The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament Hardcover – Illustrated, January 3, 2014

Truly love this Bible background. Every morning we go to this book after our study wanting to know more of the context around what we just read. If you are looking to take your Bible studies to the next level I highly recommend this book!

If you're looking for a great commentary, look no further! This commentary gives you a tremendous amount of detail about each of the passages in the New Testament. It is incredibly informative and very helpful. The information is much more factual than many commentaries. The author presents factual information and not a lot of opinion.

When reading the Bible, we sometimes lose sight of what the culture was like before and while Jesus walked the earth. For instance, knowing the backgrounds of the early Christians, the political forces upon the peoples, the historic background of the area, vegetation, markets, social norms--all this enriches the experience of reading and understanding the words of the Bible. Brings the bible to life. broadens understanding.

Good

My favorite is when the preacher explains some facet of First Century life that shifts and quickens your grasp of a familiar passage. Quick trade secret? This book is probably where the preacher got that cultural nugget.It's impossible to read 2,000-year-old texts with the perspective of the original audience. This reference work restores much of the missing knowledge that adds a subtle but powerful depth when reading the New Testament—especially the offhand bits of cultural fluency that folks probably didn't think much of: The way the Roman government worked. The subtleties of synagogue life. The shared assumptions and opinions that were seldom written down because they were simply in the First Century air.If there's another secret, it's that collecting and organizing all of the knowledge behind a project like this was hard, slow work with dense Greek and Latin and probably German sources. This is the kind of resource that makes me think we have riches that centuries of believers could only dream of.

Excellent resource and I put it to use immediately! It was recommended by his colleague, and what better recommendation is that! Now I need to find an old testament scholar who has done similar work.

the info on passages is helpful but very brief. I think the remarks need to be longer with more detail

If you want to understand the Bible and the culture deeper.