Bible Commentary for Non-believers?

[lotus1922]

Hello all,

I am involved in an ongoing dialogue with an agnostic, possibly atheist, acquaintance, about various issues of interpreting Scripture. Specifically, passages in which God “slaughters the innocent”, with the implied contradiction of God’s loving/ merciful nature and the use of religion as a justification for committing terrorism and violence “in the name of God”.

I’m not out to convert him but I do want to at least give him some accurate information to think over as he evaluates (or doesn’t) his opinion. What are some good books offering linguistic/ cultural context for understanding what the Bible says?

Many thanks,
Lotus

 

[Joe_5859]

It sounds like it might be valuable for you to have on hand some books that explore the “hard passages” of Scripture. Here are a couple:

• Dark Passages of the Bible by Matthew Ramage
• Hard Sayings: A Catholic Approach to Answering Bible Difficulties by Trent Horn

These are the types of passages that I think atheists and agnostics are most likely to bring up as reasons against belief and/or trust in God.