Preserving Bible Times Collection (5 vols.)

by Doug Greenwold

Publisher:

Doug Greenwold

, 2004–2011

Overview

Ever wonder if there’s something more you could be getting out of your Bible study? When Jesus spoke and the biblical writers penned their words, they had very precise meanings for the words they used and the images they invoked. The Bible’s writers assumed many things about those who first read their accounts, much of which is easily missed by the contemporary Western mind. To fully grasp Scripture’s meaning, we need to read Scripture as each biblical writer intended it to be read and understood.

In the Preserving Bible Times Collection (5 vols.), Doug Greenwold, Senior Teaching Fellow of Preserving Bible Times, contextually restores “familiar” Bible narratives by weaving back together the historical, cultural, literary, visual, and geographic contexts embedded in the passage. Through this integrated contextual approach, you can (re)discover the richness of the intended meaning of a passage and the epicenter of its intended transformational impact, thus allowing the Bible to come alive in fresh and new ways for today’s reader, teacher, and pastor.

If you resonate with Kenneth Bailey, Alfred Edersheim, or James Montgomery Boice, then you’ll love the Preserving Bible Times Collection (5 vols.). This portfolio of “familiar” passages not only rediscovers the Bible writer’s intended approach to studying the Word of God, but shows you how to dig deeper to find more of God’s truth and wisdom where you might have previously overlooked it.

Key Features

• Contextually restores Bible narratives
• Discusses the passage's issues from God's perspective
• Encourages you to dig deeper to find God’s truth and wisdom

Product Details

• Title: Preserving Bible Times Collection
• Author: Doug Greenwold
• Volumes: 5

Encounters with Jesus: The Rest of Their Stories

• Author: Doug Greenwold
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: viii, 109

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Encounters with Jesus: The Rest of Those Stories restores Jesus’ compelling encounters with people back into their Middle Eastern context. The book contextually restores twelve “familiar” Lukan passages—return to Nazareth, Simon, the leper, the paralytic, calling of Levi, the demoniac, Jairus, the bleeding woman, and more—in an engaging narrative story-telling format. In doing so, paradigm challenging insights—with pastoral applications—reveal themselves from passages we thought we knew and understood. Each chapter challenges the reader with open-ended, probing, rabbinic-type questions to draw out appropriate heart, mind, and soul issues for transformational reflection and journaling.

Ideal for small groups, home fellowship, and adult education classes, this volume encourages transformational journaling and pondering. In doing so, it creates a sense of discovery and excitement by digging more deeply into God’s Word through the use of historical, cultural, literary, and geographical context.

Doug's insights continue to inspire and stimulate my own thinking and give me new ways of looking at Jesus in the Gospels. Read! Reflect! Contemplate! Your heart and mind will be enriched. But more importantly, your own communion with Jesus will grow and bring waters of renewal to others.

—D. Michael Crow, CRM Project Coordinator, Jesus-in-Context: Multiplying Jesus Mentors

This wonderful book affords us the unique opportunity to learn the words and ways of Jesus, interact with those words and ways we learn, and then challenge us to live those words and ways. If this book is successful, our lives will become the context through which others might experience the words and ways of Jesus.

—Mark Slomka, Senior Pastor, Faith Community Church, San Diego

Through revealing context, Doug Greenwold has done a wonderful job of drawing out profound understanding and applications from some very 'familiar' passages in Luke. . . . This book is a wonderful resource to help anyone who truly wants to authentically interact with and apply the Scriptures.

—Daryl Nuss, Chief Ministries Officer, National Network of Youth Ministries

Making Disciples Jesus' Way: Wisdom We Have Missed

• Author: Doug Greenwold
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 126

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Making Disciples Jesus’ Way: Wisdom We Have Missed is a book for disciples and discipling practitioners. Its purpose is to challenge and provoke our contemporary Western discipleship and spiritual formation paradigms by providing the contextual backdrop of what it meant to “make disciples” in the Gospels. Then it asks, "What are we doing, why are we doing it that way, and what fruit are we getting—or not getting?" The thesis of the book is that when we reconnect with the “make disciples” contextual presuppositions in the Gospels, we can more clearly see the “missing ingredients” in discipleship today.

The book revisits the Gospel record through the lenses of first-century context. In developing its themes, the book expands our contextual understanding of Pharisaism, observant Judaism, the Kingdom of God, the Covenants, and the competing worldviews of the first century, as well as related subjects, making it a very helpful contextual backdrop for anyone wishing to understand the issues of the Gospels more deeply.

The volume develops four missing perspectives in our Western approach to disciple-making (Chapters 1–4), three patterns of Jesus that seem to be missing in our contemporary discipling methodologies (Chapters 5–7), and two oft-missed pieces essential for the fruitful making of disciples (Chapters 8–9). Making Disciples Jesus’ Way: Wisdom We Have Missed is ideal for leadership development, discipleship training, small groups, new member orientation, and adult education classes.

Doug Greenwold's book is a long overdue clarification of what 'making disciples' is all about. Read, chew, reread, and re-chew this book. It will be a 'life-changer.'

—Chuck Miller, trainer, Barnabas, Inc.

I always benefit from Doug Greenwold's teaching and writing. He brings fresh, previously ignored insight; but more importantly, Doug opens up the first-century world and thus the Scriptures take on greater meaning and power.

—Bill Hull, teacher and writer, Bill Hull Ministries

The strength of Doug Greenwold's book is the way in which he carefully explores the first-century context of Jesus' ministry and then draws out often-missed insights to make practical suggestions for how disciples are made in our time. This is an important study and deserves wide discussion in Christian leadership circles.

—John Bernbaum, President, Russian-American Christian University in Moscow

Doug Greenwold has the unique ability to bring the Bible to life by placing it in its original historical and cultural context. The result in Making Disciples Jesus' Way is a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be a follower of Christ and to fulfill his command to 'make disciples of all nations.'

—Jeffery C. Geoghegan, author, The Bible for Dummies

The Rest of the Story: A Closer Look at Familiar Passages

• Author: Doug Greenwold
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 107

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

When we ignore the context of Bible passages, many times we can miss the message God has in store for us. In The Rest of the Story, Doug Greenwold focuses on ten familiar passages—unfolding their historical, cultural, literary, and geographical contexts—and brings new insight and understanding to their significance and meaning. By teaching you how to study God's Word in its original context, this volume will transform the way you approach Bible study. This volume is ideal for small groups, home fellowship, and adult education classes.

I highly recommend The Rest of the Story to you as a resource that will expand your understanding of God's nature in familiar passages!

—Pat Goodman, Pastor, Grace Fellowship Church, Timonium, Maryland

Read this book. It is for anyone interested in developing a more comprehensive understanding of certain key Old and New Testament Biblical passages. . . . New students will be struck with delight and made thirsty for more study. Experienced students will be renewed and refreshed and once again realize just how rich these texts can be!

—Richard L. Gathro, Executive Vice President, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities

An excellent study and resource, highly recommended for individuals or groups desiring to seriously consider Scripture as those who first read and heard the accounts many years ago would have understood it.

—Dr. David Hansen, author, In Their Sandals: How His Followers Saw Jesus

Zechariah and Elizabeth: Persistent Faith in a Faithful God

• Author: Doug Greenwold
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 80

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Zechariah and Elizabeth: Persistent Faith in a Faithful God is a new kind of Bible study based on a very old premise—that context enriches content when you study the Scriptures, i.e., that we need to adopt the mindset and ethos of the times of the text if we are going to fully grasp the purpose and meaning of a passage.

This mini volume resets the “familiar” Luke 1 story of Zechariah and Elizabeth back into its original contextual setting. This enables the reader to experience the fuller story as if we were neighbors of Zechariah and Elizabeth. In so doing, it allows twenty-first century Westernized hearts and minds to connect with the first century Middle Eastern mindset that Luke assumes we would understand. As Paul Harvey would say, now we have “the rest of the story,” making it as appropriate for small group and classroom use as it is for personal devotions.

The book is organized into twelve chapters, each with appropriate “Reflections” and Scripture to ponder.

Get Doug Greenwold's remarkable little book! Such a familiar story and yet, when told 'in context,' blazingly new and fresh! . . . As you meditate on the characters, their journey, and God's wonderful purpose in it all, you will realize that your eyes have indeed been opened.

—Carolyn Kilbourne, study leader, Precept Upon Precept Bible Study

Doug is a gifted teacher, with a passion for God, a longing to understand the Scripture in its contextual setting, and a desire to apply it to the real situations in our lives. This study demonstrates all these attributes—clear teaching, illuminating context, and thoughtful application. I highly recommend it . . .

—Dr. Arthur Lindsley, Senior Fellow, C. S. Lewis Institute

It is a privilege to recommend this book as a resource for anyone seeking to understand and apply the Scripture. Taking a well-known Bible event, Doug Greenwold has shown how to make it come alive as he sets the story within its cultural settings.

—Dr. Robert Norris, Senior Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, Maryland

It is a joy to recommend Doug's book to you as we have greatly benefited as a ministry from his teaching on this subject. . . . You will be greatly blessed and positioned right back into the life and times of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

—Camilla Seabolt, Executive Director, Community Bible Study

Reflections

• Author: Doug Greenwold

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Reflections is a compilation of Doug Greenwold's monthly, contextual "Reflections" newsletters. These "Reflections" examine various Bible passages and illustrate their contexts and significance.

About Doug Greenwold

Doug Greenwold is the Senior Teaching Fellow of Preserving Bible Times, a ministry dedicated to preserving and presenting biblical truth through contextual restoration, where he teaches the Bible in conference, retreat, and workshop settings for church and para-church ministries. In 1988 Doug Greenwold visited Israel on a study program and realized the importance of integrating the context of the land with the biblical texts. Since then he has been an avid student and passionate teacher of the Bible in its contextual setting.