Five Books for Your Christmas List!
I’m a huge believer that every Christian should get acquainted with the world that Biblical authors lived and wrote in. We can’t just assume that the writers of the Bible thought like us today—that’s unrealistic and not fair to the Scriptures. Instead, during the events and writing of New Testament, their world looked quite different.
So if you want to know more about the context of your favorite books, or the world Jesus walked around in, then I have some books for you! And if you are wanting Christmas gifts for your Bible nerd friend, fellow Christian, or yourself–these are great options. Oh and by the way, by “best books” in the title I really mean “my favorite books.”
TERMINOLOGY
Real quick, I want to break down what I mean by “reading level.” Some of these books are written at a more POPULAR level, this book is going to be accessible to anyone and isn’t written just for scholars. Then I have a category called ADVANCED POPULAR because it’s a work I think is accessible to most people but might be a little more technical in some of its content and language. Finally, I have the category ACADEMIC to denote a work that is aimed toward scholars and researchers, usually citing lots of quality sources, and it might contain the original languages.
(Hey, if you end up buying anything from the Amazon links, I do get a small referral fee. Thanks for supporting my content!)
An Introduction to the New Testament
Subtitle: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation
Author(s): David A. deSilva
Reading Level: Advanced Popular
I’m a huge fan of anything David deSilva writes. This book is no exception. In An Introduction to the New Testament deSilva insightfully explores the New Testament world and goes through each book in the canon, parsing out key issues, theologies, and food-for-thought. For an introductory look at the New Testament, this book is comprehensive! There are few stones, it seems, that deSilva leaves unturned. I can’t stress enough how helpful this book is!
While this is a hefty volume—yes, it’s near a thousand pages—it actually reads very easy. I was tempted to put it in the Academic category, but the style, pictures, maps, and illustration actually make it an inviting and engaging read. However, this work is probably best used as a reference when you want background on a specific book, but I would encourage you to read the first three chapters about how society operated in the New Testament world because that will honestly inform how you view every New Testament book. As a cherry on the top, deSilva gives a ministry application for each book he goes over.
Yes, you need to buy this book. Whether you are a pastor, scholar, or curious student of the Bible, this is your must-have.
Encountering the New Testament
Subtitle: A Historical and Theological Survey
Author(s): Walter A. Elwell & Robert W. Yarbrough
Reading Level: Popular
I first read this in my undergrad class “The Story of the New Testament” that all students were required to take. So while Encountering the New Testament is filled with fine scholarship, it’s easy to devour for non-Bible scholars (though it’s certainly designed as a textbook). Elwell and Yarbrough’s introduction work clocks in at about half the page count as deSilva’s An Introduction to the New Testament, so it is certainly less daunting. It’s full-colored and has helpful pictures and maps to orient yourself in the New Testament landscape.
Encounter the New Testament offers several general insights on every book but pays special attention to the main theological contribution of each book. It’s an awesome introduction to the theologies present throughout the Scriptures, presented in an easy-to-digest way. I’d recommend it to students and pastors, but probably not those really wanting in-depth research.
Handbook of Biblical Social Values
Subtitle: NA
Author(s): John J. Piltch & Bruce J. Malina
Reading Level: Advanced Popular
Picking up a copy of the Handbook of Biblical Social Values might just change your life. It’s a well-researched look into the cultural world of the ancient Mediterranean context, organized like a dictionary of terms. If you want to look up altruism, you can turn to just that page. To know more about love, there is an entry explaining how the concept works in that world. Unlike Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity which I will recommend next, this book discusses a wide variety of values (instead of just four), sacrificing in-depth explanations. However, for most people, these explanations will be all you’ll need to begin to look at the Bible in a new light.
Piltch and Malina both are astute New Testament scholars, and they bring that insight to this work. While it’s mostly accessible, the introduction does include some advanced terminology and can get confusing if you aren’t up to date on cultural anthropology. Their social-scientific approach to Scripture is, though, so illuminating. Looking so deeply into a culture even can help you look deeply into how our own culture today operates. Handbook of Biblical Social Values will help you think just like a person in the New Testament (it also helps you understand people in the Old Testament too).
Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity
Subtitle: Unlocking New Testament Culture
Author(s): David A. deSilva
Reading Level: Academic
As I said earlier, David deSilva delivers some A-class scholarship. In Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity he goes over four main values in the Greco-Roman world that the New Testament was written in. Much of these concepts he covers in the first chapters of An Introduction to the New Testament but here he goes into greater depth and discusses examples of the trait in the literature of the time period. After reading deSilva’s work, I developed a greater appreciation for a socio-cultural interpretive strategy. Things just click when you know how the world worlds!
It’s a scholarly and academic work, but you’ll be floored when you realize what “grace” meant in New Testament times, and how that can help us describe the concept today. Or how an understanding of kinship in ancient times contributes to the Christian understanding of the church as a family. After reading this, and maybe rereading it because at times it can be complex, you’ll wonder why you’ve never heard this stuff before! If you are willing to put in a little more work to your reading, this needs to be on your wish list.
Paul and Gender
Subtitle: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ
Author(s): Cynthia Long Westfall
Reading Level: Academic
Cynthia Long Westfall’s Paul and Gender makes it on the list because it is so eye-opening! Westfall contextualizes Paul’s views on gender and in the process fleshes out the culture’s views on gender and sexuality. It serves not only as a great work interpreting Paul’s view on women in a more positive light, but as a great introduction to the Greco-Roman social customs, roles of men and women, and views on sexuality. It’s a book that is so relevant to today’s church climate which wonders about the roles of women in the church and in society in the modern era (See my article on this topic from a theological perspective).
Westfall’s book isn’t a hard read, but her approach is highly technical. She examines the original Greek, other Greco-Roman authors of the time, and cites source after source! So while I think most people could approach the book, I want to warn that it does offer a lot of complex information on a very complex topic. For anyone wanting a glimpse at family life in the New Testament times or wanting to figure out how to make sense of Paul’s comments on women, this is a great resource for the bookshelf.
Conclusion
Whatever book you add to your shelf, it’s so helpful to expand our vision of the Bible by bringing information about the geography, theology, culture, and original context of the texts that continue to shape our world today. There is a lot of great information that will rock your world and will allow you to better peek into the world of Scripture. Open up the Bible—really open it up wide and deep—and discover what you might have missed before.
See also my post The Best Books on Old Testament Backgrounds.
Bonus Books!
I haven’t read all of these, but I can confidently recommend:
- Backgrounds of Early Christianity by Everett Ferguson
- The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology by Bruce J. Malina
- What’s in the Word: Rethinking the Socio-Rhetorical Character of the New Testament by Ben Witherington the III
- The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine
