Moving On

D's mom usually gets us a gift card to Christianbook.com for Christmas each year. And I love getting it because we find some pretty neat stuff there, especially during the after-Christmas sales (we got stuff for $0.49 and free shipping this time!). Included in our order is this Chronological Study Bible (copyrighted by Thomas Nelson 2008) I found. It is the neatest thing. Here, I'll show you how part of the Introduction describes it:

The Bible was not written at one time nor by one author. The books of the Old and New Testaments were written over a period of more than 1,000 years, and their contents over a variety of ancient peoples and cultures. If we are to understand and appropriate the Bible's message today, we need some sense of the historical and cultural context in which its diverse parts appeared. We read the words of the Bible today under entirely different circumstances than those under which they were written. To neglect the historical and cultural background of the biblical books is to risk misunderstanding them.

Unfortunately for modern readers, the individual books of the Bible do not always provide the information necessary to understand the Bible's historical and cultural background. At the time that these books were written, readers would have already been familiar with the world the writings describe. But thousands of years later, the events and customs that the original readers would have recognized immediately are often confusing and only dimly understood by modern readers.

This study bible will take you on a journey through the history and culture of the Bible. It will allow you to step back into biblical times and discover the world out of which the Bible grew. It will help you follow the flow of events in the Scriptures and see where sacred and secular history converge into one story of salvation. You will learn how sacred history fits into the context of secular history--why an event happened, how events relate to each other, as well as the cultural, religious, political, and geographical background that influenced the events.

This Bible also includes several handy features:

• Transition Commentary ~ since different passages are pasted together, this explains how they relate to each other
• Epoch Introductions ~ how this particular Bible is divided, i.e. Epoch 1 is from creation to Israel's patriarchs
• Historical Overviews ~ explains secular history going on during biblical times
• Background Notes ~ explains events, customs, religions, cultures, politics, etc.
• Daily Life ~ duh
• Time Panels ~ timeline of events happening inside and outside the Bible within specific time periods
• Time Charts ~ visual overviews of important chronological topics in the Bible
• Maps ~ duh

D and I are really excited about reading the Bible this way. They have one- and two-year reading plans available online, so we may follow that.