The Bible is a collection of religious texts and scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, and partly in Judaism, Samaritanism, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and other Abrahamic religions. The Bible is an anthology originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. The texts include instructions, stories, poetry, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies.
The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978 with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies on recently-published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
Charles Rozell Swindoll is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more than 2,000 stations around the world in 15 languages. He is currently the Founding Pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, in Frisco, Texas, and also sits on their elder board.
Charles Caldwell Ryrie was an American Bible scholar and Christian theologian. He served as professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and as president and professor at what is now Cairn University. After his retirement from Dallas Theological Seminary he also taught courses for Tyndale Theological Seminary. He is considered one of the most influential American theologians of the 20th century. He was the editor of The Ryrie Study Bible by Moody Publishers, containing more than 10,000 of Ryrie's explanatory notes. First published in 1978, it has sold more than 2 million copies. He was a notable proponent of classic dispensationalism.
Wayne A. Grudem is an American New Testament scholar, theologian, seminary professor, and author. He is a professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona.
Philip Yancey is an American author who writes primarily about spiritual issues. His books have sold more than 15 million copies in English and have been translated into 40 languages, making him one of the best-selling contemporary Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, and What's So Amazing About Grace? in 1998. He is published by Hachette, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, InterVarsity Press, Rabbit Room Press, and Penguin Random House.
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. and has multiple imprints including Zondervan Academic, Zonderkidz, Blink, and Editorial Vida. Zondervan is the commercial rights holder for the New International Version (NIV) Bible in North America. According to the Zondervan website, it is the largest Christian publisher.
Max Lucado is an American author and minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas.
Donald Arthur Carson is a Canadian evangelical theologian. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and president and co-founder of the Gospel Coalition. He has written or edited about sixty books and served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2022.
Norman Leo Geisler was an American Christian systematic theologian, philosopher, and apologist. He was the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries.
Bart Denton Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks. He has also authored six New York Times bestsellers. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Scot McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and Christian living. He is currently the Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lisle, Illinois, but announced in January 2024 that he would leave the faculty by the end of the academic year, due to allegations of mismanagement in Northern.
Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History, first published in 2005 by Zondervan (ISBN 9780310926054), is a study Bible with reference materials that highlight archaeological, historical, and cultural research related to various passages.
Mark Lehman Strauss is an American biblical scholar and professor of the New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego, which is part of Bethel University, Minnesota. His areas of expertise include New Testament Gospels and Bible translation.
Na'ima B Robert is an author of multicultural literature and founding editor of the UK-based Muslim women's publication, SISTERS Magazine. Born in Leeds to a Scottish father and Zulu mother, both from South Africa, Robert grew up in Zimbabwe and attended university in England. She converted to Islam in 1998. Currently Robert divides her time between London and Cairo with her three daughters and two sons. Her husband Henry Amankwah died in April 2015.
Children's Bibles, or Bibles for children, are often collections of Bible stories rather than actual translations of the Bible and are aimed at children. These adaptations of the Bible are written to be more understandable and entertaining for younger audiences.
Mike Nappa is an Arab-American author of more than 60 books and an entertainment journalist for the e-magazine, PopFam.com "Pop Culture for Families." Although he's published books for all ages with many different companies, he's best known for his work in children's religious publishing where he created the award-winning comic book characters, Johnny Grav & The Visioneer, and co-created the VeggieTales comic book characters, the Quitter Critter Quad Squad, and also notable for his grief-support books about losing his wife, Amy, to cancer.
The Jesus Storybook Bible is a children's Bible written by New York Times bestselling author Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago from Cornwall. The first edition was published in 2007 by Zonderkidz, the children's arm of American Christian media and publishing company Zondervan.
Sally Lloyd-Jones is a British children's book writer.
