This is a prize-winning book, including an award from Christianity Today, and I read it because of endorsements by Lee Strobel (in The Case for the Real Jesus) and N.T. Wright (“a remarkable piece of detective work”). The key theme — as the title suggests — is that the Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony. … [Read more…]
How unified is the Bible text? At one extreme, you could argue that, since the whole text is inspired by God and since He knew from the beginning what text He would inspire and how it would and should be arranged, then the whole Bible — including every book, Old and New Testament alike — … [Read more…]
This short (only 114 pages of text) book is part of a series on a wide variety of topics published by Oxford University Press. I sought it out because I was impressed by the author’s much longer Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (discussed elsewhere on this blogsite), which I found valuable but daunting in its length … [Read more…]
The worst Bible couple, of course, was Jezebel and Ahab. But which was the best? It’s an interesting question to consider even if, at the end of the day, the answer turns out to have been pretty obvious. I’m looking for two things. First, both husband and wife should have strong and good character; a … [Read more…]
I deliberately sought out a book in this series on one of the gospels because I enjoyed its volume on Acts (by a different author) so much. And I’m glad I did: Professor Jeffrey is unfailingly insightful and judicious. I enjoyed, for example, his periodic observations on Luke’s likely source for this or that passage; recall … [Read more…]
The prophet Isaiah was considered “the greatest Old Testament prophet,” says my NIV study Bible, and he’s quoted “at least 50 times in the New Testament.” Isaiah was a prophet under five kings, and he talked about both the northern kingdom (Israel) and southern kingdom (Judah), while the other major prophets are predicting the fall of … [Read more…]
Moses is the central figure — besides God, of course — in the the four books of the Pentateuch following Genesis. And those four books have two strands: the historical narrative of Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt and to the Promised Land, and the laws given to Moses by God during that time … [Read more…]
In one of our church’s weekly “small group” meetings, we recently discussed Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4:1-42. It occurred to me that this might be the first non-Jewish convert. My NIV study Bible has a table that puts all four Gospels in single chronological order, and that seems to … [Read more…]
As I noted elsewhere, these are the two post-Moses/pre-monarchical history books, and so it makes some sense to consider them together. What’s more, I think that together they address an important question, namely how Israel would and should deal with the non-Israelites in the Promised Land, and considering them together helps illuminate that matter. Joshua … [Read more…]
Overview I suspect that there are many who, like me, find daunting the twelve books that stretch from Joshua to Esther, between the Pentateuch and the Wisdom books. And no wonder: They cover more or less sequentially a thousand years of Jewish history, from about 1400 B.C. to about 400 B.C. So perhaps an overview of … [Read more…]