Bestselling author Charles Swindoll challenges us to take a closer look at Job's life, carefully examining his response to the unexpected and painful experiences that assaulted his once peaceful and God-honoring existence--and we might just find that Job is a hero after all. When you think of Job, you may think of a hapless victim of unfair treatment. His disastrous circumstances overwhelmed him, his so-called friends belittled him, and his distraught wife discouraged and abandoned him. Even God seemed to desert him. At first glance, Job may not seem like the traditional portrait of a hero, but Job's patience, strength, and dedication in the face of unforeseen suffering makes his story worth knowing. As Swindoll traces Job's life and legacy, he challenges us to apply the lessons Job learned firsthand to our own lives, including the importance of: Maintaining integrity no matter what happens Accepting the challenge to change Counting on the justice of the Lord to roll down in his time instead of seeking revenge Resting contentedly in God's plan, timing, and purpose for you We have no way of knowing what tomorrow may bring, but if it is anything like the past, we know that storms will always come. And when they do we have a choice--to react in bitterness and anger or fall to our knees like Job and trust God even though we cannot understand why he would permit such a thing to occur.

Did Moses write about Jesus? Jesus himself made this bold claim (recorded in John 5:46). Yet while most readers of the Bible today recognize a few Messianic prophecies in the Pentateuch, they don't often see them as part of its central message. In The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch, Kevin Chen challenges the common view of the Pentateuch as focused primarily on the Mosaic Law, arguing instead that it sets forth a coherent, sweeping vision of the Messiah as the center of its theological message. Each Messianic prophecy in the Pentateuch contributes to the fuller vision of the Messiah that emerges when it is appropriately related to the others and to the Pentateuch as a whole. Giving priority to exegesis of the author's intent, Chen's approach focuses on the meaning of the Old Testament on its own terms more than typological arguments do. Building on the work of John Sailhamer, he sheds new light on the topic of the Messiah using compositional exegesis of the Pentateuch as a unified literary work. From the prophecy about the "seed of the woman" in Genesis 3 to Moses' climactic blessing in Deuteronomy 33, careful examination of key passages reveals the intrinsic Messianic glory that shines through the Pentateuch and its compositional strategy. For Bible scholars, pastors, and thoughtful lay readers, The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch provides a fascinating study and an exegetical basis for a Christ-centered biblical theology.

Biblical Foundations Award Finalist Have you ever wondered what the Old Testament-especially the Old Testament law-has to do with your Christian life? You are not alone. Some Christian leaders believe we should cast off the Old Testament now that we have the New. Carmen Joy Imes disagrees. In this warm, accessible volume, Imes takes readers back to Sinai, the ancient mountain where Israel met their God, and explains the meaning of events there. She argues that we've misunderstood the command about "taking the Lord's name in vain." Instead, Imes says that this command is about "bearing God's name," a theme that continues throughout the rest of Scripture. Readers will revisit the story of Israel as they trudge through the wilderness from a grueling past to a promising future. The story of Israel turns out to be our story too, and you'll discover why Sinai still matters as you follow Jesus today.

Veteran Old Testament teacher Mark Gignilliat explores the theological and hermeneutical instincts that are necessary for reading, understanding, and communicating Scripture faithfully. He takes seriously the gains of historical criticism while insisting that the Bible must be interpreted as Christian Scripture, offering students a "third way" that assigns proper proportion to both historical and theological concerns. Reading and engaging Scripture requires not only historical tools, Gignilliat says, but also recognition of the living God's promised presence through the Bible.

Do you feel guilt and shame about negative thoughts and emotions and your inability to overcome them? Bestselling author and pastor Chris Hodges helps those struggling with depression find liberating solutions by drawing from the life of the prophet Elijah. You might be asking, Should a Christian even be having these struggles? Depression is the number one health issue in the world today, yet those who suffer are still sometimes stigmatized-especially followers of Jesus. Many assume God's peace, power, and protection should prevent us from ever feeling anxious, depressed, and afraid. But the Bible teaches otherwise, particularly in its depiction of the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. In Out of the Cave, Chris Hodges uses Elijah's life to show us that everyone is susceptible to depression. Even when we're walking closely with God, we can still stumble and get lost in the wilderness of tangled emotions. But we don't have to stay there, because we serve a God who meets us in the darkness. Out of the Cave helps us remove the stigma of depression and realize we're not alone; understand the ways our temperament and view of God affect the way we handle depression; and learn a comprehensive approach to wellness-mind, body, and soul-from Elijah's journey. With his trademark blend of Bible-based wisdom, practical application, and vulnerability in sharing his personal struggles, Hodges explores the causes of depression we can't change, the contributors we can conquer, and offers transformative hope and spiritual power to help us win the battle.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity investigates the various ways in which Orthodox Christian, i.e., Eastern and Oriental, communities, have received, shaped, and interpreted the Christian Bible. The handbook is divided into five parts: Text, Canon, Scripture within Tradition, Toward an Orthodox Hermeneutics, and Looking to the Future. The first part focuses on how the Orthodox Church has never codified the Septuagint or any other textual witnesses as its authoritative text. Textual fluidity and pluriformity, a characteristic of Orthodoxy, is demonstrated by the various ancient and modern Bible translations into Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian among other languages. The second part discusses how, unlike in the Protestant and Roman-Catholic faiths where the canon of the Bible is "closed" and limited to 39 and 46 books, respectively, the Orthodox canon is "open-ended," consisting of 39 canonical books and 10 or more anaginoskomena or "readable" books as additions to Septuagint. The third part shows how, unlike the classical Protestant view of sola scriptura and the Roman Catholic way of placing Scripture and Tradition on par as sources or means of divine revelation, the Orthodox view accords a central role to Scripture within Tradition, with the latter conceived not as a deposit of faith but rather as the Church's life through history. The final two parts survey "traditional" Orthodox hermeneutics consisting mainly of patristic commentaries and liturgical interpretations found in hymnography and iconography, and the ways by which Orthodox biblical scholars balance these traditional hermeneutics with modern historical-critical approaches to the Bible.

A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments?
In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including:

God is arrogant and jealous
God punishes people too harshly
God is guilty of ethnic cleansing
God oppresses women
God endorses slavery
Christianity causes violence
and more

Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.

This comprehensive yet user-friendly primer to the Septuagint (LXX) acquaints readers with the Greek versions of the Old Testament. It is accessible to students, assuming no prior knowledge about the Septuagint, yet is also informative for seasoned scholars. The authors, both prominent Septuagint scholars, explore the history of the LXX, the various versions of it available, and its importance for biblical studies. This new edition has been substantially revised, expanded, and updated to reflect major advances in Septuagint studies. Appendixes offer helpful reference resources for further study.

This six-session LifeGuide(R) Bible Study of Ruth we meet not only Ruth herself but also other significant players who populate the drama: Naomi, Elimelech, Mahlon, Kilion, Orpah and Boaz. In addition there are other unnamed characters: a kinsman, reapers, elders and neighbors. Like us, each of these characters in their own way needs the Redeemer who is foreshadowed here.These six studies follow the popular inductive study approach that has marked LifeGuide Bible studies for the past thirty years. For over three decades LifeGuide Bible Studies have provided solid biblical content and raised thought-provoking questions--making for a one-of-a-kind Bible study experience for individuals and groups. This series has more than 130 titles on Old and New Testament books, character studies, and topical studies.

The place of the Law and its relationship to religious observance and faith is a contested topic in the study of both the Old and New Testament. In Law and Religion, members of the Erhardt Seminar group provide an insight into the debate, probing key topics and offering new contributions to the subject. Their essays are grouped into three sections, focussing in turn on the Law's place in Israelite religion, in the Jesus tradition, and in Paul and the Apostolic tradition. Thus, the foundation of the connection between law and religion in ancient Israel is explored, along with the decisive influence of the Deuteronomic reform and the radical new understanding now emerging of the later development in Judaism of the New Testament Period. So, also, the contemporary challenge to the conventional picture of Jesus and the Law is addressed, the attitude of Paul is shown in new light, and post-Pauline developments are examined. Readers will find in this symposium a refreshing breadth of opinion on a debate that spans the gamut of disciplines within Biblical studies.

Allen Hilton examines how pagan critics ridiculed the early Christians for being uneducated, and how a few literate Christians took up pen to defend the illiterate members of their churches. Hilton sheds light on the peculiarity of this "defense", in which the authors openly admit that the critics have the facts on their side, noting that the Book of Acts even calls two of its heroes, Peter and John, illiterates. Why did the authors of these biblical texts, intent on presenting Christianity in a positive light, volunteer such a negative detail? The answer to this question reveals a fascinating social exchange that first surrounded education levels in antiquity, and proceeded to make its way into the New Testament. This volume provides context for pagan education as opposed to early Christian illiteracy - touching upon the methods of ancient learning and the relationship between Christian and pagan schools - and analyses the 'uneducated virtue' of the Apostles. Hilton provides a useful window onto the social construction of ancient education and ushers readers into the everyday experience of ancient Christians, and those who disdained and defended them.

Are We Not Men? offers an innovative approach to gender and embodiment in the Hebrew Bible, revealing the male body as a source of persistent difficulty for the Hebrew prophets. Drawing together key moments in prophetic embodiment, Graybill demonstrates that the prophetic body is a queer body, and its very instability makes possible new understandings of biblical masculinity. Prophecy disrupts the performance of masculinity and demands new ways of inhabiting the body and negotiating gender. Graybill explores prophetic masculinity through critical readings of a number of prophetic bodies, including Isaiah, Moses, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. In addition to close readings of the biblical texts, this account engages with modern intertexts drawn from philosophy, psychoanalysis, and horror films: Isaiah meets the poetry of Anne Carson; Hosea is seen through the lens of possession films and feminist film theory; Jeremiah intersects with psychoanalytic discourses of hysteria; and Ezekiel encounters Daniel Paul Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. Graybill also offers a careful analysis of the body of Moses. Her methods highlight unexpected features of the biblical texts, and illuminate the peculiar intersections of masculinity, prophecy, and the body in and beyond the Hebrew Bible. This assembly of prophets, bodies, and readings makes clear that attending to prophecy and to prophetic masculinity is an important task for queer reading. Biblical prophecy engenders new forms of masculinity and embodiment; Are We Not Men?offers a valuable map of this still-uncharted terrain.

In this book, Brett Maiden employs the tools, research, and theories from the cognitive science of religion to explore religious thought and behavior in ancient Israel. His study focuses on a key set of distinctions between intuitive and reflective types of cognitive processing, implicit and explicit concepts, and cognitively optimal and costly religious traditions. Through a series of case studies, Maiden examines a range of topics including popular and official religion, Deuteronomic theology, hybrid monsters in ancient iconography, divine cult statues in ancient Mesopotamia and the biblical idol polemics, and the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16. The range of media, including ancient texts, art, and archaeological data from ancient Israel, as well theoretical perspectives demonstrates how a dialogue between biblical scholars and cognitive researchers can be fostered.

In Ecclesiastes, the authorial voice of Qohelet presents an identity that has challenged readers for centuries. This book offers a reception history of the different ways readers have constructed Qohelet as an author. Previous reception histories of Ecclesiastes group readings into "premodern" and "critical," or separate Jewish from Christian readings. In deliberate contrast, this analysis arranges readings thematically according to the interpretive potential inherent in the text, a method of biblical reception history articulated by Brennan Breed. Doing so erases the artificial distinctions between so-called scholarly and confessional readings and highlights the fact that many modern academic readings of the authorship of Ecclesiastes travel in well-worn interpretive paths that long predate the rise of critical scholarship. Thus this book offers a reminder that, while critical biblical scholarship is an essential part of the interpretive task, academic readings are themselves indebted to the Bible's reception history and a part of it.

This book is designed to serve as a textbook for intermediate Hebrew students and above. Sung Jin Park presents the fundamental features of the Tiberian Hebrew accents, focusing on their divisions and exegetical roles. Providing innovative methods for diagramming biblical texts, the volume explores the two major rules (hierarchy and dichotomy) of disjunctive accents. Students will also attain biblical insights from the exegetical application of the biblical texts that Hebrew syntax alone does not provide. Park's volume shows how the new perspectives on Hebrew accents enhance our understanding of biblical texts.

Beloved author Dale Ralph Davis looks at one of the most fascinating characters in the Bible, and the God who was faithful to him. The character of Jacob that we meet in chapters 25-35 of Genesis is a fascinating one. A kaleidoscopic blend of deviousness and doggedness, of trickery and tenacity, of folly and faith. As readers we can't help being drawn into his story. With his trademark wit and perceptive comments Dale Ralph Davis guides us through the story of this rogue and traces the evidence of grace, providence, blessing throughout his life. Taking us chapter by chapter through this fundamental section of scripture, Davis highlights not only the character of Jacob, but the character of the God who cared for him and faithfully kept his promises to him.

The Psalms have resulted in controversies between Jews and Christians over the centuries and it is only from the mid twentieth century onwards that the two traditions have worked side by side in the academy at least. This is one of the very few volumes on the psalms to incorporate scholarship from both these traditions for nearly a century, and the result is a rich celebration of these extraordinary ancient songs. This innovative essay collection draws together internationally renowned Jewish and Christian scholars of the Psalms, with one tradition responding to the other, in areas as diverse as Qumran studies, Medieval Jewish interpretation, Reception History, Liturgical Psalters and Chagall's Church Windows and more recent Literary Studies of the Psalter as a Book. The range of topics chosen will be of interest not only to those specializing in the Psalms but also to others interested more generally in biblical studies. Several musical and artistic representations of selected psalms are also included and the book includes a colour plate section which illustrates several of the chapters.

Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah provides a literary and historical study of the prophetic poetry of First Isaiah, an underappreciated but highly sophisticated collection of poems in the Hebrew Bible. Informed by recent developments in biblical studies and broader trends in the study of poetry, Dr J. Blake Couey articulates a fresh account of Biblical Hebrew poetry and argues that careful attention to poetic style is crucial for the interpretation of these texts. Discussing lineation, he explains that lines serve important rhetorical functions in First Isaiah, but the absence of lineated manuscripts from antiquity makes it necessary to defend proposed line divisions using criteria such as parallelism, rhythm, and syntax. He examines poetic structure, and highlights that parallelism and enjambment create a sense of progression between individual lines, which are tightly joined to form couplets, triplets, quatrains, and occasionally even longer groups. Later, Dr Couey treats imagery and metaphor in First Isaiah. A striking variety of images-most notably agricultural and animal imagery-appear in diverse contexts in these poems, often with rich figurative significance.

Abraham is known as the "father of Israel" because God appeared to him and promised that his descendants would become a great nation. Yet Abraham is much more than the patriarch of a select group of ancient people. Through Abraham's descendants, God's own Son, Jesus, was born. It's through Abraham that God blessed all people. In this study, pastor John MacArthur will guide you through an in-depth look at the historical period beginning with Abraham's call from God, continuing through his relocation in the land of Canaan, and concluding with the story of his grandsons Jacob and Esau. This study includes close-up examinations of Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, as well as careful considerations of doctrinal themes such as "Covenant and Obedience" and "Wrestling with God." -ABOUT THE SERIES- The MacArthur Bible Study series is designed to help you study the Word of God with guidance from widely respected pastor and author John MacArthur. Each guide provides intriguing examinations of the whole of Scripture by examining its parts and incorporates: Extensive, but straight-forward commentary on the text. Detailed observations on overriding themes, timelines, history, and context. Word and phrase studies to help you unlock the broader meaning and apply it to your life. Probing, interactive questions with plenty of space to write down your response and thoughts.

Ezekiel is one of the few books of the Ethiopic Old Testament of which no critical edition has hitherto existed, and the aim of this work is to fill that gap. It provides a critical edition of the oldest accessible text of the Geez version and is based on a collation of fifteen manuscripts. The Ethiopic version is a daughter version of the Septuagint, and the work sheds light on the character of the original translation and on its subsequent history. The latter included the revision of the translation in the early mediaeval period, which was in part influenced by a Syriac-based Arabic version, and a further revision of the translation based on the Masoretic text.

When Tony Campbell, aged 75, asked the Council of Jesuit Theological College for Emeritus status and retirement from JTC, both were granted most graciously, along with a testimonial document which said in part: 'His teaching has combined evocation and provocation in the best sense of those terms. He has mentored research students with scholarly exactitude and personal care. He has published books of the highest scholarly quality, of engaging readability, and of passionate conviction.' When we at ATF were considering asking him for a volume of Collected Works or Selected Writings, we were well aware that 'published books of the highest scholarly quality' were likely to be found on the shelves of libraries and of specialised academics, but not with students and others generally interested. There may be a dozen or more of Tony's books on the list from Amazon.com booksellers, along with another two or three that are not listed there. But most are heavy-duty specialist works, not easily accessible even to the educated public. We were equally well aware that there was a surprising number of essays and articles scattered in journals and proceedings of conferences that were, because of the scattering, often just as inaccessible. We thought that a collection of these in a single volume would be of great value to those interested. In the Introduction to this volume, Father Campbell has gone into some detail about the contents. Suffice for us to say that Job and the issues associated with suffering concern us all, that the interplay of history and narrative is a constant in the understanding of much biblical text, and that the nature of the Bible and its role in our lives is a major concern for most thinking Christians. While Father Campbell's focus is on the Older Testament, pondering what he looks at throws light on much of the Newer Testament as well. The writings Tony Campbell has pulled together in this single volume address significant issues within the readable length of an article or a talk. Addressed originally to thinking people, we at ATF believe they are likely to be of interest to a wide audience.

Bestselling Author and Theologian Explores
the Life and Ministry of Elijah
Known for his in-depth yet accessible teaching, beloved author R. T. Kendall delves into the life of one of the most famous and most relatable persons in the Old Testament: Elijah.
Drawn from a popular sermon series Dr. Kendall preached at Westminster Chapel in London, this discussion taken from 1 and 2 Kings traces the prophet's life and ministry from his first appearance and his confrontation with King Ahab until the time he is taken up to heaven. Kendall shows how even this revered prophet--an ordinary man with many imperfections--was used tremendously by God. A great study for both individuals and groups.