{"id":304,"date":"2014-06-13T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=304"},"modified":"2014-07-13T21:39:04","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:39:04","slug":"bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Students, Pastors, Youth Pastors<\/p>\n<p>Genre: Cultural \/ Historical Reference<\/p>\n<p>FBSN Rating: B<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One big obstacle to understanding the Bible, especially for younger Christians, is the enormous cultural differences between our modern society and the lives of the ancients. In an age of international democratization, media saturation, and moral intolerance, how are we supposed to understand throwback references to wineskins and casting lots, or to shearing sheep and obsolete Pharisaical laws?<\/p>\n<p>With<i> The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times<\/i>, John A. Beck aims to help us bridge that experiential gap in our cultural understanding. Organized topically from A-Z, this book delivers historical background and cultural commentary on 100 different concepts from biblical times. Unlike other similar books, Beck doesn\u2019t pick out a cultural setting (such as \u201cfamily\u201d or \u201cwork\u201d) and expound on that. Instead, he focuses on keywords or key phrases that might be overlooked or misunderstand by an average reader of the biblical text. As such, his editorials cover unique subjects such as \u201cBury the Dead,\u201d \u201cClap Hands,\u201d \u201cFlog,\u201d \u201cGreet,\u201d \u201cShave,\u201d \u201cWash Clothes,\u201d and so on. That often makes for the discovery of an interesting, unexpected observation\u2014but it also makes the book difficult to navigate as a whole. The keywords and phrases are so specific at times (for instance, \u201cNaked\u201d or \u201cSmelt\u201d), that it\u2019s hard to set this next to your Bible and move seamlessly from one book to the other. Still, if you are willing to take the time to browse, Beck has valuable insight to share.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended for casual reading, particularly for Bible history-lovers in your family.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-261\" alt=\"Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"435\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times\" href=\"http:\/\/bakerpublishinggroup.com\/books\/the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times\/328930\" target=\"_blank\">The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times<\/a> by John A. Beck<\/p>\n<p>(Baker Books)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Students, Pastors, Youth Pastors Genre: Cultural \/ Historical Reference FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; One big obstacle to understanding the Bible, especially for younger Christians, is the enormous cultural differences between our modern society and the lives of the ancients. In an age of international democratization, media saturation, and moral intolerance, how are we&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[109,108,104],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-resource-spotlight","tag-bible-culture","tag-bible-history","tag-reference"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reader Appeal: Students, Pastors, Youth Pastors Genre: Cultural \/ Historical Reference FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; One big obstacle to understanding the Bible, especially for younger Christians, is the enormous cultural differences between our modern society and the lives of the ancients. In an age of international democratization, media saturation, and moral intolerance, how are we&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-13T12:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-13T21:39:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Reader Appeal: Students, Pastors, Youth Pastors Genre: Cultural \/ Historical Reference FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; One big obstacle to understanding the Bible, especially for younger Christians, is the enormous cultural differences between our modern society and the lives of the ancients. In an age of international democratization, media saturation, and moral intolerance, how are we&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-06-13T12:00:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-13T21:39:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html","name":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-13T12:00:56+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-13T21:39:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/Baker_EverydayLife.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-baker-illustrated-guide-to-everyday-life-in-bible-times.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Baker Illustrated Guide to Everyday Life in Bible Times"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}