other themes play out. Surveying the entirety of both the Old and New Testaments, scholar and professor Patrick Schreiner presents a definition and framework for a biblical theology of the kingdom. Defining the kingdom of God as the interplay of three concepts--the king's power over the king's people in the king's place--this new volume in the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series shows how a proper understanding of the kingdom of God has tremendous implications for life here and now.

    Alter takes the old yet simple step of reading the Bible as a literary creation.

    Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus’ stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives.In this wise, entertaining, and educational book, Amy-Jill Levine offers a fresh, timely reinterpretation of Jesus’ narratives. In Short Stories by Jesus, she analyzes these “problems with parables,” taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. Levine reveals the parables’ connections to first-century economic and agricultural life, social customs and morality, Jewish scriptures and Roman culture. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.

    Written by a host of trusted biblical scholars, the volumes in this unique series each trace an important topic throughout God's Word, from Genesis to Revelation, and explore its relevance to the Christian life. Brief, accessible, and practical, these books are perfect for laypeople looking for a bite-sized introductions to major subjects in biblical theology. Furthermore, pastors and professors will find this series to be an invaluable resource for brushing up on their grasp of the field as a whole.In this inaugural volume, renowned biblical scholar Graeme Goldsworthy traces the theme of divine sonship from Adam, through the nation of Israel and King David, and ultimately to Jesus Christ--the "Son of God" par excellence. He then turns to examine how the Bible's sonship motif informs our understanding of the final resurrection and new creation.

    In fact, at the climax of God's plan for the world lies an extraordinary city unlike any other. Linking the garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem, this new book in the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series traces the development of the theme of city throughout the lives of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, the prophets, David, Solomon, and Jesus--instilling hope in readers as they see God's purpose throughout the Scriptures to dwell with his redeemed people in the greatest city to come.

    How can we read the Bible both ways?The Bible and the Believer brings together three distinguished biblical scholars--one Jewish, one Catholic, and one Protestant--to illustrate how to read the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament critically and religiously. Marc Zvi Brettler, Peter Enns, and Daniel J. Harrington tackle a dilemma that not only haunts biblical scholarship today, but also disturbs students and others exposed to biblical criticism for the first time, either in university courses or through their own reading. Failure to resolve these conflicting interpretive strategies often results in rejection of either the critical approach or the religious approach--or both. But the authors demonstrate how biblical criticism--the process of establishing the original contextual meaning of biblical texts with the tools of literary and historical analysis--need not undermine religious interpretations of the Bible, but can in fact enhance them. They show how awareness of new archeological evidence, cultural context, literary form, and other tools of historical criticism can provide the necessary preparation for a sound religious reading. And they argue that the challenges such study raises for religious belief should be brought into conversation with religious tradition rather than deemed grounds for dismissing either that tradition or biblical criticism.Guiding readers through the history of biblical exegesis within the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant faith traditions, The Bible and the Believer bridges an age-old gap between critical and religious approaches to the Old Testament.

    Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes.In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra–conservative views of the Bible.

    We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it. McKnight’s The Blue Parakeet has emerged at the perfect time to cool the flames of a world on fire with contention and controversy. It calls Christians to a way to read the Bible that leads beyond old debates and denominational battles. It calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew for a new generation.In his books The Jesus Creed and Embracing Grace, Scot McKnight established himself as one of America’s finest Christian thinkers, an author to be reckoned with. In The Blue Parakeet, McKnight again touches the hearts and minds of today’s Christians, this time challenging them to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic theology but to see it as a Story that we’re summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day. In his own inimitable style, McKnight sets traditional and liberal Christianity on its ear, leaving readers equipped, encouraged, and emboldened to be the people of faith they long to be.

    And while many people are encouraged to know that the Bible is about Christ, they end up discouraged when they can't explain how the Bible's various parts relate to him. Some attempt to force the pieces of the Bible together, making superficial jumps to Jesus. Others give up trying to understand the Bible altogether, losing confidence in God's Word.So, how can we read the Bible in such way as to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ on every page of Scripture? We need a full reading of Scripture, one that reads the Bible according to its nature, its structure, and its own agenda. You'll learn how to: read the Bible according to according to three biblical contexts: the immediate context, the unfolding context, and the final context recognize how different parts of the Bible interlock with other parts of the Bible, fitting together like a puzzle embrace the story of the Bible as our own, to live this story out, and to share this story with our neighbors and the nations Along the way, Wellum and Hunter explore the connecting thread of covenant and how it ties several key biblical figures together. They also unpack some of the trickier questions Bible readers face today including how the Old Testament law applies today as well as several apologetic challenges to the Old Testament. For the first time, you will be able to see the Bible's multi-layered story and how it is held together by one plan of God to glorify himself in salvation. You'll come away with a clearer and more profound vision of our own need as sinners, of God in all of his grace, and of Jesus in all of his glory.X

    This book, drawn from the heart of foremost Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann's Theology of the Old Testament, distills a career's worth of insights into the core message of the Hebrew Bible. God is described there, Brueggemann observes, as engaging four "partners"-Israel, the nations, creation, and the human being-in the divine purpose. This volume presents Brueggemann at his most engaging, offering profound insights tailored especially for the beginning student of the Hebrew Bible.

    Who am I? Who is God? Kushner creates inspiring interpretations of Jacob's dream in Genesis, opening a window into Jewish spirituality for people of all faiths and backgrounds.