PhD candidate Jonathan Tysick recommends free resources that helped him engage with the Bible in fresh ways.
The year is half over. How’s your Bible reading plan going? I pass no judgment, as I’m afraid that my own ambitious reading goals have already fallen by the wayside. Let’s be honest – the Bible is a strange book. Ever important, uniquely inspired and used by the Spirit, but not always easy to read.
As a biblical scholar in training and preacher, I’d like to offer you several free resources that have helped me engage with the Bible in fresh ways. None of these should replace your regular engagement with Scripture itself, but they might just increase your appreciation for the Bible and drive you towards the written Word.
Watch
This is the Jesus Film or the Visual Bible for the 21st century. All four Gospels in their entirety, in the language of your choice (available in 1,540 tongues), filmed beautifully, with a non-white Jesus. They’ve also made a film that covers the Pentateuch and another on the book of Acts. And did I mention it’s all free on YouTube?
If you haven’t yet heard of the world’s most successful crowdfunded TV show of all time, then you’re in for a treat. Of course, there are dangers in substituting the show (which takes plenty of entertaining imaginative liberties) for real engagement with the Gospels, but in my experience, watching this portrayal of Jesus’s ministry with family, friends and church groups can be a deeply formative experience. It hits the sweet spot between edifying and entertaining, and once again, it’s free.
Whether you experience doubts or not, it is helpful to think through the origins and trustworthiness of the Bible. After all, it didn’t just fall from the sky, leather bound in 21st century English. In this professionally crafted three-part documentary series (totalling just over 70 minutes) the team at Apologetics Canada (including apologist phenom Wes Huff) walk you through common questions about the composition and collation of the Bible. Filmed on location in Egypt, Turkey and Italy, this a well-informed series that has the engaging, cinematographic feel of a travelogue. You can stream it free on YouTube.
This one is for the art-lovers. This free British project combines more than 1,300 high resolution images of artwork from antiquity to the present day that depict scenes from the Bible. Art historians, theologians and Bible scholars also offer commentary on the art and the relevant biblical passage, providing a feast for your mind and eyes as you study a specific text. The site is organized by biblical book so you can easily view an assortment of paintings from across millennia on the same passage, causing you to appreciate how the Bible has moved people from across space and time.
Listen
Every week for almost three years this Missouri-based husband-wife duo released one song closely based on a psalm. Though not an audio Bible, each beautiful song exudes the vast spectrum of human emotion portrayed in the Psalms while sticking closely to the words, aiding in memorization. And yes, it’s free to stream and download.
Audio Bibles don’t have to be read by deep-voiced British men. Why not try something a little different? The NIV dramatized Bible leads you through the text with multiple voice actors, background music and even sound effects. The Streetlights audio Bible engagingly reads the NLT over a hip-hop soundscape which can double as your exercise music. Very recently a YouTube channel called Rhythm and Bible has set entire New Testament books to AI-generated music. Listen to Colossians as boom bop jazz, Ephesians as R&B, and others as UK grime or indie pop. Truly the words of Scripture like you’ve never heard them before. And again, all free.
Read
Best-selling novels like Ben-Hur (1880), The Robe (1942) and Francine Rivers’ The Mark of the Lion series (1993–1995) have painted wonderful stories around the New Testament world and are still worth reading. Thankfully New Testament scholars have also taken up their fiction pens, wrapping responsible scholarship in rapturous tales. Trustworthy scholars like Bruce Longenecker, Holly Beers, David deSilva, Ben Witherington III and Paula Gooder have written novels/novellas about Phoebe, Lydia, Priscilla, Paul, Philemon & Onesimus, the Maccabees, the fall of Jerusalem, the setting of Ephesus, Corinth, Rome and more.
- Accessible Bible Commentaries
Commentaries aren’t just for pastors, preachers, seminary students and scholars. There are readable, knowledgeable and edifying commentaries for Christians of all stripes. Check out the Bible for Everyone series from John Goldingay and N.T. Wright, Scot McKnight’s New Testament Everyday Bible Studies and the ever readable (but sometimes outdated) Daily Study Bible series from William Barclay. Or invest in a one volume commentary such as the NIV Application Commentary or IVP’s Bible Background Commentary.
My hope and prayer is that you will embrace the richness of Scripture through some of these resources that our ancestors in the faith could have only dreamed of. Take up and read. The year is still young.
Jonathan Tysick studies the Gospels in a PhD program at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and the Free University of Amsterdam. He hosts a podcast and YouTube channel called Bespectacled & Curious and previously served as a shelter worker and pastor in downtown Toronto. Opening photo by Ilias Chebbi on Unsplash.