The Westminster Study Bible


	Based on the recently released New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, The Westminster Study Bible (WSB) includes interpretive materials from over eighty leading biblical experts who, as teachers in a variety of educational settings, are sensitive to how the biblical texts have been received, what their cultural and social consequences have been, and how readers might hear them now in multiple contexts.
Who Benefits from The Westminster Study Bible?
Reading and engaging the Bible today is not as simple as discovering what it meant in its time in order to determine what it means for all time. All readers—whether students or instructors, clergy or general readers, religious or nonreligious—bring their own perspectives to the interpretation of the Bible. The WSB pays close attention to the interdisciplinary connections that contemporary students, teachers, and other readers from diverse backgrounds will find both useful and relevant. The Westminster Study Bible is an ideal textbook for a range of biblical studies courses, as well as courses in religion, philosophy, and the general humanities, whether introductory or advanced.


Features of The Westminster Study Bible
Through study notes, thematic excursuses, and a range of illuminating essays, The Westminster Study Bible delves into the ancient contexts of the Bible, its continually evolving interpretations, and its contemporary reading and reception, critically exploring both the worlds of the text and the worlds of its many readers today.
	Introductions to biblical books orient readers to each book’s historical, cultural, and literary contexts and provide a reading guide with a general overview and outline of each book. Additional introductions to traditional groupings of books in the Jewish and Christian canons include discussions of the: - Torah / Pentateuch - Former Prophets / Historical Books - Writings - Latter Prophets / Prophetic Books - Deuterocanonical / Apocryphal Books - Gospels and Acts - Pauline Letters - Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation
	Study notes open up the biblical texts and explore cultural insights from the ancient world as well as help readers to grasp how certain texts may have functioned in much later periods and far different settings.
	Fifteen thematic essays provide wide-ranging treatments of the different ways the Bible may be read and interpreted, examine aspects of the Bible’s history and its ancient contexts, explore various themes in biblical literature as they relate to contemporary concerns and issues, and show how the Bible has been received and interpreted in culture and science over time and locations.

- The Bible as a Collection: The Making of the Biblical Canons - The Bible and Methods: How to Read the Bible - The Bible in Its Ancient Contexts - The Bible in Public Life - The Bible in Religious Interpretation and Practice - The Bible in Global Contexts - The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality - The Bible, Race, and Ethnicity - The Bible and Social Justice - The Bible and Visual Art - The Bible in Film and Media - The Bible in Music - The Bible in Literature - The Bible in Museums - The Bible, Science, and the Environment
	Nearly two hundred thematic excursuses offer more expansive discussions of important topics relating to the biblical text. Four Types of Excursuses Reading through Time excursuses provide a glimpse into how the interpretation of a particular text has changed through the years and across different communities of readers. Making Connections excursuses show how the biblical text may be related to events or circumstances outside and beyond the immediate passage at hand. Focus On excursuses offer a more detailed consideration of a theme, concept, figure, or place that appears in a passage or across many passages. Going Deeper excursuses afford a more thorough exploration of a topic than can be offered in the briefer study notes.

- The Curse of Canaan - The Exodus Event - Human Bondage in Ancient Israel - The Divine Mandate to Exterminate the Canaanites - Woman Wisdom - Black and Beautiful - Exile and Restoration Metanarratives - Slut-Shaming as Prophetic Discourse - Isaiah and Disability - Feminine Imagery for God - Healing in the Gospels and Acts - Son of God vs. Son of Man - Jewish Messianic Ideas - Anti-Judaism - Women in Luke-Acts - LGBTQIA2+ Issues and Paul - Frederick Douglass, Paul, and Onesimus - Revelation in Popular Culture
	Tables, charts, and diagrams introduce historical timelines, rulers of ancient empires, measurements, Gospel parallels, and more. Color maps illustrate ancient Near Eastern geography, political territories, historical events, and place names across the time span of the biblical writings.
	An index to the study notes, excursuses, essays, and other materials helps readers navigate the interpretive resources.
Why Do We Need The Westminster Study Bible?
The Westminster Study Bible provides up-to-date scholarly insights into the biblical texts and their ancient contexts while fostering critical thought about the important role the Bible has played throughout history and in our contemporary cultural contexts. One need look no further than the daily news to see how the Bible continues to play a key role in political and cultural debates, where it has often figured prominently throughout history in a range of hot-button issues: from justifying slavery to motivating its abolition, from mandating the death penalty to calling for its abolishment, from debates over marriage and sexuality to discussions regarding civil rights and care for the environment. The Westminster Study Bible is a Bible for today’s readers, helping people of diverse backgrounds understand the many different ways scholars, politicians, activists, artists, and everyday people have used and often misused the Bible to support particular agendas and objectives.
Westminster John Knox Press has long been dedicated to supporting critical thought in the realm of religious studies in ways that have direct intersections with social issues in the here and now. The press is proud to continue that effort with The Westminster Study Bible.

Get to Know the Editors


	Emerson B. Powery is Professor of Biblical Studies and Interim Dean of the School of Arts, Culture, and Society at Messiah University. He is the author of Jesus Reads Scripture: The Function of Jesus’ Use of Scripture in the Synoptic Gospels and The Good Samaritan: Luke 10 for the Life of the Church; the coauthor of The Genesis of Liberation: Biblical Interpretation in the Antebellum Narratives of the Enslaved; and a contributor to and coeditor of True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary. He also serves as the general editor for Early Christianity and Its Literature, a book series of the Society of Biblical Literature.
	Stacy Davis is Professor of Religious Studies and Theology and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College. She is the author of This Strange Story: Jewish and Christian Interpretation of the Curse of Canaan from Antiquity to 1865 and Haggai and Malachi in the Wisdom Commentary Series. She has contributed to Bitter the Chastening Rod: Africana Biblical Interpretation after Stony the Road We Trod in the Age of BLM, SayHerName, and MeToo as well as The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century.
	Mary F. Foskett is Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religious Studies and John Thomas Albritton Fellow at Wake Forest University. She is the author of A Virgin Conceived: Mary and Classical Representations of Virginity and Interpreting the Bible: Approaching the Text in Preparation for Preaching. She is also coeditor of Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian American Biblical Interpretation; Between Experience and Interpretation: Engaging the Writings of the New Testament; and Diverse Strands of a Common Thread: An Introduction to Ethnic Chinese Biblical Interpretation.
	Brent A. Strawn is D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke University. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books, including Honest to God Preaching: Talking Sin, Suffering, and Violence; Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament; The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment; The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction; and The Incomparable God: Readings in Biblical Theology. He is coeditor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law and served as both translator and member of the editorial board for The Common English Bible, as well as the book reviewer for Exodus and section review leader of the Pentateuch for the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

J. Todd Hibbard, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Detroit Mercy Jennifer L. Koosed, Professor of Religious Studies, Albright College Davina C. Lopez, Professor of Religious Studies, Eckerd College Henry W. Morisada Rietz, Professor of Religious Studies, Grinnell College Claudia Setzer, Professor of Religious Studies, Manhattan College

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