What constitutes a faithful life? At its most basic level, the New Testament book of Hebrews considers this essential question and pleads with its audience to find in faithful living the rest that Christ offers. The book begins with a poetic reflection on the one who lived the most faithful of lives—Jesus—and concludes with words of exhortation to go and do likewise.
In the 37th volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, scholars Debra J. Bucher and Estella Horning examine at great length one important aspect of Hebrews: Jesus as the “new covenant” and the “once for all,” better sacrifice who replaces the daily and yearly sacrifices offered in the temple in Jerusalem. The authors give attention to the ways this idea has been used to minimize the value of other religious traditions and even to legitimize the horrors of the mid-twentieth century. They carefully unpack the language...
Luke is a gospel of joy, amazement, and warmth. From the jubilant birth narrative and Magnificat at the beginning to the wonder of the ascension at the end, Luke offers a matchless portrait of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and those who followed him.
In the 36th volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, New Testament scholar Mary H. Schertz helps readers inhabit the pages of the third gospel, replete with parables and paradoxes and ministries of mercy. In vibrant writing and with careful exegesis, Schertz invites readers to investigate for themselves the surprise, light, and awe of the kingdom of God, in which people find healing, the marginalized find welcome, and the poor find flourishing. Schertz traces the motifs of holy warrior and suffering servant that confronted every first-century Jew, including Jesus, and that still shape the church today. Through it all, Luke demonstrates both the cost of the...
Although each is quite different, the books of Joel, Obadiah, and Micah are all survival literature. All three address the community that survived the crushing Babylonian destruction of Judah in 586 BCE. And all three seek to help this community cope by giving voice to its disorientation, trauma, anxiety, and rage. Each book insists that God will wrestle a positive future out of catastrophe, granting both physical and spiritual renewal. No matter how dire the circumstances, Israel can trust in the gracious God who will never abandon the faith community.
In this thirty-fifth volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, Old Testament scholar Daniel Epp-Tiessen explores the diverse, yet related content of these three prophetic books, always paying attention to how they might speak words of grace and healing into the disorientation, exile, and challenges of our own time. He also confronts the theologically problematic features of these books, especially...
Violence on the streets. Military expansion. Consumerism. Policies exploiting people and natural resources. Harassment and abuse: 1 & 2 Kings could hardly be more relevant. In the thirty-fourth volume of the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, Old Testament scholar Lynn Jost claims 1 & 2 Kings were written to form a community that would embrace the Ten Commandments and the Great Shema and would champion righteousness and compassion. Jost traces the characteristics of royal justice, with its systems of excess and indulgence, as well as the court intrigue, succession politics, interfamily rivalries, and prophetic judgment that mark the books. Through it all, Israel remains in a covenant relationship with a delivering God. Through it all, God calls the leaders and the people to practice justice, protect shalom, and live righteously. In vivid and accessible prose, Jost invites pastors, scholars, and lay readers to read 1 & 2 Kings as books...
God is gracious, holy, and present. As a book about how to worship and how to live, Leviticus unfurls these critical characteristics of God in relation to humanity. In the thirty-third volume in the...
Christians in the bustling, diverse city of Corinth in 50 BCE quarreled about how to be faithful to Jesus. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he calls the small band of new believers to unity...
What if rather than only reading Philippians, we allowed Philippians to read us? In this 31st volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, New Testament scholar Gordon Zerbe challenges readers...
Purity, worship, obedience, and hope: 1 & 2 Chronicles called the early Hebrew people to faithful practice of these things, and they issue the same call to readers today. As August H. Konkel writes...
Deuteronomy is a book full of life, stories of God’s people, and a vision for walking in the way of God. Considered by some to be the theological center of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy has been...
Galatians by George Brunk III tracks the important role that this epistle of the Apostle Paul played in Christianity’s shift from being a messianic sect within Judaism to a Gentile-dominated religious...
