Praise for God Speaks

With scholarly insights and lucid writing, Craig Evans delves into biblical history to unlock answers to questions all of us have. Once again, he hits a home run!

—Lee Strobel, best-selling author of
The Case for Christ and The Case for Grace

God Speaks is insightful and easy to understand. It will help you answer today’s tough questions rooted deep in Christianity’s history.

—Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel,
American Center for Law and Justice

GOD

SPEAKS

GOD

What He Says

SPEAKS

What He Means

CRAIG A. EVANS, PHD

Copyright © 2015 by Craig Evans

Published by Worthy Books, an imprint of Worthy Publishing Group, a division of Worthy Media, Inc., One Franklin Park, 6100 Tower Circle, Suite 210, Franklin, TN 37067.

WORTHY is a registered trademark of Worthy Media, Inc.

HELPING PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE HEART OF GOD

eBook available wherever digital books are sold.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Evans, Craig A.

God speaks : what he says, what he means / Dr. Craig Evans.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61795-481-8 (tradepaper)

1. Bible--Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BS538.E93 2015

220.1--dc23

2015003373

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked ERV are taken from the Easy To Read Version Copyright © 1978, 1987, 2012 World Bible Translation Center.

For foreign and subsidiary rights, contact rights@worthypublishing.com

ISBN: 978-1-61795-481-8 (softcover)

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Cover Design: Knail, LLC (Kent Jensen)

Interior Design and Typesetting: Bart Dawson

Printed in the United States of America
15 16 17 18 19 RRD 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Don and Diane

Contents

Foreword by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey

Introduction

Part 1: What Is the Bible?

1. What Is the Bible, Really?

2. What’s the Bible Saying, Really?

Part Two: What Is the Bible About?

3. Why Do We Need a Creation Story?

4. Isn’t the Bible Just Rules and Negative Talk?

5. What’s the Bright Side of ...