Bibles Bible Studies Books

Joel Richardson has drawn wrong conclusions biblically regarding the coming Anti-Messiah. He and you would be far better served by reading "The AntiChrist and a Cup of Tea" by Tim Cohen, in which, by the way, Mr. Cohen identifies the coming AntiChrist as a living prince of Roman lineage who also happens to descend directly from Islam's Mohammed! Unlike Mr. Richardson, Mr. Cohen offers hard evidence for his views, and is apparently not speculating on this issue of who the AntiChrist will be.... You must read Mr. Cohen's book if you really want to understand this subject!The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea

I'm confused about this book...

Muslims are waiting for Jesus (peace be upon him) as the messiah, who will kill Dajjal (anti-christ). Imam Mahdi is a secondary figure that helps Jesus against the anti-christ.

This is an eye opening book, especially in conjunction with the bood "Politically Incorrect Guide to ISLAM." I read the PIG book first, then this one. Reading both together was amazingly eye opening.

This book provides an interesting look into the Islamophobic world of Christian fundamentalist ideology. The fact that the back of this book contains a positive review by Walid Shoebat the con man and pretend "former PLO terrorist" (who fleeces money from people to give lectures on his non-existent "PLO terrorist" past and spread hatred of Islam ) is telling in and of it itself.

This book presents the coming antichrist in a different light. It teaches that he will be Islamic.

The scholarship, organization, and material is fascinating. It is well worth the read just to understand more about Islamic end time beliefs. It presents the Koran and other Islamic writings in the appropriate light as false.

I do not agree with the author though. The Bible clearly teaches that the antichrist will arise from a restored Roman Empire. He will be European most likely.

We're using this along with a Bible Study program and a chronological study of history. It links the two beautifully, explaining the questions my child is asking. The pictures are wonderful.

We are using this for our homeschool(5th grade) and we are loving it! Very useful and FULL of information. You can walk right through the Bible with this, hitting all the major points of scripture. Nice colorful pages make it easy to keep our 10 year old's interest! (mine too!)

Journey through the Bible is a book our family has used for education, art, and leisure reading. The book has been a great resource for factual Bible information as well providing back-drop for biblical stories and settings. Main Biblical stories are lifted out and highlighted in such a way that much clarity is shed on Biblical truth. For instance The plagues are condensed and reference to which Egyptian God is being attacked by each plague. The book stands alone as a great reference but also works well with other educational literature. The pictures provide aid in understanding background culture and setting i.e showing what a zigguret could have looked like with several differnt examples. The information is fresh, clear and concise. Heartily recommended!

This book is amazing. It has so many pictures and other information pertaining to the Bible. My children love it.

It's very useful for the process of the exegesis and study of the OT.

This thorough and scholarly resource book is an invaluable guide to the process of determining the meaning of Old Testament passages. It contains examples and though it is written for scholars and pastors, it is accessible (and provides helpful guidance) to the layperson, such as myself, that desires to develop a less superficial understanding of scripture. The bibliography in the back is terrific and is probably worth the cost of the book by itself. The updated bibliography in the revised edition is worth buying it even if you already own prior editions.

This book is essential for students of Hebrew. This belongs with HALOT and Waltke/O'Connor as a book that the exegete cannot live without.

This Tanach is just right for my purposes. It contains the Hebrew text and a Jewish translation into English. The Torah portion is divided up into the traditional Parshiot with running heads. I use it for reference when studying Talmud or other texts. It's compact enough to be portable, but set in clear and legible typefaces.

Best English Translation with almost flawless Hebrew and fits neatly into a big coat pocket.

Type much too small for mature eyes. If you are price conscious and have good eyes--great deal

All I suggest is this: If you have a difficult time reading very small text, DO NOT BUY THIS.
Also, I was a bit put off by the bar-code printed in the inner cover.
Other than that, this is a fine translation, the book is well made.

This is a lovely book... beuatifully put together, a pleasure to hold and read, and with a limpid English translation. I had never seen a Jewish version of the scriptures before and this is a revelation.
Also, coming from Europe and buying this while on vacation in the US, I found the price amazingly low

Wills' earlier book, "What Jesus Meant", was truly inspired -- engaging from start to finish, it challenged many of the assumptions of modern Christianity about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I was expecting more-or-less the same from "What Paul Meant". I was slightly disappointed; because this book doesn't quite measure up to the extremely high bar set by its predecessor. Nonetheless, it is a very good book; and I'm glad I took the time to read it (though, since it is a short book, it didn't really take much time at all). The goal of the book is to defend Paul against the unfair criticism that he has received over the centuries from those who claim that he distorted the teachings of Jesus, and also to rescue Paul from those Christians who have twisted his writings to support doctrines that that are contrary to the true gospel of Jesus. Wills argues that Paul's basic message was the same as that of Jesus. The book aims to explain why Paul is so misunderstood, and what he was really trying to accomplish. However, the bulk of the book is actually an attempt to use the available textual and historical evidence to sort out the details of Paul's life and mission -- where he went, what his goals were, what problems he had to deal with, what his relationship was with the leaders of the Jerusalem church and various other missionaries, etc. If you're interested in the life of Paul and the early history of the church (as I am) you will find this a worthwhile read. But, given the title of the book and the precedent set by his earlier book, I was expecting more of an analysis of what Paul wrote, and less of an analysis of his life, his mission, and his relationships with other followers of Jesus. Nonetheless, my disappointment with the book is only slight; and I would certainly recommend it. (Of particular value is the appendix that deals with issues surrounding the proper translation of various words found throughout Paul's writings.)

The author, Garry Wills, offers a fresh approach to New Testament books usually attributed to Paul, attempting to put specific words into context of the first century. He carefully chooses to deal with the books that almost certainly were written by Paul, giving reasons for believing that some others probably were not written by him. Dr. Wills says that he is not a theologian but writes from the perspective of a Historian and a Greek scholar, although he did study for the priesthood. He separates fact from myth in an interesting and readable writing style.

As a younger man, I attended a conservative Christian college, where I majored in biblical studies. I still recall how adamant the professors were that the Bible was not only infallible but inerrant as well. It is almost amusing to watch the hoops such people will jump through to maintain this untenable position.

Fast forward a few years, to when I took my first serious look at the other end of the spectrum, the ominous "liberals." There I found an approach to the Scriptures in which any possible contradiction or inconsistency in the text is trumpeted loudly as an error, with no attempt whatsoever to harmonize the seeming disparities. Whereas my old mentors were obsessive in defending the Bible's perfection, the other side seems almost gleeful in its attempts to fictionalize as much of it as possible.

Wills obviously belongs to this latter camp, and it shows in the condescending approach he takes to the New Testament. A prime example is on pages 32-36, where he examines Acts 9:1-19, the account of Paul's Damascus Road experience.

On page 33 he writes: "We know from Paul that he was 'unknown by my features to the Judean gatherings in Messiah (Galatians 1:21)......how could a man who had gone house to house arresting the brothers be unknown by them?"

Wills fails to read the surrounding verses in the Galatians passage. They answer his question easily:

"Then I went into the regions of Syria and Silicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches in Judea that are in Christ. They only heard it said, 'the one who was formerly persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." And they glorified God because of me." Galatians 1:21-24.

What Paul is actually saying is not that the Judeans saw him and didn't recognize his face. Rather he is saying that during this particular journey he did not make personal contact with those believers, though they did hear he was in their area. A simple examination of the text makes Willis' objection fall to pieces.

Other points he makes suffer from similar problems. On page 33 he writes "if Paul had been a pupil of the famous Gamaliel, he would have surely said so when he boasted of his Pharisaical training."

Really? How does Wills know this? Is it possible that Paul had a valid reason not to mention this training? Perhaps upon becoming a Christian his former mentor disowned him, in effect saying "do not disgrace me by speaking of our past associations," and Paul honored this request. Perhaps Paul simply didn't see it necessary to mention.

Perhaps Gamaliel was especially hated or feared by the Christians, and Paul's mention of his name would only have made them unduly suspicious of him as well.

Wills considers none of this. Upon sniffing out what may be a problem in the biblical account he loudly proclaims that the New Testament is in error.

The solution he proposes is predictable: "Luke's fiction has replaced far more interesting fact. Here as elsewhere we must look intently at Paul's own words to see what he actually meant. Luke will prove a continuing obstacle to this effort." page 36.

So, once again, it's the biblical writers who screwed everything up, and it's up to modern scholars, looking back two millennia, to correct their lies and find the real truth they failed to report. This isn't scholarship, it is arrogance, and a particularly pompous type of arrogance as well.

Yet it is this very attitude that guides Wills throughout the rest of the book, which is a mixed bag in my view. He defends Paul against claims of inciting hate (a good example is on page 56), demeaning women, etc. and at many times employs sound hermeneutical principles. On the other hand, he seems passionate to remold the Apostle into a politically correct advocate of diversity and multi-culturalism.

In conclusion, I give this book an overall positive recommendation, but with reservations. It is useful both for its insights into modern approaches to the Bible as well as its analysis of Paul's writings.
Let the reader be aware, though, that it is faulted by biases that should be critically - and fairly - examined. Of course, this is good advice when reading any book, even the Bible.

I've now read all three of Wills' books in this series. He provides a very insightful analysis of the actual language of the New Testament in context, in sharp contrast to many commentators who pick and choose passages to suit their doctrinal perspectives. In this one, Wills is obviously an advocate intent on redeeming Paul in the face of historical criticism, which Wills readily acknowledges, but he makes it clear where he's making an argument and where he's making an objective observation. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of his translations from the Greek, but they pick up nuances that other translators have described in commentary or have expressed themselves in their own translations. I think this is essential reading for anyone interested in a close reading of the New Testament texts.

Review of: "What Paul Meant"

By: Garry Wills

Paul was the first letter writer of Christianity.

His epistles are considered the most pessimistic writings of the early church.

Despite the pessimism of Paul's epistles, he guided the early church and aided the growth of the early church. The author, Garry Wills, calls the growth of the early church an explosion of belief. He says of Paul: "Paul was part of this explosion of belief." Garry Wills says that Nietzsche called Paul the "dysangelist" or the bad news bearer, and "a man with a genius for hatred." This is in contrast to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the "evangelists" or the good news bearers.

The author asks the question: "how much of this notoriety is deserved?" His answer: "very little."

This book uses seven of Paul's letters: "Letter to the Thessalonians", "Letter to the Galatians", "Letter to the Philippians", "Letter to Philemon", "First Letter to the Corinthians", "Second Letter to the Corinthians" and "Letter to the Romans." These are the letters whose authorship is not disputed.

Author Wills shows that Paul echoed and amplified the message of love spoken by Jesus. Paul had the same message of love as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John when he reports on the teaching of Jesus.

This book also gives details of the life of Paul and of the history of early Christianity.

See Also:

What the Gospels Meant

and

What Jesus Meant

This book is a good amplification of the meaning of Paul's letters. It is clear and easy to understand and the reasoning is very sound.

I recommend "What Paul Meant" as a supplemental guide when reading the New Testament or as a stand alone text.

This is a great source of information on critical issues regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very good

Want to research a issue concerning the Gospels, but aren't sure where to begin? This dictionary is an excellent place to begin.

In this dictionary, about 90 evangelical scholars contribute more than 200 articles focused exclusively on the gospels. It also includes exhaustive Biblical and subject indexes, making it a uniquely versatile tool (for instance, Gospel of Thomas has 19 entries; Lord's Supper has 54, with three substantial treatments). In addition, each entry is followed by a lengthy bibliography.

More importantly, the scholars writing the articles have already made contributions to those subject areas previously; as examples, see H. Hoehner (Chronology, Herodian Dynasty), F. F. Bruce (Canon), G. Fee (Textual Criticism), and S. McKnight (Literary Criticism.

You will not regret purchasing this volume; it will save you hours of research when preparing a sermon or bible study lesson!

I received the book promptly, in plenty of time before Christmas, and it was well packed and arrived in excellent shape. Thank you. My son was very happy to get this book as a Christmas gift. I like the wish list he created on your site and it made purchasing easy for me.
Thanks. Cora Regier

This is the first IVP dictionary of the New Testament, of which there are now four. As with the other works, the general approach is moderately conservative to conservative, with authors such as Ben Witherington on the moderate side to Harold Hoehner on the conservative side. There are a few contributors who are more liberal, including Dale Allison (who believes that Jesus was mistaken on the end of the world, a view he doesn't express here) and James Dunn.

Anyone who is studying the New Testament should have this book and its companions in his library.

This book is way too deep for me personally but I gave it as a gift to my brother, who is a theology student headed for seminary, and he loved it.

This book is phenomenal and is filled with scripture. John MacArthur does a great job of making these women's lives parallel to our current culture and easy for anyone to relate. Each woman has her own personality but all have lessons to learn from. I have just started the book and am about half way through already and each page has spoken to me that most of the book is underlined and commented on. If you're looking for God to move in your life and teach you some great lessons pick up this book!!!

We have been studying this for the past few months slowly due to only meeting once a week. We have discovered fascinating new details about some of the women of the Bible that we did not know. While we have found a few discrepancies, they are minor and we talk it out as a group. Overall, we are finding this study to be enlightening and are looking forward to the rest of it.

It helped me so see and understand how important these women really were in the lineage of Jesus. How God can change the seemingly impossible. Wonderful book!

I could only get through the first two chapters before I had to put it down. I sought this book out for inspiration, but found it was sexist and insulting. I write this not because I one of those "new fangled feminist types", but because I posses a brain - a God given one. What I glean from the way the stories are presented is that the author's belief is that women exist only through men and have no real intrinsic purpose or value to God or the world, except through men.

Eve is portryaed as a pathetic figure, the author writes patronizingly about Eve's sin: "As the weaker vessel, away from her husband, but close to the forbidden tree, she was in the most vulnerable position possible..." and "...Adam's sin was deliberate (when he took the apple) and willful in a way Eve's was not. Eve was deceived". So, the author doesn't even think she deserves equal billing in the "downfall".

In chap. 2 about Sarah, when explaining how Sara and Abraham lied when they entered Egypt, saying that Sara was his sister so other men would not kill Abraham for her the author concludes: "...Abraham's motives were selfish and cowardly, and the scheme reflected a serious weakness in his faith. But Sarah's devotion to her husband is nonetheless commendable, and God honored her for it..". So, she is not a whole person in this author's view - they both lied, he calls it "cowardly" on Abraham's part, but believes God commends Sara, because she it was good she supported him - EVEN when he did something "selfish and cowardly".

As a Christian I found the simplistic and ridiculous for the 21st century.
I cannot recommend this book to anyone with a brain.

I have led numerous Bible studies, and this book has been a real disappointment. The writing lacks balance, is often disorganized, and even has an "anti-women" tone to it. I find myself having to work all week to plan our study, to supplement what he's written. I would not recommend this book.

Wright is a model for the Pastor-Theologian. Not only are his words grounded in a most solid foundation, not only do they quickly challenge our theology (in a healthy way) but they are accessible by most intermediate readers.

Thank you Bishop Wright!

I've been a fan of N.T. Wright ever since I read his book The Meaning of Jesus:Two Visions" which he co-authored with Marcus Borg. I came across this book about half a year ago. I still haven't understood all of the implications which can be gleamed from this very clear account of what Jesus and God and the history of Israel are all about.
Wright speaks of Jesus as the unique one off achievement of God in the history of the world. Jesus as the messiah who inaugurated the new creation and forgave the world of sin.
This book is based on a series of lectures Wright gave for an InterVarsity press conference in 1999. They can be listened to on his unofficial page: [...]

The book is persuasive, though I will leave its description to other reviewers who have done a very nice job of summing it up. I highly recommend this book as a way to step into Wright's larger series on Christian Origins and the Question of God. I am about to read the first work in this series, "The New Testament and the People of God." If the Challenge of Jesus is just a taste then I suspect the fuller treatment of the themes found in its pages will be rewarding.

Very compelling scholarship and historically accurate account of Jesus

Wright's look at Jesus comes from the eyes of the Jewish expectation of the Messiah. He attempts to answer the questions: Was Jesus the foretold Messiah? How did Jesus accomplish that end? How did he radically move from the expectations of what the Messiah was to do?

seriously, i haven't read any of the other reviews but there is no book that compares to this one. for some reason before i started reading it i decided that i would hi-lite the "wow" moments. that was a big mistake. everything got hi-lited. wright opens up scripture the way i wish i would've discovered when i was in college.

too many christians today read scripture through biased lenses. instead of taking from scripture they end up reading too much into it.

wright adds great insight.

N.T. Wright was a name that was unfamiliar to me as recently as a few years ago, but I have increasingly heard references to him lately, especially since I started seminary last year. He is obviously a very well-respected and popular author. I've read several of his articles in the last year, and I have greatly appreciated what he had to say. With that context, I had great expectations for "The Challenge of Jesus," the first of his books that I have actually read. Those expectations were met in large part, with a few caveats.

The strength of the book is Wright's ability to challenge some preconceived notions of evangelical orthodoxy without being condescending or smug. He is a well-regarded academic who writes for a popular audience, and he manages to wrestle with complex intellectual questions without distancing himself from the reader.

The most challenging point that I read in this book was his suggestion that Jesus did not necessarily know the entirety of his divine nature while he lived on earth as a first-century Jew. Orthodox Christian theology seems to articulate that Jesus was completely aware of his fully-man, fully-God nature, but Wright claims otherwise. Though I did not find his argument for this point to be entirely convincing, it's certainly a question worth further consideration.

Most compellingly, Wright argues that the vigorous historical pursuit of the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth is essential for the church and for individual Christians to formulate a robust understanding of who He was and is. For any Christians who think that historical research about Jesus is irrelevant, this book eliminates that all-too-common notion.

My biggest complaint about the book relates to its origin. Apparently, Wright gave a series of lectures, which were then reformatted and polished into this book form. The process can obviously work, as C.S. Lewis demonstrated with "Mere Christianity." But the problem is that Wright makes comment after comment about the reality that he does not have time or space to address a particular point. That approach has one effect on the listener during verbal communication, who invariably does not want to sit and listen to a speaker talk for hours and hours. But for a reader who has committed to read a book of this import, it was frustrating to continually get the sense that this work was vastly incomplete. Of course, it is essential for any scholar who is writing to a popular audience to omit tremendous volumes of background information, which would otherwise be overwhelming. But that does not mean that the author needs to reiterate that the really important stuff has actually been extracted from the text for space constraints.

Ultimately, I thought that this book was very good, if not outstanding. I found Wright's style to be sufficiently engaging that I hope to read more of his work. And I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to wrestle with the questions about the historical reality of Jesus of Nazareth.

I am reading this one as well as the New World
translation. Many insights of humanity are provided.

This is the best New Testament Study Bible if you are a serious student of the Word. Best Study Notes combined with the most accurate translation of the New Testament. If you're looking for a good study Bible, this is the one. The exact same study notes are also found in Zondervan's NIV Study Bible if you prefer a Bible that is leaning on the side of transliteration (thought for thought). But if you want the most accurate translation, (word for word) then the combination of the NASB and these study tools is unmatched.

The ESV is another great and accurate translation, but the study notes are not as powerful. Of course the ESV Interlinear is the best I've every seen, so check it out if you're a student of the Greek.

I would not recommend study in the Old Testament from this translation however, since the publishers fell prey to the pressures of all the God hating scientists and kind of fudged on the translation to leave room for the new aged ideas that were permeating the science community at the time this work was done. Better stick with the King James or the New King James if you want the most accurate English translation in the Old Testament. Those boys under King James did a rock solid translation, free from any pressures from a biased science community. I carry both the NASB to teach from for the New Testament and the New King James to teach from the Old Testament. You should too.

Finally, the 350 plus manuscripts that have been discovered since the King James translation that pre-dated anything those boys had at the time they did their critical work, helps us to find those passages that had been erroneously added by the early church fathers. Bless their hearts, but it becomes quite evident who added what and when they added it, because all of the earlier manuscripts that pre-date their service in the Catholic Church are missing certain passages in all of the older manuscripts. So now we know who added what and when. God is good, isn't He? This is why the King James and New King James is not the best English translation to use when teaching the New Testament.

This was the second study Bible I read, and my first formal, word-for-word translation of the original text - as exhilarating as graduating from a tricycle to a two-wheeler! Its study notes opened up new worlds to me: They talk about what various passages mean to the reader, of course, but they also provide extensive historical and geographic references, pertinent cross-references, and explanations of everything from theological phrases to ancient Hebrew idioms. Reading it, I suddenly felt as if I was indeed beginning to learn about the mind of God Himself; I was no longer dabbling in the faith.

Bought it for my daughter who like the one I got last year for her sister and wanted the same one. Her rel. ed. teacher claims it is the most beautiful bible she has ever seen. The extra maps and discussions help her to learn. Great gift.

I believe I'm correct in stating that the notes and references in this Bible were adapted from Zondervan's work on the NIV. Although my experience has been limited because I've had this edition for a couple of months, up to this point the notes and references have been informative and useful for my purposes as a Bible study teacher. I have recommended this edition to others.

Good book and got me on the path to knowing we have an Adversary that wants to darken our hearts so we can't shine for God.

Companion to the book, Captivating, by John and Staci Eldridge. Using the journal as you read the companion book leads to a much more personal and in depth discovery of the reason you were created and greatly enhances the application of the realities presented in the book. It is a journal of self discovery; self in the real sense of the word, as it relates to our purpose, and why we were created, by a loving God.

I have started a women's ministry and we are doing a book study on "Captivating" We have also implemented "Captivating: A Guided Journal" This companion book allows us to discuss in great depth and answer probing questions about who we are as women in our own lives, but more importantly, to our Father. We are still in the first few chapters, but already have been greatly blessed.
I highly recommend both the "Captivating" book and the "Guided Journal."

I loved this book. It made me realize I was worth more than what my husband thought of me. I am made by God and am as is every woman made with care and created for this earth as an asset not to be abused! Buy this for every woman you know and tell her how wonderful she is! She should be loved and not abused in any way. Women are precious. Remind them!

Great book! Just read the first page... Very motivational looking at how God can effect your life as a woman.