Revised Printing Now Available! The Bible has been the most discussed and scrutinized text in human history. Here we are, still obsessed with it The Bible: Ancient Context and Ongoing Community serves as a guide to anyone hoping to understand the Bible's ancient context and its role for ongoing communities of readers. The publication puts the Bible's two identitiesan ancient document revered by billions of contemporary readersinto conversation with one another. Written for an introductory Bible course, The Bible: Ancient Context and Ongoing Community is designed for Christians of all kinds, ""spiritual people"", and adherents to other religions. The Bible: Ancient Context and Ongoing Community: Includes Ancient Context sections in each chapter. These sections critically examine and describe the languages, authors, and culture of the ancient world in which the Bible took shape. Features Ongoing Community sections in each chapter. The sections address today's world and the concerns of living readers. It asks how should we make sense of the Bible's contents? How can contemporary readers understand a text with statements about ethics, spirituality, gender, and the natural world that often does not make sense to us? Generally frames issues presented the Christian tradition, however asks frank and difficult questions about the historicity of some of these texts, the moral applicability of these texts, and the traditional reading of these texts. Cites the works of other scholars and thinkers either as a way of highlighting established opinions on the matter at hand, or to acknowledge a direct source.