Picture Bible (Deluxe) [Color] [Hardcover]

Iva Hoth (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Though The Picture Bible makes a good first Bible for young readers, this classic perennial best-seller is loved by people of all ages. The full-text version contains 233 Bible stories in full-color comic format.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 799 pages
• Publisher: Chariot Victor Publishing; Deluxe edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781430577
• ISBN-13: 978-0781430579
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #954,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a comic book. Superb Gift, Good teaching tool., April 19, 2001

By 

Thomas Alderman (Vacaville, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picture Bible (Deluxe) (Hardcover)

I disagree with the review written by Andrew B. Morseman on September 20, 2000, and I strongly recommend this book for teachers of higher elementary grades and summer or Vacation Bible schools. I respect his opinion, which is why I am rebutting it here, legally, in view of the public.

This book is an excellent way to expose older children and young teens to the bible as religious literature, or as educational literature, because it synopsizes events, clarifies characters, and artfully omits some of the vissictudes and harsher realities of ancient times.

While not fully accurate to the facts, the general events and key characters are magnified as the centers of the stories, with geneaologies of the Hebrew and Israelic ancestors telescoped or omitted. Most children do not have the attention span or interest to digest the historical record-keeping which the bible contains, and many are not ready to deal with the full goriness of bloodshed, sex, and intricate conspiracy which dominates all of human history. The Picture Bible dances around many such events which are distracting with regard to the main storyline, (i.e. the rape of Tamar does not directly affect the life or rule of David) omitting irrelevancies and euphemizing "mature" material.

The illustrations cleverly indicate the characters, their moods, and the passage of time, to project a limited idea of the timeframe of the individual stories, the scope of indivdual storylines, and people interweave seamlessly as individuals from one story to another. The chapter divisions are marvelously episodic, and clearly identify the biblical texts from which they are derived.

Books paraphrazed or synopsized, but not omitted from mention, are the major and minor prophets, the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon. swaths of the Pentateuch are left out, and the Letters and travels of Paul, the other events in Acts and the other letters, and the Revelation of St. John are all synopsized or given prominent mention. Every book of the canonical Bible is conspicuously mentioned at some point. The meaning of the prophetic books is under much debate and is largely a conceptual or spiritual problem, not suited for younger ages. The books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon (a.k.a. Canticles) are mentioned but left out because they contain no story material of themselves. Leviticus and Deuteronomy contain almost nothing but the Mosaic Law, which is of little or no interest to young minds (the Ten Commandments are stated Verbatim from the King James Bible on a separate illustrated page), and other books contain material that simply can't be worked into a storybook grounded in corporeal facts and events.

As to inerrancy and infallibility; only the Truth Himself is inerrant and infallible; there are many nuances of bare facts that have been lost to history and translation, and bibles as late as the King James and Douday Original Version have been shown to contain errors of translation, content, and meaning, while scripts like the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome were rejected as un-canonical although they contained neither gross nor suttle errors of meaning or doctrine. Even today books touted as Bibles contain many errors that do disservice to both Christian Doctrine and scholarly and literary accuracy. The admitted errancy of this book is not that of a knave, but of a knight. It is fallible so that it might be more authentic, and less artifical. I think it is very useful as a stepping stone, even if it isn't the Rock of Truth.

I first studied Christian Literature using this bible, and when I dug into the King James version, I didn't get lost becuase I already knew the main storyline, and could identify key characters. I also did not find the omissions to be misleading or ingenuine to the stories themselves, or discredit the characters or ideas presented in the stories.

All in all, this is a wonderful book for older preteen readers; it conveys the key events and ideas found in the bible, has skilled and meaningful illustration (which helps the story along as much as the dialogue) and presents religious truth without any authoritative invocation or declaration. I like the content, but I would change the title to "The Comic Book Bible."

And for any comments, my real e-mail is [e-mail], and my real name is Gabe. Thank you for reading!!!

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awsome comic Bible, October 21, 2002

By 

Mehri Kaufman "Mimish" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Picture Bible (Hardcover)

My 9 year old son received this Bible for christmas last year and in one year he read it from cover to cover 7 times. He loves it.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Picture Bible gets kids interested in God's word!, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Picture Bible (Hardcover)

I first encountered The Picture Bible as a child of about 11 when it was given to me as a gift. I was fascinated by the easy to read, exciting stories and illustrations. The comic strip format was neither too childish, nor too "grown up" and the accuracy gave me a solid background until I was ready to cut my teeth on the real thing. More than 10 years later I am happy to see this book is still available and I have just ordered a copy for my nephew. It is a great teaching tool for children. I know from first hand experience!