Recommended Books
Recommended Books

Recommended Books

Bible and New Testament Translations

ESV Large Print Personal Size Bible (TruTone, Forest/Tan, Trail Design)

https://amzn.to/3e7iJqR

GPT.Bible Publications available on Amazon (commissions earned, affiliate partner)

 

The ESV Large Print Personal Size Bible features highly readable 12-point Bible text in a portable trim size―made from quality materials and with line-matched text to minimize show-through from page to page, intended to provide a clean reading experience.

Features:

  • Ribbon marker
  • Smyth-sewn binding
  • 12-point Milo Serif OT type

The Comprehensive New Testament

https://amzn.to/2Rcl1vE

Created especially for Bible studies. One of the key features is that footnotes are provided at the bottom of each page in reference to variants of the Greek texts generally classified in two groups: The “Alexandrian” group represents the oldest surviving manuscripts. The “Byzantine” group represents the majority of manuscripts. It also shows minor variants as well. Also at the bottom of each page is a parallel textual apparatus that presents the textual choices of 20 Bible versions for each verse of the New Testament. Although translated from a trinitarian perspective, this translation uses the Critical Text (NA-27) as the source text 100% of the time and is also highly readable. 

The Lexham English Septuagint: A New Translation

https://amzn.to/3u6F0um

he Lexham English Septuagint (LES) is a new translation of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament writings used during New Testament times and in the early church. Beautifully typeset in a comfortable, single-column format, the LES provides a literal, readable, and transparent English edition of the Septuagint for modern readers. Retaining the familiar forms of personal names and places, the LES gives readers the ability to read it alongside their favored English Bible. Translated directly from Swete’s edition of the Septuagint, the LES maintains the meaning of the original text, making the Septuagint accessible to readers today.

Holy Bible: From the Ancient Eastern Text: George M. Lamsa’s Translation From the Aramaic of the Peshitta

https://amzn.to/3xEAZzE

With this book a foremost New Testament scholar makes a signal contribution to the literature about the times of the first apostles. This period, when the memory of Jesus was fresh yet no written literature about him existed, lends itself well to the descriptive treatment Dr. Cadbury employs. The purpose of these pages, he writes, is to establish not so much the accuracy of the book of Acts as the reality of the scenes and customs and mentality which it reflects…. We can walk where the Apostle Paul walked, see what he saw, and become increasingly at home in his world. Five chapters deal with each of the five cultural strands then existing: Roman, Greek, Jewish, Christian, and cosmopolitan. The sixth attempts to reconstruct the earliest history of the book of Acts.

The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation: New Testament with Commentary

https://amzn.to/3nzMUK9

Most churchgoers are unaware that what they receive in church as ‘Bible’ has been filtered to them through a lens of Greek philosophical thinking. This tradition adversely affects current Christian teaching, obscuring central aspects of the original belief of Jesus and the Apostles. Post-biblical councils did much to draw a veil over ‘the faith once delivered.’ Honest inquirers for the saving truth of Scripture will find this translation of the New Testament eye-opening. Most translations tend to ‘read into’ the biblical text ideas which were never intended by the New Testament writers.

Tyndale’s New Testament

https://amzn.to/3gRunrl

This translation of the New Testament into English from its original Greek was printed in Germany in 1534 and smuggled back into England. It therefore escaped the fate of Tyndale’s previous version, which had been seized and publicly burnt by the authorities. The 1534 edition outraged the clerical establishment by giving the laity access to the word of God, in print in English for the first time. Tyndale, who was already in exile for political reasons, was hunted down and subsequently burned at the stake for blasphemy. For the next eighty years―the years of Shakespeare among others―Tyndale’s masterly translation formed the basis of all English bibles. And when the authorized King James Bible was published in 1611, many of its finest passages were taken unchanged, though unacknowledged, from Tyndale’s work.

Canon /

Textual Criticism

The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon

https://amzn.to/3ny2FBi

Lee McDonald has written a lucid and accessible account of the formation of the Christian Bible, clearly marshalling the major evidence, working through the main problems, and reaching persuasive conclusions. Treating separately the canons of the Old and New Testaments, he provides translations of most of the ancient primary sources, good summaries of scholarly debates, and a useful guide to the extensive scholarly literature on the subject. This book will find an appreciative readership among students, pastors, and inquiring laypersons.

The Fourth Gospel in Recent Criticism and Interpretation, 4th Edition

https://amzn.to/3wECHkk

Wilbert Howard was a noted expositor of the Fourth Gospel, and in this book he proved a sure guide for students and general readers through the mazes of historical and internal criticism as these affected the interpretation of this Gospel. C. K. Barrett added sections of his own to take proper account of following work, through 1961, on the problem of the Fourth Gospel.

The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th Edition) 

https://amzn.to/3trek8X

This thoroughly revised edition of Bruce M. Metzger’s classic work is the most up-to-date manual available for the textual criticism of the New Testament. The Text of the New Testament. This revision brings the discussion of such important matters as the early Greek manuscripts and methods of textual criticism up to date, integrating recent research findings and approaches into the body of the text (as opposed to previous revisions, which compiled new material and notes into appendices). The standard text for courses in biblical studies and the history of Christianity since its first publication in 1964.

* Bart Ehrman should only be considered for his early work in textual criticism – not his more recent work (over 20 years) on biblical interpretation.

The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament

https://amzn.to/3EqkJHO

Victors not only write history: they also reproduce the texts. This explores the close relationship between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the emerging New Testament, examining how early struggles between Christian “heresy” and “orthodoxy” affected the transmission of the documents over which many of the debates were waged. 

* Bart Ehrman should only be considered for his early work in textual criticism – not his more recent work (over 20 years) on biblical interpretation.

The Case Against Q: Studies in Markan Priority and the Synoptic Problem

https://amzn.to/331iuHm /

http://www.markgoodacre.org/Q/

For over a century Gospel scholarship has accepted a hypothetical document called Q as one of the major sources of the Synoptic Gospels. In recent times, it has even been transformed from a sayings source to a Gospel in its own right. But, says Mark Goodacre in The Case Against Q, the majority acceptance of Q cannot function as an argument for its existence. From time to time dissenting voices have spoken against such widespread acceptance of Q as a Gospel. Scholars have pointed out, for instance, that Luke’s knowledge of Matthew and Mark would enable one to dispense with Q. Yet, such voices often have gone unheeded due to the lack of a clear, balanced, and scholarly treatment of the case against Q. So, in The Case Against Q Goodacre offers a careful and detailed critique of the Q hypothesis, examining the most important arguments of Q’s proponents.

The synoptic problem: a way through the maze

https://archive.org/details/synopticproblemw00good/mode/2uphttps://amzn.to/331iuHm /

https://amzn.to/3nMaEuL

Possibly the greatest literary enigma in history, the Synoptic Problem has fascinated generations of scholars. Yet the Synoptic Problem remains inaccessible to students, soon tangled up in its apparent complexities. But now Mark Goodacre offers a way through the maze, with the promise of emergence at the end, explaining in a lively and refreshing style what study of the Synoptic Problem involves, why it is important and how it might be solved. This is a readable, balanced and up-to-date guide, ideal for undergraduate students and the general reader.

Early Church History 

Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, Volume 1

https://amzn.to/3BJKMVE

James Dunn is regarded worldwide as one of today’s foremost biblical scholars. Having written groundbreaking studies of the New Testament and a standard work on Paul’s theology, Dunn here turns his pen to the rise of Christianity itself. Jesus Remembered is the first installment in what will be a monumental three-volume history of the first 120 years of the faith.

Focusing on Jesus, this first volume has several distinct features. It garners the lessons to be learned from the “quest for the historical Jesus” and meets the hermeneutical challenges to a historical and theological assessment of the Jesus tradition. It provides a fresh perspective both on the impact made by Jesus and on the traditions about Jesus as oral tradition — hence the title “Jesus Remembered.” And it offers a fresh analysis of the details of that tradition, emphasizing its characteristic (rather than dissimilar) features. Noteworthy too are Dunn’s treatments of the source question (particularly Q and the noncanonical Gospels) and of Jesus the Jew in his Galilean context.

In his detailed analysis of the Baptist tradition, the kingdom motif, the call to and character of discipleship, what Jesus’ audiences thought of him, what he thought of himself, why he was crucified, and how and why belief in Jesus’ resurrection began, Dunn engages wholeheartedly in the contemporary debate, providing many important insights and offering a thoroughly convincing account of how Jesus was remembered from the first, and why.

Beginning from Jerusalem: Christianity in the Making, Volume 2

https://amzn.to/3nV1lJp

The second volume in the magisterial Christianity in the Making trilogy, Beginning from Jerusalem covers the early formation of the Christian faith from 30 to 70 CE. After outlining the quest for the historical church (parallel to the quest for the historical Jesus) and reviewing the sources, James Dunn follows the course of the movement stemming from Jesus “beginning from Jerusalem.” 

Dunn opens with a close analysis of what can be said of the earliest Jerusalem community, the Hellenists, the mission of Peter, and the emergence of Paul. Then he focuses solely on Paul―the chronology of his life and mission, his understanding of his call as apostle, and the character of the churches that he founded. The third part traces the final days and literary legacies of the three principal figures of first-generation Christianity: Paul, Peter, and James, the brother of Jesus. Each section includes detailed interaction with the vast wealth of secondary literature on the many subjects covered.

Neither Jew nor Greek: A Contested Identity: Christianity in the Making, Volume 3

https://amzn.to/2YiBaDS

The third and final installment of James Dunn’s magisterial history of Christian origins through 190 C.E., Neither Jew nor Greek: A Contested Identity covers the period after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. through the second century, when the still-new Jesus movement firmed up its distinctive identity markers and the structures on which it would establish its growing appeal in the following decades and centuries.
 
Dunn examines in depth the major factors that shaped first-generation Christianity and beyond, exploring the parting of the ways between Christianity and Judaism, the Hellenization of Christianity, and responses to Gnosticism. He mines all the first- and second-century sources, including the New Testament Gospels, New Testament apocrypha, and such church fathers as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, showing how the Jesus tradition and the figures of James, Paul, Peter, and John were still esteemed influences but were also the subject of intense controversy as the early church wrestled with its evolving identity.

The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Volume 1)

https://amzn.to/3gRB4tt

By the year 600 Christian doctrine had achieved what Jaroslav terms an “orthodox consensus.” The years 100 to 600 were a period of great ferment and vitality. This is a history of this critical troubled time. Pelikan focuses upon the subtle relation between what the faithful believed, what teachers both orthodox and heretical – taught, and what the church confessed as dogma during its first six  centuries of  growth. 

Luke – Acts

A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations (Biblical Theology of the New Testament Series)

https://amzn.to/3TzDBIu

This groundbreaking work by Darrell Bock thoroughly explores the theology of Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts.  In his writing, Luke records the story of God working through Jesus to usher in a new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be God’s people even in the midst of a hostile world.  It is a message the church still needs today.  Bock both covers major Lukan themes and sets forth the distinctive contribution of Luke-Acts to the New Testament and the canon of Scripture, providing readers with an in-depth and holistic grasp of Lukan theology in the larger context of the Bible.

Conversion in Luke-Acts: Divine Action, Human Cognition, and the People of God

https://amzn.to/3hxFGaF

Repentance and conversion are key topics in New Testament interpretation and in Christian life. However, the study of conversion in early Christianity has been plagued by psychological assumptions alien to the world of the New Testament. Leading New Testament scholar Joel Green believes that careful attention to the narrative of Luke-Acts calls for significant rethinking about the nature of Christian conversion. Drawing on the cognitive sciences and examining key evidence in Luke-Acts, this book emphasizes the embodied nature of human life as it explores the life transformation signaled by the message of conversion, offering a new reading of a key aspect of New Testament theology.

The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke: Trajectories from the Old Testament to Luke-Acts

https://amzn.to/3gRTGtw

What is the meaning of the Holy Spirit’s activity in Luke-Acts, and what are its implications for today? Roger Stronstad offers a cogent and thought-provoking study of Luke as a charismatic theologian whose understanding of the Spirit was shaped wholly by his understanding of Jesus and the nature of the early church. Stronstad locates Luke’s pneumatology in the historical background of Judaism and views Luke as an independent theologian who makes a unique contribution to the pneumatology of the New Testament. This work challenges traditional Protestants to reexamine the impact of Pentecost and explores the Spirit’s role in equipping God’s people for the unfinished task of mission. The second edition has been revised and updated throughout and includes a new foreword by Mark Allan Powell.

Luke: Historian & Theologian

https://amzn.to/3gUarEf

Apart from the apostle Paul, Luke is arguably the most influential force in the canon of the New Testament. His Gospel and Acts occupy almost a third of the New Testament, and together their narrative voice carries us over a span of more than sixty years, from the birth of Jesus to the imprisonment of Paul in Rome. It is difficult to imagine our understanding of the New Testament period without Luke’s writings. For this reason, the question of Luke’s historical reliability has been repeatedly investigated. In this study Howard Marshall affirms Luke’s trustworthiness as a historian. But Luke is more than a historian. He is also a theologian who finds his interpretive key in the great theme of salvation. Marshall provides us with a lucid guide to Luke’s theology of salvation as it is unfurled in Gospel narrative, but always with a eye on its ongoing development in the companion work, the Acts of the Apostles. A postscript assesses the course of Lukan studies during the decade of 1979-1988.

The Acts of the Apostles

https://amzn.to/3nW6uRk

Authored by one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars, this commentary on the Acts of the Apostles was originally published in 1996. James Dunn first takes the reader through questions of authorship, audience, date, purpose, and literary structure. He then considers the kind of history writing that we find in the narrative of Acts, delineates the book’s theological teaching, and offers bibliographic comments on sources and selected studies, including work published between 1996 and 2016. This commentary as a whole provides the information and perspective necessary for reading to best effect what Dunn believes is the most exciting book in the New Testament.

New Century Bible, St. Luke: Introduction,  Revised Version With Notes, Index and Maps (Classic Reprint)

Authorized version of Luke with extensive footnotes and commentary (1906)

https://amzn.to/3xCEGp9

Free on Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/stlukeintroducti42aden/page/n11/mode/2up

Initiation / Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament

https://amzn.to/3e1rr9Y

In this fascinating book James D. G. Dunn explores the nature of the religious experiences that were at the forefront of emerging Christianity. Dunn first looks at the religious experience of Jesus, focusing especially on his experience of God in terms of his sense of sonship and his consciousness of the Spirit. He also considers the question of whether Jesus was a charismatic. Next Dunn examines the religious experiences of the earliest Christian communities, especially the resurrection appearances, Pentecost, and the signs and wonders recounted by Luke. Finally Dunn explores the religious experiences that make Paul so influential and that subsequently shaped Pauline Christianity and the religious life of his churches.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

https://amzn.to/3e3Rz3P

This classic, now in paperback edition, introduces the reader to the most distinctive aspect of Pentecostal theology–baptism in the Holy Spirit. James Dunn sees water-baptism as only one element in the New Testament pattern of conversion and initiation. The gift of the Spirit, he believes, is the central element. For the writers of the New Testament only those who received the Spirit could be called Christians. For them, the reception of the Spirit was a very definite and often dramatic experience – the decisive and climatic experience in conversion-initiation – to which the Christian was usually recalled when reminded of the beginning of his Christian faith and experience. 

Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Second Revised Edition (Michael Glazier Books)

https://amzn.to/3gPOPsN

Up to now the teaching on baptism in the Holy Spirit has been based on a few scriptural texts, whose interpretation was disputed. This doubt cast its shadow on those who promote baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Now new evidence has been found in early post-biblical authors (Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, Philoxenus, and the Syrians) which demonstrates that what is called baptism in the Holy Spirit was integral to Christian initiation (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist). Because it was part of initiation into the Church, it was not a matter of private piety, but of public worship. Therefore it was and remains normative.

Christian Peoples of the Spirit: A Documentary History of Pentecostal Spirituality from the Early Church to the Present

https://amzn.to/3ujekqx

Among all groups in Christendom, the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement is second in size only to the Roman Catholic Church, with growth that shows no signs of abatement. Its adherents declare the Pentecostal Movement, which began at Azusa Street in 1906, to be unprecedented in Christian history since the first century of the Church in its embrace of manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as divine healing, miracles, and speaking in tongues. Yet although it may be unprecedented in size and rate of growth, Stanley M. Burgess argues that is hardly unprecedented in concept. In Christian Peoples of the Spirit, Burgess collects documentary evidence for two thousand years of individuals and groups who have evidenced Pentecostal/charismatic-like spiritual giftings, worship, and experience.

The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001

https://amzn.to/3vzjTku

A definitive history of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement and an intriguing reference for persons outside the movement, The Century of the Holy Spirit details the miraculous story of Pentecostal/Charismatic growth–in the U.S. and around the world. This book features five chapters by the premier Pentecostal historian, Vinson Synan, with additional contributions by leading Pentecostal/Charismatic authorities–David Barrett, David Daniels, David Edwin Harrell Jr., Peter Hocken, Sue Hyatt, Gary McGee, and Ted Olsen.

Theology / Christology

Restoring the Biblical Christ: Is Jesus God?

https://amzn.to/2QCadar

This book presents a critical evaluation of the doctrine of the Trinity, tracing its development and investigating the intellectual, philosophical, and theological background that shaped this influential doctrine of Christianity. Despite the centrality of Trinitarian thought to Christianity, and its importance as one of the fundamental tenets that differentiates Christianity from Judaism and Islam, the doctrine is not fully formulated in the canon of Christian scriptural texts. Instead, it evolved through the conflation of selective pieces of scripture with the philosophical and religious ideas of ancient Hellenistic milieu. Marian Hillar analyzes the development of Trinitarian thought during the formative years of Christianity from its roots in ancient Greek philosophical concepts and religious thinking in the Mediterranean region. He identifies several important sources of Trinitarian thought heretofore largely ignored by scholars, including the Greek middle-Platonic philosophical writings of Numenius and Egyptian metaphysical writings and monuments representing divinity as a triune entity.

Christ Before Creeds: Rediscovering the Jesus of History

https://amzn.to/3naoyZr

Most Christians are unaware of how different their Western worldview is from those who wrote the original accounts of Jesus’ life. Pastor Jeff Deuble issues a clarion call to prioritize biblical testimony over the later church creeds that were influenced by Greek philosophical thinking, so as to rediscover simple, uncluttered Christianity.

Meticulously presenting information from biblical, historical, Jewish, and Christian sources about how the early followers of Christ thought about him, this book promises new insight and an enriched understanding of Christ’s identity. More than informative, Christ Before Creeds is an invitation to examine the identity of Jesus the Messiah, engaging with respect and grace.

The Only True God: A Study of Biblical Monotheism

https://amzn.to/3eKXyd9

The faith of the Bible is not trinitarian but unyieldingly monotheistic. God’s message to humankind is a call to faith in Yahweh, the one and only God of Israel. Monotheism took root in the Law and the Prophets, and flourished in the hearts of God’s people. Jesus upheld Biblical monotheism when he prayed to his Father, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” In this study of Biblical monotheism and of trinitarianism’s claims to monotheism, we pay particular attention to the Biblical texts, principally John 1:1-18, which are typically used to underpin trinitarian doctrine. The book ends on a joyful note when it brings out the glorious blessings for God’s people in the truth that the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ and dwelled among us.

What is the Trinity?: Thinking about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 

https://amzn.to/332xUei

If you find the Trinity confusing, you are not alone! What does it mean to say God is “three Persons in one essence”? It might mean a number of things, and it has been understood in several ways by theologians. But how should it be understood, and how was it originally meant? This book shines light on the fog shrouding this subject, equipping you with basic information about the meaning and history of trinitarian ideas, so that you can see the various options and search the scriptures with fresh eyes.

The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma

https://amzn.to/3tevPa8

At a very early stage in Church history, influences from the Greco-Roman world forcefully pressed the traditional God of Judaism through a system of pagan philosophy. The theological battles which followed produced serious problems for Christianity, and imperial edicts made accepting philosophical statements about God a matter of life or death. In The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma, Chandler embarks on a dynamic investigation of the developmental history of orthodox theology and its impact on popular interpretations of the New Testament. Relayed in two parts, the first provides a panoramic view of Hellenic influence on the early Christian faith, while the second revisits biblical interpretation. Writing for both the dedicated Christian student and the interested public, Chandler boldly appeals to both ancient history and modern scholarship to inform us about the origins of our most sacred traditions, and challenges the reader to contrast those ideas with the words of Jesus.

The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound

https://amzn.to/3O02goB

The authors challenge the notion that biblical monotheism is legitimately represented by a Trinitarian view of God and demonstrate that within the bounds of the canon of Scripture Jesus is confessed as Messiah, Son of God, but not God Himself. Later Christological developments beginning in the second century misrepresented the biblical doctrine of God and Christ by altering the terms of the biblical presentation of the Father and Son. This fateful development laid the foundation of a revised, unscriptural creed that needs to be challenged. This book is likely to be a definitive presentation of a Christology rooted, as it originally was, in the Hebrew Bible. The authors present a sharply-argued appeal for an understanding of God and Jesus in the context of the original Christian documents.

The Unitarians: A Short History

https://amzn.to/3t6u4LV

This short history of Unitarianism concisely explores the origins and progress of a worldwide liberal religious tradition committed to principles of freedom, reason, and tolerance.Unitarians have exercised an influence out of proportion to their minority status. Through their agency, Poland and Transylvania enjoyed periods of religious toleration. In Great Britain, as pioneers of early modern higher education in Dissenting Academies, they applied Enlightenment reasoning to the study of religion, science, and the humanities. In the United States, they led the Transcendentalist movement, the first major flowering of American intellectual culture. This book traces the history of the separate but related Unitarian (and Unitarian Universalist) denominations in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States, and touches on the new groups that have arisen, or are in the process of emerging, elsewhere in the world.

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