In 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible, New Testament Professor Dr. Robert L. Plummer tackles the major questions that persons ask about reading and undestanding the Bible.

Questions include:

• Does the Bible contain error?
• Were the ancient manuscripts of the Bible transmitted accurately?
• What is the best English Bible translation?
• Is the Bible really all about Jesus?
• Do all the commands of the Bible apply today?
• Why can't people agree on what the Bible means?
• How do we interpret historical narrative?
• How do we interpret the Psalms?
• What does the Bible tell us about the future?
• What is the "Theological Interpretation of Scripture"?
• and many others

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Applied Hermeneutics course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim, Professor of Practical and Systematic Theology.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Advanced Hermeneutics course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim, Professor of Practical and Systematic Theology.

The letter to the Colossians is rich in Christology, to which all the articles of faith are intimately connected. One might even argue that Colossians possesses the most profound Christology in all the New Testament. A true, biblical Christology, centered in the cross and the empty tomb, gives life and meaning to all theology.

Colossians has much to say about the doctrine of creation. Moreover, the letter relates its teaching on creation directly to its Christology. In this way Colossians unites the presupposition of all theology (creation) with the heart and center of all theology (Christology). Colossians is also strongly eschatological. The eschatology of the letter extends beyond those verses that speak of the life to come, for its message is constantly given with an eye on eternity. The true doctrine of Christ, who is the exalted Lord over the entire creation, refutes the false christologies that were circulating in Colossae, variations of which continue to compete against the true Gospel in the world today.

For all of those reasons, Colossians is a rich source of Christian theology that contributes a number of unique insights to the church’s faith and life.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Fall '24
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Jarrod Hylden, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '22
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Jerry Moan, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '20
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Jerry Moan, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '18
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course, taught by Dr. Nathan Olson.

The Concordia Commentary series serves as a Lutheran standard for exegetic and systematic soundness. In walking through the text verse by verse, it first analyzes the syntax of the original language, followed by a Lutheran commentary on the passage. It is a relatively new commentary series and not every volume has been completed yet, but it is certainly worth starting to add to your library.
—Dr. Nathan Olson

Ephesians is a veritable compendium of St. Paul’s theology and a candidate for his most influential epistle. In it we learn of the reconciliation of the cosmos and our eternal election in Christ, as well as:

• Salvation by grace through faith apart from works
• The mystery of salvation also for the Gentiles
• One Lord, one faith, one Baptism
• The divine gift of the Holy Ministry
• The Church as Christ’s bride and body
• The Christological meaning of marriage
• The resplendent armor of God.

We today, no less than the Ephesians recently converted from their pagan lifestyle, need to appropriate these teachings because of the spiritual peril of the environment in which we live. Dr. Winger’s commentary unfolds the mysteries of the Gospel by his meticulous analysis of the Greek text and his reverent exposition of the epistle’s proclamation of Christ and His gifts for the sake of His Church.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Fall '22
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Jerry Moan, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '20
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Jerry Moan, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '18
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course, taught by Dr. Nathan Olson.

The Concordia Commentary series serves as a Lutheran standard for exegetic and systematic soundness. In walking through the text verse by verse, it first analyzes the syntax of the original language, followed by a Lutheran commentary on the passage. It is a relatively new commentary series and not every volume has been completed yet, but it is certainly worth starting to add to your library.
—Dr. Nathan Olson

The brief and practical book of Philemon has long been a favorite of Christians. This commentary expounds Philemon in light of its theological purpose and its setting in the Greco-Roman world. It probes the specific circumstances under which Paul wrote the letter; how Philemon fit in with Paul’s missionary travels; and who Philemon and Onesimus were within the Christian community.

The apostle Paul addresses a crisis: Onesimus has robbed and fled from Philemon, whose house was the place of worship for a Christian church in Colossae. Paul’s letter has both a private and a public cast. He speaks to the relationships within a congregation through all the problems and sorrows—yet also adventures and joys—that attend faithful pastoral ministry. Christ himself serves as the pattern for how Christians relate to one another in forgiving and reconciling love.

Unique features of this commentary include its depth; its detailed consideration of ancient Greek and Latin literature that sheds light on Philemon; and its theology, which emphasizes Jesus Christ, God’s Word and Sacraments, and the doctrine of vocation, whereby each Christian is called to serve God faithfully in his or her particular role in life.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Fall '20
Recommended FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Pr. Jerry Moan, Professor of New Testament.

Fall '18
Required FLS textbook for Captivity Epistles course, taught by Dr. Nathan Olson.

The Concordia Commentary series serves as a Lutheran standard for exegetic and systematic soundness. In walking through the text verse by verse, it first analyzes the syntax of the original language, followed by a Lutheran commentary on the passage. It is a relatively new commentary series and not every volume has been completed yet, but it is certainly worth starting to add to your library.
—Dr. Nathan Olson

The Book of Concord is the authoritative collection of the Lutheran Church's statements of faith and contains documents which Lutheran Christians have used since the 16th century to explain, defend, and advance their witness to the truth of God's Word. This edition includes helpful introductions, insightful notes and annotations, and valuable tools and guides to aid the reading and comprehension of the Book of Concord.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Salvation and Lutheran Confessional Theology courses taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Introduction to Lutheran Thought and Christ & Man courses taught by Dr. Steve Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Fall '25
Required FLBC textbook for Means of Grace and Eschatology and Theology of Worship course, taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Salvation, Lutheran Confessional Theology, and Theology of Christian Life courses taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Introduction to Lutheran Thought course taught by Dr. Steve Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Fall '24
Required FLBC textbook for Means of Grace and Eschatology course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim and Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLBC textbook for Christian Education course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Worship course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Soteriology course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Spring '24
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Salvation course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Lutheran Symbolics course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Fall ’23
Required FLBC textbook for Means of Grace and Eschatology and Lutheran Confessional Theology courses taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Hermeneutics and Theology & Anthropology courses taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

SIT 2023
Recommended SIT textbook for The Systems of Systematic Theology session taught by Dr. Jason Gudim.

Spring '23
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Salvation course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Lutheran Symbolics course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
You will need either this or The Book of Concord - Kolb and Wengert or The Book of Concord - Tappert.

Fall '22
Required FLBC textbook for Means of Grace and Eschatology course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Soteriology course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
You will need either this or The Book of Concord - Kolb and Wengert or The Book of Concord - Tappert.

Spring '22
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Salvation course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.
Required FLS textbook for Lutheran Symbolics course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Fall '21
Required FLBC textbook for Lutheran Confessional Theology course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology.

Spring '21
Required FLS textbook for Lutheran Symbolics course taught by Dr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology.

Spring '20
Required FLS textbook for Lutheran Symbolics course taught by Dr. Steve Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology.

Each ESV Scripture Journal pairs the entirety of an individual book of the Bible with a lightly-lined blank page opposite each page of Bible text, allowing readers to take extended notes or record insights and prayers directly beside corresponding passages of Scripture. These thin, portable notebooks are great for personal Bible reading and reflection, small-group study, writing out extended portions of Scripture, or taking notes through a sermon series.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Theology of Christian Life course taught by Pr. Steven Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History.

Each ESV Scripture Journal pairs the entirety of an individual book of the Bible with a lightly-lined blank page opposite each page of Bible text, allowing readers to take extended notes or record insights and prayers directly beside corresponding passages of Scripture. These thin, portable notebooks are great for personal Bible reading and reflection, small-group study, writing out extended portions of Scripture, or taking notes through a sermon series.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Each ESV Scripture Journal pairs the entirety of an individual book of the Bible with a lightly-lined blank page opposite each page of Bible text, allowing readers to take extended notes or record insights and prayers directly beside corresponding passages of Scripture. These thin, portable notebooks are great for personal Bible reading and reflection, small-group study, writing out extended portions of Scripture, or taking notes through a sermon series.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Captivity Epistles course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

ESV Scripture Journals pair the entirety of individual books of the Bible with lightly lined blank pages opposite each page of Bible text, allowing readers to take extended notes or record insights and prayers directly beside corresponding passages of Scripture. These thin, portable notebooks are great for personal Bible reading and reflection, small-group study, or taking notes through a sermon series.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Fall '22
Recommended FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

ESV Scripture Journals pair the entirety of individual books of the Bible with lightly lined blank pages opposite each page of Bible text, allowing readers to take extended notes or record insights and prayers directly beside corresponding passages of Scripture. These thin, portable notebooks are great for personal Bible reading and reflection, small-group study, or taking notes through a sermon series.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Brent Olson, Professor of Old Testament.

Fall '22
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

A Proven Approach to Help You Interpret and Understand the Bible

Grasping God's Word has proven itself in classrooms across the country as an invaluable help to students who want to learn how to read, interpret, and apply the Bible for themselves. This book will equip you with a five-step Interpretive Journey that will help you make sense of any passage in the Bible. It will also guide you through all the different genres found in the Bible to help you learn the specifics of how to best approach each one.

Filling the gap between approaches that are too simple and others that are too technical, this book starts by equipping readers with general principles of interpretation, then moves on to apply those principles to specific genres and contexts.

Features include:

• Proven in classrooms across the country
• Hands-on exercises to guide students through the interpretation process
• Emphasis on real-life application
• Supplemented by a website for professors providing extensive teaching materials
• Accompanying workbook, video lectures, laminated study guide (sold separately)

This fourth edition includes revised chapters on word studies and Bible translations, updated illustrations, cultural references, bibliography, and assignments. This book is the ideal resource for anyone looking for a step-by-step guide that will teach them how to accurately and faithfully interpret the Bible.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Applied Hermeneutics course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim, Professor of Practical and Systematic Theology.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Advanced Hermeneutics course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim, Professor of Practical and Systematic Theology.

Spring '23
Required FLBC textbook for Biblical Interpretation course taught by Pr. Adam Osier, Dean of FLBC.

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. A perverse person spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

Every day we make choices on the path of life. Proverbs are memorable capsules of wisdom, chiseled in words and polished through use by those who have traveled that path ahead of us. But the proverbs of the Bible make a greater claim than "a penny saved is a penny earned." They are woven into the web of divine revelation, rooted in the "fear of the Lord" that is the beginning of wisdom.

While many proverbs speak to us directly, we can gain much greater insight by studying the book of Proverbs as a whole, understanding its relationship to ancient non-Israelite wisdom, and listening to its conversation with the other great voices of wisdom in Scripture--Job and Ecclesiastes.

In How to Read Proverbs Tremper Longman III provides a welcome guide to reading and studying, understanding, and savoring the Proverbs for all their wisdom. Most important for Christian readers, we gain insight into how Christ is the climax and embodiment of wisdom.

Spring ’26
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Spring ’25
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Brent Olson, Professor of Old Testament.

Fall ’22
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.
You will need either this or How to Read the Psalms.

The Psalms possess an enduring fascination for us. For frankness, directness, intensity and intimacy, they are unrivaled in all of Scripture. Somehow the psalmists seem to have anticipated all our awe, desires and frustrations. No wonder Christians have used the Psalms in worship from the earliest times to the present.

Yet the Psalms cause us difficulties when we look at them closely. Their poetry is unfamiliar in form. Many images they use are foreign to us today. And the psalmists sometimes express thoughts that seem unworthy of Scripture.

Tremper Longman gives us the kind of help we need to overcome the distance between the psalmists' world and ours. He explains the various kinds of psalms, the way they were used in Hebrew worship and their relationship to the rest of the Old Testament. Then he looks at how Christians can appropriate their message and insights today. Turning to the art of Old Testament poetry, he explains the use of parallelism and imagery.

Step-by-step suggestions for interpretating the psalms on our own are followed by exercises for further study and reflection. Also included is a helpful guide to commentaries on the Psalms.

Here is a book for all those who long to better understand these mirrors of the soul.

Spring ’26
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Spring ’25
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Brent Olson, Professor of Old Testament.

Fall ’22
Required FLBC textbook for Poetical Books course taught by Dr. Nathan Olson, Professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.
You will need either this or How To Read Proverbs.

From time to time we all face life's big questions . . .

• What is real?
• How do we know what we know?
• What is right?
• Who or what am I?
• How should we view science and its claims?

And as we wrestle with these issues, we may even find ourselves thinking, Perhaps what I need is a good dose of philosophy. It's a shame philosophy is so difficult.

Garrett DeWeese and J. P. Moreland understand this frustration and in this book offer help to make philosophy at least slightly less difficult. In straightforward language with everyday examples, they explain the basics needed to understand philosophical concepts and thus bring clarity to discussions of life's big questions.

Spring '26
Required FLBC textbook for Introduction to Philosophy course taught by Dr. Jonathan Strand.

Spring '25
Required FLBC textbook for Apologetics, Ethics, & Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Jason Gudim and Dr. Wade Mobley.
Required FLBC textbook for Introduction to Philosophy course taught by Dr. Jonathan Strand.

Spring '24
Required FLBC textbook for Apologetics and Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Wade Mobley.

SIT 2023
Recommended SIT textbook for Philosophy for Faith session taught by Dr. Jonathan Strand.

Spring '23
Required FLBC textbook for Apologetics and Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Wade Mobley.

Spring '21
Recommended FLBC textbook for Apologetics and Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Wade Mobley.

Spring '20
Recommended FLBC textbook for Apologetics and Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Wade Mobley.

Fall '19
Required FLS textbook for Basic Principles of Theology/ Doctrine of Word course taught by Pr. Steve Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology.

Spring '19
Recommended FLBC textbook for Apologetics and Christian Thought course taught by Dr. Wade Mobley.

Fall '18
Required FLS textbook for Expository Preaching II course taught by Pr. Steve Mundfrom, Professor of Systematic Theology.