Stephen Harris' text is the best-selling nonsectarian guide designed for students undertaking their first systematic study of the bible, and it is the only single-volume text that provides both a comprehensive historical-cultural background for the entire biblical era and a rigorous analysis of each individual work of the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament. The purpose of the text is twofold: to acquaint readers with the content and major themes of each biblical book and to familiarize them with important contemporary scholarship.