Study Commentaries

Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices past and present that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, and more.

Sinai to Zion is an exciting study of how the Bible uses the Exodus story as the basis for its vision concerning the glorious and triumphant return of Jesus the Messiah. For the first time, this book presents a thorough examination of many often overlooked, yet critically important Old Testament texts that the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament authors looked to as describing the return of Jesus.

When Jesus spoke, people listened. When Jesus traveled, people followed. When Jesus arrived, hearts and lives were transformed. No other Gospel gives such extensive explanation to Jesus' ministry as the Gospel of John. The first three Gospels describe events, but the fourth Gospel describes the significance behind those events. Through miracles, parables, and relationships, Jesus shows how He is the fulfillment of God's promises of old.

Combined for great value! The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

"And nothing is, but what is not." Macbeth may be mystified by the Weird Sisters' words but this intense performance with incisive commentary cuts to the heart of Shakespeare's complex psychological tragedy.

N. T. Wright explores Acts, illuminating the early Christians' zeal in spreading Jesus's message. The book of Acts brims with early Christians' zeal, global evangelism, and the real-life challenges faced by churches. It's a dynamic narrative of journeys, trials, and triumphs, offering inspiration for our spiritual journeys. Acts for Everyone, Part 2 follows Paul's ministry, concluding with his arrival in Rome in Acts 28.

Matthew's gospel focuses on the Kingship of Christ—that Jesus is Lord of Lords, the Messiah, the One promised by the prophets of old. But a king is not born in a manger, to a virgin peasant, and a king is definitely not executed on a Roman cross, is he? Actually, that's exactly the type of King God sent to the world.

If the Bible isn’t a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her—and it will change you too.

Drawing on the best in recent scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, soliloquies, and even a short screenplay. Undaunted by the Bible’s most difficult passages, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating Scripture’s mysteries. The Bible, she discovers, is not a static work but is a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that is able to equip us to join God’s loving and redemptive work in the world.

Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the imagination, the breadth of knowledge, and the literary skill to conceive of a powerful secular alternative to the Bible. But that is exactly what A. C. Grayling has done, creating a nonreligious bible drawn from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both Western and Eastern traditions, using the same techniques of editing, redaction, and adaptation that produced the holy books of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in the latter part of the 19th century. In PTSD, Allan V. Horwitz traces the fluctuations in definitions of and responses to traumatic psychic conditions. Arguing that PTSD, perhaps more than any other diagnostic category, is a lens for showing major historical changes in conceptions of mental illness, he surveys the conditions most likely to produce traumas, the results of those traumas, and how to evaluate the claims of trauma victims.

"Hope is not a sedative; it is a shot of adrenaline, a blood transfusion." Through clever word pictures like this, best-selling author and former pastor Warren Wiersbe preaches the same message Peter preached so long ago. Turning each enlightening page, believers gain increasing confidence in true Hope, a God in whom they don't just wish for eternal life. In Scripture, hope means the promise of salvation for those who have accepted Him and His Son's death and resurrection.

It is certainly true today that the "Do Nothings" outnumber "The Company of the Concerned," which in part explains why society is so confused and frightened. It's time for God's people to be concerned! Meet some concerned believers who made a difference in their time and who show you how to make a difference in your time.

A theological exposition of the Complete New Testament Gospel according to Mark. The selected biblical passages are organized into eight sequential Bible studies that are each appropriate for about one hour of small-group discussion or about 30 minutes of personal devotion. This book can also serve as a resource in a two-month in-depth study of Mark, utilizing one passage per week. The passages are presented with an emphasis on the history and context of the writings, and its application both in the early church and in the church today. Table of Contents ...

One of the best ways to understand the Bible is to read it as a whole from the beginning to the end. The stories in the Bible are not disconnected. They form one story. Your Sunday school teacher was wrong. She couldn't connect the storyline of the Bible. What she didn't do, this book steps in as a guide. In this book, H.K. Holland walks you through all the 66 books showing you how they are all connected and lead to one person, Jesus Christ.

An easy to read user-friendly guide with pictures for understanding the most important book in the Bible for us, Romans. An effective way to rapidly build up sound doctrine in our inner man for the purpose of more rewards for the believers at the Judgment Seat of Christ and more glory to God.

When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of 60 after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted listeners who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the 21st century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon.

"What did Jesus preach?" asks this esteemed Harvard pastor, who believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian church astray. To recover the transformative power of the gospel, "the good news", Gomes says we must go beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus' original revolutionary message of hope.

In recent years, the theological—and, more specifically, Roman Catholic—question of the supernatural has made an astonishing return from seeming oblivion. David Bentley Hart's You Are Gods presents a series of meditations on the vexed theological question of the relation of nature and supernature. In its merely controversial aspect, the book is intended most directly as a rejection of a certain Thomistic construal of that relation, as well as an argument in favor of a model of nature and supernature at once more Eastern and patristic.

Julius Caesar wrote his exciting Commentaries during some of the most grueling campaigns ever undertaken by a Roman army. The Gallic Wars and The Civil Wars constitute the greatest series of military dispatches ever written. As literature, they are representative of the finest expressions of Latin prose in its "golden" age, a benchmark of elegant style and masculine brevity imitated by young schoolboys for centuries.

The Book of Exodus is the bedrock of God's plan of redemption and is seen as a "type" of the early church. It is also an adventure of discovery, since the dramatic narrative is laced with numerous hidden messages in the form of microcodes and macrocodes, each anticipating the New Testament climax.

We all admire the hero. That person who’s celebrated for accomplishing big things in the face of even bigger odds. Yet heroes aren’t defined by their circumstances, but by their choices. They’re people who continually choose to serve others, even when no one is watching, and without expecting credit. Based on the books of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah, this study examines three unsung heroes of the Bible who can inspire us today.