Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text
Is the Bible fundamentally at odds with science?
Science and the Bible are often pitted against each other, causing many to either defend science at Scripture’s expense, or vice versa. Instead, what if we saw them as friends? Can Christians appreciate scientific insights like they do archaeological discoveries—as a source of knowledge to illuminate the biblical world and our own?
In Science and the Bible, David Instone-Brewer takes a refreshing and non-antagonistic approach, asking how science can aid our interpretation of the Bible. The result is stimulating on topics such as God’s omnipresence, the origin of languages, the nature of eternity, the relationship of spirit and soul, the reality of resurrection, and Jesus’ human experience.
In short, readable chapters, Science and the Bible enables the curious layperson to reread the Bible with fresh perspectives from modern scientific insights.
Top Highlights
“This book tries to do something else: it seeks to use science as one of our tools to help understand what the Bible says” (Page 6)
“He descended and became one of us that we might become heavenly.’4 This understanding was encapsulated most memorably by Gregory of Nazianzus, also in the fourth century, who summarized it in this way: ‘That which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.’5 In other words, Jesus had to be incarnated with all the aspects of a full human in order that every part of us could be saved.” (Page 311)
“When Benjamin Franklin invented lightning rods in 1752, most churches refused to fit them because they thought they interfered with God’s ability to smite people.” (Page 20)
“different ways of understanding various Bible texts.” (Page 1)
Scripture in Context Series
The Scripture in Context series is driven by the conviction that there is nothing as exciting, direct, provocative, and spiritually enlightening as the Bible when we read it as it was meant to be read. Each book in the series dives into the ancient cultural context behind Bible passages, examining the effect this context had on what the Bible writers were saying and how we should understand their words today. When we read the Bible in light of its context, it is anything but boring. Instead, God’s word can speak to us as powerfully as it did to those who first read it.
- Introduction
- Section 1: The Universe
- God Works By Miracles, not Magic
- God Does Work in the Gaps
- What Are the Stars For?
- Multiverses Prove God’s Existence
- Mathematics of Infinity and Beyond
- Where Does God Live?
- Section 2: The Earth
- The Problem with Galileo
- Six Snapshots of Creation
- Everyone Believes in Evolution
- How Long Did Creation Take?
- How Big Was the Flood?
- Babel Rediscovered
- Joshua’s Long Day
- Ecology and the New Earth
- Section 3: Adam and Eve
- Made from Dust, like Adam
- Animals Have Souls in the Bible
- What Does the Human Spirit Do?
- Adam’s Apple in Literal Language
- When and Where Did Adam Live?
- Where Did Cain’s Wife Come From?
- Section 4: Humanity
- When Does an Individual’s Life Start?
- What is Male and Female?
- Where Does Altruism Come From?
- Can God Become a Real Human?
- The World is Improving—Statistically
- Human Resurrection by Backup
- Section 5: Miracles
- Miracles that Employ Nature
- Sodom’s Natural Disaster
- Explaining the Exodus Miracles
- Food in the Wilderness
- Predicting the Future by the Stars
- Can a Virgin Birth Produce a Real Man?
- Title: Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text
- Author: David Instone-Brewer
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2020
- Page Count: 288
- Format: Logos Digital, Paperback
- Trim Size: 5x8
- ISBN: 9781683594031
Dr. David Instone-Brewer graduated from South Wales Baptist College with the highest marks in that college’s history, and later earned his PhD from Cambridge University, where he studied early rabbinic exegesis. Dr. Instone-Brewer ministered at the Llanishen Baptist Church in Cardiff for five years, and is now research fellow and technical officer for Tyndale House, which is, arguably, among the three best libraries in the world for biblical studies.
Specializing in rabbinic studies, Dr. Instone-Brewer has been a regular contributor to Christianity magazine, and has written several books, including Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament.
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