A Smart Way to Study the Beginnings
The Lexham Bible Guide is your starting point for study and research. It surveys all the relevant literature on a passage and brings the summary back to you.
This guide summarizes a broad range of views on a particular passage—some you’ll agree with, some you won’t, but in all cases, views you will encounter as you critically study the text. A complete introduction to each literary unit in the Bible, the Lexham Bible Guide will bring new thoroughness to your research.
Each volume gives you the tools you need to find answers quickly. It summarizes content from books in your Logos library and organizes it in an easy-to-follow format. It gives you the direction to begin your study.
“… This is really an excellent tool. It is useful, in my view, not only for beginning students of the Bible but for those wishing to introduce various biblical texts to Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, and small group discussions. This series does a very fine job of introducing interested persons to many of the letters of Paul and divulging to them just some of the treasures contained therein. It is a series from faith to faith: by people of faith for people of faith. Consequently, unlike so many volumes published these days, they’re actually functional.” – Jim West
Jumpstart Your Research
- Find things fast. There’s no need to locate, read, and notate dozens of reference materials. Everything is in one spot. It’s concise enough to digest, but broad enough so you know everything’s covered.
- See connections. The overview format leads you to research topics you may have never read about or heard of before. This snapshot view of the text provides an ideal starting point for sermon preparation or academic research.
- Gain perspective. You’ll get an overview of all the relevant issues related to a particular biblical passage, from exegetical topics like structure and genre, to interpretive issues presented by commentators. You’ll also find links to lexicons and commentaries for word studies in Logos, plus lots of links to related literature for further study. Everything is organized and summarized in one spot—only a click away.
How It Works
The Lexham Bible Guides are complete Bible guides re-imagined for the digital age: a hybrid between a handbook-type commentary and an annotated bibliography, built on technological resources available only in Logos.
These guides are written from the ground up to take full advantage of Logos’ platform. The interconnectivity of the Lexham Bible Guides within the Logos library provides you with relevant, curated content at a click, produced by professional researchers. There’s no need to flip through pages, pore over commentaries, or search through dictionaries. You get access to the best content available—instantly.
Key Features
- Combines the expert curation of a Bible guidebook with the advanced technology of Logos. It satisfies your need for a quick orientation to a passage when time is short, and it facilitates in-depth study when time allows.
- Organizes all the research on each literary unit of Scripture.
- Illuminates difficult and obscure passages, making passages more accessible for teaching or further study.
- Provides comprehensive coverage that’s easy to use and elegantly organized. It addresses both biblical and theological issues—not just one or the other.
- Annotates the differing opinions of top scholars and links you directly to their works’ most relevant passages for further reading.
The Lexham Bible Guide provides the following for each literary unit:
- Customizable media slides for use in presentations
- An introductory overview
- An outline of the unit’s structure and biblical significance
- A summary and explanation of key words, important facts, and controversial issues
- A listing and description of related literature for further study
- An application overview
- Concluding thoughts
Watch a short video about Lexham Bible Guides:
So what are my thoughts?
In sharing my thoughts on the benefits of software product, the easiest way may be to show you how it can be used. Let’s aptly start at the beginning in hopes to shed some light on the matter (punny, I know). Let’s a look at how the Lexham Bible Guide helps us with Genesis 1.
If I open the resource up and direct it to Genesis 1, this is what we see:
We are immediately presented with a link to the pericope itself, Genesis 1:2-3 as well as a slide that we can use in tools like PowerPoint or Proclaim for presenting on the passage. We are provided with brief introductory notes on the passage before coming to a structured outline of the verses. If you would continue, you’d find that the authors have done the work of distinguishing the passage’s place in both the book of Genesis as well as in the Canon as a whole (extremely helpful!). Before we get to what I believe may be the most helpful piece of this resource, we find entries with labels such as Issues at a Glance and Starting Point to remind pastors of the hot topics (whether hotly debated or crucially important) that surround the passage.
Now to the piece of the resource that I feel may be the most helpful entry of the Lexham Bible Guide series – the blending of multiple theological views into one small section. Let’s take a look at those who have commented on the “The Genre of Genesis 1.” See the following screenshot:
With an issue as crucial as a text’s genre, it is vitally important that a pastor, professor or anybody who seeks to understand the meaning of a text wrestles with an array of “camps” or “voices.” Thanks to the Lexham Bible Guide, in a matter of mere minutes (if that), you are able to survey multiple highly respected theologians for their take on an issue. Rather than opening commentary after commentary, even within your Logos Bible Software program that is plenty fast enough, you can see a spread of opinions all at once. Not only that, but each of those citations are linked directly to the resource that they are found in and you can access that quotation if you have the resource unlocked (of course, I am developing my library and you’ll notice that most of those resources are locked).
Each of the Lexham Bible Guide resources have been intentional about surveying the “heavy-hitters” on specific topics and providing readers with an organized look at what is being said. Though there is much more to be said about these resources, I pray that this brief overview has been insightful. I would encourage you to make the Lexham Bible Guide as well as the FaithLife Study Bible your starting point for gaining insight into a specific passage.
