Showing titles in Biblical History & Culture

For Christians, the Bible is a book inspired by God. Its eternal words are transmitted across the world by fallible human hands. Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a book in motion from its very beginnings, and every community it has encountered has read, heard, and seen the Bible through its own language and culture. In The Bible, Bruce Gordon tells the astounding story of the Bible’s journey around the globe and across more than two thousand years.

In Flawed Follower Pastor Rene Schlaepfer travels in the footsteps of Simon Peter from Israel to Rome to learn how Jesus takes flawed misfits and transforms them into world changers. You will discover hope for imperfect, in-progress, well-intentioned but often bumbling people with a checkered past. Like Peter. And like you.

Like many Christians, Brian Thomas was taught to believe that Genesis is at least partly myth. He was told that history, archaeology, and science contradict supernatural creation and that there were no Adam and Eve in a Garden of Eden, so their sin wasn’t what brought death into the world.

Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to listen to in the home: “apocrypha.” These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments—reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers.

I recently read a statistic by the American Bible Society that only 30% of Christians actually read their Bibles on a regular basis. For many Christians, their morning devotional time, if they even have one, consists of reading a quick Bible verse or two. On New Year’s Eve, pastors hand out pamphlets that lay out a daily reading plan to read through the whole Bible in one year. Most Christians can’t even do that. But I believe most, if not all, Christians, desire to study the Bible more; they just don’t have the motivation. They have heard all the Bible stories and countless sermons. ...

Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts—Israel, the land, election, and chosen people—must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine.

Following the release of their first three international bestsellers Petrus Romanus, Exo-Vaticana, and On the Path of the Immortals Thomas Horn and Cris Putnam were swamped with interview requests from radio, television, and print media outlets around the world. When they accurately predicted the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI one full year in advance, even naming the very month and year he would step down, global shockwaves raised compelling questions regarding why the Vatican has an advanced telescope perched atop Mt.

What was the apostle Paul's relationship to Judaism? How did he view the Jewish law? How did he understand the gospel of Jesus's messiahship relative to both ethnic Jews and gentiles? These remain perennial questions both to New Testament scholars and to all serious Bible readers. Respected New Testament scholar Matthew Thiessen offers an important contribution to this discussion. A Jewish Paul is an accessible introduction that situates Paul clearly within first-century Judaism, not opposed to it.

The Book of Job tells us of two wild and untamable creatures, Leviathan and Behemoth. Some believe they are literal animals, alive or extinct, some even believe they were dinosaurs. Others say they are only mythological or symbolic monsters. The truth will surprise everyone. Author Brian Godawa, respected Christian and best-selling author of When Giants Were Upon the Earth, expounds in biblical and historical detail the true theological meaning of these chaos monsters in the Bible.

It’s not often that you come across a document of such religious and historical importance as The Septuagint Genesis – in fact its significance would be hard to overstate. But what is the Septuagint? Well, its name refers to the “seventy’ (actually 72) translators – six from each tribe of Israel – who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, the primary language of Jews in Egypt at the time. This, the oldest and arguably most important translation, was the version of The Bible that Jesus himself would have read – and the one from which almost all the New Testament’s writers were quoting.

The “modern Jesus” of progressives—supposedly friendlier and more accepting than the Savior we know from the Gospels—is gaining popularity and acceptance among self-identified Christians. But they don’t realize that progressive Christianity rejects the biblical revelation of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Hijacking Jesus addresses perennial questions about the nature of Christ and his teaching, testing the historical and theological accuracy of progressive Christians.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias - what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers listeners a snapshot of the lives of each apostle.

This book welcomes listeners to appreciate the origins of Christianity within the Roman world in which early Christianity got its first foothold. It does that by immersing listeners in the life and culture of two thriving first-century towns—Pompeii and Herculaneum. Those towns (destroyed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE) act as showpieces of the world into which the early Christian movement was spreading.

In Reading the Bible, Dr. Bill Creasy takes you on an extraordinary adventure through the entire Bible, introducing you to unforgettable characters, gripping drama, uproarious comedy, and profound tragedy, all the while examining the literary genres and rhetorical strategies that make the Bible the greatest story ever told.

The Christian religion is the historical unfolding of God's covenantal involvement in this world, the culmination of which is God's coming into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. Far as the Curse Is Found is a retelling of the biblical story of God's unfolding covenant from creation to new creation

Who was Priscilla? Readers of the Bible may know her as the wife of Aquila, Paul's coworker, or someone who explained baptism to Apollos. Biblical references to Priscilla spark questions: Why is she mentioned before her husband? Does the mention of her instruction of Apollos mean that women taught in the church? What is her story?

Is God a sadistic torturer? Coldhearted judge? Genocidal maniac? Unfortunately, our popular caricatures often make him out to be. God has some skeletons in the closet. At least, that's what many of us fear. "How can a loving God send people to hell?" "Isn't it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God?" "What is up with holy war in the Old Testament?" These are difficult questions that our family, our friends, our culture - even we ourselves - are asking.

From the earliest oral traditions to ink on parchment and ultimately the printing press, this is the story behind the best-selling book of all time. Original texts were captured and passed down from generation to generation by elders and leaders, many inked by hand in extreme conditions. Christians and Jews canonized the Christian, Catholic, and Hebrew Bibles over a period of thousands of years. Devoted people dedicated their lives throughout time to put this unique book into the hands of people worldwide.

The Second Book of Enoch, also known as the Slavonic Enoch or 2 Enoch, is an ancient religious text that is part of the Jewish apocalyptic tradition. It is considered pseudepigraphical, attributed to the biblical figure Enoch, who was said to have been taken up to heaven and shown divine revelations. The book exists in various versions, with the most well-known being the Slavonic manuscript preserved in the Russian National Library. The Second Book of Enoch is comprised of several sections that offer a glimpse into cosmology, theology, and eschatology.

One of the most controversial statements in the New Testament concerns the virgin conception and subsequent birth of Jesus, a conception in which man had no part. It's recorded that a virgin conceived a son without the aid of man, then secretly and without effort gave birth to her conception. This is the foundation upon which all Christendom rests. The Christian world is asked to believe this story, for man must believe the unbelievable to fully express the greatness that he is.