Required and Recommended Textbooks for the MBTS Scrolls and Scripture Workshop.

Required and Recommended Textbooks for the MBTS Scrolls and Scripture Workshop.

The debate on Thursday night between Ehrman and Evans would be worth the price of the class, but other significant scholars will be speaking on Friday and Saturday on the reliability of the Scriptures. The debate is free, but individuals attending must register by calling the Seminary at 816-414-3700. Seating will be at a premium. Overflow seating will be available.

The following information is from the MBTS Website:

MBTS to host The Scrolls and the Scriptures Conference

posted in Articles, on Feb 12, 2010 by Staff

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will host a debate and lecture series called The Scrolls and the Scriptures Conference here on April 1-3 in the chapel auditorium. The theme of the conference is, “The Bible as Artifact: Who Wrote It and How Was It Preserved.”

The event will kick-off on April 1 at 7 p.m. with a debate between Dr. Craig A. Evans from Acadia University and Dr. Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina. Both professors are experts in the field of biblical studies, which include the Dead Sea Scrolls and textual criticism. The focus of the debate will center on the reliability of the biblical accounts of the resurrection.

“People want, and need, to know the truth about the Bible’s origin and reliability,” said Dr. Jerry A. Johnson, Vice President for Academic Development and Academic Dean at Midwestern. “This conference addresses that need on both the popular and the scholarly level. From Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, to James Cameron’s so-called ‘Coffin of Jesus,’ the average person is aware of new claims that supposedly undermine the biblical record.”

Johnson continued, “The conference features scholars of international renown who will reveal that recent archaeological discoveries and biblical research actually confirm our confidence in the Bible as God’s Word.”

Featured lecturers during the conference’s plenary sessions on April 2-3 include Larry Hurtado and Paul Foster from the University of Edinburgh, Paul Wegner from Phoenix Seminary, Daniel Wallace from Dallas Theological Seminary, Peter Flint from Trinity Western University, Stanley Porter from McMaster Divinity College, and Midwestern’s Steve Andrews and Ron Huggins.

The event is open to the public and admission to the conference is free. Two hours of academic credit are available for $100. To register contact our Student Development office at 816-414-3733 or e-mail jspencer@mbts.edu.

Conference Schedule

MIDWESTERN BAPTSIT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

The Scrolls and the Scriptures

The Bible as Artifact:

Who Wrote it and How was it Preserved?

Thursday, April 1

7:00-9:00pm Debate between Evans/Ehrman

Friday, April 2

8:00-9:00 Papias of Hierapolis: A Supremely Important Unreliable Witness to the New Testament Ron Huggins

9:15-10:15 Digitally Preserving the Word of God: The Work of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts  Daniel Wallace

10:30-11:30 The Library at Qumran and Books that must be checked out  Peter Flint

11:30-1:00  Lunch

1:00-2:00 Bold Claims, Wishful Thinking, and Lessons about Dating Manuscripts from Papyrus Egerton 2 Paul Foster

2:15-3:15 What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? Reconstructing Christianity from its Early Manuscripts?  Stanley Porter

3:30-4:30 What Earliest Christian Manuscripts Show us About Their Readers Larry Hurtado

4:30-6:30 Dinner

6:30-7:30 Current Trends in Old Testament Textual Criticism Paul Wegner

7:30-8:30  Ancient Text or Modern Hoax? Why I have doubts about Secret Mark  Craig Evans

Saturday, April 3

8:00-9:00  The Oldest Hebrew Scriptures and the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription  Steve Andrews

9:15-10:15 The Great Isaiah Scroll and the Interpretation of Isaiah at Qumran Peter Flint

10:30-11:30 Panel Wrap up

Just this happened to me last semester. A local pastor emailed me to ask about some recommendations on Genesis. He planned to preach a series of messages to his congregation on the first book of the Bible. I happened to be teaching a seminar to the OT PhD students on Genesis, so I was really pumped up and excited to suggest some good books on the subject. Well, I gave him a few ideas and then promptly forget to add some other good commentaries. I remember suggesting three good commentaries, a text on preaching from Genesis, and one dictionary as very helpful.

Then somebody else called me with basically the same question. Unfortunately, I could not find the email I sent the first pastor. So I figured out that there out to be a better way to recommend books where I can make an easy list, add to it when I want, and delete the ones I change my mind on later.

This is where the Internet comes to the rescue—well, more specifically, Amazon.com and our blog. To see how this works click the link below:

Recommended Books on Genesis

This will take you to a list of books, works, and other media on Genesis. You don’t have to purchase any of the suggestions from Amazon. But if you click on the icon, you will be able to see all the publication data on the selected work. Amazon has pretty good deals.

But the point is that I can update this hyperlink at anytime and anyplace and add and subtract books and commentaries. It will even let me list the books according to category. That way I can refer questions to this blog and I don’t have to look around to find an email or the scrap of paper on which I wrote down some ideas for the person who called me last time on the subject.

In fact, what we can also do is list the recommended books and commentaries under our Pages sidebar Essential Books! So, if you are looking for good books on the Old Testament check there from time to time. Drs. Hearson, Watson, and I will start putting up our suggestions. We think this will help our teaching and ministry and that it will help you as well.

Good reading!

Until 1929 available texts of the Hebrew Bible were essentially reprints or edited versions of Jacob ben Hayyim’s Second Rabbinic Bible, first published by Daniel Bomberg in Venice in 1524/25. Ben Hayyim based his work on late medieval manuscripts and other earlier printed editions. This text served as the textus receptus behind all early Old Testament translations, such as that of Luther and the King James Version.

Beginning in 1929, Rudolf Kittel decided to jettison the later eclectic ben Hayyim text and adopt in its place the earlier text of the Leningrad manuscript B 19^A (L; dated AD 1008) as a base for the new edition of his internationally acclaimed scholarly work known as the Biblia Hebraica (first published 1906). Kittel died in 1929, but ten years later Albrecht Alt and Otto Eissfeldt were able to revise and publish the edited fascicles in the third edition of the Biblia Hebraica (Stuttgart: Württembergische Biblelanstalt, 1937). Although Kittel edited only five of the twenty-one fascicles, the work has commonly become known as Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (BHK). BHK has been criticized for its frequent willingness to correct and emend the B 19^A text based on conjecture. BHK has served as the base text behind the Revised Standard Version and other translations of the Old Testament of the same period.

A revision of BHK was undertaken from 1967-77 to reflect more accurately the text of the Leningrad manuscript. This new revision was published in 1977 as the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft). BHS has gone through five revisions or “editions” since its initial publication. The fifth and last edition of BHS was published in 1997. A newer version called Biblia Hebraica Quinta has been started and several fascicles have been released. See for example, Biblia Hebraica Quinta: General Introduction & Megilloth (BHQ; Deutsche Biblegesellschaft, 2004). Since some scholars refer to BHQ as the fifth “edition” of Biblia Hebraica (which it technically is), students confuse it with the fifth edition of BHS.

The first BHS edition was initially published in a large easy to read format (9.4 x 6.5 in), and this volume has since become commonly known as the Editio Maior. A small print version (7.6 x 5.6 in) known as the Editio Minor first appeared in 1984. This compact Editio Minor was less expensive and consequently made BHS more accessible to a larger audience. However, the smaller print made a few accents, vowel signs, and some sigla and text of the critical apparatus more difficult to read with the unaided eye.

The smaller Editio Minor has proved to be very popular and has been reprinted in various formats. In 1994 it was bound together with the 27th revised Nestle-Aland New Testament Greek text in the somewhat expensive Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti Editio Hebraica et Graeca (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft). In 2007 an inexpensive paperback edition of the fifth edition of BHS was released. In my personal experience the bindings of both of these reprints have not stood up very well.

In 2007 Hendrickson Publishers offered the academic world a reprint of the fifth edition of the BHS text as a “wide margin edition” (9.4 x 7.1 in). This is sometimes misleadingly referred to as a “large print edition.” But this is incorrect because Hendrickson reprinted the smaller Editio Minor text as the basis for its edition. The text is exactly the same, except that Hendrickson added 1½ to the outside of the page and nearly 2½ to the bottom. The edition contains a number of welcome additional blank leaves at the beginning and the end of the volume. If they were able, I would have preferred a reprint of the larger Edition Maior, even if it meant a loss in the space available for notes.

The quality of the binding is good and strong and reassuring as well. However, the weight of the paper is light and consequently thin. The average pen or highlighter bleeds right through the paper. This is disappointing in light of the fact that the intent was to give the user adequate space to add notes and comments on the side and bottom of the text. Gel pens bleed through quickly and ballpoints leave a tell tale heavy impression on the reverse side. Several writing implement manufacturers (like G. T. Luscombe, TUL, and Zebra Pen Corp.) make pens and highlighters specifically designed for the thin papers used in Bibles published today. These work better on the Hendrickson reprint.

Hendrickson’s wide margin edition remains a serious option for the student or pastor who desires to annotate the Hebrew text as they study. The price is reasonable and comparable to the hardcover Editio Minor. Despite the thin paper, I would prefer Hendrickson’s wide margin edition to the Editio Minor. Nevertheless, there are a few other issues that students may want to consider before purchasing a Hebrew Bible.

It took Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft ten years from the beginning of publishing fascicles to complete the publication of BHS. Six fascicles of BHQ have now been published. If the same time schedule is maintained the final publication of BHQ could be accomplished by 2014 or thereafter. A less expensive version of BHS might do until BHQ arrives on the scene.

The wide margin edition might not appeal to all students. Bible software has made it easier to add notations and comments to the electronic text of the Hebrew Bible. This is true for a number of Bible texts as a whole. My students are more electronically connected, and some prefer reading and translating the Hebrew text right from the computer screen. In this case, hyperlinks are very productive on the computer, but not available in printed formats.

While Hendrickson had no control over the matter, the nature of the BHS text must be considered before making a purchase. It is true that BHS is the only “critical” option that we now possess in the translation and study of the Hebrew text. Depending on the needs and interests of the student, other texts may prove more fruitful.

BHS is not a perfect text; nor is it any better in bringing us closer to the autographs than the textus receptus of Ben Hayyim’s Second Rabbinical Bible. There are small oddities in BHS. For example, the editors chose to place Chronicles as the end of the Writings just like Ben Hayyim’s version. But in the Leningrad Codex B 19^A Chronicles starts the Hagiographia. The editors also introduced sigla for petuhot and setumot where they were lacking in L.

Even more serious is the eclectic nature of G. E. Weil’s edition of the Masorah included in BHS. The Masorah Parva in the margin of BHS is an edited version of the Masorah of L, and must be used with caution. The first apparatus under the text contains references to the Masorah Magna (MM) as collated by Weil in a separate volume. Unfortunately, this very helpful resource is hard to find and not available to most pastors.

Finally, the text critical apparatus of BHS follows text critical methods essentially practiced before the last century. The editors of each fascicle gave only what they deemed important of the ancient texts and versions with their own preferred suggestions and conjectural readings. Little consideration is given to inter-textual errors and problems within a given version. In addition, BHS was published too early to take advantage of the full impact of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the discipline of textual criticism of the Bible.

Despite these problems, BHS is still the best academic text available. Consequently, Hendrickson’s wide margin edition will appeal to students and scholars alike. Being aware of the peculiarities of BHS should alleviate for a period any mistaken conclusions concerning the Masorah and the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. At least, this would be true while we wait for the publication of BHQ. But even then, there will be no guarantee that all our problems will be solved.

Recently several politicians have drawn a proverbial line in the sand between their personal religious beliefs and their actions in political office.  The message, whether intended or not, is that personal belief is a private, internal matter that has little to no effect on behavior.  This fragmented view of reality allows them to support popular opinion on an issue with their vote even though they may stand personally opposed to the issue.  This approach to life is typically described as postmodernism and is not limited to the realm of politics.  It also occurs in the circles of academia.  I experienced this first-hand in college. 

I started my college degree in the sciences and found one of the most difficult tasks that I faced was the integration of my faith with the scientific worldview.  When I changed to a major in biblical and theological studies I assumed that the integration of faith and scholarship would be relatively easy by comparison.  Instead, I found an even greater pressure to separate the two spheres.  This pressure arises from the emphasis the academy places on empirical data, while the supernatural is relegated to the subjective realm of belief.  Yet this fails to take into account that favoring facts over belief is itself a value arising from a post-enlightenment worldview.  Indeed, scholars in the field of biblical studies often separate their faith from their academic work out of a desire to be accepted in the larger academic community.  They view what they do in the academy as belonging to the objective realm, while relegating their faith to the subjective realm.  This fragmentation leads to an implicit understanding that faith does not belong in the classroom, which is subsequently passed on to students.  In his recent book, Taking Religion to School, Stephen Webb notes that when it comes to matters of faith in the higher education classroom, students “go to great lengths of stylistic awkwardness, constructing sentences in the passive voice (“It is believed . . .”) and with indirect references (“Some people might argue . . .”), to avoid the obvious and obfuscate their honesty.”[1] 

Yet despite this pressure, there is a motivation for my work in the field of biblical studies that I lacked in the sciences.  I have pursued biblical studies precisely because of my faith.  Indeed, if it were not for my belief in the Bible as the Word of God and what it teaches, I certainly would not have poured my life into its study.  The perspective of the Old and New Testaments is the basis for my own worldview and I do not separate my faith from my academic study.  I find justification for this in Matthew 22:37-38, “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”[2]  To me, this means that my study of the Bible is a form of worship and is something I do with my whole being.  Thus, my faith is very much a part of the way I study the Bible in the classroom or in moments of private worship and communion with God.  This approach has been historically described as faith seeking understanding. 

Another implication of fully integrating my scholarship with a biblical worldview is that I make little to no distinction with respect to my roles in the church and in the academy.  People who choose biblical studies in college or go to seminary often either go into the ministry or college level teaching.  I once had the president of a seminary ask me at what point I decided to pursue an academic career instead of a career in ministry.  I responded that I did not see the two as mutually exclusive.  There is a pastoral element to teaching, especially in a Christian college or university, and teaching is certainly integral to the role of pastor.  This was modeled for me in seminary, as many of my professors served in pastoral roles in their local church in addition to their teaching responsibilities.  Even in their role as seminary professors, they always took the time to meet with students to talk with them about how issues from class impacted their lives.  Students could interact with the professors on campus and then continue that mentoring relationship in church on Sunday.  The perspectives of the Bible studied and clarified in class were not just the subject of intellectual inquiry.  They were principles for living. 

Therefore, the biblical texts and their perspectives are both the subject of my scholastic endeavors and the divine instruction through which I seek to grow in my relationship with Christ.  Wisdom and an awareness of my audience are prerequisites for this sort of integration in order to interact with the larger scholarly community without compromise (Matthew 10:16).  Robert Harris summarizes the aim of such integration as follows:  “The goal of the integration of faith and learning is to connect the two—Biblical truth and academic knowledge—into a unified, coherent whole.”[3]  I teach biblical studies as an academic subject that is applicable to life.  All truth is God’s truth.  It is our task with the aid of the Holy Spirit to discern it.  “Test everything. Hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Recommended books: 

James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept.

John MacArthur, Think Biblically: Recovering a Christian Worldview.

Nancy Pearcy, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity.

[2] All biblical citations come from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

[3] “Foundations for Faith-Learning Integration,” Poster Session presented at the National Faculty Leadership Conference, Washington, D.C. June 25, 2004.  p. 25.

Dr. Steve Andrews

How do you say “thank you” in Hebrew? Most tourists who visit Israel easily learn to say tôdâ to express their appreciation for kindness or good service. Modern Hebrew borrowed tôdâ, which means “thanks,” from Biblical Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew, however, uses tôdâ and its verbal root yādâ in a very different way.

Giving Thanks

The verb yādâ occurs 111 times in the Old Testament with almost two-thirds of these found in the Psalms. English Bibles translate yādâ in several ways. For example, the New International Version (NIV) renders the verb in the majority of cases as “praise” (44 times), “give thanks” (35 times), and “confess” (10 times).

The original meaning of yādâ may be “acknowledge” (compare Job 40:14).^[ii] Scholars of a previous generation suggested that yādâ developed from yād “hand” and presupposed the idea of raising the hands in confession or praise.^[iii] However, most scholars today suggest the fundamental meaning of the verb is “confess.”^[iv] For them, yādâ conveys two ranges of meaning: (1) to confess God’s character or works, and (2) to confess sins.

Confessing God’s Character and Works

Yādâ is primarily employed in the Old Testament to confess God’s character and His marvelous works.^[v] To acknowledge who God is and what He does involves praise, and this moves one to be thankful. Not surprisingly then yādâ occurs in Hebrew poetry in parallel with other praise verbs: “to praise” (Ps. 109:30), “to praise with music” (Ps. 7:17 [Heb. v. 18]; 92:1), “to remember” (Ps. 45:17 [Heb. v. 18]), “to glorify” (Ps. 86:12), and “to declare” (Ps. 30:9 [Heb. v. 10]). Therefore, yādâ functions as one of the key praise terms in the Old Testament.^[vi]

Yādâ normally has God as its object (Ps. 136:1-3). Righteous individuals (Ps. 140:13 [Heb. v. 14]), the people of Israel (Ps. 45:17 [Heb. v. 18]; 106:47), the kings of the earth (Ps. 138:4), the heavens (Ps. 89:5 [Heb. v. 6]), and even the wrath of men (Ps. 76:10 [Heb. v. 11]) praised God and his wondrous works. Praise requires a whole heart (Ps. 86:12; 111:1) and an uprightness of heart (Ps. 119:7). Praise also responds to the righteousness of the Lord (Ps. 7:17 [H 18]). Praise was to last forever (Ps. 30:12 [Heb. v. 13]; 52:9 [Heb. v. 11]), but apparently only the living and not the dead could praise God.^[vii]

Although God’s praise could be heard among the nations (II Sam. 22:50), it was especially found in the worship of the great assembly of the people of Israel (Ps. 35:18). Praise occurred in the temple, the house of the Lord (Ps. 100:4; 122:4). David appointed the Levites to stand every morning and evening to direct the giving of thanks (I Chr. 16:4; 23:30). Praise could be given orally by word or song (Ps. 28:7; 109:30), and music often accompanied it.^[viii]

Confessing Sin

Yādâ also conveys the idea of confession of sin. This includes individual and corporate confession. In worship, a personal confession of sin preceded the trespass offering (Lev. 5:5). Both David and Daniel confessed their personal sins to God (Ps. 32:5; Dan. 9:20).

On the Day of Atonement the high priest placed his hands upon the scapegoat and confessed over him the sins of Israel (Lev. 16:21). Furthermore, God promised that if Israel would confess their sins with a humble heart, He would remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Lev. 26:40). Daniel confessed the sin of his people (Dan. 9:4), as did Ezra (Ezra 10:1), and Nehemiah (Neh. 1:6). The people of Israel themselves also made a public declaration of sin during the great revival under Ezra (Neh. 9:2-3).

Thank Offering

The noun tôdâ has broader meaning than the verb yādâ.[ix] It can refer to the declaration of God’s character and works (Ps. 26:7; 69:30 [Heb. v. 31]), as well as the confession of sin (Josh. 7:19; Ezra 10:11).

As part of the sacrificial system of Israel, the tôdâ “thank offering” is one type of “peace” or “fellowship offering.”^[x] In the Old Testament, the presentation of a tôdâ or “thank offering” was considered a time of joy.^[xi] This type of sacrifice was often accompanied by a song of thanksgiving (also called a tôdâ), a joyful song of gratitude for God’s mercy and deliverance.^[xii] Tôdâ additionally referred to the Levitical choirs who sang these songs (Neh. 12: 31, 38, 40).

Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving

Tôdâ and yādâ occur three times in Psalm 100. First, the Hebrew superscription labels the psalm as “a song for a thank offering (tôdâ).” Here tôdâ refers to the sacrifice, the apparatus of worship. As His people, as the sheep of His pasture, we are called to bring a sacrifice of thanks to Him.

Second, in the first half of verse 4, this great missionary hymn enjoins the whole earth (v. 1) to enter the temple with thanksgiving (tôdâ). This stresses the attitude of worship. Tôdâ here may also refer to a “song of thanksgiving.” In either case, the emphasis is placed on our joyous and grateful response to God’s merciful character and redemptive works.

Finally, verse 4 ends with the imperative of yādâ “give thanks.” Consequently, it refers to the action of worship. The worshiper must publicly acknowledge who God is and confess his wondrous works. We are called to declare that God’s covenant love and faithfulness endure forever (v. 5).

^[ii]As suggested by Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, eds., A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1907), 392. See also Leslie C. Allen, “ידה (ydh II),” New International Dictionary of Old Theology and Exegesis, Willem A. VanGemeren, ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 2:405-406.

[iii]Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1903), 564. Compare also the verbs yādâ I “throw, cast” and hādāh “stretch out the hand.”

[iv]Compare Ralph H. Alexander, “יָדָה (yādâ),” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 1:364; C. N. Dillman, “Thank; Thankful(ness); Thanksgiving,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, et al. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 4:822; and G. Mayer, “ידה ydh; תּוֹדָה” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds., David E. Green, trans. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986), 5:427-28.

^[v]Ps. 89:5 [Heb. v. 6]; 105:1; 106:1: 145:10; I Chr. 29:13.

^[vi]Alexander, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 364-65

^[vii]Cf. Isa. 38:18-19; Ps 6:5 [Heb. v. 6]; 30:9 [Heb. v. 10]; 88:10 [Heb. v. 11].

^[viii]II Chr. 5:13; Ps. 33:2; 43:4; 71:22.

[ix] The noun tôdâ occurs 32 times in the Old Testament. The more specialized meanings of tôdâ are evident in some of the ways the NIV renders the noun:  “thanksgiving” (9 times), “thank offering(s)” (9 times), “thank” (4 times), “choirs (that give thanks)” (3 times), “praise” (2 times), “songs of thanksgiving” (2 times), and “confession” (1 time).

^[x]Lev. 7:12-13, 15; 22:29; Amos 4:5.

^[xi]Ps. 95:2; Jer. 30:19; 33:11.

^[xii]Neh. 12:27; Ps. 42:4 [Heb. v. 5]; 69:30 [Heb. v. 31]; 147:7 Jon. 2:9 [Heb. v. 10].

Blessings,

Steve

I have written several articles for the magazine, including one on Gilgal that will appear in next summer’s edition. Go to the link to order a personal subscription or one for your church and Bible study teachers. The articles coincide with the Bible study curriculum of LifeWay, but they are very useful for personal study.

LifeWay has several downloadable indexes to the Biblical Illustrator based on topic, scripture, and article title, etc. Biblical Illustrator is also indexed online in the Southern Baptist Periodical Index. Subscription rates for the SBPI are available, but check with your library; it may already carry the Index.

The editor, G. B. Howell does a great job in organizing each issue. The photographs, charts and illustrations are superb. I had the opportunity to serve as an archaeological consultant with G. B. on an extensive trip to Israel and Jordan. He ran me ragged searching for all of the out-of-the-way places, not normally mentioned or often visited.

LifeWay also sells the magazine on a CD-Rom called the Biblical Illustrator Plus. The CD includes the current issue in PDF format plus 200 pages of addtional material, including 50-70 articles from their archives. The CD is an excellent resource as well.

Although I don’t know him personally, Rick Mansfield wrote up his view on the Biblical Illustrator in his blog back in 2006. The links on his page are old and do not work.