As you know, we are to study out of the best books, which entails reading. President Hinckley once lamented,
“I confess that I am constantly appalled by the scarcity of my knowledge, and the one resentment I think I carry concerns the many pressing demands which limit the opportunity for reading.”
So forgive the plug for a few books on soon-to-expire discount with Logos. The Logos platform is free, available natively on Mac, PC, Android, iOs, kindle, and online, at biblia.com (with access to your library and free books but missing 95% of the functionality of the program). The great advantage of Logos on Mac/PC is that, unlike kindle or pdf format, all the scripture links are live pop-up links, and many other references are hot-linked as well. I’m a long-time user and a fan, and have slowly built up a good research library. You can purchase books separately, no packages necessary.
Free NIV and Faithlife Study Bible through April 8
- The FSB is a Logos-produced Study Bible, meaning it has interpretive/background notes of various lengths. You can get it as a separate app, or download it as a free book within Logos. It also contains links to other resources, which are live if you own them. I’m mostly familiar with the Genesis notes, largely written by Mike Heiser, an Evangelical scholar with an interest in monotheism, the divine council, Mormonism, and other things. He’s one of few non-LDS to have published with FARMS/MI. The Review is currently unavailable while the MI makes technical changes, so go here for summary and links. With the FSB, YMMV.
The Jewish Study Bible has come onto prepub, meaning it’s not available yet, but they’re working on it. Discount is available until its electronic publication. I’m a big fan of the JSB, written from a Jewish perspective with the best of Jewish and critical scholarship. NB: As highlighted on the Logos page, this includes everything but the NJPS translation, which is available separately.
Logos has its own March Madness tournament, which results in a lot of discounts.
Use coupon code 7MM13 to receive discount on any of these, or go buy from this page (you’ll have to locate the author), where the price discount will happen automatically. Discounts available through April 15.
My picks?
NT Wright, a lot of books available, including his “For Everyone” NT commentary (which I talked about here), some more technical things as well.
DA Carson, 75% off
- Exegetical Fallacies,(2nd Ed.) $4 instead of $16. A great little book, and one more LDS should read. It’s a “common mistakes to avoid” kind of thing.
- Commentary on the New Testament Usage of the Old Testament, $15 instead of $60. This goes through the NT verse by verse, looking at OT quotations and allusions, the context in both, Jewish usage, etc. It’s quite interesting. I know Ardis has a copy (see comment #3 here.)
John Walton’s NIVAC Genesis commentary and Ancient Near Eastern Thought and The Old Testament:Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible are both available at a good discount. LDSScienceReview has been reading the latter. I have talked about Walton before several times at T&S and cited him elsewhere when talking about creation. The NIVAC series is one many LDS would appreciate, as it is aimed at laypeople and explicitly tries to bridge the ancient context with modern application. I haven’t read the latter book, but reviews are mixed. It’s probably a good intro to thinking outside our modern box, as with the first book I list here.
- The Bible in Translation, $8.22 instead of $14.95. This introduces the history and making of many of the non-English translations like the Septuagint and Targums, as well as KJV, NRSV, and other English Bibles. Metzger, as I understand it, was Bart Ehrman’s graduate mentor, though they went in very different religious directions. Rumor has it that Metzger wanted Ehrman to title his book The Orthodox Correction of the Scriptures instead of The Orthodox Corruption of the Scriptures.
There’s some Ben Witherington as well, I know he has some LDS fans.
Update: I see the archives of Biblical Archaeology Review and Bible Review are 50% off. Both include a Bible, and BAR includes Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple (revised and expanded), The Rise of Ancient Israel, The Search for Jesus: Modern Scholarship Looks at the Gospels, Feminist Approaches to the Bible and Aspects of Monotheism: How God Is One. These archives have a lot of good basic material accessible to non-specialists. I frequently post articles from them or assign them as Institute readings/handouts.
Happy reading.
Ben, thanks for the tip on the FSB. I agree, the Logos app is great too. Lots of great study helps and a bunch of different free translations. Question: Do find any of the devotional study helps distracting? For example, I know Logos is marketed toward a lot of pastors and the like. And now on the FSB app I see a few prompts, asking me to join local Bible study groups and/or Churches.
I know Logos is a rigorous source for Bible study and I’m not inherently skeptical of Evangelical sources. I just wondered if its been an issue for you.
I’ve not used the FSB app. If you have a Logos account (free to make), you can download it as a book, along with any others you acquire. There are some free ones, so you can play with it without purchasing anything.
I’ve never seen any invitations to churches or study groups from the Logos app. I know they created a new kind of forum for theological discussion and study groups, since such things aren’t permitted in the Logos forums themselves. I belief that new forum is called Faithlife, hence the Study bible.
The forums are heavily EV populated, but the rule on no theological discussion helps avoid most problems. Logos now has a Catholic package as well, it’s branching out. So, I rarely, if ever, see any kind of devotional material or invitations in my Logos interactions with the programs or the forums.
And thanks for the comment! I excel at writing low-comment and uncommentable posts.