For Bible Readers

Maybe you have read the Bible for years and still feel like you are reading someone else’s mail — that the people who really understand it went to seminary, and the rest of us take their word for it. That feeling is common. It is also wrong. The Scriptures were written to be read aloud in ordinary congregations, to fishermen and tentmakers and household servants, and they have not stopped being for you.

Two of these books clear away the obstacles: where the biblical text came from and whether you can trust it, and the handful of Greek words that carry the New Testament’s weight. Neither assumes anything more than a willingness to read.

You can start today, for free: the Greek Word Explorer opens its words in full — what each means, where you’ll meet it in Scripture, and what confessional Lutherans hear in it.

And if you teach — or have ever been talked into teaching — the Bible study series below were built for exactly that. Every volume comes with a free Teacher’s Guide, because the church needs more lay teachers, not more reasons to defer.