Through the Lens of an Ancient Yisra'elite Bible Study
- Genre
- Christian Bible Study / Theology
- Publication date
- May 28, 2025
- Format
- Hardcover · Paperback · Kindle
- Print length
- 894 pages
- Publisher
- WestBow Press
- ISBN-13
- Hardcover 979-8385038091 · Paperback 979-8385038084 · eBook 979-8385038107
Synopsis
Through the Lens of an Ancient Yisra'elite Bible Study invites readers to encounter Scripture within its original cultural, covenantal, and linguistic world — before layers of Western interpretation reshaped the text. Instead of asking the Bible to conform to modern assumptions, this study restores its Hebraic voice by returning it to the people who first lived, heard, and preserved it.
Written by disabled U.S. military veteran, ordained minister, teacher, graphic designer, and award-winning author Benjamin N. Carrasquillo Jr., this 894-page study combines historical research, Hebraic worldview analysis, narrative structure, and accessible teaching.
More than a devotional guide and more grounded than a theological essay, this book functions as a lens-cleaner for students of Scripture. It explores how honor and shame, communal identity, covenantal relationships, Hebraic idioms, and ancient Near Eastern worldview shaped the original meaning of biblical passages.
The result is not speculation or novelty, but restoration — helping modern readers hear the biblical message as its first audience would have understood it.
From the Inside Flap
The information contained in this book is based on 23 years of thorough academic research, teaching, and schooling. It avoids western bias, presupposed ideas, ideologies, or theories — an in-depth study of the biblical text within the context of the ancient culture, language, traditions, and customs of a first-century Yisra'elite.
From the Back Cover
How do you read your Bible? Do you ever come across a verse you can't quite understand, or encounter concepts and events outside our cultural norms? Even if you understand part of it, how much of your processing might be shaped by cultural influence or personal experience rather than what the authors intended?
We all grow up with a certain set of mores; as we mature we develop a worldview and a way of reading and interpreting the world around us. Through this process we develop our own filtering prism — in modern terms, something similar to a firewall.
This prism filters information before the brain processes it. When applied to the biblical text, it creates major interpretation problems, leading readers and even some scholars to misunderstand and develop concepts not found in Scripture.
To read the text differently from our current cultural norms can be unsettling. It will take time, patience, dedication, and practice to develop this new method of thinking.
In this study you will explore
- How the ancient Yisra'elite worldview differs from modern Western assumptions
- Why honor, shame, covenant, kinship, and communal ethics are essential to Scripture
- The impact of Hebraic language and idioms on meaning and interpretation
- How the Bible communicates through patterns, cycles, and narrative structures rather than abstract doctrines
- The difference between covenantal relationships and modern contract-thinking
- What happens when Scripture is read within its own cultural soil rather than through later philosophical frameworks
Ideal for readers who
- Readers who want the Bible in its historical and cultural context
- Those who sense a disconnect between ancient Scripture and modern Western interpretation
- Teachers and leaders of Bible studies, small groups, and discipleship courses
- Anyone exploring the Hebraic roots of the faith
- Readers who want a deeper approach beyond commentary-driven theology
- Anyone curious how honor-shame culture shapes biblical narratives and ethics