The 2008 Preaching Survey of Bibles and Bible References

The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible (Nelson; NKJV) won the ECPA’s "Christian Book of the Year" award. I mentioned this audio Bible briefly last year but then I had heard only a sampler CD. Now I have been able to listen to more of the project and I like it. They even provide an outline for listening to the entire NT in 40 days. This could be a great tool for helping people to get more of the Bible.

General Reference

Clinton Arnold’s How We Got the Bible (Zondervan; hb., 94 pp.) is an excellent tool for showing people how we got our Bibles of today, dealing with original texts, languages, copying, and translating over the years. It is wonderfully illustrated and engaging.

All the People of the Bible: An A-Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture (Eerdmans; pb., 578 pp), by Richard Losch is a very helpful resource. It includes characters from the Apocrypha and information on the characters is gleaned from Scripture as well as any other historical sources. This makes it a good resource for background study and is especially helpful when encountering lesser known characters. I will be using this one regularly.

James R. Adams, From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors (The Pilgrim Press; pb., 387 pp.), is correct that we need to be more aware of metaphor and other literary conventions. However, the book tends to go too far disputing any historical reality. Some of the articles are quite good, but others subvert basic orthodoxy. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, ed. Rogerson and Lieu is now available in paperback (896 pp.). This is a standard reference work with articles by leading scholars in their areas of expertise. This can be a first stop in probing further issues in the realm of biblical studies.

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor’s The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700, 5th edition (Oxford; pb., 551 pp.) is intended to assist visitors to the Holy Land find and view visible remains. It also can be helpful in familiarizing oneself with the area in your study. The first section goes through Jerusalem section by section and the second part gives a brief description of key places in an alphabetical listing.