Bible Study Magazine—July–August 2019 Issue

Get Bible Study Magazine now by purchasing the July–August 2019 back issue for $3.95. That’s 20% off the newsstand price of $4.95!

Bible Study Magazine is a print magazine (not an emagazine) published by Lexham Press. Six times a year, Bible Study Magazine delivers tools and methods for Bible study as well as insights from respected teachers, professors, historians, and archeologists.

Read pastor profiles, author interviews, and stories of individuals whose thoughtful engagement with Scripture has shaped their thinking and defined their ministries. Bible Study Magazine reveals the impact of God’s Word in their lives—and the power of Scripture in yours.

• Feature Stories
  Discover new ways to connect the Bible with your ministry and life through in-depth interviews and articles from the biggest names in the church and biblical scholarship.
• Bible Study Tips
  Explore the Word—thoughtful and engaging authors tackle the tough passages in Scripture, explain difficult concepts, and confront complex interpretations in a way that helps the Gospel make sense in your life.
• On the Cutting Edge
  Keep up to date on the latest news in biblical research, including archaeological and historical findings.
• A New Kind of Bible Study
  Encounter God by yourself or with other believers with an ongoing Bible study in each issue.
• On Teaching
  Get advice on how to preach or teach the Bible in any setting from well-known pastors and teachers who use the Bible every day.
• Tool Box
  Learn how to effectively use the latest Bible study tools with our how-to guides.
• In the News
  Keep informed about the latest news in biblically related topics, discoveries, and events.
• Thoughts from the Ancients
  Read the Bible together with those who have come before you, and learn from the wisdom of the early church—in its own words.
• Word Studies
  Get a close-up view of the Bible! Each issue contains insights about specific words found in the Bible and tutorials on how to do word studies.
• If Only Someone Would Explain It to Me
  Enrich your understanding of the Bible with explanations of biblical and theological concepts by top scholars.
• Did You Know?
  Discover interesting facts about the place of the Bible in the contemporary and the ancient world.
• What They Don’t Tell You in Church
  See things you never noticed in biblical passages you have read dozens of times.
• Biblical Humor
  The funniest stories and the best comics related to the Bible, useful for any setting.
• Book Reviews
  Stay on top of the latest books about Bible study. Each issue contains reviews of books and commentaries to equip you in your study of God’s Word.

Luis Palau: After Five Decades of Ministry, He’s Still Pointing People to Jesus

Throughout 50 years of ministry, Luis Palau’s message has remained the same. Decades have passed and his evangelism methods have changed, but he is still confident in the unchanging message of the cross and the power of the Spirit. He has preached at mass evangelism events in more than 75 countries, with over one million registered decisions for Christ. In December 2017, Palau’s life took a sudden turn when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. While he no longer participates in large-scale events, his illness has only emboldened his personal witnessing.

—Rebecca Van Noord

A Lesson on Prayer from the Landscape

In the last week of his life, Jesus observed in his disciples an attitude toward prayer that would not do. Crossing from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus had cursed a fruitless fig tree to teach a lesson about the failure of the Jerusalem religious establishment. But the lesson was nearly lost on his disciples who were consumed by the rapid and unexpected withering of the fig tree. They were “amazed.” Their wonder left the larger lesson about the failed temple leadership unclaimed, and it laid bare a weakness in their perspective on prayer. In response, Jesus lifts their eyes from the fig tree to the horizon for a lesson on prayer drawn from the landscape. We have that lesson in Matt 21:18–22.

—John A. Beck

Plagues, Polemic, and Power

The plagues with which God judged Egypt excite the imagination of Bible students. They are spectacularly cataclysmic. But if our minds are captured only by the CGI scenes that play in our head as we read Exodus 7–12, we’ll miss the real impact. The plagues not only decimated the Egyptians and their land. They were a polemic—a direct debunking—of Egypt’s gods, which included pharaoh. While it’s not clear to us as modern English Bible readers, the point of the plagues could not have been missed by Egyptians.

—Michael S. Heiser

Who Was Saul of Tarsus?

Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5), and his parents gave him the name of the one ancient Benjamite king (Shaul). They may have chosen this name also because its Greek form (Saoul or Saoulos) sounded similar to his Roman name, Paulus. Contrary to what some people think, Saul did not change his name to Paul because of his conversion to Christian faith. He already had both names, but it made sense for him to go by his Roman name among Greeks and Romans. (The Greek word that sounds most like Saul’s Jewish name means “effeminate,” which was applied to men only as an insult. Outside Judea, Paul’s Roman name would work much better!)

—Craig S. Keener