Free Kindle book on the Sermon on the Mount

DeWard Publishing Company is offering a free Father’s Day Kindle download for a limited time.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount) by Paul Earnhart is available for free download from this link.

Paul Earnhart has served as minister at the Douglass Hills Church of Christ, Louisville, Kentucky, for many years. He is recognized for both his scholarly and practical approach to Biblical subjects.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the seminal announcement of the teaching of Jesus.

This is a great book for any father, or anyone else interested in spiritual matters.

Thanks to DeWard Publishing Company for this gracious gift. Take a look at their other publications.

Major revision of the Pictorial Library of the Bible Lands

Todd Bolen announces the release of a total revision of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. This revised and expanded edition is the culmination of 9 years of work. The previous version contained 6000 photographs in 10 volumes. According to the announcement,

This new edition consists of 18 volumes with nearly 18,000 photographs, adding hundreds of new sites and re-visiting the old favorites.

Here are just a few features of the new edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

• Eight new volumes: (Lebanon, Eastern and Central Turkey, The Greek Islands, and more. New subjects include Cultural Images, Signs, and Trees, Plants, and Flowers.
• New Photos: For example, more than 1000 new photos have been added to the Jerusalem volume.
• New Photographers. In addition to the photos by Todd Bolen, the work of more than 40 photographers are included in this new set.
• New Maps. New, original maps have been created to identify the sites.
• New Indexes. Every photograph is indexed in a list of more than 400 pages.
• You get the hi-res photos and the photos already in PowerPoint. You can use the presentation as it is or include individual slides in your own lesson.
• And more…

Front cover of the new Pictorial Library Complete Collection.

For those who already own the previous collection, Bible Places is offering the new 18-volume set for the upgrade price of $179. The entire set for new purchasers is $389.

Would you prefer to make your own photos? Try buying a good digital SLR camera starting at about $1500, flying to Israel (not to mention Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, the Greek Islands, Italy, et al.), renting a car for a few weeks, buying the gas. Oh, and don’t forget to hire a private plane for a few hours so you can get some good aerial photos. That might cost at least $389. And what if the lighting conditions were not right for a good photos the day you were at a site? What if you don’t have time to get your photos organized and write a description of each one? Need I go on to make a point? Did I mention that living and teaching in Israel for a decade helps?

Every church should have a set of this material for the teachers to use in their teaching. Over the years I have found that some short-sighted groups (churches) will not make such an expenditure. The other choice is to buy the set for yourself.

I hear several lessons a week, and every one of them could be improved by the use of photos from this wonderful collection.

Learn more about the new Pictorial Library of Bible Lands in the following places:

• Bible Places Newsletter.
• BiblePlaces. Com.
• PLBL Complete Collection.

Charles Savelle has a good interview with Todd Bolen at the BibleX blog here.

I have profited much from the work of Todd Bolen and am delighted to count him as a friend and to recommend this collection of photographs to every teacher of the Bible.

Follow the BiblePlaces.com Blog here.

The Man of Galilee available in Kindle format for 99¢

DeWard Publishing Company announces today that Atticus G. Haygood’s The Man of Galilee in available in Kindle format for 99¢. This, in my judgment, is one of the finest books written, apart from the Bible, to direct people to a proper understanding of Jesus..

I don’t know how long it will be available for this incredibly low price, but I suggest you get it now from this link.

Cambridge Greek Testament closes at Logos Friday noon

We have called attention to Logos community pricing before, especially when there is a publication we think ministers and other Bible students would find helpful.

Cambridge Greek Testament for illustration. The Logos product is a download.

The Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges is such a set. These 21 volumes were written by 15 well-known scholars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Barber describes the set this way,

Dated, but still valuable for their brief exegetical comments. (The Minister’s Library)

Logos indicates that the retail price for this set is $389.95. I would not consider paying that price even if I did not already have it on my shelves. But, until noon Friday (PST) Logos has the set in digital format (download) for $26.00. It could go lower. If you use Logos, don’t let this one pass you by. Here is the link.

My bid was placed Nov. 4, 2010. Using Logos teaches patience.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.