5 Books That Helped Me Read The Bible Better in 2021

This year I listened to a lot of audiobooks, and the ones that stood out I would reread either the Kindle or paperback version to take more notes on. The following books aren’t really my favourite books of 2021, but books that contains ideas and concepts that helped me to read the Bible better. Some of them may have been written before 2021, but I finished or reread them in this year.

5) What Does God Want? - Michael S. Heiser

I’ve learnt a lot from Dr Michael Heiser, he has a passion to take some of the incredible content that is written in the academic world about the Bible and get it to the common Christian in a digestable manner.

This book is a very simplified version of some of his key theological insights, an overview of the Bible with those principles, and how we should live that out as a Christian.

He introduces some of his key concepts such as the Divine Council, Believing Faithfulness, Now but not yet - all some great ideas that will help you read the Bible with greater clarity.

It’s a great starting point to his deeper content such as Unseen Realm, Angel, Demons, and Reversing Hermon.

4) How To Take Smart Notes - Sonke Ahrens

This isn’t a theological or even a Christian book, it is a overview and an outline of a learning and processing technique called the “Zettelkasten” (German for “slip-box”).

The overall concept is that highlighting or simple note taking isn’t an effect way to track what you’ve learnt, but instead capturing thoughts and ideas based on what you’ve learnt in a linear but interlinked method.

This is accomplished by writing original ideas and thoughts down on to a small card (or digital note) based on what you’re learning, using a simple numbering system to order the cards, and over time you’ll create an external papertrail of what you’re learning.

I haven’t fully implemented this in my own learning and Bible studies, but some of the concepts in this book has had a huge impact on how I track what I’m learning and how to grow from it.

3) How (Not) To Read The Bible - Dan Kimball

I’m not sure if you’ve read the whole Bible before, but there’s a lot of weird stuff in there.

Sometimes that weird stuff gets taken out of context and looks really bad - so how do you handle that?

Dan Kimball has a call to action for all Christians to become more familiar with all the aspects of the Bible, and invites them to study and explore all elements of the Scriptures.

But this is more than just an apologetics, there are 4 principles used to help understand more of the Bible - my favourite being “never read a Bible verse”. Instead, read the whole verse in context to understand the full message that is being communicated.

2) Reading Backwards - Richard B. Hayes

Richard B. Hayes is an amazing New Testament theologian who has an incredible focus on Biblical Intertextuality (how the Bible uses the Bible).

This is a fascinating topic and a big part of Biblical Theology, and I really enjoy how Richard Hayes works through it.

The introduction to this book is fairly heavy and acadmic, but push through as it gets a lot easier once he works through each of the gospels.

It has gotten me excited to reread both the Old and New Testaments with fresh eyes.

1) Bearing God’s Name - Dr Carmen Imes

Dr Carmen Imes completed her doctoral dissatation on the Name Command (Exodus 20:7 - Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain), with some interesting results.

I always thought that not taking the Lord’s name in vain meant to not swear using the name of God.

But that is not at all what the authors of the Bible would have been thinking or a concept that they were writing about.

Instead its more about representing God.

But what does this mean for God’s people? And how is this theme be traced throughout the Bible?

If you really take in what Dr Carmen is writing, it could shift how you live as a Christian - it did for me!

Hopefully this has somehow helped you to wade through the huge amount of content that is available out there. A lot of these authors have been interviewed in podcasts as well, so feel free to find them to get a clearer idea of what their books are about.

Praying that 2022 is a year of building your Bible Roadmaps so that you can encounter God and represent Him to those in your world!