A Little Book for New Bible Scholars

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Pub Date 07 May 2017 | Archive Date 26 Apr 2017

Description

A Little Book for New Bible Scholars is a concise overview of biblical studies for beginners in the field.

Randolph Richards and Joseph Dodson offer guidance and a wealth of good advice, warn of potential pitfalls, and share wisdom and stories from biblical scholars with long experience in the guild.

A Little Book for New Bible Scholars encourages young students of the Bible to add substance to their zeal for Scripture—the kind of substance that comes from the sweat and toil of hard study. "Just as we should avoid knowledge without love," the authors write, "we should also avoid love without knowledge."

A Little Book for New Bible Scholars is a concise overview of biblical studies for beginners in the field.

Randolph Richards and Joseph Dodson offer guidance and a wealth of good advice, warn of...


Advance Praise

"A delightful read and absolutely on target, A Little Book for New Bible Scholars gets my highest praise and recommendation. It should be required reading early in the program for all students preparing for ministry."

—J. Daniel Hays, Ouachita Baptist University


"This delightful volume is full of wit and wisdom not only for biblical scholars and theologians but for all students of the Word. The stories, anecdotes, and insights will encourage you to discover more deeply the riches of God's Word and the heart of Christian ministry."

—Mark L. Strauss, university professor of New Testament, Bethel Seminary San Diego


"Dodson and Richards have given young biblical scholars a book that charms while it instructs. Their combined years of wisdom are presented with whimsy and honesty that will be helpful in discernment for emerging biblical scholars. This book gets at not only the head knowledge, but also the heart. The interspersing of other biblical scholars throughout the book adds diversity, breadth, and weight to each chapter. As an advisor for students pursuing work in biblical scholarship as their vocation, this is precisely the kind of book I will gladly recommend to them!"

—Beth M. Stovell, assistant professor of Old Testament, Ambrose Seminary

"A delightful read and absolutely on target, A Little Book for New Bible Scholars gets my highest praise and recommendation. It should be required reading early in the program for all students...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780830851706
PRICE $9.00 (USD)
PAGES 126

Average rating from 5 members


Featured Reviews

Reading this book was a delight. I read it in two days and enjoyed it a lot. The authors tell us about what it means to be a Bible scholar and other considerations we must have.

With a pleasant, serious and funny tone, the authors lead us to recognize the need to study the scriptures and to glorify God through knowledge.

The chapters of the book plus some "taste" of what you'll find:

1. Fall in love.
Knowledge without love and love without knowledge.

2. Have more stuff and less fluff
Longing and studying the Scriptures more. How?

3. Hold your horses.
Exegesis, exegesis, exegesis

4. Don't play marbles with diamonds
Bad and good exegesis?

5. Speak the local language:
Greek for me?

6. Keep the main thing in the main thing
Do not neglect your heart

7. Don't get puffed up
The danger of pride

8. Remember that Biblical studies is an equal opportunity vocation
Asians, Hispanics, Black, Women, we can be bible scholars.

9. Stay the course.
Don't give up.

If you are a student of a seminar or want to study in one, read this book will be of great benefit for your life.

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The center of Christianity is moving South. Therefore, there's a need for serious Bible scholars in Africa. Because ‘exegeting the Bible well will help you to experience the truth of Scripture more deeply and to teach it more effectively.’ However, a sublime suggestion by Jarvis J. Williams that African Americans are few in academia because they're ill-equipped is naive. Recent studies have proven otherwise, African Americans have the same qualifications required to be Bible scholars like everybody else. But this is just a page of blight in more than 100 pages of gem. Overall, the best book I read in 2017, so far.

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Inspired by Helmut Thielicke’s popular publication from 1962, //A Little Exercise for Young Theologians//, IVP Academic (of InterVarsity Press) has been putting out lengthier books—still quick reads—in it’s //A Little Book for New [X]: Why and How to Study [Y]// series. Thielicke’s work is so well done in that it shouldn’t be surprising to find it being quoted in these new books. So, what’s the point in trying to replace? I’m not sure that’s necessarily the intent, though some schools and classes may decide to go that route with their book requirements and recommendations.

The latest addition to the series, //A Little Book for New Bible Scholars: Why and How to Study the Bible// by E. Randolph Richards and Joseph R. Dodson, is certainly not a replacement to Thielicke’s, but it is a welcome and helpful addition. Its helpful and encouraging contributions are often through narratives likely much more palatable and an easier introductory pull into the field for millennials than perhaps Thielicke’s language may be. It is also, as the title suggests, more specific to biblical studies than theology, a distinction students will (should) eventually learn. My only major criticism is on the awkward and uncomfortably forced chapter on equality wherein the authors encourage “female, black, Hispanic, and non-Western scholars to step up and do the hard work of biblical studies” (79). To be fair, it is a sincere and grace-filled attempt at inclusivity. As stated by one of the authors, “Sometimes white male scholars like me can be a jerk. (I may even have stated some things in this chapter in insensitive ways—forgive me.)” (87) That said, I would still recommend the book anyone interested in or considering academic Bible study.

Note: I have not yet read Kelly M. Kapic’s //A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology// (2012), thus I am unable to speak to how his approach may or may not be different from Thielicke’s and what may or may not be gained from reading it in conjunction with others in this series.

*I received a temporary, unpublished digital copy for review from IVP Academic via NetGalley.

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