{"id":598,"date":"2015-03-11T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=598"},"modified":"2015-02-25T03:18:11","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T03:18:11","slug":"bible-resource-spotlight-the-holman-apologetic-commentary-on-the-bible-1-the-gospels-and-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/bible-resource-spotlight-the-holman-apologetic-commentary-on-the-bible-1-the-gospels-and-acts.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Resource Spotlight: The Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible #1: The Gospels and Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Pastors, Teachers, Small Group Leaders<\/p>\n<p>Genre: Bible Commentary<\/p>\n<p>FBSN Rating: B+<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>The Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible<\/em> series is unique in that its main focus is <em>not<\/em> verse by verse exposition of the Scriptures. In fact, book #1, <em>The Gospels and Acts<\/em>, actually leaves out discussion of significant portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because the stated purpose of this series is to: \u201cequip readers to defend the reliability of Scripture and the historic evangelical understanding of its teachings.\u201d What that means, in a practical sense, is that the authors deliberately skipped some parts of the gospels and Acts and restricted their commentary to \u201cverses known to be relevant to the topics of apologetics and biblical reliability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From a Bible Study Nerd perspective, that\u2019s both mildly disappointing\u2014and kind of exciting. My personal preference is to study Scripture as it was collected, not to cherry-pick my way through the verses in a book or series of books. Still, I can see the value of an \u201capologetics-only\u201d approach\u2014and I\u2019m very impressed by the quality of commentary delivered by the scholars who wrote this one. They are dealing exclusively with the \u201chard sayings\u201d and \u201cdifficult passages\u201d of Scripture, and yet they offer thoughtful, challenging commentary on them all. That\u2019s impressive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome may say that it is best not to trouble tranquil waters,\u201d says series editor, Dr. Jeremy Royal Howard. \u201cIf so many disciples and ministers are happily unaware of Bible difficulties, why stir the waters? One answer is that there are others who are eager to do the stirring for us, and would do so in hopes of convincing us that the Bible is unreliable\u2026Another answer is that we are called by God to be equipped. If what we evangelicals believe about the Bible is true, surely it can withstand unblinking examination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the kind of thinking I suspect most Bible Study Nerds would approve, and appreciate. At least I do.<\/p>\n<p>Digging in, you\u2019ll find that each commentary section in <em>The Gospels and Acts<\/em> follows a similar approach, beginning with summary statement of the critiques or challenges of the specified Scriptures. These are the views of the skeptics, the reasons why people choose not to believe. Then each scholar\/author offers a response to the skeptic, delving in history and theology and language studies and more to give a realistic, relevant rapprochement to the questions raised.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Howard says in his introduction that he hopes to \u201cencourage awareness and discussion of Bible difficulties that are not commonly mentioned from the pulpit or even the seminary lectern.\u201d This is an admirable goal, and one <em>The Gospels and Acts<\/em> accomplishes, while still working from a baseline belief that the Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant in its original manuscripts. As such, this apologetic commentary is offers something unique to any Bible Study Nerd, and it\u2019s one that\u2019s easily recommended.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhpublishinggroup.com\/products\/the-gospels-and-acts\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Gospels and Acts<\/em> <\/a>by Michael Wilkins, Craig A. Evans, Darrell Bock, and Andreas K\u00f6stenberger; General Editor, Jeremy Royal Howard, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>(B&amp;H Publishing Group)<\/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: Pastors, Teachers, Small Group Leaders Genre: Bible Commentary FBSN Rating: B+ &nbsp; The Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible series is unique in that its main focus is not verse by verse exposition of the Scriptures. In fact, book #1, The Gospels and Acts, actually leaves out discussion of significant portions of Matthew,&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":[261,106,259,260,258],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-resource-spotlight","tag-andreas-kostenberger","tag-apologetics","tag-craig-a-evans","tag-darrell-bock","tag-michael-wilkins"],"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 Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible #1: The Gospels and Acts - 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 Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible #1: The Gospels and Acts - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reader Appeal: Pastors, Teachers, Small Group Leaders Genre: Bible Commentary FBSN Rating: B+ &nbsp; The Holman Apologetic Commentary on the Bible series is unique in that its main focus is not verse by verse exposition of the Scriptures. 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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\/598","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=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}