Charles F. Pfeiffer (1919–1976)

C'mon, people, John Wycliffe was a radical!

You'd never know it from this commentary which bears his name. It is a very extensive commentary, available in several inexpensive editions, so if you want something cheap and thorough, this might be for you. But be warned: It is conservative, and conservative of the type that doesn't give much hearing to modern Biblical scholarship. Whether that will be enough of a resource for you will of course depend on your convictions. But it certainly isn't show more what I would have expected under the name "Wycliffe." show less

We usually think of an atlas as simply a book of maps. However, Baker’s Bible Atlas is much more. In my first year of college the original 1961 edition, which did have a section of full colored maps, served as the textbook for the course commonly called “Freshman Bible.” The first semester was originally called “Old Testament History and Geography,” and the second semester was “Luke-Acts.” However, they were credited as social studies courses, “Judaeo-Christian History” and show more “The Beginnings of Christianity.” I have continued to use the book as a resource for studying the history and geography of the Bible.
Imagine my surprise when, after we began homeschooling, I found that Rod and Staff uses the 2003 edition Baker’s Bible Atlas, which has the full colored maps scattered throughout the book, as the textbook for “a social studies course for use in grades seven to ten” on “Bible Land History and Geography,” publishing a student workbook, test booklet, outline map supplement, and teacher’s answer key to go along with it. We used it with both boys for their seventh grade history and geography. I personally think that the tests from Rod and Staff get extremely detailed and even a little too picky, so I ended up making my own tests, but I especially liked the accompanying map work. I also used some of the material for a homeschool co-op class that I called “Ancient Middle and Near Eastern Civilizations.”
Baker’s Bible Atlas basically follows the Biblical narrative beginning with the world of the Old Testament through the Roman Empire, then picks up with New Testament Palestine through the geography of Revelation, and concludes with chapters on the centuries between, Bible lands today, and Biblical archaeology in the twentieth century. A Gazetteer and three indices help to make finding specific information in the book easy. There might be a few statements or observations of an interpretative nature with which some would disagree, but the book takes a primarily conservative and authoritative approach to the scriptures, and besides it deals primarily in factual information not theology. Since the original author Charles F. Pfeiffer, who was Professor of Ancient Literatures at Central Michigan University, is now dead, the updating of the Revised Edition was probably done by the consulting editors, E. Leslie Carlson on the Old Testament, and Martin H. Scharlemann on the New. show less

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible is designed to show the significance of one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century and its wide-ranging impact on biblical studies and biblical archaeology. This volume also includes an introduction to the scholarly issues, and the role of archaeology in general and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular on the modern interpretation of the Bible.

The emphasis of Hebrews was born out of the concern of the writer for those who had been true to Christ in the past but who were now wavering. Signs of defection from the faith brought both a warning against apostasy and a fervent exhortation to press onward to spiritual maturity. The epistle argues that the death of Christ renders obsolete the Old Testament sacrificial system and presupposes thorough familiarity with that system by those to whom the epistle is addressed. This strong appeal show more to the Old Testament Scriptures opens up new avenues of thought for the twentieth century Christian and provides a fresh appreciation for the unity of the two Testaments. show less