(See Overview of the Bible, for a fuller explanation of the “History of Salvation.” The notes in this feature […]

Almost every book in the NT has something to say about false beliefs and those who advocate them. […]

The Bible and Contemporary Judaism Early History (c. 2100 b.c.–586 b.c.) Beginning with Abraham, the founding “rock” of the Jewish […]

Roman Catholicism Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have many beliefs in common, both adhering to the truths expressed in […]

As C. S. Lewis once observed, “one of the rewards of reading the Old Testament regularly” is that […]

The term Septuagint is commonly used today to refer to the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, the books that […]

Hebrew and Aramaic, and How They Work Introduction The main language of the OT is Classical Hebrew, but […]

Archaeology and the Reliability of the Old Testament Definition of Archaeology Archaeology may be defined as the systematic study […]

The Reliability of the Old Testament Manuscripts Introduction At the beginning of the twentieth century, textual criticism of […]

The Canon of the Old Testament The word “canon” (Gk. for “a rule”) is applied to the Bible […]

Reading the Bible Theologically To read the Bible “theologically” means to read the Bible “with a focus on […]

Interpreting the Bible: An Introduction The Bible contains 66 books, written in three languages over 1,500 years by […]

Biblical Ethics: An Introduction From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God gives people specific instructions […]

True Theology: Knowing and Loving God The study of theology is considered by many to be dry, boring, […]

A troubled jailer in the first century once asked two Christian leaders, “what must I do to be […]

Introduction and Timeline Knowing how to read the Epistles is very important, since they make up 21 of […]

The Gospels and Acts were designed to be read as full accounts, each in their own right, even […]

Scholars continue to debate the year and date of Jesus’ crucifixion. Several pieces of evidence, both inside and […]

New Testament theology as a discipline is a branch of what scholars call “biblical theology.” Systematic theology and […]

When Jesus began to proclaim the gospel, the Sadducees, Essenes, and Pharisees were also laying claim to Israel’s […]

The first-century Roman world of the NT lay culturally at the intersection of Hellenism (Greek language and culture) […]

Most of the writers of the NT grew up in the world of “Second Temple Judaism,” the time […]

Introduction Mesopotamian texts indicate that long before Israel entered Canaan, other countries had prophets. These texts from Israel’s […]

Poetry is pervasive in the Hebrew Bible—the only books in the OT without any poetry are Leviticus, Ruth, […]

The “Historical Books” of the OT, which come after the Pentateuch, tell the story of (1) Israel’s entry […]

The Name of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch (Gk. “five-volumed”) consists of the first five books of the Bible, […]

The following material summarizes some of the arguments for an early date (1446 b.c.) and a later date (c. […]

When it comes to describing “the theology of the Old Testament,” not everyone is convinced that there is […]