Showing titles in Commentaries

You were made to make disciples. Jesus gave His followers a command: “Follow Me.” And a promise: “I will equip you to find others to follow Me.” We were made to make disciples. Designed for use in discipleship relationships and other focused settings, Multiply will equip you to carry out Jesus’ ministry. Each of the 24 sessions in the audio book corresponds with an online video at www.multiplymovement.com, where New York Times best-selling author David Platt joins Francis Chan in guiding you through each part of Multiply.

Before the Bible was a book, it was flesh and blood. Sean Gladding takes us between the lines of Scripture to listen in on the conversations of people wrestling with the Story of God for the first time. Whether sitting around a campfire in Babylon, reclining at a table in Asia Minor or huddled together by candlelight in Rome, we meet people encountering the Story for the first and the hundred-and-first time. With them we hear a tale that is at once familiar and surprising. The Story of God, the Story of Us is an account of Scripture that introduces us to people who remind us of ourselves, because as much as the Bible is a story about God, it's also a story about us—a story, perhaps, we have yet to hear. Read by the author and his wife, Rebecca.

This audiobook explores the biblical conception of mystery as an initial, partially hidden revelation that is subsequently more fully revealed, shedding light not only on the richness of the concept itself, but also on the broader relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Exploring all the occurrences of the term mystery in the New Testament and the topics found in conjunction with them, this work unpacks how the New Testament writers understood the issue of continuity and discontinuity.

Rev Prof Alexander Balmain Bruce (1831-1899) was a Scottish theologian and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. Published in 1871, The Training of the Twelve is an ambitious biography and classic study of Jesus' selection and training of his apostles. A chapter is dedicated to each of the 12 (Bruce includes sound arguments on the identity of the three unnamed apostles) in which the different traits and circumstances of each apostle is discussed.

The conversation about the relationship between women and men and their roles in the Christian life and the church has evolved, but the topic continues to inspire debate and disagreement. The third edition of this groundbreaking work brings together scholars firmly committed to the authority of Scripture to explore historical, biblical, theological, cultural, and practical aspects of this discussion.

This letter to the Colossians reminds Christians that they are "God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved" (3:12). It proclaims the deity of Jesus using some of the loftiest language in all the New Testament to help the church know God in his greatness and glory. This proper view of Christ serves as the antidote for heresy and a building block for Christian life and doctrine both then and now. Colossians: Audio Lectures features scholar David E. Garland teaching through the book of Colossians in 10 engaging and challenging lessons.

Spurred by personal tragedy, Elaine Pagels turns to a consideration of the Gnostic Gospels, in particular, the Gospel of Thomas. As opposed to the Gospel of John, which asserted that Jesus was an eternally existing aspect of God who came to earth to save humankind, the "secret" Gospel of Thomas agrees that Jesus was in some sense divine, but says that a streak of divinity can be found in all of us.

God Is Disappointed in You is for people who would like to read the Bible...if it would just cut to the chase. Stripped of its arcane language and interminable passages, every book of the Bible is condensed down to its core message, in no more than a few pages each. Written by Mark Russell with cartoons by New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, God Is Disappointed in You is a frequently hilarious, often shocking, but always accurate retelling of the Bible, including the parts selectively left out by Sunday School teachers.

The best stories subtly weave themes and characters and symbols into a stunning final tapestry. For many Christians, sadly, the Old Testament is merely a jumble of moralistic stories and weird rituals, genealogies, and historical chronicles. What is the point of it all, and what does it have to do with Jesus? In this short and easy to listen audiobook, Leithart gives a sweeping overview of the Bible, its stories, and the patterns and symbols that recur throughout it, highlighting the ways many of the little stories look forward to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus himself.

Typical translations of the New Testament make the biblical text as accessible as possible by using the language of our own day. At times this masks the distance between the New Testament text and modern audiences. Scripture continues to speak to us but it speaks as an ancient text to the modern world. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight offers a translation of the New Testament with a daring approach to the ancient text. Clever in its expression and at times stunning in its boldness, The Second Testament will challenge listeners to experience God's Word anew.

For over a decade, A Biblical History of Israel has gathered praise and criticism for its unapologetic approach to reconstructing the historical landscape of ancient Israel through a biblical lens. In this much-anticipated second edition, the authors reassert that the Old Testament should be taken seriously as a historical document alongside other literary and archaeological sources. Significantly revised and updated, A Biblical History of Israel, Second Edition includes the authors' direct response to critics, and includes updated archaeological data and new references.

Deftly guiding listeners through “the four,” Peter Leithart delves into both the unique perspective of each gospel and their unifying witness to Jesus. The gospels are riddled with themes and types; Leithart reveals them and explains the Old Testament prophecies that intertwine with these apostolic books, as well as their underlying literary structures. He discusses the dating of the books, showing how the timeline of the four gospels lace together, and lays out Israel's history leading up to John the Baptist's birth.

David, King of the Jews, possessed every flaw and failing of which a mortal is capable, yet men and women adored him, and God showered him with many blessings. A charismatic leader, exalted as "a man after God's own heart", he was also capable of deep cunning and bloodthirsty violence.

Grasping God's Word has proven itself in classrooms across the country as an invaluable help to listeners who want to learn how to read, interpret, and apply the Bible for themselves. The third edition, revised based on feedback from professors, continues to serve anyone in their quest to gain a firm grasp on the rock of God's word. Old Testament scholar J. Daniel Hays and New Testament expert J. Scott Duvall provide practical hands-on exercises to guide listeners through the interpretive process.

Autobiographies from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Talmud teaches that the ancient patriarchs were all prophets, and that each one of them left testaments for their descendants to read. These contain commands for their children, moral lessons, and prophecy. This legend is not only repeated among the Essene community, but fragments of 20 such records have been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls!

The Book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern listeners and open to all kinds of misinterpretations. Richard Bauckham explains how the book's imagery conveyed meaning in its original context and how the book's theology is inseparable from its literary structure and composition.

This Very Short Introduction looks at the importance accorded to the bible by different communities and cultures and attempts to explain why it has generated such a rich variety of uses and interpretations. It explores how the Bible was written, the development of the canon, the role of biblical criticism, the appropriation of the bible in high and popular culture, and its use for political ends.

From one of our most trusted spiritual advisers, a thoughtful, illuminating guide to that most fascinating of biblical texts, the book of Job, and what it can teach us about living in a troubled world.

Marcus J. Borg, esteemed Bible scholar and best-selling author, shakes up the order of the New Testament as we know it by putting the books in a completely new order - the order in which they were written. By doing so, Evolution of the Word allows us to experience these documents in their historical context. For the first time, see how the core ideas of Christianity took shape and developed over time.

Here is Thomas Jefferson's classic abridgment of the Bible, in which Jefferson sculpted the words and ideas of Christ into a resounding moral philosophy. On and off for 17 years (including his term in the White House), Jefferson cut and pasted the philosophy of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Scripture, into one compact statement. He omitted any references to the virgin birth, miraculous healings, demonic possession, or supernatural events of any kind. His aim was to distinguish the moral philosophy of Christ from the religion that was later created around Christ.