Below is my recommended list of non-specialist accessible books, authors, and tools for reading the Bible in context; note that I have not read everything completely, nor does inclusion mean I agree with everything therein. Resources with an asterisk are available from Logos. Things I’d buy first are listed first (a combo of accessibility for non-specialists, price, utility.)
Other more specific recommendations can be found here.
Authors I like (favorites in bold)
Alistair McGrath (history of religion, science), Amy-Jill Levine, Ben Witherington III, Carol Newsom, David Bentley Hart, David Noel Freedman, Jacob Milgrom, James Kugel, Jon Levenson, John Barton, John Walton, Joseph Fitzmeyer, Karen H. Jobes, Kenton Sparks, Luke Timothy Johnson, Marc Zvi Brettler, Mark Goodacre, Mark S. Smith, Michael Coogan, Nahum Sarna, NT Wright (AKA Tom Wright), Peter Enns, Robert Alter, Raymond Brown, Scot McKnight, Richard E. Friedman, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Tremper Longman,
Journals
Biblical Archaeology Review (and it’s now-defunct sister-magazine, Bible Review)
Reference Works
- *IVP Bible Dictionary series
- Protestant, accessible/academic
- *Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
- *Anchor Bible Dictionary
- Ecumenical, academic, 6 volumes, 1992.
- *Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism
- *Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity
Bible Translations (See my page on Latter-day Saints and the Bible)
- NRSV
- ESV
- JPS
- David Bentley Hart
- Robert Alter (has light literary/translation commentary)
Study Bibles (include extensive notes, essays, maps, etc.)
- The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints (Deseret Book)
- *Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Available with the NRSV, NIV, and NKJV translations, but NRSV is my recommendation)
- *Jewish Study Bible and similar Jewish Annotated New Testament
- *Faithlife Study Bible (electronic-only, free with Logos 8 Basic)
- Harper-Collins Study Bible
- New Oxford Annotated
- *NET Bible (free, netbible.org)
Other general resources
- *Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (NT and OT sets or individual volumes)
- *Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
- * New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations
- Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible
- Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature
- Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context
- *ANET (old) and *COS (new, 3 volumes)
- These are collections of ancient texts in English translation with minimal commentary.
Commentaries
- New interpreter’s Bible One-volume Commentary (and 10 volume *New Interpreters bible Commentary )
- *New Testament for Everyone
- Light pastoral/application commentary
- *JPS Torah Commentary
- Jewish interpretive
- *NIV Application Commentary
- Evangelical, interpretive/application
- Women’s Bible Commentary
- *Word Biblical Commentary
- Protestant, Semi-technical
- *Anchor (Yale) Bible Commentary
- Ecumenical, technical
- *New International Commentary
- Evangelical, semi-technical
- *Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Series
- *Sacra Pagina
- The New Testament Library
- The Old Testament Library
- *Hermeneia
- *Continental Commentary