Bible Study Book List
(My affiliate links for Amazon products are included in the post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
This list will get a lot longer but I have already put off getting it out there for over three weeks.
I do stalk Amazon kindle lists for sales on books daily, which I post here
General Books on the Basics that aren’t so basic!
These are the books I have read/am reading to teach the class.
Walton, John The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority
Lightfoot, Neil How We Got the Bible
Bird, Michael Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About The Bible
Reeves, Ryan Know How We Got Our Bible
Keener, Craig and Walton, John NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
Books on Apocalyptic writings/Revelation Master List at end of blog
Rhetoric/Genre Studies/Textual Criticism
NT Socio-rhetorical commentary series volumes by Ben Witherington III, Craig Keener, and David DeSilva
Psalms/Laments
Longman, Tremper How to Read the Psalms
Theology series and authors
New Studies in Biblical Theology (Various authors, I have them all because I love them so much)
Counterpoints: Bible and Theology (Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy from episode 18)
Commentary series I trust (in order of difficulty from most readable to most complicated)
This website is a great help in figuring out which commentaries are and are not worth the money
Interpretation Bible Commentary (I own the entire set because I love it so much)
New International Version Application Commentary (I like this one too, have most volumes)
New International Commentary of the Old Testament (This is a serious scholarly commentary, Oswalt’s commentaries on Isaiah are my favorites)
New International Commentary of the New Testament (Ditto, however there is no master list on Amazon, but this is my favorite volume for the NT set and the rest you can figure out)
Strack-Billerbeck Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash—I own them all and it is such a relief after reading the Lightfoot version which is 400 years old and full of horrifying antisemitic slurs) and if you plan on using this, check out this “how to” and “how not to” use it in this video from David Instone-Brewer
Vol 3 Romans through Revelation
Hermeneutics and Interpretation
Duvall, J Scott Grasping God’s Word, Fourth Edition: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
Sociology/Anthropology
DeSilva, David Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity
Neyrey, Jerome The Social World of Luke-Acts: Models for Interpretation
Berman, Joshua The Temple (specifically for understanding the concept of holiness, chapter 4)
Ancient Scientific Beliefs (aka Weird Science)
Lamoureux, Denis The Bible and Ancient Science: Principles of Interpretation
Walton, John The Lost World of Genesis One, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, The Lost World of the Flood
Study Aids (FYI, I am not a Logos affiliate but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that if you are wanting to invest in the bigger and more expensive sets, Logos is probably a good investment for you to consider)
Strong, James Strong’s Concordance
BibleGateway my favorite free online search engine for Bible verses
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
TDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament
BDB the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon
HALOT the Hebrew/Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament
Helpful blogs, podcasts, websites, specific blog posts, and YouTube channels
The Problem with Using Strong’s Concordance Dictionary
Matt Nappier—History of the Bible series
Ryan Reeves–History of Christianity
