Introductions

One type of reference book is an “introduction.” These cover basic background information about each book in the Bible: author, when it was written, circumstances, general themes, and a brief overview of contents. (This sort of information is usually in study Bibles, too.) If they are short, they will probably give dogmatic statements without any discussion of controversial areas.

This type of book apparently sells well, because every religious publisher seems to have one or two, and some have been revised and updated several times. (If an older book has not been updated, that may be an indication that it did not sell well, and may not be very good.)

Some Bible “handbooks” are similar to an introduction, and proceed book by book. Other handbooks are organized by topic. Most “handbooks” are conservative (apparently evangelical readers like the word “handbook” but mainline readers do not); “introductions” come in a much wider variety. Surprisingly, handbooks average larger than introductions.

Bible handbooks published since 2005, alphabetized by author

Alexander, David and Pat. Zondervan Handbook to the Bible. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. 816 pages. $18.

B&H Editorial Staff. Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018. 512 pages. $5. Probably an abridgement of David Dockery, Holman Bible Handbook, 992 pages (1992), with photos.

Englebrecht, Edward A., ed. Concordia’s Complete Bible Handbook. 2nd ed. St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 2013. 688 pages. $20. Conservative Lutheran.

Harris, Greg. The Bible Expositor’s Handbook: Old & New Testaments. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2020. 656 pages. $33.

Hays, J. Daniel, and J. Scott Duvall, eds. The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011. 1152 pages. $40. The editors are Southern Baptists; they have written several textbooks together.

Mears, Henrietta C. What the Bible Is All About Bible Handbook: Revised – NIV Edition. 3rd rev. ed. Regal, 2011. 832 pages. $10. The first edition was in 1953; this edition was edited by Merrill C. Tenney (who died in 1985) and Ronald Youngblood (died in 2014). I suspect that the text is old.

Ryken, Leland, Philip Ryken and James Wilhoit. Ryken’s Bible Handbook. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2005. 672 pages. $11.

Unger, Merrill F., with revisions by Gary Larson. The New Unger’s Bible Handbook. Moody, 2005. 752 pages. $26. The first edition was 1966; the extent of the revisions is unknown.

One of the oldest handbooks has been reprinted many times:

Halley, Henry H. Halley’s Bible Handbook: An Abbreviated Bible Commentary. The first edition was in 1927. I suspect that everything of value here has been included in more recent works.

One-volume introductions to the entire Bible

The more pages a book has, the more details it can give. Introductions that cover the entire Bible will have less information than introductions that cover only one of the Testaments. Many of these are designed as undergraduate college textbooks. I do not recommend any of the one-volume introductions, largely because I am not familiar with any of them. There are many; every major publisher has one. You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can tell something about it from the author and the publisher, so I make a few comments on those. I have not listed anything less than 500 pages. Short books might be good for laypersons, but church leaders need more details and depth.

Published 2005 or more recently:

Fee, Gordon D., and Robert L. Hubbard, eds. The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011. 834 pages. $25. Moderate conservative.

Harbin, Michael A. The Promise and the Blessing: A Historical Survey of the Old and New Testaments. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010. 688 pages. $8.

Hindson, Ed, and Elmer L. Towns. Illustrated Bible Survey: An Introduction. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2013. 624 pages. $28. B&H is Broadman and Holman, a merger of two Southern Baptist publishers. This book is for laity, not scholars.

Kugler, Robert, and Patrick Hartin. An Introduction to the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009. 580 pages. $33. Eerdmans is generally scholarly, moderately conservative.

Ryken, Leland. Literary Introductions to the Books of the Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015. 576 pages. $30.

New Testament Introductions

With an entire volume devoted to the New Testament, these books will have more details. I am surprised at how many there are. As usual, quality varies widely, and the shorter ones are probably not worth having, so I have not listed anything less than 400 pages. For most individual New Testament books, you can get a pretty good introduction to the book free on the internet, in the form of the first chapter of some commentaries.

Here are some published 2005 or later:

Boring, M. Eugene. An Introduction to the New Testament: History, Literature, Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2012. 720 pages. $32. Liberal.

Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. 784 pages. $22. A popular conservative introduction.

Craddock, Fred B., and M. Eugene Boring. New Interpreter’s Bible New Testament Survey. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2006. 416 pages. $15. Collection of the introductions to each book included in the 12-volume commentary New Interpreter’s Bible.

deSilva, David A. An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods and Ministry Formation. 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2018. 896 pages. $60. A good resource.

Drane, John. Introducing the New Testament. 3rd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2010. 512 pages. $27. Moderately conservative.

Ehrman, Bart D. A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. Oxford University Press, 2012. 416 pages. $45. Skeptical. Probably a shorter version of the 2011 edition of the next book.

Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. 7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2019. 624 pages. $70. Skeptical, but widely used (as shown by the fact that it is in its 7th edition).

Elwell, Walter A., and Robert W. Yarbrough. Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2013. 448 pages. $22. Conservative.

Gundry, Robert H. A Survey of the New Testament. 5th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012. 592 pages. $26. Moderately conservative.

Hagner, Donald A. The New Testament: A Historical and Theological Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012. 896 pages. $25.

Hanna, Kenneth G. From Gospels to Glory: Exploring the New Testament. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014. 512 pages. $21. A conservative publisher.

Harris, Stephen. The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction. 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2014. 544 pages. $90. This is probably a custom textbook designed for a specific university.

Holladay, Carl R. A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2005. 640 pages. $32. Liberal.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Writings of the New Testament. 3rd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2010. 544 pages. $40. Johnson is Catholic, but not too influenced by the church.

Köstenberger, Andreas, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles L. Quarles. The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd ed. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2016. 1168 pages. $38. Southern Baptist.

Martin, Ralph P., and Carl N. Toney. New Testament Foundations. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2019. 780 pages, $36. Originally by Martin, now updated by Toney.

Middendorf, Michael P., and Mark Schuler. Called by the Gospel: An Introduction to the New Testament. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007. 410 pages. $40. Conservative Lutheran.

Powell, Mark Allan. Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey. Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2018. 592 pages. $28. Good.

Schenck, Kenneth. Jesus Is Lord: An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd ed. Wesleyan Publishing House, 2008. 732 pages. $44. Wesleyan.

Wenham, David, and Steve Walton. Exploring the New Testament, Volume 1: A Guide to the Gospels & Acts. 2nd ed. I. Howard Marshall, Steven Travis, and Ian Paul. Exploring the New Testament, Volume 2: A Guide to the Letters & Revelation. 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2016. Vol. 1, 325 pages, $19. Vol. 2, 354 pages, $23. A good pair.

Towns, Elmer, and Ben Gutierrez. The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey. 2nd ed. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2016. 400 pages. $24. Baptist, undergraduate level.