100 Books Like Priscilla

I am recommending this book because of its breadth and depth. At 960 pages long it covers a wide range of many different topics but part II is particularly helpful but it explores the history, literature, and ideas of the first century—both Jewish and Graeco-Roman—if you want an in-depth study to open up the New Testament world, this is what you need. It isn’t short but it is accessible and well worth reading for anyone who is serious about getting into the world of the New Testament. 

This is a book that captured my imagination about thirty years ago. It uses New Testament scholarship to reconstruct and imagine what it might have been like to live in Judah and Galilee at the time of Jesus but never to have met him in person—hence the title the Shadow of the Galilean. It was the first book I’d come across that used scholarship to imagine what it was actually like to live then. I’ve been thinking about that book ever since and it was what inspired me to write my book.

The Lost Letters of Pergamum imagines an exchange of letters between Luke, the evangelist, and a fictional character Antipas. Longenecker imagines Antipas to be a Roman civic leader who has come across Luke’s writings and wants to ask him more about what he has written. The book consists of fictional letters between Luke and Antipas in which matters of faith and life in the first century are explored. Eventually a gladiatorial contest in Pergamum forces Antipas to make some hard choices. As with the other books I have chosen this book brings the world of the first century to life and sheds light on some of the key issues that would have affected Christians in that period.

One way of opening up the world of the New Testament is through fictional accounts of life in the period; the other way is by doing a deep dive into some of the academic debates that have explored issues from this period. This is an accessible but fascinating book that explores the life, culture, and background of the New Testament and provides a vast array of interesting nuggets that will enhance your reading of the New Testament. This book opens up our imaginations by providing the information we need to imagine the world for ourselves.

Tom Wright is the leading New Testament scholar of today. This powerful and persuasive magnum opus brings Wright’s skills as the finest historian of the period to bear on his subject matter. He sets Jesus’ resurrection well and truly in its historical context. The idea of a general resurrection at the end of time may have been around but not the resurrection within time of a single individual. Yet all the evidence leads inexorably to the conclusion that this is precisely what happened. This was not a belief that emerged over time and then found its way into the gospels but the very foundation of Christian preaching and writing from the beginning and the basis of the existence and spread of the church from its earliest days.

As its title implies, this book is accessible to the entire family and would be a great resource for Sunday school teachers who want to provide their students with a larger understanding of the life and times of peoples in ancient Palestine and Rome. The book is broken down into easy-to-find categories such as "The Home," "Warfare," and "Travel and Communication," to name a few. There are stunning photographs on every page with detailed and clear explanations. The back of the book has timelines of the Bible and a map of Palestine in New Testament times with highlights of key events in the New Testament. There is also an alphabetical index that makes it easy to find information on specific topics.

I found it very difficult to put this book down!

The author takes you on a journey of discovery through the Scriptures from beginning to end, focusing on the scarlet thread that runs through the whole story. The book is a very quick read, filled with incredible insights and symbolism that unveils the Bible’s central message in all its beauty.

This is also recommended for anyone, regardless of their knowledge of the Bible.

I grew up in a conservative church in the American South, the home of evangelical fundamentalism—but Marcus Borg offered me a great pathway out of the narrow-mindedness of literalistic, authoritarian religion.

The subtitle of this book says it all: there is a path to taking the Bible more seriously (as a spiritual book) when we stop insisting on reading it literally. Borg combines quality scholarship with an almost mystical appreciation of the wisdom encoded in the ancient scripture.

For me, reading his book was an invitation not only to read the Bible anew, but to fall in love with it all over again.

The Thomas Nelson Study Bible is my second favorite commentary to use. It shares many similarities with The MacArthur Study Bible. There are helpful charts and maps. The commentary is clear and understandable. The cross-references are helpful as are the other study tools. The images and charts are done wonderfully. There are over 1,000 articles and notes spread through the commentary, which provide a greater understanding of certain passages and topics. Again there are also book introductions and the outlines can be very helpful. The word studies, the Strong’s numbers in case you want to do further study. The indexes and concordances at the back are helpful and easy to use. One point to consider is while John MacArthur’s commentary is Calvinistic, The Thomas Nelson Study Bible doesn’t seem to lean toward Calvinism or Arminianism, probably to reach multiple denominations.

I live in a Western culture. I’ve visited Israel twice and read through the Bible a few times. But what do I really know about the ancient Hebrew language and heritage? My knowledge is limited to what I’ve learned through researching rabbinic interpretations of the Tanakh, Legends of the Jews, Josephus, and other Jewish sacred texts.

The Jewish Study Bible gives me expert rabbinic commentary on every verse from a Jewish perspective! I finally understood Abraham’s and his descendants’ vital role in preserving God’s story—His story, history—from Creation to present.

A dear friend told me the Bible was a single Love Letter written to me—Genesis to Revelation—and I’d find Jesus was the Messiah in Genesis, not only in the New Testament. So I opened my Bible—the Love Letter—and found God waiting there. Every day, He’s waiting there to chat.