Old Testament Books

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

A. J. Jacobs

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Total reviews: 405 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish "in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant." Yet his latest work, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment. --Dave Callanan

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Subtitled: "One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible," Jacobs, or A.J., as his two-year-old son calls him, does just that. It is likely that no one but A.J. Jacobs could have accomplished such a feat. After all, his last book, The Know-It-All, chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, from A to Z. No one but a smart, witty, self-deprecating, nitpicky kinda guy would undertake two such daunting tasks, and complete them with grace, no pun intended.

Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. (He actually adds some bonus days and makes it a 381-day year.) He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, at least as he describes himself; obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors.

In an open-minded way he also visits with atheists, Evangelicals Concerned (a gay group), Jerry Falwell, snake handlers, Red Letter Christians--those who adhere to the red letters in the Bible, those words spoken by Jesus Himself, and even takes a trip to Israel and meets Samaritans. Through it all, he keeps a healthy skepticism, but continues to pray and is open to the flowering of real faith. Jacobs is a knowledge junky, to be sure. He enjoys the lore he picks up along the way as much as any other aspect of his experiment. One of the ongoing schticks is his meeting with the shatnez tester, Mr. Berkowitz. He is the one who determines whether or not your clothes are made of mixed fibers, in keeping with the Biblical injunction not to wear wool and linen together. The two become friends and prayer partners, in only one of the unexpected results of this year.

In the end, he says, "I'm now a reverent agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred." Not a bad outcome. --Valerie Ryan

How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now

James L. Kugel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Scholars from different fields have joined forces to reexamine every aspect of the Hebrew Bible. Their research, carried out in universities and seminaries in Europe and America, has revolutionized our understanding of almost every chapter and verse. But have they killed the Bible in the process?

In How to Read the Bible, Harvard professor James Kugel leads the reader chapter by chapter through the "quiet revolution" of recent biblical scholarship, showing time and again how radically the interpretations of today's researchers differ from what people have always thought. The story of Adam and Eve, it turns out, was not originally about the "Fall of Man," but about the move from a primitive, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural one. As for the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau, these narratives were not, at their origin, about individual people at all but, rather, explanations of some feature of Israelite society as it existed centuries after these figures were said to have lived. Dinah was never raped -- her story was created by an editor to solve a certain problem in Genesis. In the earliest version of the Exodus story, Moses probably did not divide the Red Sea in half; instead, the Egyptians perished in a storm at sea. Whatever the original Ten Commandments might have been, scholars are quite sure they were different from the ones we have today. What's more, the people long supposed to have written various books of the Bible were not, in the current consensus, their real authors: David did not write the Psalms, Solomon did not write Proverbs or Ecclesiastes; indeed, there is scarcely a book in the Bible that is not the product of different, anonymous authors and editors working in different periods.

Such findings pose a serious problem for adherents of traditional, Bible-based faiths. Hiding from the discoveries of modern scholars seems dishonest, but accepting them means undermining much of the Bible's reliability and authority as the word of God. What to do? In his search for a solution, Kugel leads the reader back to a group of ancient biblical interpreters who flourished at the end of the biblical period. Far from naïve, these interpreters consciously set out to depart from the original meaning of the Bible's various stories, laws, and prophecies -- and they, Kugel argues, hold the key to solving the dilemma of reading the Bible today.

How to Read the Bible is, quite simply, the best, most original book about the Bible in decades. It offers an unflinching, insider's look at the work of today's scholars, together with a sustained consideration of what the Bible was for most of its history -- before the rise of modern scholarship. Readable, clear, often funny but deeply serious in its purpose, this is a book for Christians and Jews, believers and secularists alike. It offers nothing less than a whole new way of thinking about sacred Scripture.

The Jewish Study Bible: featuring The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Jewish Study Bible presents the center of gravity of the Scriptures where Jews experience it--in Torah. It offers readers the fruits of various schools of Jewish traditions of biblical exegesis (rabbinic, medieval, mystical, etc.) and provides them with a wealth of ancillary materials that aid in bringing the ancient text to life. The nearly forty contributors to the work represent the cream of Jewish biblical scholarship from the world over. No knowledge of Hebrew is required for one to make use of this unique volume.
The JSB uses The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, whose name is an acronym formed from the Hebrew initials of the three sections into which the Hebrew Bible is traditionally divided (Torah, Instruction; Nevi'im, Prophets; and Kethubim, Writings). A committee of esteemed biblical scholars and rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism movements produced this modern translation, which dates from 1985.
Anyone interested in acquiring a fuller understanding of the riches of the Bible will profit from reading The Jewish Study Bible.

A Reader's Hebrew Bible

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A great resource 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've got both the first and second editions of the Reader's GNT companion volume. Either is a great value for the money, but neither comes close to the quality and usefulness of the Reader's GNT published by UBS -- the real deal. So I was a bit hesitant to purchase Zondervan's Reader's Hebrew Bible.

My hesitation was overcome by the fact that I use my UBS RGNT on a daily basis for devotional use, but don't read the Hebrew text in the same way as frequently because of the need for a lexicon nearby. A reader's lexicon helps, but it's still a clunky way to read, and because Hebrew vocabulary is so much larger than NT Greek, there are few of us who will ever be able to simply read with no lexicon around. So seeing what a reader's GNT did for me, I ordered this.

I'm very pleased. It hast the same cheap binding and paper as the companion RGNT, but the fact that it's duo-tone (basically PVC plastic) does mean that despite being flimsy, it should hold up for a long time. They seem to have overcome the typeface problems present in both editions of the RGNT. This font is very easy to read. I have not found the proper names being in gray instead of black to be a problem -- they're not that light and the purpose is to make proper names used less than 100 times stand out so that the newbie doesn't waste time trying to parse them. That's the whole point: to gloss the words so the reader doesn't have to. The more you read, the more you learn, and the more often you read and learn the more Hebrew sticks in your mind.

The fact that this text is that of the Westminster edition of Leningradensis is great. They essentially cut and pasted from Bibleworks 4. There are minor variants between this and BHS/BHQ, but nothing significant and all differences are listed in the appendix. I also like the way they've dealt with Kethib-Qere readings -- something that should serve good training for the student just learning his way around the Hebrew Old Testament.

If Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft ever prints a readers edition of BHS or BHQ it will probably leave this in the dust just as the UBS RGNT leaves the Zondervan RGNT in the dust, but until then this is a great tool.

Editorial Review:

Following in the footsteps of the popular A Reader’s Greek New Testament, A Reader’s Hebrew Bible includes features that make this a time-saver for studying the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament. It comes in Italian Duo-Tone™ binding—attractive, durable, and affordable.

The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary

Robert Alter

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Gross Omissions 2 out of 5 stars.
13 of 26 people found this review helpful.

This is not a comment on the substance of Dr Alter's translation. I opened it today for comparative study; I own three other versions of The Five Books. To my dismay, I find no Parashat-Named Headings,none; merely Chapter Headings,and Bk Chapt.#s at the top of each page. I sought refuge in the index. There is no index! I have read many reviews and comments of this work and none, not one, mentioned this glaring omission. For a layman as myself I find this book too tedius to bother with,other than when I go to another version for the missing information. It is beyond my comprehension how this highly praised book by a masterful author could be published without the norms I have mentioned.

Editorial Review:

"A modern classic....Thrilling and constantly illuminating."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

Through a distinguished career of critical scholarship and translation, Robert Alter has equipped us to read the Hebrew Bible as a powerful, cohesive work of literature. In this landmark work, Alter's masterly translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of The Five Books. Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation and the Koret Jewish Book Award for Translation, a Newsweek Top 15 Book, Los Angeles Times Favorite Book, and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book.

A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture

Scott Hahn

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Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Makes the crucifixion and the Eucharist make sense 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Dr. Hahn has a genius for making complicated concepts easy to understand. He leads us through the Old Testament and shows us how the old covenant leads up to and culminates in the Last Supper and crucifixion; and the new covenant begins with the resurrection and is perpetuated through the Eucharist. I have a much better understanding of the crucifixion and the Eucharist now that Hahn has put it into the context of Jewish history. My only complaint is Hahn's casual -- sometimes chatty -- writing style and occasional paraphrasing of biblical exchanges into modern American vernacular. While I understand that this book was written for a broad audience, I was still mildly irritated; that said, Hahn's brilliant insight makes this quip hardly worth mentioning.

Editorial Review:

A convert to Catholicism, Scott Hahn brings salvation history to life for the lay Catholic. By focusing on our status as part of the family of God, he shows how the broken human family is made whole in Christ. This book helps readers understand the deep personal love God bears for his people and the plan that he has to bring them into an intimate family relationship .

Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses (P.S.)

Bruce S. Feiler

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Total reviews: 89 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses is the story of Bruce Feiler's 10,000-mile trek from Mount Ararat to Mount Nebo, undertaken for reasons he did not understand at the outset and accompanied by a companion who was very nearly a stranger. In the book's first chapter, in characteristically understated style, Feiler suggests a viable parallel to his journey:

Abraham was not originally the man he became. He was not an Israelite, he was not a Jew. He was not even a believer in God--at least initially. He was a traveler, called by some voice not entirely clear that said: Go, head to this land, walk along this route, and trust what you will find.

Feiler, a fifth-generation American Jew from the South, had felt no particular attachment to the Holy Land. Yet during his journey, Feiler's previously abstract faith grew more grounded. ("I began to feel a certain pull from the landscape.... It was a feeling of gravity. A feeling that I wanted to take off all my clothes and lie facedown in the soil.") Feiler's attentiveness, intelligence, and adventurousness enliven every page of this book. And the lessons he learned about the relationship between place and the spirit will be useful for readers of every religious tradition that finds its origins in the Bible. --Michael Joseph Gross

An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach

Bruce K. Waltke, Charles Yu

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

One Of The Best Books Out There On Old Testament Theology 5 out of 5 stars.
43 of 46 people found this review helpful.

As a seminary student I am quite familiar with a lot of books that act in teaching Old Testament history and theology. Mr. Waltke's book is just about the best book a teacher could ever use and a student could ever read. The book is not aimed at simply exploring God's actions in the text of the Old Testament. It begins by exploring what exactly is the Old Testament and how students (and teachers for that matter) can learn about Old Testament theology in order to give them a greater understanding of the OT in terms of overall Biblical theology. When the book finally begins to explore the books of the Old Testament, the reader has a wonderful foundation in order to not only understand what each book of the Bible has to say, but ultimately what God wants His people to understand. Whether we are talking about a student in seminary such as myself or the casual (but well read) everyday fellow. If there is a problem with the book it could be that the way the book looks, large and overbearing, one might feel that he could easily get lost in the text. Not true. Mr. Waltke's personality flows along the pages, you are getting less a textbook and more of a one-to-one classroom education, mindful, caring, and from the author to the reader. Take the first chapter that deals with the Creation account in Genesis. Too many times you see Old Earth vs. Young Earth vs. Theistic Evolution being tossed around in academics. Mr. Waltke reminds us to go beyond these debates though important in their points)and go into what the text actually says, word for word, meaning for meaning, toward what the ancient Hebrews of the Exodus would understand them all the way to how the first Christians and Christian communities would possibly understand the text. I would highly advise anyone who is interested in truly understanding God's important messages of the Old Testament and to use these messages in their everyday lives and in their ministries, pick up this book. You wont regret it. I would also suggest Tremper Longman's work as well.

Editorial Review:

An Old Testament theology by a leading Old Testament scholar who combines a technical with a spiritual understanding of the Old Testament.

My Catholic Advent And Christmas Book

Jennifer Galvin

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Beautifully illustrated, funny, adorable and sneaky, too... 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

My five-year-old and my ten-year old both adored this book. Jennifer Galvin understands children. She knows what they like and she knows how they think and learn. Her charming illustrations pleased my children no end--she instinctively knows what little kids want to see. (John the Baptist not only has his camel-hair-coat and bare feet--he also has toes and toenails--details my son gleefully pointed out to me).

The "what's wrong with this picture" puzzles had my son in stitches, especially the donkey in the party hat and the presents behind the bushes (subtle hints of the true meaning of Christmas). The word search and word scrambles were not only clever enough to challenge my daughter, they were brilliantly organized, leaving her with a much more thorough understanding of Advent. This book was so much fun that my children didn't even catch on to the sneaky way the author educated them along the way. As my son followed the maze to take the shepherds to Bethlehem, he told me, "They all want to see the baby Jesus, because Christmas is his birthday." My son knows the true meaning of the holiday season now, and it's all Jennifer Galvin's fault. :)

Editorial Review:

Jennifer Galvin's activity books for children have been enormously popular because, unlike other activity books, these are designed specifically to teach children about their Catholic faith. And her latest one does just that. She has put together entertaining word finds, crossword puzzles, color-by-number puzzles, and crack-the-code puzzles that will teach children about Advent and Christmas, all the while emphasizing the real meaning of the holiday. An added advantage is that the activities are tied to the lectionary for all three cycles. The activities are clever and challenging and are illustrated with charming, inviting art work. The sheets themselves are reproducible and are aimed at children from kindergarten through third grade.

Highlights:

--an attractive, reasonably priced book
--reproducible pages
--perfect for home, school, or church use
--tied to all three cycles of the lectionary

The Prophetic Imagination, 2nd Edition

Walter Brueggemann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Author Books Unusual Use of Words 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book is about putting "prophetic imagination" inspirations into social actions. Actual example was putting an organisation together in a community to help the needy and underprivileaged. Not very spiritual, but very commendable.

Editorial Review:

In this challenging and enlightening treatment, Brueggemann traces the lines from the radical vision of Moses to the solidification of royal power in Solomon to the prophetic critique of that power with a new vision of freedom in the prophets. Here he traces the broad sweep from Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus. He highlights that the prophetic vision not only embraces the pain of the people but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing. In this new edition, Brueggemann has completely revised the text, updated the notes, and added a new preface.

Contents
--Preface
--The Alternative Community of Moses
--The Royal Consciousness: Countering the Counter-Culture
--Prophetic Criticizing and the Embrace of Pain
--Prophetic Energizing and the Emergence of Amazement
--Criticism and Pathos in Jesus of Nazareth
--Energizing and Amazement in Jesus of Nazareth
--A Note on the Practice of Ministry