| youth minister's book shelf | | Date Created: Sep 15, 2004, 06:35 AM |
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On 14 Sep 2004, one of my students wrote:
I have recently begun working as the Director of Youth Ministries in a church in America and would like some advice about commentaries and reference materials pertaining to the New Testament. I have already ordered The Dictionaries of Jesus and the Gospels/Paul and His Letters/New Testament Background, and was wondering if there were any others which would be useful. |
| Hi, One-of-my-students [not her real name]. I totally agree with Dict of J&theGospels and P&hisLetters, but those are really the only two in the series that you'll use. So if it's not too late, cancel the order of Dict of New Testament Background. It'd be better to get a book about the New Testament background and read that. Julius Scott's Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament is that kind of book. It's not scintillating reading but at least it's not set up alphabetically, so it can be read. And it's probably got a good enough index that you can use it to look up specific things in future. |
| IVP's New Bible Dictionary or something like it is probably also worth having for more general needs about background or content. If you don't already have one, I would definitely pick up IVP's New Bible Commentary. It's expensive, like the Dictionaries, but you'll have a commentary that covers every book of the bible, so if someone asks about Nahum, you're cool. |
| The only other thing I would definitely add to this list is a copy of Eugene Peterson's The Message which includes the Old Testament. It's nice to have the New Testament, but the Old Testament is becoming indispensible to me outside my more serious professional work. Professionals say that it blurs the text, but I think for most needs it would be better to say that it softens the focus dramatically without blunting the message. |
| Oh, and of course, you'll want a compendium of Josephus's writings along with Philo and the Ante-Nicene Fathers. In the original Latin and Greek ....kidding.... |
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