Sacred Writings Books - Page 3

David: A Man of Passion & Destiny (Great Lives from God's Word Series: Volume 1)

Charles R. Swindoll

Amazon Price: $15.63 List Price: $22.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thomas Nelson Amazon Marketplace: 96 new & used starting at $2.69

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

best of the Swindoll series? 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

All the books are good ... this one was great. It hit home for me.

Great As A Teaching Manual! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a well written, thought provoking book. I am currently using it as a manual for a Bible study class. It's not one of those "deep theological" biographies, but it speaks to the layman, in a very easy-to-understand style. Recommended for study groups, or anyone, who wants to know more about the "man after God's own heart".

Well worth the reading 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Yet another great book in the series. Well worth the reading and study. I have ordered additional copies to give as gifts.

Editorial Review:

David, unlike any Bible character before him, had the charisma to inspire a great nation. Yet in other ways he was a most ordinary man-often gripped by destructive passion, rocked by personal tragedy, and motivated by political gain. Yet, he is the one character the Bible describes as a "man after God's own heart." In this first volume of the "Great Lives" series Charles Swindoll shows how David proved his love for God many times over in an extraordinary life that left an enduring legacy of faith.

The Chumash: The Stone Edition (Artscroll Series)

Nosson Scherman

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Mesorah Publications, Limited Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $28.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Judaism -> Sacred Writings -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Judaism -> Sacred Writings -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A Classic in its own time… The entire Chumash, newly reset, in one beautiful volume with a new, contemporary English translation of the Torah, faithful to Rashi and the classic Rabbinic commentators, and an anthologized commentary by a team of scholars, under the editorship of Rabbi Nosson Scherman. This commentary draws on the spectrum of biblical commentaries, from the Talmud, Midrash, and the classic Rabbinic commentators, and includes insights of contemporary greats. Also includes: Hebrew/Aramaic texts of Rashi and Onkelos, newly set according to the most accurate texts.

Haftaros with new translation, and introductory comments introducing the haftarah and relating it to the Torah reading. The Five Megillos with translation and commentary. Comprehensive index. Lightweight, opaque, acid-free paper for decades of quality use. Special section for your own genealogy and family milestones. Ultra-reinforced binding, using the most durable materials. Elegantly gilded page heads. Ribbon place-marker. The Chumash of choice for synagogue and home!

The Essential Talmud

Adin Steinsaltz

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $6.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Philosophy of Religion -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Philosophy of Religion -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Religious

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Essential Talmud is a masterful introduction to the beliefs, attitudes, and methods of the sacred text by which the Jewish people have lived and survived through the ages-by the renowned Israeli rabbi, scholar, and teacher. Rabbi Steinsaltz is the first to capture the flavor and spirit of the Talmud as a human document and to summarize its main principles as an expression of divine law. This expanded edition features a new preface by the rabbi, a historical overview of life in the times of the Talmud, and an in-depth look at the content and appearance of the original Talmudic page. This seminal volume makes abundantly clear the importance of the Talmud in the lives of modern Jews. "This book is indispensable to those, Jews and Christians alike, who would like to gain an insight into what it is that moves the contemporary Jew." (Rabbi Solomon S. Bernards, B'Nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League)REVIEW: "Offers a fascinating introduction to the codified oral tradition." (Christianity Today)

Learn Hebrew Today: Alef-Bet for Adults

Howard I. Bogot

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Urj Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $7.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> Instruction -> African
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> Instruction -> Hebrew
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Very Dumbed-Down Way to the Alef-Bet 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Don't buy this book. Better sources exist for FREE; search for:

1) ancient-hebrew dot org and you'll find a good site. on the left-hand side will be the menu; scroll down till you see "learn hebrew". "alphabet" and more is available--with audio files--for free.

2) "foundationstone" this is a free downloadable program that teaches hebrew.

3) "hebrew4christians" dot com and you'll have another good source.

These sites will not only teach you everything for free that this book instead sells to you but a whole lot more in addition. This book is also over-simplified. It's mostly a waste of time since any adult or child, with the correct motivation, can learn much more than this book offers at a much faster pace. Also, the "script" form of the letters was calligraphed and not practically written for the beginner who wishes to actually write it. "The First Hebrew Primer" gives a much better source with three choices of style available: book print, block print, and script. A student can easily write Hebrew immediately with this book's help.

Editorial Review:

This popular approach to learning Hebrew is designed for adults who want to use Hebrew when celebrating Judaism at home and in the synagogue. Students will learn how to pronounce the Hebrew letters and vowels, enabling them to read more than 30 essential Hebrew blessings and prayers. For classroom and individualized instruction.

The Prophetic Imagination

Walter Brueggemann

List Price: $15.00 By: Augsburg Fortress Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $0.66

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Brueggemann, Walter
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Commentaries -> Old Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Concordances

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

Everyman's Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages

Abraham Cohen

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: bnpublishing.com Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $10.96

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Judaism -> Sacred Writings -> Talmud
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Judaism -> Sacred Writings -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Judaism -> Sacred Writings -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An enlightening book for all religious faiths 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book will provide you with a great deal of insight into the scriptures. Since Christianity has its roots in Judaism, this book is valuable in increasing your knowledge to God's written word. The text size could be a little bigger than it was for easier reading.

meet the rabbis 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

really worth reading, this is one fine introduction into the literture of the thoughts of the rabbi,or the teacher in the time of JESUS.

Insightful, fun and revealing! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be a wonderful resource for insight into Biblical thinking.I have found the insights of the talmud to bring clarity and understanding to my Christian vocation and my relationship with Christ. Very worthwhile read!

Very interesting... but difficult to read 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The content is great, but be aware that the typography is abysmal and is difficult to read.

Editorial Review:

The First Comprehensive Summary, for the English Reader, of the Teaching of the Talmud and the Rabbis on Ethics, Religion,Folk-lore and Jurisprudence. Cohen does an excellent job of presenting the origins of Talmudic literature and summarizing in a meaningful way the many doctrines it contains.

Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (Llewellyn's High Magick)

Donald Michael Kraig

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Llewellyn Publications Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $6.12

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Personal Transformation
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Earth-Based Religions -> Wicca

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Absolutely the best Beginners Book on Ceremonial Magick. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I first read Modern Magick about 20 years ago. I had been studying books by Israel Regardie and Aleister Crowley and was getting nowhere fast. This book is a key that opens up many doors of understanding and will easily take a complete novice to advanced levels of practice with minimal fluff, with heavy emphisis on the practical aspects of Magick.

This book was written by an expierenced magician and all instructions are clearly presented. Working through this book will make just about any other book on the subject of Magick considerably more accessable.

It is my serious belief that this is perhaps the most important book on Magick written in the last fifty years.

Editorial Review:

Modern Magick is the most popular, most complete, step-by-step instruction manual on how to do real magick that has ever been published. Already over 100,000 people are using it. Author Donald Michael Kraig wrote this after teaching the information in classes for ten years. It is refined, tested, and easy to understand. It is filled with exercises, techniques, and rituals to help you. It is presented in a series of eleven lessons. Follow the lessons, practice the rituals and techniques, and by the end of your work you will be a magician. What does it cover? Rituals, healing, initiation, talismans, astral travel, creative visualization, psychic self-defense, evocation of spirits, the Kabalah, physical exercise, and magical tools such as wands.

Torah/Pocket Edition

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Jewish Publication Society of America Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $6.65

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Bible & Other Sacred Texts -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Bible & Other Sacred Texts -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Bibles -> Formats -> Pocket

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Easy reading for the lay person 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I'm not a Bible scholar, so I'm basing my review on ease of use for the lay person.

This Torah was written to be very easy to read. The font is easy on the eyes, and there are plenty of footnotes.

I liked how the Preface explained the history of how this version came to be, and also the guide to using the footnotes.

This review is based on the paperback version. That version is very thick (1.5" - my pockets are not quite that big for this pocketbook version!), so I later bought the hardcover edition for easy reading while doing something with my hands, like eating.

Just Right 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This translation is one of the best. I like the size of the Pocket Edition because it is convenient for travelling.

Paperback Torah 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great little book when you need just an English translation of the Torah.

A way to learn of others befiefs 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I was raised a Presbyterian and studied Buddhism for most of my adult life. I have always been interested in others beliefs and I was not disappointed. The book is a modern translation without losing its meaning. Easily readable for today.

Editorial Review:

An easy to carry pocket edition of the acclaimed JPS translation of the Torah.

The Art of Biblical Narrative

Robert Alter

List Price: $14.95 By: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $29.34

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Commentaries -> Old Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Concordances
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Old Testament -> Study

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Fascinating Way to Read the Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Modern Biblical scholarship has tended toward a process of atomization: how many editors were involved in the creation of the Bible? How many different strands of tradition can we find in a given story? Robert Alter's "The Art of Biblical Narrative" at once provides a corrective to this tendency, and a striking alternative way of understanding the Good Book.

Although recent scholarship has emphasized historical- and textual-critical methodologies, Alter chooses a literary-critical approach; that is, he asks how we should read the Bible first and foremost as literature. Ancient Hebrew storytelling conventions were often radically different from those we use today, so we must learn to be attuned to things like a character's silence, or minor, telling variations in a scene that is repeated several times. In this way, Alter takes much of what may make the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) seem "boring" today--its Spartan narrative style, the apparent redundancy of many of its stories--and shows how these elements are actually integral to how the Bible tells its story.

Alter's prose style is scholarly without being suffocating. It is, however, dense with ideas. I often found myself reading as little as five pages at a sitting, as each sentence seemed so full that it was all I could take in before I had to stop for a mental breather. (I recommend reading the Conclusion first, which ten pages provide an excellent summary of the book's main ideas and may make it easier to digest them as the author investigates each one in detail in the rest of the book.) His examples are profuse, and well-chosen to illustrate his points.

Alter mostly steers clear of ideological disputes about what the Bible is or isn't, sticking to his purely literary analysis of the text. He occasionally makes comments to the effect that he sees the stories of the Bible as "historicized fiction," but his approach can still fit into any faith framework; it is just as possible for a devout Christian and an atheist to read the Bible as literature. What's more, Christians will not only find an enriching way of appreciating their sacred text here, but may even gain comfort in the face of some scholars who seem to think that a Bible with editors is inherently an unreliable Bible. Alter, to the contrary, shows that the Biblical author-editors must have been very sophisticated storytellers, and that what are often taken for mere inconsistencies today may well represent a deeply thoughtful approach to depicting the moral and social ambiguities the authors saw in their world.

"The Art of Biblical Narrative" takes effort to read, but those willing to take the time to absorb it may find their understanding of the Bible enhanced, deepened, even changed.

~

Editorial Review:

In what is both a radical approach to the Bible, and a fundamental return to its narrative prose, Robert Alter reads the Old Testament with new eyes—the eyes of a literary critic. Alter takes the old yet simple step of reading the Bible as a literary creation.

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Penguin Classics)

Amazon Price: $13.60 List Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $8.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> General
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Like reading King James Version of the Bible 3 out of 5 stars.
14 of 18 people found this review helpful.

This is an outstanding translation. But you should know that it's written in the language of the King James Version with Thou's, Thee's and Thy's. That make it a little less meaningful for me personally.

Excellent Way to Find Out About Jewish Culture/Practices of That Time 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I do not usually write reviews, but going through this book answered a lot of questions for me and I thought it might be helpful for other strictly lay people like me to know how much I have liked reading through different sections of it.

Though I had a complete, rather progressive, Jewish education as a child, what is in the Dead Sea Scrolls was not really covered. As it is fragments of different scrolls, I do not know if it can be called a history - but it is historical - and I enjoyed reading about the civilization and their rules/practices of living - both religious and secular.

Especially with many of the religious discussions heard these days of the Messiah -- the Messianic statements - i.e. The Messianic Rule, The War Scroll, The War Scroll from Cave 4, The Book of War, A Messianic Apocalypse -- are very useful in bringing into focus a real Jewish perspective of that time of what was expected for the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God -- and the Covenant with God.

I really enjoyed the introductions and explanations by Geza Vermes.

Editorial Review:

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judean desert between 1947 and 1956 was one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Hidden in the caves at Qumran by the Essenes, a Jewish sect in existence before and during the time of Jesus, the Scrolls have transformed our understanding of the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and the origins of Christianity. This fully revised edition of the classic English translation by Geza Vermes, the world’s leading scholar on the subject, offers an astonishing look into the organization, customs, and beliefs of the community at Qumran. Enhanced by much previously unpublished material and a new preface, this will remain the authoritative translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls for years to come.