by J. Daniel Hays, J. Scott Duvall
One of my goals this lent is to read more religious books. This means that I'm busting out my kindle and listening to its lovely Text-to-Speech voice as I'm driving down the highway. This short e-book is perfect for a few hours of reading on a winter afternoon. This book discussed the actual process of how the bible came into existence: inspirations, oral tradition, historical book writing, historical translations, Hebrew cannon, and modern translations.
This was a sectional book, with each section covering a different topic and written by a different author. Some examples of the information included:
The distinction between the word of God and the words of prophets inspired from god. Example: ten commandments on tablets of stones- god's hand did the writing. Isaiah's prophesies are inspired from God, but said in Isaiah's own words and in response to the happenings of his own time. It discussed translations and how the actual words are not what is important, but the meaning of the words. They must portray the meaning of the original text. That is why the word Lord might be Yahweh or God in different translations. Different words, but same meaning. Also, it discussed the different styles of writing: genealogies, poetry, parables, letters, love songs, and narratives.
I found this short book highly entertaining and very interesting. The information is presented in an easy to access, but intellectual way of writing.
This product is available on Amazon and is currently $1.99 for Kindle. I purchased it for free on promotion, but it is well worth the money. An interesting note: the Amazon page says it is over 1000 pages. This is incorrect. That page count is attached to the ISBN of a completely different book by the same editors. It really is short. It took me less than 3 hours to read.
4/5
Read on March 6, 2014
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