Category Archives: Book Review

Florida College Lectures on Logos Pre-pub

Yesterday I explained a little about Logos Bible Software and their Community Pricing and Pre-publication Specials. Today I want to tell you about a set of Pre-pub books that are of special interest to me.

Florida College is an accredited (by the Southern Association) private liberal arts college that for decades has offered four years of Bible. The college does not accept funds from churches, but the board, administration and faculty are members of Churches of Christ that are often designated as non-instiutional.

Accreditation as a junior college was granted to Florida College in the mid-1950s, but the college continued to offer four years of Bible studies. Biblical Studies was the first accredited Bachelor’s degree to be offered in 1997.

Since its beginning in 1946, Florida College (earlier named Florida Christian College) conducted an annual Bible lecture program. Beginning in 1974 the main lessons in these lectureships were published in book form from the manuscripts of invited speakers. The speakers were teachers and ministers associated with Churches of Christ.

Melvin Curry followed Homer Hailey as chair of the Bible department after Hailey’s retirement in 1973. Nineteen of the volumes were edited by Curry. After that, it came my turn to edit ten volumes while I served as chair of Biblical Studies. Since my retirement in 2001, Daniel Petty has served as department chair and edited the annual lecture book.

FC Lectures 1996

One of the volumes in the Logos digital set.

There are a total of 38 volumes (1974–2011) in the series. Some of these volumes have been out of print for several years.

The Logos web site offers the following overview of the lecture books:

The Florida College Annual Lectures (1974–2011) brings you thirty-eight years of the college’s annual lectures series in complete written form. Prior to the first published lecture series in 1974, only content outlines were available.

Each volume includes fifteen or more lectures from contributors from various biblical fields, and focus on a specific theme. These themes deal with modern issues and are supported by recent scholarship. Learn what true worship entails. Discover how God can restore your life. Challenge yourself to share the gospel message. The Florida College Annual Lectures (1974–2011) (38 vols.) contains both informative and stimulating topics that allow you to apply the biblical principles found in its lectures to your daily walk with Christ.

With Logos, every word is essentially a link! Scripture references are linked directly to the Bibles in your library—both the original language texts and English translations. Logos Bible Software allows you to quickly move from the table of contents to your desired content and search entire volumes and collections by topic, title, or Scripture reference, making Logos the perfect software to expand your understanding of the Word.

How Pre-publication works. Books on Pre-pub will not be produced until Logos sees that there are enough orders to make the publication feasible. Interested customers lock in the pre-pub price. You must set up an account with Logos, but your card is not charged until the book or set is ready to deliver. You will be notified when the book is ready. At that time you have a choice to continue or cancel. You may have to wait 6 months or more until the work is ready.

The deal is great. This 38 volume set of Florida College Lectures is available on Pre-pub for $74.95. This set is scheduled to sell for $174 when it is published. Even that is a bargain.

Think about these 38 volumes for $75. There are more than 600 lectures. That’s about 12 cents per lecture. Even mine are worth that. The entire collection is searchable, along with all other works you have in your Logos collection. When a Scripture reference appears, simply mouse over it and the Scripture is visible in your preferred version of the Bible.

In a previous post here I have explained that you must have a Logos base package, or already have Logos on your computer. During the recent Florida College lectures, Logos offered a 15% discount on any base package. Just use the coupon code LECTURE2012.

Logos Bible Software is the premier digital publishing format for books dealing with Biblical Studies. If you are serious about Bible study, you need to investigate Logos.

In a future post, hopefully soon, I plan to explain why those not associated with Churches of Christ should find this set of books useful.

Meanwhile. Go to the Logos web site and place your Pre-pub order NOW. The sooner Logos publishes, the sooner we can begin to utilize the search features in this entire set. You can always get to the information by going to Logos.com. Look under Products for the Pre-publication Specials. The direct link to info about the Florida College Annual Lectures, with a list of every lecture, is here.

Another free Ebook — this one on James

Another of Gundry’s individual commentaries from his Commentary on the New Testament is free today for the Kindle and other compatible digital devices. Today only, I think.

This week it is the book of James. Follow this link to Amazon. Don’t imagine that you are getting a $49.99 book free. That is the price of the Commentary on the New Testament. James is only about 17 2-column pages of that book.

I think this may be the last of the free books from Baker Academic at this time. Several publishers seem to be following this model in order to get readers attracted to their publications — always in hope that you will buy other volumes.

Free Ebook on Ephesians

Baker Academic announces a series of ebook shorts from Robert H. Gundry. Last week the Commentary on Mark was given away. Today only, the Commentary on Ephesians is available free. Baker Academic E-NOTES says,

Baker Academic is proud to announce new ebook shorts from Robert H. Gundry.

In these verse-by-verse commentaries taken from Commentary on the New Testament, Robert Gundry offers a fresh, literal translation and a reliable exposition of every book of the New Testament.

Students and scholars will welcome Gundry’s nontechnical explanations and clarifications, and readers at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations. Priced from $1.99 to $5.99 these affordable and convenient resources are available wherever ebooks are sold.

As we celebrate the release of this series, Baker Academic will be making selected entries from this commentary series free for one day only.

This will be followed by other selections for free download on January 16th and 23rd.

Here is the direct link to the free ebook.

Do you need a Kindle? Click on the link below to check the selections.
Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi.

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Times Square, New York

Are you traveling to New York in the next few months? The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times exhibition at the Discovery Times Square building in New York City is worth a visit.

Gordon Franz, a Bible teacher and archaeologist, has written about the exhibition on his Life and Land blog here. Gordon is known to the regular readers of this blog. We have called attention to several of his articles, especially those about “cracked pot archaeology.”

In addition to giving the details about the exhibition and how to get a $5 discount on your ticket, Franz tells you how to access his 39-page guide which he has written specifically from a Christian perspective. Actually, it should be helpful for any serious student of the Bible.

War Scroll displayed at the Discovery Times Square in New York City.

War Scroll displayed at the Discovery Times Square in New York City.

This exhibition is much more than a few fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Artifacts, ossuaries, pottery, lamps, seals, and a stone from the wall build around the Temple Mount are included among the 500 items on display. The exhibition is on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority. The exhibition runs until April 15, 2012. After that it moves to Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute for a few months beginning in May.

Dead Sea Scrolls - Life and Faith in Biblical Times display

Dead Sea Scrolls - Life and Faith in Biblical Times display.

If you have the opportunity to visit this exhibition, you should read Gordon’s guide written from a Christian perspective. His guide will be helpful to anyone interested in Bible life and times, even if you don’t get to visit the exhibition. The link to the guide is located at his Life and Land website here.

Thanks to Gordon Franz for giving me a heads-up on his guide.

New insights into the clothing of the Qumran inhabitants

The recent edition of Dead Sea Discoveries has an article by Orit Shamir and Naama Sukenik on “Qumran Textiles and the Garments of Qumran’s Inhabitants.” The article costs $35 from Brill. To order click here. Here is the abstract.

Among the Qumran textiles that were kept at the Rockefeller Museum was a group of textiles that were unusual for Qumran. Most of them were made of wool, and some were dyed or decorated. Their marking QCC—Qumran Christmas Cave indicates their origin. In 2007 the cave was investigated by Porat, Eshel, and Frumkin. The cave is located in the bottom section of Kidron valley and doesn’t belong to Qumran caves. It can now be determined that all of the textiles from Qumran are made solely of linen. They were free of any colored decoration, except for scroll wrappers that decorated in blue. This, and the simplicity and whiteness of the textiles from Qumran, is compatible with the literary sources. It appears that the people of Qumran wished to differentiate themselves from the rest of the population also on the basis of their style of garments.

A popular article based on the technical paper appears in LiveScience here. Some speculation about the writers of the scrolls is based on the cloths found with the scrolls. Look also for an Image Album of 8 captioned photos including the textiles from Qumran and the Christmas Cave.

Most of the cloth wrappings found at Qumran were white and made of linen. The wrappings found at Christmas Cave were colorful and made of wool. The Mosaic law was clear about the clothing to be worn by the Israelites.

Do not wear clothes made of both wool and linen. (Deuteronomy 22:11 CSB)

Jodi Magness cites the War Scroll to illustrate that the “Qumran sectarian clothing must be made entirely of linen” (Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit, 116).

Most Bible students probably think of the Kidron valley running north to south between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. That is correct, except that the brook joins with the Hinnom valley and continues east to the Dead Sea.

The photo below was made about 4.25 miles south of Qumran along the Dead Sea Road (Hwy. 90) as it crosses the brook Kidron (Qidron). The Christmas Cave mentioned in the article is to the west (left) of the highway as the brook comes down from Jerusalem. (Click on the photo for a larger image.)

Location of the Brook Kidron on Dead Sea Road (view north). Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Crossing Brook Kidron on Dead Sea Road (view northeast). Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

When David fled from Jerusalem at the time of Absalom’s rebellion, he crossed the Kidron “toward the way of the wilderness.”

Everyone in the countryside was weeping loudly while all the people were marching past. As the king was crossing the Kidron Valley, all the people were marching past on the road that leads to the desert. (2 Samuel 15:23 CSB)

HT: Joseph I. Lauer

Enduring Word Exhibit at the Museum of Biblical History

The Museum of Biblical History in Collierville, Tennessee, announces the Enduring Word Exhibit In Celebration of the King James Bible’s 400th anniversary.

Would you like to know more about Johannes Gutenberg and his famous printed Bible? Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the printing press. If you go to the museum named after him in his hometown, Mainz, Germany, you can learn a lot about him. Instead, why not come to the Museum of Biblical History in Collierville, Tennessee, during our “Enduring Word” exhibit, open October 1 through 9, Sundays 1-5 PM, Monday-Saturday 10 AM-7 PM.

In addition to the Bible exhibit, a special feature of the exhibit is the operation of a full-scale working model of Gutenberg’s press.

By special arrangement Dr. Rusty Maisel will operate his full-scale, working model of Gutenberg’s press during this exhibit, in celebration of the King James Bible’s 400th year. He will print page facsimiles from Gutenberg’s famous Latin Bible of 1456 and from the first edition of the King James Bible of 1611. He will also exhibit his collection of ancient biblical manuscripts and early printed Bibles in our main museum gallery. Maisel, an international authority on the history of the Bible, can be with us for nine days only. Don’t miss this wonderful learning opportunity.

Ferrell Jenkins & Don Bassett at the Acropolis in Athens.

Ferrell Jenkins & Don Bassett at the Acropolis.

Details about the Museum of Biblical History, including this special exhibit, may be found on the Museum website here. Collierville is located a few miles southeast of Memphis, Tennessee.

Don Bassett is Chairman of the Museum of Biblical History. Don is a long time friend. Our tours crossed paths at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece a few years ago.

A special offer for Baker N.T. Commentary

Baker N.T. Commentary

Baker N.T. Commentary

Rejoice Christian Software makes some of the best offers on software of any seller that I know about. From now until September 22 they are offering the 12 volume Baker New Testament Commentary software program for the incredibly low price of $49.95. I think you will pay $2.95 for shipping in the USA. This means that for $53 you will have the software program covering all 27 books of the New Testament. These book are written by Presbyterian scholars William Hendriksen and Simon Kistemaker.

Read more about the commentary set here. Note that the price there is $79.95 (already a bargain), but you must go to this link to get the $49.95 price.

The Libronix software program needed to access the books is included.

Even if you have a few of the print volumes you can give them to someone who refuses to use a computer and still have a great deal for yourself.

I do not own stock in this company, and I already have the set on my computer. The deal is so good I am tempted to order again. 🙂

Be sure you sign up for the RCS newsletters.

Logos Community Pricing — some great bargains

If you use Logos (or Libronix) Bible Software you probably already know about Community Pricing. Logos takes on some older works and produces them in the Logos format only when there is sufficient interest to pay. Some may take a year; other may never make it to production.

Todd Bolen is hoping that more people will make a bid on the 16-volume collection of William M. Ramsay before the deal closes on Friday. At this time you can get the entire collection for $20. More orders might even push the price down. Info here. Even Ramsay’s less valuable works are worth $1.25.

See earlier posts about Sir William Ramsay here and here.

While you are at the Logos web site take a look at Travels through Bible Lands Collection (15 volumes). It is expected to sell for $20, but is still gathering interest.

Also take a look at the following books or sets:

  • Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (21 vols.)
  • A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (2 vols.), Hastings.
  • A Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.), Hastings.
  • Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (21 vols.), including 16 volumes by Meyer.

I have bids on all of these. Every bid moves us closer to being able to use these works with our Libronix/Logos Bible Software. These books are all old and some material is  out of date, but there is much of value.

Don’t have any Logos software? You can buy from Logos, or you can get started with some really great bargains from Rejoice Christian Software. (I have no stock in either company.) You can buy the Essential IVP Reference Collection 3.0 for $89.95. Start here. This offer is good through Aug. 30. Check for other specials. The Baker New Testament Commentary is available for $80. That is the set by Hendriksen and Kistemaker.

The khamsin (hamsin) before and after

Yesterday we wrote about the effect of the east wind on Larry’s hike along the Jesus Trail. Here is a brief followup that should be helpful.

Dr. Carl G. Rasmussen, author of Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, also maintains the Holy Land Photos website. He has a series of photos showing the effect of the khamsin (which he spells without the silent k, as hamsin), and the same view with normal visibility. To see these fascinating photos, with additional descriptive info, click here.

Carl now has 3230 photos of 322 biblical sites available on his website. The photos are available for free download in various sizes. Perhaps the most helpful feature to teachers and preachers is that they are available PowerPoint ready. He also discusses “The Transitional Seasons”, with the same beautiful photos, in the Zondervan Atlas of the Bible (rev. ed.) pages 30-31.

Click Zondervan Atlas of the Bible to order this book for $25.20 (free shipping). This is a savings of 37%.

A new BiblePlaces Newsletter

After a legitimate delay in publishing a new BiblePlaces Newsletter, Todd Bolen has done all of us a favor with the May issue.

He is offering a special discount on Views That Have Vanished: Photographs of David Bivin. The set of hi-res photos from the 1960s is available for $14 — a discount of 55%. This is a worthwhile material and should be useful to every Bible teacher. We reviewed the CD here in 2008.

Views That Have Vanished: Photographs of David Bivin.Available at a Great Discount.

Bolen is also giving away a 12-photo PowerPoint presentation of Off the Beaten Trail in Galilee.

If you do not already subscribe the the BiblePlaces Newsletter, I suggest you read the May issue here and then subscribe.