Category Archives: Books

Cenchrea — a port used by Paul and Phoebe

Posted on October 27, 2010 | 4 comments

Cenchrea is located a few miles east of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf, an arm of the Aegean Sea. In the time of the Apostle Paul Cenchrea was considered the eastern port of Corinth. It was here that Paul had his hair cut before sailing for Syria.

Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow. (Acts 18:18 NAU)

Our photo provides a view of the port and the northern breakwater.

The port of Cenchrea with view toward the northern breakwater. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Port of Cenchrea with view toward the northern breakwater. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Cenchrea was the home of Phoebe, who was a servant of the church there. Cenchrea would have been one of the unnamed churches “in the whole of Achaia” (2 Corinthians 1:1).

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well. (Romans 16:1-2 NAU)

I think we may safely conclude that Phoebe sailed from this port to Rome with the epistle Paul write to the saints at Rome about A.D. 57.

Except for the port, little is to be seen of ancient Cenchrea. Some underwater excavations have taken place. Perhaps at a later time we will call attention to some of the discoveries.

Click on the image if you would like to have a copy of the photo suitable for use in teaching Acts, Romans, or the life and ministry of Paul.

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Posted in Archaeology, Bible Places, Bible Study, Books, Greece, New Testament, Photography, Travel

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Still not using Logos Bible Software?

Posted on October 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

From time to time I am requested to spend some time with a younger preacher (intern/trainee). I always ask if he is using Logos Bible Software. But, I find many older preachers who seem to know nothing of the program. A little over a year ago I commented on buying Bible software here. I said,

Every young preacher should stop buying junk, ready-mixed pabulum, and get some real tools. Another advantage is that you will have no books to loan!

The thing that stirred me up today is the eNewsletter I received from Rejoice Christian Software. They are offering the Essential IVP Reference Collection 3.0 for $89.95 through October 23. They say this is a saving of 88% off the print list price.

The collection includes over 12,000 pages including…

  • Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
  • Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
  • Dictionary of the later NT and its Developments
  • Dictionary of New Testament Background
  • IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
  • IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
  • New Bible Dictionary (2nd ed.)
  • New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Ed.
  • Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
  • New Bible Atlas
  • New Dictionary of Biblical Theology
  • New Dictionary of Theology
  • And several other works.

Did I mention that you can buy the Thomas Nelson Bible Study Library for $29.95? I am not saying that any of these books are the best, but I am sure they will be useful.

If you look up the Essential IVP Reference Collection at Rejoice Christian Software it shows a retail price of $190, with their price being $115. The special this week is $89.95, but you must order here. You will probably pay $3 or $4 for shipping. Give up some frivolity for the next few weeks and get this set of books.

Did I mention that you can search the entire collection at one time?

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Posted in Bible Study, Book Review, Books, New Testament, Old Testament

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Glo – the Bible for a Digital World

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Rejoice Christian Software announces that the Glo Digital Bible is available for $45.00 for one week. They already sell it for the discounted price of $52, but when you click on “Buy Now” the price shows as $45.

Glo - The Digital Bible

Take a look at the RCS page advertising Glo here. You will see a link to a video explaining some features of the product. This is a great product at a good price.

The Biblical Studies and Technological Tools blog has two extended reviews of Glo. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

I have no financial interest in RCS, but I have found their prices and service to be as advertised.

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Prof. Donald Wiseman – 1918-2010

Posted on February 6, 2010 | 1 comment

The passing of Professor Donald Wiseman is reported by Rob Bradshaw here.

Wiseman was well known as an Old Testament scholar. The bibliography of his writings is extensive. His Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology, published in 1958, has been one of the most practical and helpful books in my library. Wiseman read the small Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594 B.C. in the British Museum in 1955. He describes the document in these words:

The events described include the Battle of Carchemish and the accession of Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 BC. The fifth paragraph related the capture of Jerusalem on March 16th, 597 BC, the appointment of Zedekiah as king and the removal of Jehoiachin and other prisoners to exile in Babylonia. (Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology 69)

Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594 B.C.

Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594 B.C. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

The Biblical account of these events is recorded in 2 Kings 24:10-17.

HT: Bible Places Blog.

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Posted in Archaeology, Bible Study, Books, Old Testament

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Preparing for a Trip to Israel

Posted on December 2, 2009 | 3 comments

Occasionally I get a request from someone planning their first trip to Israel asking for suggestions on books to help them prepare for the trip.

There are some excellent books we suggest for your study before and during the tour. Below is a list of books which we recommend for your use. Begin with The Holy Land by Murphy- O’Connor. It will take you a while to read and mark the book. You will enjoy the book much more once you return home and begin to use it as a resource. Of course, this is true of many of the books listed here.

  • Baly, Denis. Basic Biblical Geography (Fortress) paperback. Brief introduction. Any books by Baly can be helpful.
  • Beitzel, Barry J. The Moody Atlas of Bible Lands (Moody). A complete atlas of Bible lands.
    Dyer, Charles H. and Gregory A. Hatteberg. The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land. Broadman and Holman, 1998.
  • Eyewitness Travel Guides. Jerusalem & the Holy Land. DK Publishing. This book has beautiful plans of the buildings.
  • Frank, Harry Thomas (ed.). Atlas of the Bible Lands (Broadman). Concise atlas; good maps.
  • Hoppe, Leslie J. A Guide to the Lands of the Bible. Liturgical Press., 1999. Cover Israel, Jordan, and other areas.
  • Miller, Max. Introducing the Holy Land. This book is out of print, but you might be able to locate a used copy.
  • Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. The Holy Land (Oxford), paperback. Excellent.
  • Page, Charles R. and Carl A. Volz, The Land and the Book (Abingdon).
  • Ullian, Robert, ed. Israel: Past and Present. A beautiful guide to the 16 top archaeological sites in Israel. Overlays illustrate how the sites might have looked in ancient times.
  • Vos, Howard F. The Wycliffe Historical Geography of Bible Lands (Hendrickson). This is the completely revised 2003 edition. The book was originally published in 1967, edited by Pfeiffer and Vos. Excellent.

The books we have listed above are not typical travel books, but accurate, scholarly books. Some are in a popular style. Travel books can be helpful, however. Many sites you visit will offer small booklets about those places.

If you can only buy three books, I suggest Murphy-O’Connor, Eyewitness Travel Guides and Hoppe.

Some of the popular travel guides that provide good info include: Let’s Go Israel, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guides. The last two guides are intended primarily for individual travelers, but I find them helpful.

You may order any of these books from Amazon by going to our Biblical Studies Info Book Store here.

Internet Sites. What web pages would be helpful for the first time (or repeat) traveler? Obviously I suggest Ferrell’s Travel Blog and the BiblePlaces Blog by Todd Bolen. You will need to use the search box to search for posts dealing with places you plan to visit.

Go to the Biblical Studies Info Page here. Click on Bible Places. There you will find many links to specific places in Israel and other countries. I suggest you also go to the Scholarly Page and check the Archaeology section and the Blogs. Todd Bolen’s BiblePlaces is an excellent source. You will likely find good information and photos from the places you plan to visit.

The books may be ordered at a discount from Amazon at the Biblical Studies Info Bookstore. Perhaps some of our readers with experience in traveling to the Bible lands will add some additional suggestions in comments.

Ibex at En Gedi near the Dead Sea. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Ibex at En Gedi near the Dead Sea. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

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Posted in Bible Places, Bible Study, blog, Books, Israel, Travel

Another aerial view of Tel Dor

Posted on November 18, 2009 | 1 comment

This view of Tel Dor and the Mediterranean coast was made in 2000 by the well-known photographer Zev Radovan. Look through almost any Bible Dictionary or other well illustrated book on Bible subjects and you will see some photos credited to Zev. Back in 2000, when I was still teaching at Florida College I approached Zev about making some photos for our use in teaching.

It took a couple of months before he had a good day to make these photos. Several times he sent Emails to let me know he was ready and had the helicopter reserved when the weather was good. I think this was made in May.

Aerial view of Tel Dor and the Mediterranean coast. Photo by Zev Radovan.

Aerial view of Tel Dor and the Mediterranean coast. Photo by Zev Radovan.

The photo we published here on November 16 was made looking north. This one is made looking south-east. Even though the tel is not shown as large in this photo, you will see that considerable archaeological work has been done in the past 9 years. You know that in those days photos were still being made in 35mm slide format.

An impressive location, indeed.

Take a look at Zev Radovan’s Bible Land Pictures Photo Archives here. Zev told me an interesting story back in 2000. He said that years earlier he could go out into the countryside and easily find a man plowing with a wooden plow pulled by a donkey. Now, in 2000, he said he would go out and find a man plowing, but with a cell phone on his belt. It has become difficult to find the biblical-type scenes as the country has become more mechanized.

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Posted in Archaeology, Bible Places, Books, Israel, Old Testament, Photography

Dan Brown’s novels: Fact or Fiction?

Posted on October 7, 2009 | 1 comment

On the plane from Rome last week I noticed someone reading The Lost Symbol. I think the Today Show made a lot of the book a few weeks ago. I gave some attention to The Da Vinci Code here, but don’t plan to do the same for this new book.

The Telegraph, in an article by Tom Chivers, mentions 50 factual errors in the two books by Dan Brown.

Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol opens with a bold word: FACT. “All rituals, science, artwork, and monuments in this novel are real”, it says.

The Da Vinci Code, his previous bestseller, began in a similar fashion. “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”, Brown says before the prologue.

Chivers discusses the categories of History, Geography, Science, Symbols, Religion and Mythology, Language, and Miscellany.

Swiss Guard at the Vatican. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Swiss Guard at the Vatican. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Here is one of the mistakes that would not matter much except for the fantastic claim that everything in the books are true.

Langdon says the Swiss Guard’s outfits were “designed by Michelangelo himself.” This is an urban myth: Michelangelo had nothing to do with them. The current uniforms were designed by Commandant Jules Repond between 1910 and 1921.

The Vatican’s official web site says,

The colours which make the uniform so attractive are the traditional Medici blue, red and yellow, set off nicely by the white of the collar and gloves. The blue and yellow bands give a sense of lightness as they move over the red doublet and breeches. The Guard’s every-day uniform is completely blue. With the passing centuries there have been a few minor changes, but on the whole the original dress has been maintained. It is commonly thought that the uniform was designed by Michelangelo, but it would seem rather that he had nothing to do with it. However, Raffaello certainly did influence its development, as he indeed influenced fashion in general in Italy in the Renaissance, through his painting.

I wondered how I would ever use this good photo of a Swiss Guard at the Vatican.

HT: Biblical Paths

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Posted in Book Review, Books, Church History, Photography, Travel

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Good deal on Bible study CD

Posted on August 18, 2009 | 1 comment

From time to time I order Bible software from Rejoice Christian Software. I have no stock in the company, but am delighted to recommend some of their deals to others.

zondervant0310274486Rejoice has Zondervan’s Understanding the Bible Library 6.0 available as a special for only $35.95, less than the price of two volumes in print. You may read about the program details here, but you must go to a special link which I received by Email for the low price. Click here. The Email says it is o.k. to email it to a friend. This is my Email to you.

This program is published by Zondervan. Therefore it uses the Pradis format. This is the only way to get some of the Zondervan titles in digital format.

Here are a few of the significant titles in this program.

  • New International Bible Dictionary. Ed. F. F. Bruce.
  • New International Bible Dictionary. Ed. J. D. Douglas.
  • New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology. Ed. Blaiklock and Harrison.
  • New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. Archer.
  • New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words. Richards.
  • Asbury Bible Commentary.
  • Five Bible versions.

It is unfortunate that I have to open my Libronix program and my Pradis program when I am researching something, but that’s the way it is. Yes, I already have most of these in print, but I love being able to search the entire book on the computer.

The offer is valid through August 22, 2009.

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Posted in Archaeology, Bible Study, Books, New Testament, Old Testament

Great source for periodical articles

Posted on August 15, 2009 | Leave a comment

Rob Bradshaw, over in the UK, has a passion for making available good, scholarly articles from old periodicals. This isn’t as easy as it may sound. He must know the literature, be able to locate a copy of the journal, obtain permission from the author or publisher, scan it, OCR, put into Word format, put it into a portable format such as PDF, post it online, etc.

Most recently I have downloaded J. A. Thompson’s 1964 booklet, The Ancient Near Eastern Treaties and the Old Testament. It is true that I have a copy of this booklet in my library, but I like having the material on my computer for easy searching. A couple of evenings ago I noticed that John R. W. Stott’s The Preacher’s Portrait. Some New Testament Word Studies was available. Now I have a copy on my computer. Did I mention that Rob sometimes scans books? Recently he has made available Carl F. H. Henry’s Revelation and the Bible. There are some great chapters in that book.

Use the search box to locate authors in which you may be interested. There is material by Edward J. Young, F. F. Bruce, et al.

Follow the link to this treasure of significant material: BiblicalStudies.org.uk. Thanks Rob.

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Posted in Bible Study, Biblical Studies, Books, New Testament, Old Testament

Get 1,000 Bible Images now

Posted on May 27, 2009 | 2 comments

Logos has announced the publication of 1,000 Bible Images for the pre-pub price of $19.95. Estimated ship date is June 2. This means you should buy today! Check full info here. I think these are all black and white drawing, but they will look good in PowerPoint or for use in class handouts. Here is a brief description of the program.

Don’t just read the Bible, see the Bible!

Now you can literally see the people, places, and events of the Bible text—right in front of your eyes! Bring your study of the Bible to life with this collection of 1,000 images, drawings, and illustrations—all produced by professional artists under the supervision of biblical scholars, in association with the German Bible Society. This vivid artwork shows the biblical sites, religious objects, plants and animals, archaeological findings, scenes from daily life in the Bible, and much more! As reliable documentation of biblical life, these images often give a better illustration and explanation than the text itself can give.

Each image includes information which explains the historical and archaeological background, giving you context and study material to understand scenes from the Bible, making this collection a must-have for teachers and pastors, as well as anyone interested in the history, archaeology, and culture in the Bible.

What’s more, with Logos, you can quickly access the Bible text relevant to each image! We make it easy to search for images by keyword, by Bible reference, or by each image description. These images will aid your personal study and sermon preparation, and will serve as a valuable teaching tool when you use them on your handouts or projected presentations. As you study the Bible, you can instantly see what you’re reading about!

This program is in the Libronix Digital Library System and may be downloaded (by those who have the LDLS installed, or by DVD. Here is a reduced illustration from the publication.

Drawing of Ancient Babylon from 1,000 Bible Images.

Drawing of Ancient Babylon from 1,000 Bible Images.

HT: Bible Places Blog.

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Posted in Bible Places, Bible Study, Books

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