In the mercy of God, the church of Jesus Christ has been blessed for centuries with people who wrote as they reflected on the Scriptures. While these writers were not inspired or infallible, many were filled with the same Holy Spirit that we are filled with and their works provide us with wonderful guidance in the work of interpreting the Bible. In this brief blog post, I want to highlight some of the resources that I have found most helpful for studying the Bible.
Background Studies
When studying the historical-cultural background of a biblical passage, many of us will need to depend on the careful work of scholars who have studied these areas exhaustively. Here are a few resources that I recommend for those who are doing background studies:
Introductory Level
- Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set: Old Testament
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set: New Testament
Intermediate Level
- IVP Biblical Background Commentary: Old Testament
- IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Hard Sayings of the Bible
Advanced Level
- Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament
- The World Around the Old Testament
- The World of the New Testament
Biblical Introductions
I have not sought to grade the difficulties of these texts since most of them present similar information in similar formats with varying degrees of depth. If you were only purchasing one of these resources, I would recommend you purchase the volume that I have starred (**).
Old Testament
- The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament
- An Introduction to the Old Testament
- The Faith of Israel
- The Old Testament: A Historical, Theological, and Critical Introduction **
New Testament
- The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians **
- An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation
- An Introduction to the New Testament
- Reading the New Testament as Christian Scripture: A Literary, Canonical, and Theological Survey
Histories
These resources provide historical accounts of the Old Testament and New Testament.
Old Testament
New Testament
Bible Commentary Series
Admittedly, it is hard to provide a blanket recommendation for any particular commentary series, but I will do my best to guide you to the series that tend to publish the best commentaries for people who want to grow in their ability to interpret the Bible. Since these are series, I will not be providing links. You would need to search for a particular book of the Bible within that particular series if you would like to purchase a volume. So, for instance, if you are looking for a commentary on the book of Ephesians, you could search for: “Ephesians, New International Commentary on the New Testament,” on Google, which will pull up Amazon results. In the case of the book of Ephesians, there is an older version and a newer version in the NICNT series. If you have questions about which commentary to purchase, please leave a comment on this post and I will be happy to make further recommendations regarding the best commentaries to meet your specific interpretive needs.
Whole-Bible Series
- NIV Application Commentary (NIVAC) **
- Bible Speaks Today
Old Testament
- Apollos Old Testament Commentary (AOTC)
- New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) **
- Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (TOTC)
- Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (ZECOT)
New Testament
- Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC) **
- New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT)
- Tyndale New Testament Commentary (TNTC)
- Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (ZECNT
Conclusion
We are blessed with an embarrassment of resources for studying the Bible. The resources that I have mentioned above do not even scratch the surface of what is available to us, but hopefully, they will get you started down the right path of deeper Bible study. As I mentioned, if you need or are looking for more specific guidance, leave a comment and I will get back with you. Also, if you have found these resources helpful, I would please consider promoting this site to others. And, if you have ideas for other content that you would like to see, let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.
CBH
