Biblical Studies

Explore Scripture through comparative readings, historical context, and interpretive tools that deepen understanding and support your preaching and worship preparation.

The Bible with and without Jesus: How Jews and Christians read the same stories differently

The editors of The Jewish Annotated New Testament explore how Jews and Christians can learn from and understand each other better by exploring how they read many of the same Bible stories through different lens.

Esteemed Bible scholars Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler take readers on a guided tour of the most popular Old Testament stories referenced in the New Testament to explore how Christians, Jews, and scholars read these ancient texts differently. Among the passages analyzed are the creation story, the role of Adam and Eve, the suffering servant passages in Isaiah, the sign of "Jonah" Jesus refers to, and the words Jesus quotes from Psalm 22 as he is dying on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Comparing Jewish, Christian, and academic interpretations of each ancient narrative, Levine and Brettler offer a deeper understanding of these contrasting faiths, and illuminate the  historical and literary significance of the Bible and its place in our culture. Revealing not only what Jews and Christians can learn from each other, The Bible With or Without Jesus also shows how to appreciate the distinctive perspectives of each. By understanding the depth and variety of reading these passages, we not only enhance our knowledge of each other, but also see more clearly the beauty and power of Scripture itself. 

How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour

A Guided Tour from Genesis through Revelation Reading the Bible need not be a haphazard journey through strange and bewildering territory. Like an experienced tour guide, How to Read the Bible Book by Book takes you by the hand and walks you through the Scriptures. For each book of the Bible, the authors start with a quick snapshot, then expand the view to help you better understand its key elements and how it fits into the grand narrative of the Bible. Written by two top evangelical scholars, this survey is designed to get you actually reading the Bible knowledgeably and understanding it accurately. In an engaging, conversational style, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart take you through a given book of the Bible using their unique, progressive • Orienting Data—Concise info bytes that form a thumbnail of the book • Overview—A brief panorama that introduces key concepts and themes and important landmarks in the book • Specific Advice for Reading—Pointers for accurately understanding the details and message of the book in context with the circumstances surrounding its writing • A Walk Through—The actual section-by-section tour that helps you see both the larger landscape of the book and how its various parts work together to form the whole. Here you are taken by the hand and told, “Look at this!” How to Read the Bible Book by Book can be used as a companion to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. It also stands on its own as a reliable guide to reading and understanding the Bible for yourself.

“The Well” curated online Library

The Well is a free, curated online library launched in July 2025 by Bible Society New Zealand, designed to support churches, educators, lay leaders, and ministry volunteers across Aotearoa Facebook+9United Bible Societies+9YouTube+9. It offers:

  • Bible Study guides for adults, youth, and children

  • Daily Scripture reading plans to nurture ongoing engagement

  • A "Little Believers" resources kit for early childhood faith formation

  • A Bible Quiz Pack for group engagement and community-building

  • A “Choosing the Right Bible” guide to help users select a suitable Bible version

  • Audio Bibles, including a Māori edition with English translations forthcoming

 

The platform is shaped as a ministry partnership tool — consolidating previously dispersed resources into one accessible hub. Its goal is to simplify access to Bible-based tools, encourage biblical literacy, and deepen faith engagement across diverse expressions of church, family, and community life in New Zealand.

BibleProject

BibleProject (formerly The Bible Project) is a non‑profit, crowdfunded ministry founded in 2014 by Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. It creates free, multimedia educational resources for exploring the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.

Key highlights:

 

  • Animated videos unpack each book of the Bible, key themes, literary design, and theological narrative .

  • Podcasts, study guides, online classes, and a mobile app extend learning beyond the videos .

  • Videos and resources are available in multiple languages, making it accessible globally .

  • As of early 2024, BibleProject had produced 180+ videos, 350 podcasts, and received over 620 million views across 200 countries.  The content is tailored for individuals, church groups, and educators in both devotional and teaching contexts.

A Way of Reading John’s Gospel: Cruciform Structures in a Cruciform Gospel

John's Gospel presents a compelling eyewitness account of Jesus' mission. It is written in simple language but consists of a rich profusion of ideas and themes that challenge the most learned scholars and can overwhelm the understanding of ordinary readers. Surprisingly, part of this complexity arises from the observation that the text appears to be rich in chiastic structures. This literary form is a Jewish style of writing, in which a series of ideas or themes is developed and then repeated in reverse order. (This pattern may be represented as, for example, A-B-C-D-D′-C′-B′-A′.) When the reader takes cognizance of this literary convention, the multiplicity of ideas falls into a more tractable pattern. This book is written by a layman for other ordinary readers in the hope that it will facilitate understanding of this Gospel in church and home study groups, Bible classes and schools, and family and personal devotions.

We have 1 copy of this book (paperback) available to a member who commits to read it and write a review for it.

The Field Guide to the Bible: Making Some Sense of an Ancient Book With Really Tiny Font.

For many young Christians and people new to the Bible, not knowing where to start reading is a key barrier to the Bible playing an important role in their faith. This along with confusion about how the Bible fits together as a whole and how it connects with real life has led Bible Society to develop a unique brand new product: The Field Guide to the Bible.

At more than 100 pages, and including lots of Bible reading helps, fun tips and illustrations, The Field Guide to the Bible is especially designed to equip young people with ways to connect with God through the Bible. It also features a timeline and narrative of key events in the Bible as well as practical, brief, introductions to each book of the Bible.

Jeremy Woods, Youth and Young Adult Specialist at BSNZ says it’s a unique product as so many existing Bible commentaries and study guides are aimed at an adult audience and are quite complex, especially for young people new to the Bible and the Christian faith.

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