Customer Reviews

Bible Jesus Read, The

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In The Bible Jesus Read, the main focus of the book is to attempt to show the great value of books such as Job, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, the prophets, etc., books which are largely overlooked or misunderstood by modern Christians. Yancey tries to establish the importance of each book by explaining that Jesus Himself spent time in these books. Yancey also explains what he believes are the best mindsets to understand the purpose of the Psalms, Proverbs, and other previously mentioned books, so that we can better understand our God. For example, I found his summary of the Psalms particularly helpful as he explained how the Psalms were not purposed for doctrines and decrees, but they reveal the joy, anguish, worry in human authors who were pursuing the heart of God. (He does not deny that they are God-inspired works; some Psalms are prophetic whether the authors realized it at the time or not) I did find some minor faults in Yancey's book: he lightly ridiculed unnammed ministers who misunderstood a prophecy of the ten horns in the book of Daniel, and made it sound as though we shouldn't take Bible prophecy seriously, because we can't truly understand it. I don't think he found the true worth of the prophecies of the Bible. He also presented a very "Prince of Egypty-type Moses", with a speculative and somewhat inaccurate scenario. If you overlook some of these occasional wishy-washy accounts, and focus on understanding the purpose of the Old Testament books, you can come away from "The Bible Jesus Read" with new insight and interest in books that you previously found complicated, boring, or confusing. I give thanks for a new outlook on the Psalms, Job, and Ecclesiastes.

I have read many of Yancey's books, and "The Bible Jesus Read" may be my favorite. Yancey's ability to combine hard thinking, with practical implication, has never been better. He is not afraid to ask the hard questions about life, pain, suffering, the Bible, and God. As I read this book I felt that I had a soul-mate in my journey. Thanks Yancey for summarizing issues in such a way that I can ask deep questions, and still come away deeper in my faith. I will recommend this book highly, and return to it often myself.

The title is somewhat misleading. Rather than a comprehensive analysis of "The Bible Jesus Read", that is, the Old Testament, the author deals with certain books of the Old Testament. And if you know Philip Yancey from his previous writings, you know that he will concentrate on the more difficult, disturbing, seemingly negative parts of the Old Testament. To me, that is one of Yancey's strengths. He takes an unflinching look at reality, not an idealized vision of what everyone thinks life in God is supposed to be. And here is what life with God really looked like to people such as Job and the teacher from Ecclesiastes. In the chapter on Psalms, he deals especially with the imprecatory, or "cursing" Psalms, which seem difficult to reconcile with later Christian teachings on forgiveness and loving one's enemies. The chapter on the prophets is helpful concerning how to generally interpret them. In the final chapter, Yancey points out how the increasing absence of God (according to the Hebrew arrangement of the canon) is designed to increase the spiritual hunger that anticipates the coming of the Messiah.

Previous reviewers have indicated that, in their opinion, this is not one of Yancey's stronger books. I believe, with the exception of one chapter, this book is as strong and interesting as any book he has written. Unfortunately, I had to rate it short of 5 stars because of the chapter on Deuteronomy. Portions of that chapter were taken from the companion booklet to the animated feature "The Prince of Egypt", and thus follows the storyline of the film and not the actual biblical storyline. The whole tone of that chapter just does not fit in a book such as this. If I wanted to read the flowery, overblown recounting of the storyline of the movie, I would have purchased it separately. If you get past the dross, there are valuable insights to be gleaned, but the dross shouldn't be there in the first place. Otherwise, this is an exemplary book.

I have enjoyed reading Philip Yancey's books over the years, but this is not one of his better ones. Like others, I feel the chapter on Deuteronomy is melodramatic and erroneous (not to mention boring.) Although the title is "The Bible Jesus Read", this is not a scholarly attempt to discuss the Hebrew or Greek scriptures available to Jesus during his lifetime, and only selected sections of the Old Testament are examined. On the other hand, the chapters on the Psalms, Ecclesiastes and the Prophets are sparkling with helpful literary allusions, exegesis, and insight. They achieve the author's goal of making the Old Testament a little easier to understand for the general reader. If you haven't read a Philip Yancey book before, try one of the others first, such as The Gift of Pain, Where is God When it Hurts, or Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. If you have wanted to do more reading of the scriptures (either for literary or spiritual purposes) and need some helpful guides, this book - along with the NIV Student Bible compiled by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford - will be a good companion.

I am so ashamed of myself because before reading this book I had been quite proud of having read many spiritual books and the whole Bible four times. However, I still failed to realize that the title of the book simply meant the Old Testament, and that I was very ignorant of the Old Testament.

Back to the book itself. The author had expressed that he would like modern christians to re-balance their interest between the Old and the New Testaments, when most of us had certainly put our time on the later one, if we had read it at all. Afterall, Jesus did read and always quote from it. In this respect, I doubt whether his objective can be served because I really think those who had read the Old Testament twice could appreciate the insights that the author had observed and the majority had neglected. The fact that the author had focused only on Job, Deuteronomy, Psalm, Ecclesiastes and the books of the prophets as a whole made it an ordinary Bible commentary instead of the other Yancey works with clear central themes. Nevertheless, this book is still up to the average but still outstanding Yancey standard, perhaps except the part on Deuteronomy, which some other reviewrs shared the same not so positive opinion with me. Anyway, I would strongly recommend this book to all Christians, preferably if one had read the relevant books in the Old Testament at least once.

As usual in all my reviews, I would like to copy and paste some messages for your reference. Hope they would help you to better understand the goodness of the book.

""Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." We usually interpret that commandment in a narrow sense of prohibiting swearing," said Webber, who then proceed to expand its meaning to never live as though God does not exist. Or, stated positively, Always live in awareness of God's existence. ...Any key to living in such awareness must be found in the Old Testament. pg 29

The Old Testament gives clues into the kind of history God is writing. Exodus identifies by name the two Hebrew midwives who helped save Moses'life, but it does not bother to record the name of the Pharaoh rulng Egypt. First Kings grants a total of eight verses to King Omri, even though secular historians regard him as one of Israel's most powerful kings. In his own history, God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Fiath is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heros of faith, not strength or wealth. pg 32

At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering. ...At such times we focus too easily on circumstances - illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck as the enemy. We pray for God to change those circumstances.....When tragedy strikes, we too will be trapped in a limited point of view. Like Job, we will be tempted to blame God and see him as the enemy.... I hesitate to write this because it is a hard truth, one I do not want to acknowledge: Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure.....In a message to Ezekiel God includes Job in a list of three giants of righteousness. The other two mentioned, Noah and Daniel, learned faith in the midst of a massive flood and a den of lions. pg 63/64

God did not condemn Job's doubt and despair, only his ignorance. pg 70

Bear it up; keep smiling; suffering makes you strong, say some spirtual advisors - but not the psalmists. They do not rationalize anger away or give abstract advice about pain; rather, they express emotions vividly and loudly, directing their feelings primarily at God. pg 122

Many psalms convey this spirit of "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," a way of talking oneself into faith when emotions are wavering....For the Hebrew poets, God represented a reality more solid than their own whipsaw emotions or the checkered history of their people. They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith. pg 123

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless. T.S. Eliot pg 154

Ecclesiastes insists that the stones we trip over are good things in themselves: "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Yet by assuming a burden we were not mean to carry, we turn nudity into pornography, wine into alcoholism, food into gluttony, and human diversity into racism and prejudice. Despair descends as we abuse God's good gifts; they seem no longer gifts, and no longer good. pg 159

Unless we acknowledge our limits and subject ourselves to God's rule, unless we trust the Giver of all good gifts, we will end up in a state of despair. Ecclesiastes calls us to accept our status as creatures under the dominion of the Creator, something few of us do without a struggle. pg 160

Why read the prophets? There is one compelling reason: to get to know God. The prophets are the Bible's most forceful revelation of God's personality. pg 180

This book delivers in true Philip Yancey style a rare and honest look at the reading of the Old Testament. This book could not have come out at a more opportune time for me as I had just completed reading the OT for the first time! I was left feeling confused, shocked, frightened and overwhelmed at times. Reading the OT made me realize I had created an image of God not true to what the Bible presents in the OT. The Bible Jesus Read made me feel it was o.k. to have the questions and struggles I experienced and that I was not alone in my feelings. Churches seem to conveniently avoid and shy away from the difficult issues and passages as if "embarrassed" by them. It was refreshing to find a book that dealt honestly and openly with the OT issues/situations that I don't believe God wants us to overlook. Yancey's book encourages the questioning, struggling and meditating of God's Word, even if answers are not always found in the manner we want them to be. It was encouraging and comforting to see Yancey's faith in God through Christ maintained throughout the periods of doubt and questioning we all have in our spiritual growth. The only problem I have with Yancey's work is that I wish he was more prolific in getting more books out.

For about ten years, I have preached at many churches and found an amasing amount of indifference to the message of the Old Testament. It amazed me that those who claimed to be followers of Jesus could so indifferent to the part of the Bible which reveals His coming, His identity and His mission. Sadly, this attitude is common among many. The Old Tesament doesn't have the message of salvation, they say. That's not only desperately mistaken, it doesn't give proper credit to the

Lord for how He would reveal His perfect revelation of Himself! Finally, in his unmistakably introspective style, Philip Yancey has set the record straight. He seems to reach into the mind of the Lord to show us how the Jewish Scriptures were a vital part of Jesus' life and His earthly ministry. He shows his readers how Jesus, who dwelt with the knowledge that the Old Testament spoke openly of Him, reached out to the people of His day and became for them a fulfillment of those Scriptures. This book is a must for not only the theologically trained, but also for the layman who looks for understanding of how the Old Testament is relevant to his or her own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Though it isn't as bad as one review makes it sound, this book is a slight letdown after "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace?" But then, those are two of the best books anyone's ever written on the subjects. The problems with this book are simply: 1. The section on Moses (taken from a Prince of Egypt tie-in) simply does not fit with the rest. If he had reworked it a little, perhaps. 2. The themes that Yancey sounds in this one are virtually unchanged from the previous two books, which isn't bad except that he virtually has nothing new to say. You hear the same notes, and they aren't as fresh. 3. The book lacks a certain conciseness. It's short, shorter than his other two works that I mentioned, but it rambles a great deal. 4. Yancey promises to fit Jesus in. And he does, in the last chapter. Simply, this book needed a bit more editing that it didn't get. It's good, but it was bound to be a disappointment after the previous two masterpieces.

Yancey's book was an easy read. I felt I received a greater appreciation for books of the Bible that I've taken for granted in the past, namely the Psalms; and to background I hadn't considered before (his examination of the book of Ecclesiastes was truly eye-opening). I do feel Mr. Yancey has a tendency to say the same thing about four different ways before he moves on to a new point, but I think he is one of the most gifted writers, in or out of the "Christian circle." I am also indebted to him for his sincerity, his genuineness and his bluntness where others may otherwise tiptoe around subjects. His style is refreshing yet not condescending or boring. I have also read his "Amazing Grace" and would like to read "The Jesus I Never Knew" as I have heard only good reports on it.

The basic premise of The Bible Jesus Read is that modern Christians make a mistake by ignoring the Old Testament in favor of just focusing on the New. In doing so we are giving ourselves an incomplete picture of who God is. The Old and New Testaments are meant to go hand in hand. Using Job, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and the books of the prophets, Yancey shows that when we ignore the Old Testament we completely miss out on many vital aspects of the character of God. You cannot truly understand God without seeing him through both the Old and New lense.

Not as earth-shaking as his previous work, What's So Amazing About Grace (that book changed my life), but an important and thoughtful read -- especially the sections on Job and Ecclesiastes. And any book that can make the minor prophets come alive deserves to be recognized. Four Stars.