Biblical Culture

Not only is the Bible full of strong women… it is full of strong black women. While it is often underplayed by mainstream Christianity, the majority of the Bible took place in Africa, and involved many women of color. If you've never done a study on who these women are, which lines they come from, and the roles they play in history, then make sure you grab this book.

Combining research from Asian scholars with his many years of experience living and working in East Asia, Brad directs our attention to Paul's letter to the Romans. He argues that some traditional East Asian cultural values are closer to those of the first-century biblical world than common Western cultural values. In addition, he adds his voice to the scholarship engaging the values of honor and shame in particular and their influence on biblical interpretation.

Through thousands of years of interpreting the Bible through the lens of changing languages and societies, and varying regard to females and feminine qualities, the concept of God has become more and more male to the exclusion of God's female side of wisdom, mercy, grace, and nurture. Let us attempt to rediscover the truth and expand our understanding of the complete and perfect God. If God is our creator and we were made in the image of God, then God is both our father and our mother.

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Darrell Bock teams up with Dr. Daniel Wallace to help you separate fact from fiction among constant attacks on Christianity from popular culture and bogus scholars. There is a quest going on to reduce Jesus to a mythic legend or to nothing more than a mere...

No matter your season of life as a woman, you long to be loved and appreciated. But perhaps most days you're left feeling unseen, unheard, or unknown. Though centuries apart from your life today, the women who knew Jesus faced similar fears and insecurities. Their names aren't etched onto the pages of Scripture, but they are etched into the heart of God. In this book, Paige Allen invites you to take a second look at the life-changing encounters of seven unnamed women who came face-to-face with Jesus in the Bible.

We live our lives in both physical and digital community. We need to do ministry the same way. Because of COVID-19, nearly every church in the US was forced to adapt to a quarantine and adopt new ministry strategies, including digital technologies they may have avoided before. When services...

Each Christmas, adults and children alike delight at the story of the kings from the East who followed the star to Bethlehem to offer gifts to the newborn Christ. While this familiar tale is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, another little-known version later emerged that claimed to be the eyewitness account of the wise men. This ancient manuscript has lain hidden for centuries in the vaults of the Vatican Library, but through the determined persistence of a young scholar, Brent Landau, this astonishing discovery has been translated into English for the very first time as the Revelation of the Magi.

What If the Church Truly Empowered People to Engage in God's Mission? Something extraordinary has been happening in Tampa, Florida. A new expression of the church has been quietly growing. It's something of an experiment, but over the last ten years the church has been validating its ideas with...

The Book of Enoch is a significant historical text that describes important facets of life, with rich words that deserve deeper exploration.

The many voices in scripture form a dialogue with readers, which produce theological truths that are larger than the individual parts. This introduction is informed by both literary theory and theology. It groups sections of the whole Bible together by genre. Each section identifies and describes the genre (such as historiography, poetry, prophecy, gospel, letter, apocalypse), and then moves into a discussion about the literary characteristics and theological insights.

Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, storytelling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE. Brian J. Wright overturns that premise by examining evidence that demonstrates communal reading events in the first century.

In Killing a Messiah, New Testament scholar Adam Winn weaves together stories of historical and fictional characters in a fresh reimagining of the events leading up to Jesus's execution. Based on what we know of the first-century context, Winn's narrative offers compelling explanations for gaps in the Gospel accounts. The social, political, and religious realities of Jesus's world come to life and shed new light on our reading of the biblical texts. In a city full of political entanglements, espionage, and competing interests, the blame for the crucifixion is complex.

Not only will studying Scripture daily enrich and nourish your soul, but it will also provide you with solid answers to many of life's most urgent questions—from the introduction. If you are less than familiar with the Bible, you might be surprised at what you'll find there.

A vast readership wants better access to the ancient words and ideas of the Bible. In The Bible Doesn't Say That, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the listener through dozens of instances of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In 40 short chapters, Hoffman covers fundamental theology, morality, lifestyle, and biblical imagery.

An examination of sex and the Bible by one of the leading biblical scholars in the United States. For several decades, Michael Coogan's introductory course on the Old Testament has been a perennial favorite among students at Harvard University. In God and Sex, Coogan examines one of the most controversial aspects of the Hebrew Scripture: What the Old Testament really says about sex, and how contemporary understanding of those writings is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented.

If salvation is comprehensive, then Jesus is in the process of transforming each culture, not helicoptering believers out. What does this look like? Christians often view culture as either a worthless distraction from spiritual matters like evangelism, prayer, and our relationship with God or as something that is basically neutral and which Christians can consume unthinkingly. Against all this, David Hegeman argues that salvation is comprehensive.

In fearful, uncertain times, how can we find significance in something greater than ourselves? Award-winning social entrepreneur Justin Zoradi was once haunted by this question as a young person daunted by the world's needs, yet wanting to make a difference. But when some friends from across the...

If anyone had good reason to join the league of the “Nones,” the “Dones,” and the deconstructionists, it would be Zach Hoag. After growing up and out of the compound walls of a Texas cult, and becoming a failed church planter in one of the most post-Christian cities in America, Zach was...

Christians need a compelling way to share their faith that combines the timeless practices of Jesus with timely perspectives about our post-everything era. In a post-Christian, post-modern, post-truth society where Jesus followers aren't often well regarded, modern evangelism methods and efforts...

It's time for a return to Radical Holiness. Welcome to the 21st century where you can now purchase and exchange personalities, depending on mood and circumstance; where you are told that you can be anyone you want to be, and identity is no longer based in a sense of self but rather in the...