Bible Commentary

The Bible is the world’s most influential book, but do we really know what it says? Every day across social media and in homes, businesses, and public spaces, people try to cut debate short by claiming that "the Bible says so!" However, they commonly disagree about what it actually does and doesn't say, particularly when it comes to socially significant issues. For instance, does the Bible say we should be on the lookout for an antichrist associated with the number 666? Does it say women shouldn’t wear revealing clothing? Does it say it’s okay to hit your kids?

Sinai to Zion is an exciting study of how the Bible uses the Exodus story as the basis for its vision concerning the glorious and triumphant return of Jesus the Messiah. For the first time, this book presents a thorough examination of many often overlooked, yet critically important Old Testament texts that the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament authors looked to as describing the return of Jesus.

Can we know what Jesus was truly like during His time on earth? A first-century physician set out to gather eyewitness testimony of the life, teaching, and ministry of Jesus Christ. The result is a close-up account of a compassionate Savior on His journey to redeem His people. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul traces the record of Jesus’ life as told by Luke, the man considered by some to be one of the greatest historians of the ancient world.

More than a message of Christ’s triumph, the final chapters of the Gospel of John describe how we can triumph as well. Volume 5 covers chapters 18-21 and deals with the culmination of Christ’s earthly ministry, centering on his betrayal, trial, death, and resurrection.

Volume two, The Reign of Grace, focuses on the sovereignty, grace, and holiness of God and on the need for holiness in believers. James Montgomery Boice discusses the full meaning of salvation, the problem with suffering, the struggles of sin, and the sustaining love God pours on his people.

“Open your ears,” says James Montgomery Boice. “Hear the voice of Christ. Believe him. Turn to him. Throw yourself upon him. Receive him as your Savior.” Even in the midst of pain and persecution, we are to live as Christ would live. Volume 3 of the Gospel of John shows Jesus turning to all who had received him in the midst of, and in spite of, growing hostility from the authorities of Judaism.

Who was Jesus? What was His mission? The gospel of Matthew opens the New Testament with a rich portrait of the Messiah who fulfills God’s promises to Israel and proclaims the coming of God’s kingdom. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul explores the events of Jesus’ life, from His miraculous birth to His triumphant resurrection, and explains some of His most famous teachings, including the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commission. As Dr. Sproul looks back on these crucial moments in history, he also provides pastoral wisdom on how the church is to worship and serve in the present age.

For many, the Gospel according to "the Beloved Physician" is the most readable and complete account of the life of Christ. Known for its historical detail and precision, Luke was chosen by the Holy Spirit to communicate the Gospel to an educated and technological culture. The evidences of the truly "human" nature of Jesus Christ are littered throughout this treatise.

Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters, demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature.

This translation of the life and teachings of Jesus creates an image of not only a great spiritual teacher, but of a real person. Eminent author and translator Stephen Mitchell's approach to the Gospels has been widely praised for its depth, clarity, and radiance. This is a stunning work for believers and non-believers alike.

This book offers updated explanations of the sins of interpretation to teach sound grammatical, lexical, cultural, theological, and historical Bible study practices.

Reading the Bible doesn't need to be a difficult journey through strange and bewildering territory. How to Read the Bible Book by Book walks you through the Scriptures like an experienced tour guide, helping you understand each of its 66 books. For each book of the Bible, the authors start with a quick snapshot, then expand the view to help you better understand its message and how it fits into the grand narrative of the Bible. Written by two top evangelical scholars, this survey is designed to get you actually reading the Bible knowledgeably and understanding it accurately.

Often called Paul’s magnum opus, Romans has been pivotal to Christians’ understanding of salvation for generations. It had a profound influence on Augustine and Luther. Calvin saw it as the key to understanding all of Scripture. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul introduces us to Paul’s fullest, grandest, most comprehensive statement of the gospel and explains why it is just as vital for believers today as it has been for believers throughout history. Verse by verse, Dr. Sproul unfolds the vast truths that Paul has clearly and carefully woven throughout this book.

This second volume on the Gospel of John shows how Jesus dealt with the hostility that began to arise among the religious leaders in regard to various practices of faith and how he didn’t allow their hostility to deter him from his path. In so doing, Christ provided the ultimate example for living in the Father’s name.

Romans is more than a collection of proof texts for Reformed theology. It is an exposition of God's plan to take back the world. In this new commentary, Douglas Wilson tackles Paul's meaty letter passage by passage, explaining Paul's central message: Jesus’s death and resurrection have transformed the world. God has brought an end to the old covenant and ushered in a new covenant, joining Jews and Gentiles in one new people.

Popular writer and teacher Jeannine Brown shows how a narrative approach illuminates each of the Gospels and highlights the overarching stories. This book offers a corrective to tendencies to read the Gospels piecemeal, one story at a time. It is filled with examples that show how narrative criticism brings the text to life, making it ideal for courses on the Gospels. Listeners will gain hands-on tools and perspectives to interpret the Gospels as whole stories.

Even people who are not professing Christians think they are familiar with the story of the Nativity. Every Christmas, displays of Jesus resting in a manger populate lawns and churchyards, and songs about shepherds and angels fill the air. Yet despite the abundance of these Christian references in popular culture, how many of us have examined the hard edges of this biblical story? Timothy Keller takes listeners on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the Nativity.

Reading Revelation Responsibly is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and or preoccupied with the book of Revelation. In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own—and other people's—well-being.

In the early 19th century, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, conceived the idea of extracting a gospel purified of what he saw as extraneous philosophical, mythological, and theological elements. To do so, he took verses from the four canonical gospels and arranged them into a single narrative, focusing on the actual words of Jesus.

Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally - including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Erhman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament - how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus' message but helped shape it.