Free Books

Another Logos Free Book of the Month – Craig Morrison, 2 Samuel (Berit Olam)

2 Samuel Commentary by Craig MorrisonI thought it was an anomaly when Logos offered “another free book of the month,” but not in the middle of the month they are giving away a volume from a very good Old Testament commentary series, Craig Morrison’s 2 Samuel in the Berit Olam series (Liturgical Press, 1998). Morrison is professor of Aramaic and biblical exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In her review of the commentary for The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Barbara Green said “Morrison’s 2 Samuel makes a wonderful addition to the Berit Olam series. He demonstrates considerable literary sensitivity in discussing a book as rich as biblical prose narrative gets. The series’ specialization in Hebrew narrative and poetry is thus well met.” Commenting on the Jobling commentary on 1 Samuel, a CBQ reviewer said:

“Written for lay people, Bible scholars, students, and religious leaders, this multi-volume commentary reflects a relatively new development in biblical studies. The readings of the books of the Hebrew Bible offered here all focus on the final form of the texts, approaching them as literary works, recognizing that the craft of poetry and storytelling that the ancient Hebrew world provided can be found in them and that their truth can be better appreciated with a fuller understanding of that art.”

For an additional $4.99, you can add David Cotter’s Genesis volume; for $6.99 add Konrad Schaefer’s Psalms commentary in the series; for $8.99 you can add David Jobling’s 2 Samuel commentary. So it will cost you about $21 to add four excellent commentaries to your Logos library.

For another two weeks you can also add Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015) for free. This is a concise version of their Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Second edition; Crossway, 2018). Since the larger volume is just under a thousand pages, this concise edition does not mean small: the book is over 300 pages long. For $1.99 you can add another mammoth book from a SBTS professor on biblical theology, James Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (Crossway. 2010). Hamilton contributed a short primer, What Is Biblical Theology? and With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology (NSBT 32; IVP Academic, 2014). For $2.99, you can add Gerald Bray, God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (Crossway 2012). Christopher W. Morgan of California Baptist University says  “God Is Love is a warm, conversational, and contemporary systematic theology written by one of evangelicalism’s leading thinkers. But it is much more. It is biblically saturated, historically rooted theological wisdom for the people of God.”

Logos Bible Software 8 is a significant upgrade to this powerful Bible study system. I did a “first look” review of Logos 8 here. The software runs much more efficiently than the previous version, that alone is worth the upgrade. Everything seems to run faster than Logos 7 and the upgrade is well worth considering. As always, there are less expensive paths to upgrading that will keep you from mortgaging your home. At the very least, download the free Logos Basic or the $79 Logos 8 Fundamentals (currently on sale for 20% and you get some free books by following the link).

With either minimal package you can download and use the free book every month and build your Logos library.  These three and almost free books of the month are only available through the end of August.

Save Up to 40% on John Walton Resources for Logos

Logos has been running an Author Spotlight special the last few months. For August 2019 John Walton’s books and Mobile Ed courses are up to 40% off. This means you can add the “Lost World” series for 30% (about $10 per volume). This sale includes books Walton edited, such as the Zondervan Counterpoints book, Four Views on the Historical Adam and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary volumes (the whole set is $139.99, or get individual volumes). These are good (although brief) commentaries focusing on cultural and historical backgrounds and are richly illustrated with full color photography. Unfortunately I do not own these in Logos so I cannot comment on how easy it is to use the illustrations in your presentations, although I have had no problems with copying out of Logos and pasting into PowerPoint.

The real highlight is Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible, Second Edition (Baker 2018). Walton surveys Ancient Near Eastern literature to set the Old Testament into the proper historical context. Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts edited John Hilber and Jonathan Greer (Baker 2018). This is a a 600+ page book with essays by a wide ranges of ANE and OT scholars. Like ANE Thought, the book is illustrated with black and white photographs and line drawings. (The first edition of Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament is also listed, do not make the mistake of buying them both). Walton’s Old Testament Theology for Christians: From Ancient Context to Enduring Belief (IVP 2018) is also available at 30% off.

Logos has a deal on John Walton Mobile courses as well, the Background of the Old Testament Bundle (2 courses, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine and Old Testament Genres) or get individual courses: Old Testament Genres (4 hour course); Origins of Genesis 1-3 (4 hour course); Book Study: Genesis (9 hour course). These include video lectures along with course material (syllabus, midterm and final exams). I have quite a few of these course, most have very brief, focused lectures, sometimes only a few minutes. Along with the video lecture and a transcript of the lecture, there are suggested reading in the Bible and other Logos resources (links to Bible Dictionary articles and Logos Topical Guides).

Don’t forget the Logos Free book of the Month for August 2019: Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015) for free. This is a concise version of their Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Second edition; Crossway, 2018). Since the larger volume is just under a thousand pages, this concise edition does not mean small: the book is over 300 pages long. I agree with Thomas Schreiner’s assessment this book is “a third way, a via media, between covenant theology and dispensationalism” by suggesting neither theological systems is informed by biblical theology. Gentry is an Old Testament professor and Wellum is a professor of Christian theology; both teach at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

For $1.99 you can add another mammoth book from a SBTS professor on biblical theology, James Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (Crossway. 2010).  For $2.99, you can add Gerald Bray, God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (Crossway 2012). Christopher W. Morgan of California Baptist University says  “God Is Love is a warm, conversational, and contemporary systematic theology written by one of evangelicalism’s leading thinkers. But it is much more. It is biblically saturated, historically rooted theological wisdom for the people of God.”

If you do not have the Logos software, you should at least download the free Logos Basic or the $99 Logos 8 Fundamentals (currently on sale for 20%). With either minimal package you can download and use the free book every month and build your Logos library. Logos Bible Software 8 is a significant upgrade to this powerful Bible study system. I did a “first look” review of Logos 8 here. The software runs much more efficiently than the previous version, that alone is worth the upgrade. Everything seems to run faster than Logos 7 and the upgrade is well worth considering.

Logos Free Book of the Month for August 2019 – God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology

The theme of the Logos Free book of the Month for August 2019 is biblical theology. You can get Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015) for free. This is a concise version of their Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Second edition; Crossway, 2018). Since the larger volume is just under a thousand pages, this concise edition does not mean small: the book is over 300 pages long. I agree with Thomas Schreiner’s assessment this book is “a third way, a via media, between covenant theology and dispensationalism” by suggesting neither theological systems is informed by biblical theology. Gentry is an Old Testament professor and Wellum is a professor of Christian theology; both teach at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

For $1.99 you can add another mammoth book from a SBTS professor on biblical theology, James Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (Crossway. 2010). Hamilton contributed a short primer, What Is Biblical Theology? and With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology (NSBT 32; IVP Academic, 2014). For $2.99, you can add Gerald Bray, God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (Crossway 2012). Christopher W. Morgan of California Baptist University says  “God Is Love is a warm, conversational, and contemporary systematic theology written by one of evangelicalism’s leading thinkers. But it is much more. It is biblically saturated, historically rooted theological wisdom for the people of God.”

So for about $5 you can add almost two thousand pages of biblical and systematic theology to your Logos Library.

Logos Bible Software 8 is a significant upgrade to this powerful Bible study system. I did a “first look” review of Logos 8 here. The software runs much more efficiently than the previous version, that alone is worth the upgrade. Everything seems to run faster than Logos 7 and the upgrade is well worth considering. As always, there are less expensive paths to upgrading that will keep you from mortgaging your home. At the very least, download the free Logos Basic or the $79 Logos 8 Fundamentals (currently on sale for 20%). With either minimal package you can download and use the free book every month and build your Logos library.

These three and almost free books of the month are only available through the end of August, so head to the Logos site and get them before the offer expires.

(Another) Logos Free Book of the Month – Saint Augustine: On Genesis

Faithlife publishes Logos Bible Software in a wide range of flavors and packages. Quite a while back they were putting out a free book of the month for Verbum, a version of Logos targeting Catholics. This month the have revived the Verbum free book of the month with Saint Augustine: On Genesis: Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees; and, on the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book (2001). The is book 84 in the Fathers of the Church Patristic Series from The Catholic University of America Press.

This is the first two of five explanations of the beginning of the Book of Genesis Augustine wrote between 388 and 418. The first book is a commentary on Genesis 1-3 attacking Manichees, a sub-Christian cult in which Augustine worshiped for nine years.

From the blurb:

Although Augustine agrees that many things in Scripture may seem absurd to the unlearned, he holds that they can produce great pleasures once they have been explained. It was this tenet, realized in his spiritual rather than corporeal interpretation of Scripture, that led him to counter the impious attacks the Manichees used to attract those who sought a more intellectual understanding of God over and against an anthropomorphic view. Augustine’s brilliant assimilation of Christian revelation and the intellectual faith of the Neoplatonic circle around Ambrose in Milan gave rise to his “spiritual” interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in the Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees.

The third part of this book is On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis. The book provides “fascinating and invaluable examples of Augustine’s developing thought on significant philosophical and theological issues in the interpretation of Genesis.”

In addition to the free book you can add Tractates on the Gospel of John 1–10 ($4.99) and Tractates on the Gospel of John 11–27 ($6.99). These are the first two of five volumes collecting Augustine’s 124 tractates on John in the Fathers of the Church Patristic Series. The rest are full price in the Logos Library, sadly. In his introduction to the volume, John W. Rettig explains, “The term “Tractate” (tractatus) in Latin Christian writings was a technical designation for a specific type of sermon, one which combined scriptural exegesis, preaching, spiritual commentary, and theological reflection, and which was intended to be delivered by the bishop to his congregation.” From the introduction to the series:
John the Evangelist was an eagle, soaring high in the sky into the sun; Augustine was the Lord’s trumpet, proclaiming the gospel and blaring forth its meaning. John’s Gospel is a profound theological study of Christ’s divinity; Augustine’s In Ioannis Evangelium Tractatus CXXIV are a prolonged pastoral investigation of that profundity. In them, Augustine, the world-renowned bishop of Hippo Regius, the humble pastor of souls, seeks to peer into the depths of Johannine theology and rise to the heights of Johannine illumination, that the shepherd might reveal to his sheep, as far as God granted, the meaning of John’s Gospel. For Augustine, however, preaching, and the scriptural exegesis that was a necessary part of preaching, were the truly important theological activities, more important, perhaps, than the more formal treatises.
If you do not have Logos Bible Software download the free Logos Basic or (for a limited time) get Logos 8 Fundamentals for only $49 With either minimal package you can download and use the free book every month and build your Logos library. These free and almost free books of the month are only available through the end of July, so head to the Logos site and get them before the offer expires.

Logos Free Book of the Month for May 2019 – I. Howard Marshall, ICC Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles

The Logos Free book of the Month for May 2019 is I. Howard Marshall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (T&T Clark, Hb. 1999, Pb. 2013). This is a tremendous gift from Logos since Marshall’s commentary is a major contribution to scholarship on the Pastoral Epistles.The print version of this commentary in the cheaper paperback format is available on Amazon for $65, good luck finding hardback copies (list price $155)! In addition to the price, the major advantage of owning the book in the Logos library is all the Logos tools are available to reader. This goes far beyond simple searching and highlighting.

At over 900 pages, this commentary is one of the most comprehensive exegetical commentaries available. Marshall wrote the commentary in collaboration with Philip Towner, the author of the NICNT commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (Eerdmans 2006) as well as the short commentary in the IVP New Testament Commentary series.

I listed Marshall’s commentary in my “Top Five Commentaries on the Pastoral epistles” a few years ago. I said:

Marshall’s contribution is perhaps the most detailed exegetical commentary on the list, as is to be expected from an ICC volume. Marshall replaced Walter Lock’s 1924 commentary in the series. The book caused a stir when it was released since Marshall (beloved by many evangelicals) rejected Pauline authorship of these letters. The introduction to the commentary develops Marshall’s view of authorship. The body of the commentary contains detailed bibliographies for each section followed by an overview of the text. The format of the commentary is a phrase-by-phrase unpacking of the Greek text, including textual, lexical and syntactical issues. He interacts with a broad range of scholarship, with Marshall includes a number of excellent excurses (on Household Codes, in Titus, for example).

The International Critical Commentary has been one of the top critical commentaries for well over 100 years. Each commentary in the series comments on the Hebrew or Greek text, dealing with textual, syntactical, and lexicial issues. As with most commentary series, this commentary by Marshall replaced the 1924 volume by Walter Lock. Lock’s commentary had 46 pages of introduction and 159 pages dealing with exegetical issues for all three Pastoral Epistles. It is still available through Logos (and is often found used for $10 or so).

In addition to Marshall’s commentary, Logos is offering both volumes of C. K. Barrett’s Acts commentary in the ICC series for $1.99 and $2.99 each. Barrett is always worth reading and this Acts commentary is no exception. The two volumes were published in 1994 and 1998 and offer solid exegetical comments are remarkably readable. With respect to historicity, Barrett said “Where he agrees with other historical sources, his evidence is confirmed; where he disagrees, or where other evidence is lacking, he must at least be taken seriously (2:cxiv).

Logos usually does a related giveaway on their Free Book promo page. This month you can enter to win the The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew edited by David J.A. Clines (8 vols.; Sheffield,1993–2011; $299 value). This is an exceptional lexicon for serious students of the Hebrew Bible. In many ways the lexicon is like HALOT (Brill, 1994-2000) but is far more comprehensive and includes references to the Qumran literature. Enter early and often, Logos will give the Lexicon away to some lucky winner at the end of the month.

Logos recently released a major upgrade to their Bible Software. I did a “first look” review of Logos 8 here. There are plenty of new features to justify an upgrade and the software runs much more efficiently than the previous version. Everything seems to run faster than Logos 7 and the upgrade is well worth considering. Logos base packages are 20% off through May 31. As always, there are less expensive paths to upgrading and there are paths that will preserve your credit rating.

These three and almost free books of the month are only available through the end of May, so head to the Logos site and get them before the offer expires.