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Encountering Biblical Studies Available at SKS Books, 315 Outram Road #10-05, Tan Boon Liat Building, Outram Road and Bethesda Book Centres |
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By CHIANG MING SHUN
HAVE you ever wanted a
one-volume introduction to the Old Testament or the New Testament
that is not shallow, divorced from everyday life or soporific
(yawn)?
The people at Baker Books have just the books for you. An Encountering
Biblical Studies (EBS) series was launched seven years ago and
it is expanding its titles and its readership. This is just the
thing for Christians in the 21st century.
These books are solid, scholarly commentaries surprisingly full
of colour: maps, drawings, photographs, tables. They are serious
reading aimed at an undergraduate audience but highly readable
even for ordinary Christians.
You don't have to be enrolled in a Bible college to want to get
your hands on EBS books: they grip your attention and pull you
along.
As the blurb of one book puts it, "…[it] is as engaging
and user-friendly as it is informative. In addition to first-rate
scholarship, this resource boasts full-colour photographs and
numerous educational features, including an interactive CD-ROM
study aid".
To take one book, Encountering
the Old Testament: A Christian Survey is written by Bill Arnold
(Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Asbury Theological
Seminary) and Bryan Beyer (Dean of the Columbia Bible College
at Columbia International University). These two men are renowned
scholars (see for yourself what an Internet search turns up) and
they deal with weighty issues.
For example, looking at the book of First Kings, you have discussions
on Retribution Theory, Regnal Formula, and Historical Perspective
from the Exile.
But it is interesting reading! It explains the text, it gives
background information, it brings the Bible alive.
You also have chapter summaries, lists of key terms, key people
and key places, study questions and suggestions for further reading.
This particular book ranks 2,831 in sales at Amazon.com, which
I think is most respectable for an Old Testament commentary.
In fact, the commentary on the New Testament is so popular that
it is actually printed in Singapore. You can get it at half its
usual cost, but without the CD-ROM. It is co-authored by Walter
Elwell of Wheaton College, and he also edited the Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology and the Evangelical Dictionary
of Theology.
I have six titles in the Encountering Biblical Studies series
on my bookshelf, and I am steadily working my way through them.
In addition to the two introductory volumes on the Old Testament
and New Testament (both of which come with CD-ROMs for full price),
I have Encountering the Book of Genesis, Encountering John, Encountering
the Book of Hebrews, and Readings from the First-Century World.
I stongly recommend this series for serious study. But act fast,
as these are popular titles.
One caveat: this review is about the ENCOUNTERING Biblical Studies
series. There is another ENGAGING Biblical Studies series for
graduate-level treatment; those are "pedagogically oriented
textbooks". I suppose they will have to wait for another
review.
The Rev Chiang Ming Shun is the Pastor-in-Charge of Aldersgate Methodist Church.
QUOTE:
ATTENTION-GRIPPING
'These books are solid, scholarly commentaries surprisingly full of colour: maps, drawings, photographs, tables. They are serious reading aimed at an undergraduate audience but highly readable even for ordinary Christians. You don't have to be enrolled in a Bible college to want to get your hands on EBS books they grip your attention and pull you along.'