Bible Survey - bibliography

Bible Survey Course -- Written and published by Ronald W. Leigh
Copyright (c) 2000, Ronald W. Leigh

Annotated Bibliography

Bible Survey

Arnold, Bill T. & Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey. Baker Books, 1999 (512 pages): A complete survey on the early college level. Includes content, critical issues, and many "relevant" topics. Includes many (perhaps too many) color graphics, side bars, etc., and a companion CD. On controversial topics the authors often present opposing views fairly, then state the reasons they prefer the conservative view. Part of a series which includes a New Testament survey and two volumes of primary sources.
Hill, Andrew E. and John H. Walton. A Survey of the Old Testament. 2nd ed., Zondervan, 2000 (600 pages): A complete survey on the college level (slightly more difficult reading than Arnold and Beyer). Includes content and critical issues. Disappointing coverage of certain key passages such as creation, Isaiah 53, and Daniel's 70 weeks. Relatively conservative.
Schultz, Samuel J. The Old Testament Speaks. Harper & Brothers, 1960 (436 pages): Thorough and very helpful integration of Old Testament events with historical and political backgrounds. Adopts the order of books in the English Bible, with some modifications.
Payne, J. Barton. An Outline of Hebrew History. Baker, 1954 (257 pages): Organized around twelve historical periods from the patriarchs through the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This volume is packed with helpful biblical and historical information, a great number of facts and insights on every page.
Geisler, Norman L. A Popular Survey of the Old Testament. Baker Book House, 1977 (299 pages): Brief, but lots of helpful material. Good chapter on inspiration and canon. Geisler emphasizes (perhaps over-emphasizes) that every Old Testament book relates directly to Christ. Very conservative. Alliteration is distracting. Lacks index.
Benware, Paul. Survey of the Old Testament. Revised. Moody Press, 1993 (279 pages): Brief coverage of each book of the Old Testament. Conservative and dispensational. Written for laymen. Covers the eleven "foundational" (historical) books first, then relates the remaining twenty-eight to the first eleven. Very brief notes at the end of the book on the the authorship of the pentateuch, different views of origins, date of the exodus, etc.
Balchin, John et. al. The Compact Survey of the Bible (Opening Up God's Word). Bethany House, 1985 (286 pages): Begins with a brief (5 page) introduction to the Bible. Then each book is presented in similar fashion, namely, introduction, outline, message, application, and key themes. Conservative approach. High school level. No maps or charts.
Harris, R. Laird. Your Bible: An Introduction to the Word. Evangelical Teacher Training Association, 1976 (??? pages): Provides an excellent first introduction to the Bible. Short, but not oversimplified.
Dorsey, David A. The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis - Malachi. Baker Books, 1999 (330 pages): An enlightening analysis of the structure of every literary unit in the Old Testament, emphasizing the significance of structure in communicating meaning and emphasis. Focuses far more on structure than on "commentary" (in the usual sense of the word).
Jensen, Irving L. Jensen's Survey of the Old Testament. Moody Press, 1978 (488 pages): Theologically conservative. Dispensational approach to prophetic passages. Many charts and diagrams. A significant portion of each chapter is devoted to questions and directions for studying the biblical text. Little discussion of critical issues (authorship, chronology, miracles, etc.) or key passages (Genesis 1-3, Genesis 12 and the covenant, Isaiah 53, etc.).
Lasor, William Sanford, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush. Old Testament Survey. 2nd edition. Eerdmans, 1996 (887 pages): Argues for the unity of Isaiah and against Solomonic authorship of Ecclesiastes.
Tenney, Merrill C. and Walter M. Dunnett. New Testament Survey. Rev. ed. Eerdmans, 1985 (473 pages): Excellent and thorough discussion of background and content, plus canon and transmission. This revision of Tenney's classic (published 1953 and 1961) contains new and updated material and graphics, but attempts to retain the high caliber of the original.
Tenney, Merrill C. New Testament Times. Eerdmans, 1965 (396 pages): Excellent and thorough discussion of first century history and culture. Includes explanations of the historical sources used, the political and cultural scenes, the religious and cultic factors, as well as backgrounds for various key New Testament events.
Metzger, Bruce M. The New Testament, Its Background, Growth, and Content. 2nd edition, enlarged. Abingdon Press, 1983 (309 pages): Excellent, balanced presentation of background material, plus helpful discussions of critical issues. In his discussion of miracles, Metzger states that "one should beware of being influenced by an outmoded rationalistic prejudice against the possibility of miracles."
Gundry, Robert H. A Survey of the New Testament. 3rd ed. Zondervan, 1994 (400 pages): Coverage of critical issues. Gundry has been criticized for his position on biblical inerrancy, and voluntarily resigned from the Evangelical Theological Society whose very brief doctrinal basis reads "The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs."
Elwell, Walter A. & Robert W. Yarbrough. Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey. Baker Books, 1998 (416 pages): A companion to Arnold's Encountering the Old Testament (see above).
Barrett, C. K. The New Testament Background: Selected Documents. Harper & Row, 1956 and 1961 (276 pages): Many citations from a wide variety of documents including historians and philosophers, papyri and inscriptions, and other literature, with helpful introductions.


Rohl, David M. Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest. Crown Publishers, 1995 (425 pages) Originally published as A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History. Century Ltd., 1995.: A realignment of the sequence and dates of Egyptian dynasties with biblical history. Contrary to older schemes which place the exodus in the 18th or 19th dynasty, Rohl shifts the dynasties so that the exodus (1447) occurs at the end of the 13th dynasty. This scheme leads to historical verification of key Israelite events and figures surrounding the periods of the Egyptian sojourn, exodus, the conquest, and the united kingdom.

Translation Philosophy

Ryken, Leland. The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation. Crossway Books (a division of Good News Publishers), 2002 (336 pages)

A critique of the approach to Bible translation known as dynamic equivalence. This approach, which Ryken blames largely on Eugene Nida, has been popularized by the spate of modern translations during the second half of the twentieth century. The book covers many aspects of Bible translation focusing especially on parallels with literature translation in general. Full of examples. Ryken lists a number of weaknesses in the dynamic equivalence philosophy and argues in favor of "essentially literal" translation which follows as closely as possible the vocabulary, syntax, and figures of the original. His overall argument is somewhat successful. However, there is some doubt that he has represented the dynamic equivalence philosophy with complete accuracy. He appears to hold an oversimplified view of the translation process, as though word for word equivalence with occasional adjustments is all that is needed. Although Ryken includes the NIV among dynamic equivalence translations, he acknowledges that it is more conservative in translation style than most others in that category. He frequently quotes from the English Standard Version (Crossway Publishers) to illustrate good translation practice. (It should be noted that he served as literary stylist for the ESV.) One of this book's most significant contributions is a clear demonstration that dynamic equivalence translations, especially those that are least literal (most free or paraphrastic) attempt to simplify the Bible for modern readers. This simplification often removes figurative language and mixes translation with interpretation, which tends to distance the reader from the original. One weakness of the book is that Ryken analyzes the entire range of translations in terms of an over simplified, two category scheme – essentially literal versus dynamic equivalence. In reality, a continuum exists which ranges from very literal to very free. In the last few chapters, Ryken states that a translation needs to preserve the original's poetic elements and to exhibit good rhythm in English. But the more a translator follows the "essentially literal" approach which Ryken champions, the less the translator will be able to accomplish this. The chapter on rhythm is especially weak since it uses as its standard the King James Version rather than the original. Repetitive.

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