Apologia Educational Ministries: iWitness Biblical Archaeology, New Testament iWitness, and Old Testament iWitness {A Review}

Apologia Educational Ministries sent us iWitness Biblical Archaeology ($14.00), New Testament iWitness ($14.00), and Old Testament iWitness ($14.00) to review with a reading level of ages 11 and up.

First Thoughts
My concentration in college was Anthropology, so when I found out that we were getting these books I was really excited about this review.

The Books
iWitness Biblical Archeology is a collection of photographs, maps, archaeological discoveries, artifacts, scripture references, and descriptions of findings. The author, Doug Powell, includes information about the flood, Noah's Ark, Egyptian Chronology, the Exodus, House of David inscriptions, Sennacherib's Siege of Jerusalem, Old Testament History, Dead Sea Scrolls, Old Testament copies, New Testament copies, inscriptions, and locations, Hadrian and Constantine, Jesus' judges, Jesus' World, and the burial shroud of Jesus. 

In Old Testament iWitness, Powell explains the history of the Old Testament. It includes: manuscripts, copying, canon criteria, tanakh, canon formation, septuagint, torah, prophets, documentary hypothesis, covenants, nevi'in, major prophets, minor prophets, ketuvi'im, the scrolls, wisdom books, history books, intertestamental period, apocrypha, vulgate, apocrypha acceptance, Apocrypha canonization, dead sea scrolls, archaeology, New Testament, and timeline of Old Testament events.

New Testament iWitness discusses the history, accuracy, and background of the New Testament. Sections include: Councils of Hippo and Carthage, Canon Criteria, Athanasius, Eusebius, church fathers, muratorian canon, marcion canon, the gospel, that apostle, apostolic fathers, apostolic age, synopitic problem, hymns and creeds, rejected books, canon certainty, how it was copied, number of copies, copying methods, differences in the copies, manuscript families, textual criticism, and recovered text.

Our Experience

I read through the books by myself initially. I read through them rather quickly as I find the subject very interesting. It wasn't long until Ceesa was peeking over my shoulder at them. "Wow Momma! That is really neat. Did you know that?" So I quickly handed them over.

While these would lend themselves to an intense study, we read them for pleasure and both Ceesa and I found some very interesting things.

What we Think

Ceesa says she likes how there are books for both the Old and New Testament. She likes the pictures of the buildings and engravings. She is definitely a girl after my own heart. She loved seeing the actual pieces of the scrolls. And she kept coming back to the iWitness Biblical Archaeology book.

The information about the Dead Sea Scrolls is just fascinating to me. A young shepherd comes upon one of the greatest Biblical and Archaeological finds of all time while looking for his lost goat. It is rather ironic considering shepherds were the ones called upon to go and see the Christ child at his birth. 

I also really enjoyed reading about how the books were chosen to be added to the Old and New Testaments. How carefully those copies were translated, how meticulously, how patiently. 

Recommendation
If you are looking for information about the validity and reliability about the process involved in the collection and completion of the Bible or for archaeological evidences of Biblical histories, these books are just for you. 

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