Eastern Bible Study resources

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I am looking for recommendations for personal Bible study tools that are from Eastern Catholic/Orthodox sources, or, that at the very least, are not heavily latin theology. I apologize if this question is similar to another recent post, but I am looking for specifically Bible related tools, without any restrictions on time frame (it could be first century to something that was just published) and not limited to the Fathers or Saints.

I use the Ignatius Study Bible and their app for basics (FYI: YouVersion Bible app is a fantastic Bible app I would highly recommend. It has several Catholic translations of the Bible available, but no Catholic study tools).

So what I would be interested in is what other Eastern Catholics and Orthodox use.

I’m looking for:
  • General books that are overviews of the Bible (like Peter Kreeft’s “You Can Understand the Bible”) or on Bible topics
  • Commentaries
  • Bible study books or courses
  • Apps, videos, podcasts, etc. of Bible study tools
Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Bonus points for recommendations that don’t come from certain publishers who charge $100’s of dollars per book 😁

Also, has anyone read any of Dr. Scott Hahn’s work? What do you think of it from an Eastern perspective?

Thank you very much!
 
I’ve read a good number of Dr. Hahn’s books, and actually had him as a professor at one point. Abouna George (whom you know), says that Dr. Hahn is “one of us.” I have to agree with him overall. His Scripture scholarship is thoroughly steeped in the Church Fathers.

Have you looked into any of the Patristic commentaries, like the homilies of St. John Chrysostom or Mar Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on the Gospel of Luke?

As a Maronite, you might also consider checking out Brant Pitre’s “Jewish Roots of [Insert Catholic Teaching Here]” books and/or CDs. Overall they’re very good. The only one that I’ve listened to that I didn’t find particularly compelling was his talk on the Jewish roots of the papacy. But his one on purgatory was phenomenal.
 
Two other resources that I forgot about:
  1. The Chrysostom Bible - which is a series of commentaries on various books of the Old Testament done by one of the professors at St. Vlad’s, I believe. Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi is the author. He’s also written a number of other commentaries that are worth checking out.
  2. There’s a series of popular-level commentaries by Fr. Lawrence Farley. I’ve never read any of them, but I’ve listened to some of his podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio. If his writings reflect at all his podcast, they would be worth checking out.
 
Fr. Hezekias and Fr. Sebastian were both parishioners at the Melkite parish I belonged to when I lived in Virginia. In many ways that parish is as “Orthodox” as any Orthodox parish you’ll find anywhere. They had good formation. 😁
 
A good friend of mine was a former parishioner at St George in Sacramento. He says the same as you!

ZP
 
Between that parish and spending several years working at Eastern Christian Publications, filming videos for Fr. Taft, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Sr. Vassa, and many others, I got a decent formation myself. 😂
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
Abouna George (whom you know), says that Dr. Hahn is “one of us.” I have to agree with him overall. His Scripture scholarship is thoroughly steeped in the Church Fathers.

Have you looked into any of the Patristic commentaries, like the homilies of St. John Chrysostom or Mar Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on the Gospel of Luke ?

As a Maronite, you might also consider checking out Brant Pitre’s “Jewish Roots of [Insert Catholic Teaching Here]” books and/or CDs.
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Ah, @Phillip_Rolfes my friend thank you! Yes, I was very interested in Dr. Pitre’s “Jewish Roots of…” books (especially as a Maronite) after I read The Case for Christ, his great rebuttal to Dr, Bart Ehrman. But, I’ve added so many books to my wish list since then I had forgotten about them.

Thanks for the other recommendations and your endorsement of Dr. Hahn. Coincidentally, did you notice he (through the St. Paul Center) just released a new Bibly study series this Lent called “The Bible and the Church Fathers”? I’m thinking of at least picking up access to the videos.

As far as the commentary of the Fathers, I really haven’t looked into it yet. It is such a staggeringly huge volume of works that I wouldn’t know where to begin. That’s part of why I was looking for specific recommendations.
 
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Fr. Hezekias & Fr. Sebastian do the Byzantine and Roman Sunday Gospel reflections. Fr. Hezekias and Fr. David Anderson are doing a series on the Great Fast. I missed the first part and had to watch it through the link but did tune in to Part 2. Part 3 is next Wednesday (3/11).

And Fr. Hezekias is really funny too. I’d love to meet him and Fr. Sebastian in person.
 
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Here’s their Sunday Gospel Reflection for this Sunday, Sunday of St Gregory Palamas (new calendar):


ZP
 
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