Out of Print Gold

I have several things that have been on my mind lately. Most of them have to do with teaching and lack of receptivity in students, which I have experienced lately. I want to post these thoughts but there is some development I need to work on before I post them. However, there is one thing that I have been thinking about.

In my never-ending search for good books, I have come across some great books which are now out-of-print. It breaks my heart because they are exactly the kind of thing I would love to give every student I have in my bible classes. Here are three of them:

1. The Discovery Bible New Testament, Gary Hill & Gleason Archer, ISBN: 0-8024-4162-9

This is a resource (that is code for "book") that I use for bible study a lot of the time. It has a feature called H.E.L.P.S. in it. H.E.L.P.S. stands for Hill Emphatic Language Pointer System. In short, it is a way that anyone can gain understanding of the impact of the Greek language on a passage without really knowing anything about Greek.

The front cover is a little bland but the back shows a little how this system works. If you look at the back cover and then the sample page you can get an idea of how this book works (click on image to see a larger view). This is a great resource.

If I could find these for anywhere from 5 to 10 dollars, I would buy as many as I could and give them out to every student in the hermeneutics class I teach. If anyone knows where there is a cache of these, please let me know.

2. Strong's Concordance (Paperback), ISBN: 0-8010-8108-4
This resource is not as unique as handy. This is a complete and unabridged version of Strong's, but this is not the size of a small car, like most Strong's Concordances are. This one's dimensions are 7" wide by 9 1/2" tall by 1 1/2" thick. I would like to find these for 5-10 dollars as well and give them to every serious bible student I meet. Again, you may already have a Strong's, but this one is light, small, and easy to take with you wherever you go.


3. The Letters of John the Apostle: An In-depth Commentary , Donald Burdick, ISBN: 0-8024-2356-6
This last out-of-print nugget is not for general study but for John's epistles. I would not give this out to everyone, but I would suggest it to anyone wanting to do a deep study of the Johannine epistles. The point is, it is valuable resource which is no longer in print (Amazon used books has it listed for $109.00!! I think I got it for about $14.00!).

I am sure the valuable "out-of-print" book list would not even include these books. However, I think they are "gold, Jerry. Gold!"