Bible Criticism

Because you know it's nonsense, but were never sure why.

In times of questioning and despair, people often quote the Bible to provide answers. Surprisingly, though, the Bible does not have one answer but many ""answers"" that often contradict one another. Consider these competing explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers: The...

The Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - are four accounts of Jesus' life and teachings while on earth. But should we accept them as historically accurate? What evidence is there that the recorded events actually happened? Presenting a case for the historical reliability of the Gospels, New Testament scholar Peter Williams examines evidence from non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the four biblical accounts reflect the cultural context of their day, compares different accounts of the same events, and more.

How was the Bible written? Who wrote it? Was writing material available then? Who decided what the Canon included and what it did not include. Has anyone seen the original manuscripts of the Bible? How can we be sure that what we have today is a faithful reproduction? All the above, and many more, questions are answered in this book. It is a book meant for the informed layperson, and is not a technical work.

Bart D. Ehrman, the New York Times bestselling author of Jesus, Interrupted and God’s Problem reveals which books in the Bible’s New Testament were not passed down by Jesus’s disciples, but were instead forged by other hands—and why this centuries-hidden scandal is far more significant...

Interpreting the Bible is a comprehensive guide for believers who long to handle God’s Word with accuracy, reverence, and confidence. Grounded in the historical-grammatical method, this book equips readers to discover the single, Spirit-inspired meaning intended by the biblical authors, guarding against allegory, speculation, and modern distortions. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture speaks with clarity and authority. Yet faithful interpretation requires careful attention to words, grammar, historical context, and literary form. This volume walks readers through each major genre of the...

What if the most common modern interpretations of some of the Bible’s most debated passages were deliberately crafted—not by early Christians, but by those who opposed them? In The Battle for the Bible’s Truth, Douglas Van Dorn uncovers a forgotten second-century campaign that reshaped how key Old Testament texts were read—and how they are still read today. Genesis 6:1–4, Deuteronomy 32:8, Psalm 82, and related passages once carried a clear supernatural meaning shared by Jews and the earliest Christians alike: heavenly “sons of God,” a divine council, and a coming divine Son ...

In Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, biblical scholar D. Brent Sandy explores how oral communication shaped the ways that biblical writers received God's message—and even more importantly, how the ancient and modern faithful receive it through hearing.

This novella is the first work of fiction to be published by author Jon Kinyon. If you're into dark humor and biting satire, and you're not easily offended, you just might like this. It has more Easter eggs than the Easter Bunny's private stash! "A hilarious and campy send-up of 70's cop shows with a strange, pseudo-reverent twist. Featuring a duo of born-again evangelists fighting the forces of Satan and Hollywood." -- Doug Sakmann, Troma Entertainment SYNOPSIS: Our heroes, Brad and James, are caught in a battle of wills with Sarah, the daughter of a High Priest of Satan. Her father, ...

Is Your Bible Based on the Preserved Word of God or a Corrupted Modern Text? In a world filled with thousands of competing Bible translations, David Michael Curtis's Sentinel GPT: KJV vs Modern Translations equips readers with the tools to confidently defend the authority and completeness of the King James Version. This is not another academic debate about archaic language; it is a deep dive into the two separate manuscript traditions that have produced two different Bibles. This comprehensive resource dismantles the unstable foundations of modern textual criticism and constructs a powerful...

How are we to live out the Bible today? In this updated edition of The Blue Parakeet—which has sold over 100,000 copies!—you'll see how Scripture transcends culture and time, and you'll learn how to read God's Word in a fresh way. The gospel is designed to be relevant in every culture, in...

New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples...

What follows is not a translation in the ordinary sense of the word. It’s more like a paraphrase. Rather than worry over the letter of the text, the goal has been to illuminate the large scale patterns that structure it. The King James Version, for instance, renders Paul’s letter with uncanny beauty but is opaque as an argument. Modern translations tend to have the same problem. Their overriding concern is with the letter of the text, not with its logic. As a result, Paul’s forest is always getting sacrificed for the sake of his trees. But Paul’s work is too important, his good news...

Philip Yancey has a way of confronting our most cherished--but misguided--notions about the Christian life. In The Bible Jesus Read, Yancey challenges the perception that the New Testament is more important than the Old, that the Hebrew Scriptures aren't worth the time they take to read and...

Understanding the Bible will provide you with a foundational comprehension of the entirety of Scripture with a focus on broadening your vision of Jesus Christ. This book answers foundational questions: Who wrote the Bible? What is its message? Why is it thought to be a "holy" book? How does one...

"The more I read the Bible, the more evident it becomes that everything I have ever taught or written about effective leadership over the past 25 years, Jesus did to perfection. He is simply the greatest leadership role model of all time." Effective leadership—whether on the job, in the...

The easy accessibility of the Bible in most of the world's major languages can obscure a dramatic and sometimes unexpected story. In Know How We Got Our Bible, scholars Ryan Reeves and Charles Hill trace the history of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, highlighting key figures...

John Shelby Spong, best-selling author and popular proponent of a modern, scholarly, and authentic Christianity, argues that this last gospel to be written was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus when in fact it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus' life through the medium of fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the "Beloved Disciple."

What was a Galilean? And if the question of the ancestry and nationality of Jesus is possible to answer, what are its political and theological implications? These questions are dealt with in this volume, featuring works by the composer Richard Wagner, the British Germanophile historian Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the German-American Bible translator and groundbreaking Middle East scholar Paul Haupt, and the Romanian law professor and politician A.C. Cuza.

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Know How We Got Our Bible: Audio Lectures includes high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the...