Customer Reviews

The Bible's Greatest Stories (Signet Classics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those moderately familiar with the Bible, this book provides a well-structured review of key stories along with some critical commentary. The table of contents alone is a valuable survey tool, allowing the reader to see the scope and flow of the narrative and find stories and review their details. It's strength is in conveying the flow of history as seen through the authors of scripture. It does not pretend to give a sense of the development of the legal or ethical norms, and law and prophets are not strongly represented. However, it definitely serves a worthy purpose in renewing our familiarity with Biblical stories and characters and their context in the Bible.

Despite the Nancy Drew title, "The Bible's Greatest Stories" appears to have been thought out and well researched, being translated as much as possible from hebrew/greek texts. The text is clear and appears accurate, based on my cursory cross-checking with King James. Most importantly, it's exciting and a page-turner--attributes your plain-jane Bible isn't likely to possess.

Roche has included nearly every piece of the bible that could be sensibly called "a story". Not included are psalmy songs, long levitician legal lists, or "so and so begat who and who begat so on and so on". The story-laden old testament gets more attention than the new (the book ends with St. Paul shipwrecked in Malta, as described in Acts). The four gospels are condensed into a single, easy to follow version.

I've wanted to read the bible for a long time and every attempt has failed within a few dozen pages, due to boredom. This book made me more familiar with the bible than I ever expected to become. I've heard the old "Tom Jones" movie described as "Fielding without the waffle." If you like, "The Bible's Greatest Stories" is God's Word without the "waffle".

I have bought quite a few of The Bible's Greatest Stories book over the years and given them to various people I've come across. I think it's a great, easy to read book filled with many of the great biblical stories that a lay person can read from front to back and walk away with a decent overview of the Bible itself. Obviously it's not a substitute for the Bible itself, but a great start for anyone embarking on the journey of understanding Gods purpose for mankind and what a walk of faith truely means. Again a very easy and fun book to read for anyone regardless of their age, would even make a great bedtime story book for parents to read to their children, well worth the money for this little paper back book in my opinion.

i got through about half of this. i've read many outlines/paraphrases in this biblical vien. don't read this poorly written book.