Studying the Bible

I’ve been asked by a couple of commenters (on the last post of the old blog location, since deleted) about the possibility of making available my “arguments” on each book of the Bible.  The thinking may be that since I’ve studied things out so well, that I have a contribution to make.

That thinking, unfortunately, is wrong.  Though it does seem like an incredible luxury to spend an entire year studying the Bible full-time, it simply is a fraction of the time needed to do this project right.  I should say it a different way: to write an analysis of a book that would be helpful to others would take much longer than the .5-1 week that I had for each book.  Since I wanted (and was required) to do the entire Bible but had only one year, my time on each book was brief.  I traded depth for breadth.  To say it a different way, it’s true that I only know a little bit about the book of Numbers, but I also know a little bit about the book of 2 Peter.

All this means that my writings would not be very helpful to you, especially in light of better resources.  There is nothing I said that is not said better elsewhere.

What would I recommend?  Well, the best resources will tend to be lengthy commentaries on a single book.  For instance, today I was going back through my Judges argument and it reminded me of how very good Daniel Block’s commentary is on the book.  Moo’s commentary on Romans is fantastic (or the more basic version).  I could suggest many such commentaries on various books of the Bible.

But if you ‘re looking for something briefer that covers a broad swath of Scripture, I have a few suggestions that I found very helpful.

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book.  This is essentially a “reading strategy guide.”  They tell you what to look for and why.  I can’t agree with everything they wrote, but I can highly recommend this book.  I would suggest you read their sections before (and even again after) you read each book of the Bible.  It is short, easy, and helpful.

For the Old Testament: Paul House, Old Testament Theology.  This is not as brief and it is more weighty, but it is excellent.  I especially like how he relates each book to other previous books (though he does that more by canon than by chronology, which sometimes is less valuable, in my opinion).

For the New Testament: I. Howard Marshall, New Testament Theology.  This is also long and may be more difficult if you don’t have much background in biblical studies.  There is a more condensed edition.  He has many good insights (but also some bad ones).

Also for the New Testament and for free: the arguments of Daniel Wallace.  One “weakness” of them is that they are heavily focused on critical introductory issues and give less attention to the book’s outline and argument.  But they are a good resource and I wish I had had more time to read them.

There are a few books that I would recommend even though I did not use them much (I only needed so many basic, intro-type works):

Berding and Williams, What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About.  This is a very readable work that approaches each biblical book by theme.  (The OT version is about a year away from publication and will have a good chapter on Chronicles.)

New Bible Commentary, 4th ed., edited by D. A. Carson, et al.  I’ve used this only a few times but have been impressed with what the authors pack into a short space.

Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. K. Vanhoozer.  I found the articles on each book of the Bible to usually be helpful.  This would not be higher than #3 or #4 to consult, as they assume you have a basic knowledge.  If you ‘re only interested in the summaries of the books, you can get them in a cheaper paperback form (OT here, NT here).

It truly is astonishing how much wisdom you can get for so little money.  You might think that $30 for a book is a lot, but when you spend 30+ hours reading it, learning truths that will forever change your life, it is a worthwhile investment.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment below.  I owe a number of the suggestions above to several of my readers (including CS and MG), and I’m sure there are some fantastic works that are not on my radar.

Back to my arguments: If there is a particular book that you would like to read my argument on, you can send me an email.  As I wrote them, I felt that they were horrible.  As I am reading over them now as I study, I am less disgusted with my work.