The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Acts Philemon

This powerful reference tool is a book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, detailed look at the historical, geographical, cultural, and economic background of Acts and the Pauline epistles—Acts-Philemon. Much more than simply theology or a Word study, The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary opens a window to transport the reader back into the setting of the New Testament to see, touch, and hear as much of the world of that time as possible.

The better acquainted you become with the background of the New Testament, the better you'll be able to avoid misunderstanding the allusions and references that run throughout the writings of the New Testament. Historical events, social customs, religious beliefs, figures of speech, turns of phrase, institutions, styles of dress, styles of building, and the very lay of the land all contribute to how the Bible's first readers would have understood it.

With this powerful reference in hand you will never look at the New Testament the same way again!

Craig A. Evans received his Ph.D. (1983) in New Testament from Claremont Graduate University and is the Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. He also taught for twenty-one years at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. He has authored many books, including Luke (Hendrickson, 1990), Noncanonical Writings and New Testament Interpretation (Hendrickson, 1992), Word and Glory (Sheffield, 1993), Jesus and His Contemporaries (Brill, 1995), and Mark, in the Word Biblical Commentary (Thomas Nelson, 2001). He is the editor of the Bulletin for Biblical Research and the Dictionary of New Testament Background (IVP, 2000). He has lectured at Cambridge, Durham, and Oxford Universities and frequently speaks at scholarly and popular conferences in North America and around the world. He also has appeared several times on the television program "Faith and Reason," and has recently appeared in a History Channel presentation of the Historical Jesus.

Evans's specialties include the historical Jesus, the Synoptic Gospels, and the relation of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the New Testament. Recently he has contributed to the Jewish Believers in Jesus project and has participated in a television documentary on the historical Jesus to air on the History channel.