Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references saturating the New Testament. This knowledge was second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but often isn't the case for today's readers. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways. In Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes, Tremper Longman demonstrates that the confusion associated with the images throughout Revelation arises from unfamiliarity with symbolism that Revelation's first readers would have readily comprehended. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text. "As an Old Testament scholar, I learned much from this excellent contribution by a seasoned and thoughtful colleague; as a Christian, my new understanding led to worship. This is a volume that pastors, scholars, and laypeople will find a valuable companion to reading and studying the canon's final book." --Lissa M. Wray Beal, Providence Theological Seminary "There is no more sure-footed guide to this mysterious book than a premier Old Testament scholar like Tremper Longman. This exceptionally clear and cogent commentary will open your eyes to this capstone volume of the New Testament like never before." --Mark L. Strauss, Bethel Seminary "In short, to really get into a place where one can understand John's Scripture-saturated mind(which involves many more allusions and echoes than Old Testament quotes) you need a guide who himself has a Scripture-saturated mind. Tremper Longman is your man, for he has labored long in the scriptural vineyard, and always provides us with the good fruit of careful interpretation." --Ben Witherington III, Asbury Theological Seminary

Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that opens the New Testament writings in greater depth to anyone committed to understanding or teaching Scripture. In this inaugural volume, the richness of Old Testament allusions and background in Mark clarifies puzzling passages and explains others in fresh ways. The exodus motif structures Mark. Mark also presents Jesus as the true temple of God in contrast to the existing temple, which has been corrupted. These important themes are hidden to modern eyes without the insight of an Old Testament perspective, and this commentary builds on that insight to emphasize how the gospel applies to the daily lives of Christians today.

A New Testament commentary steeped in the Old Testament Through Old Testament Eyesis a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references saturating the New Testament. These links were second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but today's readers often cannot see them. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways. In John Through Old Testament Eyes, Karen Jobes reveals how the Old Testament background of the Gospel of John extends far beyond quotes of Old Testament scripture or mention of Old Testament characters. Jobes discusses the history, rituals, images, metaphors, and symbols from the Old Testament that give meaning to John's teaching about Jesus--his nature and identity, his message and mission--and about those who believe in him. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, volumes in the Though Old Testament Eyes series combine rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.

Recognising veiled allusions to the Old Testament in the four Gospels has long contributed to our understanding of the Gospels message. Nicholas Lunn takes the investigation of allusion a significant step further in The Gospels Through Old Testament Eyes. He explores allusions not just in isolated verses, but rather occurring throughout whole passages, demonstrating that many Gospel episodes interact with specific Old Testament accounts through an extended sequence of allusions. Furthermore, his examination is not restricted to episodes presented by a single Gospel, but includes allusions distributed across two or more Gospel treatments of the same event. In The Gospels Through Old Testament Eyes, Lunn offers a series of self-contained studies that bring to light allusions, many of them previously unnoted, that affirm the intricate interweaving of New Testament texts with those of the Old. This volume will greatly enhance your appreciation of the Gospels' presentation of Jesus's life and ministry. It will inform and equip scholars, pastors, preachers, Bible teachers and readers to appreciate new depths in the Gospels.

Could the cry “Come out of her My people” (Rev 18:4) not be needed more today than it was when John penned the Apocalypse? The book of Revelation begins and ends with the affirmation that God is the world’s true Lord, not Caesar. In telling this story, John lays out for us the fact that Christ’s kingdom is not like the kingdoms of the world. The kingdoms of the world rule by force and at the expense of the masses and for the benefit of those in power. Jesus’s kingdom, however, comes through love. In Christ’s kingdom, power is demonstrated by laying down one’s life for one’s enemies. Jesus, of course, demonstrated this kind of love on the cross, and he calls us to do the same. We have nothing to fear. After all, Jesus was dead and now he is alive and he has the keys to Death and Hades. Unfortunately, many interpreters have come to believe that the devastation and destruction depicted in the book of Revelation—in particular, in the accounts of the Seven Seals and the Seven Bowls—are God’s end-times wrath. But have we ever stopped to consider that this portrait of God is fundamentally at odds with the gospel? And with Jesus’s call for us to love one another even as he loved us? The book of Revelation tells a different story.

This commentary helps the reader of the book of Revelation to navigate through the challenges that have so far complicated interpretation of the book. It walks the reader into the four vision halls, Patmos, symbolic heaven, symbolic wilderness, and the symbolic high mountain. Like a trained tour guide, it illuminates the nature and purpose of every symbol and simulation of the things that are and the things that are to come. It identifies strategic acts embedded in the visionary simulations as the major communicative devices that the divine author used to evoke the intended reader responses.

Tremper Longman has studied and taught the Old Testament and its interpretation for four decades. Now, in a planned three-book project, he presents his mature thoughts on the essentials of Old Testament interpretation. This first volume explores the importance of reading the Old Testament as literature. We need to recognize that each culture tells its stories and writes its poems in different ways. To read and understand the Old Testament texts the way the ancient authors intended, we need to be aware of the conventions of Hebrew storytelling and poetry. In part one, dealing with literary theory, Longman investigates how texts create meaning, the history of the study of the Old Testament as literature, and how genre dictates reading strategy. He explores the Hebrew conventions of both narrative and poetry in conversation with contemporary literary analysis. Part two delves into practice, using the tools gained in part one to look at and interpret a variety of Old Testament narratives and poetry. Longman's accessible writing and balanced judgments make this book suitable for the classroom and the church.

The Psalms are well-loved by Christians, yet they also challenge us when we look at them closely. In the second edition of this popular How to Read volume, Tremper Longman III offers practical study exercises and suggestions for interpreting the psalms, helping us overcome the distance between the psalmists' world and ours.

Are the prophets speaking about their own times, about our present, or about some still-unrealized future? Applying his signature method, John Walton provides a clear, helpful guide to the nature of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic literature that will help us avoid potential misuse and reclaim the message of the prophets for our lives.

A Quest for Truth This book is dedicated to the world’s most vulnerable people who suffer from atrocities stemming from wars, poverty, addictions, and foremost those who were infected by or died because of the COVID-19 coronavirus. A virus that was created in and originating from China, Wuhan City in the Hubei province. The virus spread rapidly, creating immense havoc across the globe, sparing no country or human being, a virus without borders, with devastating effects. It is time for introspection and reflection, a time for a psychological and spiritual makeover, time to remove idols from our midst and honour one God, the God of Adam and Eve, God of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, God the oneness. The story of Abraham is retold in the book from a Christian biblical perspective, but more so from a Muslim belief, the Quran perspective, a constructive attempt to align and bridge the divides between nations during these difficult, testing times. Through the book, the author fulfils that commitment and promise made as a young boy to God, to spread God’s message of hope and love into the world, to bridge the cultural divide, to promote care for the poor and homeless. Similar to the COVID-19 coronavirus, God’s grace, love, and forgiveness have no borders. The world is in desperate need of spiritual cure and revival, across borders. It is a world in constant chaos and turmoil instigated and promulgated by politicians, and business and country leaders’ ethical misbehaviour across the globe, hearts and minds contaminated by a deadly infected ‘cancerous’ disease for example lust, arrogance, and greed, fraudulent and corrupt hearts and minds, an extremism philosophy and theology in its own right. The author sadly lost his wife in 2010 due to breast cancer. In 2011, he was on the verge of becoming a tramp in the streets of South Africa. Yes, a highly qualified individual with years of experience as a financial manager in a big corporate company, with 8 years high-level academic accomplishments. If people ask him, ‘How was it possible?’ he will tell them it is very possible; it all depends on every individual’s personal circumstances. God the Oneness knows every hair on your head, He loves and cares about you anyway, wherever and whatever you are. The author lived and worked for seven years of his career as a cost engineer for a large oil-and-gas company in Saudi Arabia. He also previously worked as financial manager for a joint-venture oil-and-gas company in Iran, Arya Sasol Polymer Company (ASPC), a joint-venture company with 50 per cent ownership from oil-and-gas company National Petroleum Company (NPC), Iran and 50 per cent ownership from oil-and-gas company Sasol South Africa. Both companies were represented on the ASPC board by three directors, respectively. He had the joy and fulfilment of visiting many countries during his short life, apart from working and living in Saudi Arabia and Iran. A journey always has a starting and a finishing point, starting life from fertilisation to an unborn fruit in the womb of your mother until you pass on to something much bigger and better, eternal life, heavenly freedom and peace in the presence of God, the Creator and oneness. In the book, Saudi Arabia and Iran are extensively discussed to provide insight to the reader. The two countries are uniquely different, but in many ways the same. The author attempts to give the reader a glimpse of life as an expatriate worker in both countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran—a journey never to forget or to regret, a humble, faithful, committed contribution to mankind, in a dynamic and diverse way, in a dynamic and diverse multicultural environment. In some instances, the author feels obliged to speak the truth, and only the truth, because truth matters, for the sake of reflection, admission, repentance, and necessary corrective action by business leaders, politicians, and governments alike, to take a leaf from the author’s book of life. The Leadership Challenge are discussed, using Nelson Mandela, a previous president of South Africa as an example to explain the concept of Servant leadership. Few images in history are more powerful than that of Nelson Mandela, fist raised in a dignified grey suit, walking after his release from 27 years of imprisonment, his short walk to freedom. Mandela was only 44 years old when he was given a life sentence by the apartheid regime for his leadership of the African National Congress, an organisation outlawed by the South African government for its anti-apartheid actions and positions. After providing the reader with evidential background, the last two chapters deal with the author’s personal experiences in Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively, two countries that are way apart from each other. The two countries, apart from being constantly in conflict with each other, are also in conflict with other countries, because of their deeply rooted differences in religion and cultures, but more so because of their greed and love for oil, or black gold. They are ways apart and indifferent, but with so much in common.