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There are quite a few books like this. K. C. Hanson is very good, also consider Jodi Magness, Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus. This is much more detailed than Hanson, but also a little more academic.

If you are interested in something a bit lighter, the "Week in the Life" series is fun. These are novels written by NT Scholars: A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion by Gary Burge (review here) or James L. Papandrea, A Week in the Life of Rome (review here), Witherington, A Week in the Life of Corinth and John Byron, A Week in the Life of a Slave. For each of these there is a bit of a story with numerous sidebars and pictures to illustrate practices. Or you can read A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries, and Curiosities by Alberto Angelo, a Roman historian writing short chapters on aspects of Roman life.

If you have quizlet access for vocab, use it.

Furthermore, both Zondervan Grammars (BBG and BBH) have iphone apps which have the vocab from pretty much all the primarily used grammars. They're not that cheap though, for what they are.

I also found this online workbook a while back, (which I believe has an answers key somewhere?) which is free, which is a bonus. I'd recommend going to some sort of a printing shop, getting it bound and using that for exercises.

I plan to do this over Christmas/the new year/early next year to revise my Greek because I was a shitty student at the time I was learning Greek, so I didn't properly learn verbs and participles (and as such can't really remember that well) and because I haven't retained a lot of things since I first learned them. My Hebrew is going much better.

Any suggestions for moving to the intermediate level?

Edit:

I actually have two Hebrew Grammars. The first was the Cambridge Introduction to Hebrew

This textbook has some problems in that it doesn't stick to convention with its paradigm arrangement. Hebrew Textbooks go from 3ms - 1cs, 3cp(mp) - 1cp, because it aids in memorisation in terms of the order of the forms. He does it the opposite way, which can be confusing.

He's also quite technical and makes some odd decisions introducing students to infinitives and participle forms before verbal forms, and then builds on derived stems using those forms. I suppose he wanted to get the nominal types out of the way ASAP.

The fantastic thing about this book, though, is the CD that comes with it, which comes with a host of exercises, a free digital copy of the workbook and answer book, as well as printable paradigm sheets and whatnot. It's harder to work with, but from what it seems, you progress further in a shorter time because you a very thorough technical basis to work with.

I subsequently got BBH too, which I think is much better in terms of its pedagogical value.

I was thinking I might re-purchase the BBG workbook, as I used that when I first did Greek, but like an idiot, I did a lot of the exercises in Pen, making it un-reusable.

These sources will be more philosophical and less exegetical. After learning the philosophical concepts, I've laid them up against scripture as I've read and I've found that the classical stuff answers more questions and leaves less unanswered than any other system I've run across so far.

• The One and the Many - W. Norris Clarke for a primer on classical metaphysics. That will help for terms such as "essence," "form," etc.
  
• All that is in God - James Dolezal will help put some of the pieces together once you get comfortable with the main terms used. He's a bit grumpy, but his points are good.
  
• Augustine's De Trinitate in whatever good translation you can find.
  
• Retrieving Eternal Generation ed. Sanders and Swain for the relations between the persons.
  
• Constant re-reading of the creeds of the church.

"The Earliest Christian Artefacts" by Larry Hurtado is about the physical and other characteristics of the oldest manuscripts: https://www.amazon.com/Earliest-Christian-Artifacts-Manuscripts-Origins/dp/0802828957

The Credo Course training on Textual Criticism, by Dan Wallace, is probably exactly what you're looking for. It was a free download some weeks ago, but now goes for USD 99. https://www.credocourses.com/product/textual-criticism-audio/

As a 'current affairs' read on this stuff, I recommend the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. Content wise it has been a bit dry for the last weeks but I'm sure there'll be interesting reads in the future: http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/

If you want to stay on the cutting edge, Brent Nongbri is a name to keep in mind. Brent is a Christian I believe, but he's a bit sceptical about some very early dates for manuscripts, claiming they could also have been a bit later: https://brentnongbri.com

Edit: I saw this on Kindle, for a few US Dollars, by B.B. Warfield. Obviously not current in any way, but might still be a useful introduction: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B004XMP0TW&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_tURyCbBRPWW8S

My Logos Bible software gives καίπερ in the NT in 5 instances, namely Philippians 3:4, Hebrews 5:8, 7:5 and 12:17, and 2 Peter 1:12. All of the instances of καίπερ are translated with though or although. Especially 12:17 seems to indicate that you cannot translate it with "because":

> "17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. "
>
>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb 12:17.

It cannot be that he was rejected "because" he sought it with tears. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with tears in 5:7, and he is not rejected because of it. Rather, his reverence gets noticed.

BDAG ( https://www.amazon.com/Greek-English-Lexicon-Testament-Christian-Literature/dp/0226039331/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bdag&qid=1571748897&sr=8-1 ) only lists "although" as a translation, and has many verses to back it up

>καίπερ conj. (since Od. 7, 224; SIG 709, 18; 1108, 8; PGiss 47, 22; PSI 298, 17; LXX, TestJos, Joseph., Just.) although w. ptc. (so usu., also Diod S 8, 9, 2; 10, 19, 2; 17, 114, 1; Wsd 11:9; Jos., Ant. 1, 319; 3, 280; TestJos 10:5; w. finite verb Just., A I, 4, 4) Phil 3:4; Hb 5:8; 7:5; 12:17; 2 Pt 1:12. Also 1 Cl 7:7; 16:2; ISm 3:3; MPol 17:1; Hv 3, 2, 9; Hs 8, 6, 4; 8, 11, 1 (B-D-F §425, 1; Rob. 1129; FScheidweiler, καίπερ nebst e. Exkurs zum Hb: Her 83, ’55, 220–30).—M-M.

William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 497.

What may help in the interpretation is if you look at "son" as a spiritual being rather than as a literal child. I don't know if you're aware of Michael Heiser's work on spiritual beings (https://youtu.be/pKPid4i4SmI)(his book The Unseen Realm, his podcast or his videos) but according to him, sons (of God) are a type of spiritual being like angels, demons, God's heavenly host, etc.

The interpretation then becomes: "Even though Jesus was in a high position, maybe undeserving or generally unaffected by suffering because of him being a son of God, he learned obedience through what he suffered." Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God created the world through His Son, so it may be a little strange that this very son with God learns obedience by suffering.

This may fit because in the previous verse, 5:7, Hebrews talks about "in the days of his flesh". This is then contrasted with his spiritual status as son in verse 8 if you accept my speculation.

​

I think "because" is not a fitting translation. I understand why you're puzzled by the formulation and I find it a bit difficult to explain my ideas around Christ's sonship without me sounding a little wacky.

God's vindication of His faithful suffering people by judgement of the nations.

God's Glory in Salvation through Judgement

NT Wright is about to release a book which looks at the background of the New Testament period and culture:

The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians

I also have this book which is really good and informative: In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Chronicle of His Life and the Origins of Christianity

I have heard good things about this: https://www.amazon.com/Pentateuch-Narrative-Biblical-Theological-Commentary/dp/0310574218

YMMV.