Miscellaneous Resources:
As I am reading Scripture, I come accross places and people that I know nothing about. Knowing something about the places and people help me to fully understand this layer of “context”, thus giving me a better understanding of God’s Words.
Two great books that help me understand specific people and places are Stephen Miller’s, “Who’s Who and Where’s Where in the Bible” and Bruce Metzger’s, “The Oxford Guide to People & places of the Bible”.
Shouldn’t every Bible come with a handy tool like Who’s Who & Where’s Where in the Bible? This illustrated, easy reading A-Z dictionary is loaded with fresh and surprising insights about the most important people and places in the Bible-five hundred in all. Not a dry textbook, it’s written in magazine style by critically acclaimed Christian journalist and Bible history author Stephen M. Miller. Color maps, photos, and paintings transport readers to sacred lands. There, they’ll meet fascinating people: lovers and liars, healers and hoodlums, warriors and wimps. This captivating book will appeal to Bible newcomers as well as long-time Christians. This handy reference serves as a Bible companion and tool written in everyday language, but also contains scholarly detail. This book is filled with over 500 entries and is illustrated in full color.
The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible provides more than 300 articles that cover everyone from Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ and everywhere from the Garden of Eden to Golgotha and Gethsemane.
Readers will find fascinating, informative entries on virtually every major figure who walked across the biblical stage. Articles also define groups of people who figure in the Bible, such as Angels, Archangels, and Demons, the Magi, the Tribes of Israel, and Women. Entries on the significant places of the Bible, both ancient and modern, include kingdoms and countries (Egypt, Assyria, Mesopotamia) and cities (Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Sodom and Gomorrah), as well as geographical features such as the Sea of Galilee and Mount Hebron. The guide includes a detailed index for ease of use, and 14 pages of color maps, providing an accurate, detailed portrait of the biblical world.
Here then is the first place to turn to find factual information on the people and places of Holy Scripture. Written by an international team of noted biblical experts, it is an essential addition to any family library as well as a useful, reliable resource for scholars and students.
Additionally, there are many diverse cultural, religious, political, and economic groups that existed in the time of the New Testament. Understanding them, helps me understand this layer of “context”, again, giving me a better understanding of God’s Words to us. This book is not only fascinating, but is also well researched and imformative.
Making sense of the New Testament requires navigating your way through the labyrinth of different cultural, religious, political, and economic groups that existed in first-century Jewish society as well as in the Roman Empire at large. In this introduction to the major people groups of the New Testament world, William Simmons clarifies New Testament history and teaching by providing a historical analysis of major Jewish groups such as Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, as well as important Greco-Roman groups such as Philosophers, Herodians, and Centurions. Important sub-groupings within the first-century church, such as Hebrews and Hellenists, are set in the larger context of the Judeo-Romanmix. Color photographs of ancient sites and archaeological discoveries highlight the descriptions. A helpful resource for anyone interested in understanding the world of the New Testament better.