The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook

by J. Daniel Hays, J. Scott Duvall (Editor)

One of the keys to enjoying an in-depth and rewarding experience of reading the Bible is recapturing the ancient world--its cultures, customs, and histories. With this innovative guide, readers can enrich their study with fascinating insights into the Bible and the world in which it was written.

The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook offers the most up-to-date evangelical biblical scholarship in a format that is readable and easy to understand. This book-by-book guide brings the Bible to life with more than 1,100 full-color pages packed with illustrations, maps, and photos, and 112 in-depth articles on a wide range of topics important to students of the Bible. Readers will discover how each part of the Bible fits into and informs every other part, giving them a cohesive understanding of God's Word.

No reference collection will be complete without this incredible new handbook to the Bible.

Genres: Reference, Christian, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction, History

1152 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

J. Daniel Hays (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary; PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies and professor of Old Testament at Ouachita Baptist University. He is the author of From Every People and Nation, and he has coauthored Grasping God's Word; Preaching God's Word; Journey into God’s Word; The Story of Israel: A Biblical Theology; Iraq: Babylon of the End Times?; Apocalypse; and The Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy. He teaches adult Sunday school at his local church in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and preaches frequently throughout the nation.

Reviews

[Bob Hayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook is such an attractive and beautiful book, I just had to try my hand at providing a video review. The book is as useful and informative as it is visually stunning. Unfortunately, my video review will not be of a high enough quality to do justice to the book. But please watch and let me know what you think. You can click to watch my review on Youtube or Vimeo.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Baker Books. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

[Derrick-jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is--by far--the best resource of its kind for those beginner Bible interpreters who are most concerned to discover the author's intent. The introductory material for each book of the Bible includes author, original audience, and occasion information that is indispensable to such a task.

[Joseph VanBuren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of each book of the Bible and how they fit with each other in a historical, cultural, and spiritual context. While most commentaries are microscopes on each verse, this handbook gives more of a big-picture view with lots of informative sidebars. The pictures weren't that helpful, and I wish they used the KJV. Otherwise, this was indeed a good read.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helps one learn the context of the circumstances behind the authorship oh the Bible, writers purpose and it is an open forum where many view points are mentioned if scholars and research cites different dates of when a book of the Bible was published it points that out. I just read though the Gospel of John using this and it really helped me get a better appreciation of Jesus' words because I understood the context of the time period the motives behind John's writing of he Gospel and the during the period John was written there was a struggle between the Jewish people and the Christians. That is why John Phrases things certain ways. it really hit me that this resource is excellent when on a break out text on a page explained that the Jewish festival in which Jesus said he is the living water that water was a significant part of the celebration and the water a paraded through the festival then poured on the alter...so wow!!! At that moment Jesus says he is the living water! That is BOLD, No wonder the Pharisees where mad. This context gave me a deeper appreciation for the timing of Jesus' messages and also helped me understand how earth shattering his words where. I'm looking forward to studying the whole Bible with this book. I read the Bible chapter first then read what this book had to say about that chapter then often because it helped me so much I went back and re-read the Bible chapter a second time before continuing on with my study.

[Judy Mish jentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book helped me in my journey through the Bible. When I would be beginning a new Book in the Bible, I would read about it first in this easy to read book. It helped me with application in passages and to follow the timeline.

The print is not too small. It is enjoyable to read with extras in the book to help add to the knowledge of history both during the OT and NT and what happed during the time between the two.

I gave this a 5 star because it really does help one's walk through the Bible.