Exploring the Bible

How well do you know the Bible? Do you know the stories? Do you know how the Bible is organized and how those texts were chosen? Have you ever thought about all the different ways people approach the Bible and decided for yourself what to think? If you said no to any of these questions, you need What Is the Bible? This six-week study in basic biblical literacy assumes no prior knowledge of the Bible and is not biased toward any particular Christian tradition. It is the first course in the popular set of Bible studies, Exploring the Bible: The Dickinson Series.

Back before Stonehenge or the wheel, back before the pyramids, math, or even the crudest writing existed, ancient peoples gathered and told stories. They told stories of how the world began, what the first people were like, and which of them were heroes or failures. They tried to make sense of the world around them and tried to sort out who the gods were and what those gods wanted from them. More than 10,000 years later, one set of those stories has come down to us in the form of the Old Testament. Perhaps you think you know it. Think again.

Jesus is the central figure of the New Testament and this third volume in the popular Exploring the Bible series examines Jesus in three distinct ways: A man like other men, a Jewish rabbi, and the Christ of Christian faith. Then it's on to the cantankerous Paul, the other New Testament authors, and the wild and baffling book called Revelation. Learn what Nazareth was like in the first century, discover what scholars know and don't know about Jesus as a historical figure, and explore how Paul really wrote all those letters. And who is the Antichrist anyway?