How to Uncover the Bible’s Literary Context

Everyone who takes Bible study seriously understands the importance of the Scripture’s ancient literary and historical context. The Word of God was not written in a vacuum—countless ancient documents cite, allude to, quote, or echo it.

Unfortunately, many profound insights from Scripture remain hidden to us when we don’t have the tools to uncover allusions to God’s Word in other ancient works.

Revealing the ancient context

Logos 6’s new Ancient Literature section in the Passage Guide connects the Bible passage you’re studying to the ancient world that cited it, alluded to it, quoted it, or echoed it.

Take Isaiah 54:3 as an example. You wouldn’t know it from a cursory reading—or even an in-depth study of the passage alone—but this verse is cited throughout the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Talmud. More importantly, those citations provide profound insight into the significance of this passage to the ancient Jews—and Christians today.

Why you’re not getting the most out of the Ancient Literature Tool

Maybe you noticed in the video: we’ve tagged a ton of ancient resources to feed into this tool. But to get the most out of it, you need to be sure those resources are in your Logos library.

To make it easier, we’ve compiled a must-have collection of ancient works that are specifically tagged to feed into your Ancient Literature section. This Ancient Literature Collection contains 25 books to supplement your Logos 6 base package.*

These are essential resources for doing the kind of study you saw in the video, and you can get them here at a steep discount. If you were to buy these one-by-one, the cost would really add up.

On its own, the three-volume Context of Scripture costs $299.95.

The Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud Collection is $279.95.

James H. Charlesworth’s Pseudepigrapha? Another $119.95.

For less than the cost of these resources combined, the Ancient Literature Collection gives you these plus 18 more. And if you already own some of these resources, you’ll only pay for the ones that are new to you.

With works from a wide range of sources—Jewish writers like Josephus, early Christian writings from the apostolic fathers, the Pseudepigrapha, and more—you’re sure to find insights into the early theological development of any passage you study.

***

Get the Ancient Literature Collection today!

*Note: Logos 6 Silver or the Core Crossgrade is required to be able to use this feature with the Ancient Literature dataset.