Customer Reviews

Picture Bible: The Timeless Stories of the Bible in Full Color

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 pettarg@hotmail.com, and my real name is Gabe. Thank you for reading!!!

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.

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!

We bought The Picture Bible as it was required for a daughter's class in a Christian school. After reading only a few pages, my wife and I became convinced that the book falls far short of what we expected from such a work.

The main deficiency is in the area of accuracy to the actual Biblical text. In addition to creating extra-Biblical dialog for characters to speak, the author has also made glaring errors in an apparent attempt to make stories flow more to his liking.

A prime example of this is found in the story of the two angels who visit Lot in Sodom (Gen. 19). In the Bible, the residents of Sodom demand that the angels be sent out of the house so they can have carnal relations with them, a clear example of the depths of depravity existing in Sodom. According to The Picture Bible, however, the citizens of Sodom, believing the two strangers to "look like trouble," determine to run them out of town. By changing the story in this way, the Sodomites appear to have civic virtue in mind, rather than personal lust. Therefore, when God destroys Sodom, He comes across as irrational and cruel, rather than righteously expressing His anger at the sin of Sodom. In this manner, the entire meaning of the passage is not only lost, but turned on its head.

Another, relatively minor problem, but one which characterizes the poor thought given to development of The Picture Bible is seen in the story of Sarah learning at the age of 90 that she will become pregnant and have a child (Gen. 17, 18). When Sarah first hears of this and says she is too old to have a child, she appears to be somewhere between 30 and 40 years old, and certainly less than 50. Abraham, who is 99 at the time, has a brown beard and appears hale and hearty. A few pages later, she is far older and barely recognizable as the same person, while Abraham is now grayed and bowed.

In other passages, events are taken out of order or details found in Scripture are left out from The Picture Bible, for no apparent reason. There are many more examples of these types of problems, but space and time prevent me from describing them.

It would have been just as easy to write this book accurately as inaccurately. Parents who believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture will probably not be pleased with this book, due to the many liberties it takes with the clear text and message of the Bible.

Other resources which are much better include the Dorling Kindersley Family Bible, and the Read-and-grow Picture Bible, not to be confused with The Picture Bible. Both of these works are much more accurate and, as my 5 children can attest, hold the interest of young people very well. Parents and children can do much better than The Picture Bible.

Of the various "youth" Bibles that are available, my 3 children grew up loving this book best, wearing out several copies of it. It is an accurate, hardcover Bible in comic book format, having wide appeal for early readers to teenagers. It is a great way to get kids started in their religious reading, and the retention level was impressive. This is usually what we give for religious occasions that require a present, and I have had nothing but positive feedback from the receivers and their parents. It is also difficult to find, so I am very pleased to see it carried by my favorite virtual bookstore!

Throughout our elementary school years, my sister and I did our nightly "devotions" using this comic book Bible. Though I'm now 29 years old, I still imagine all the events in the Bible just the way this comic book portrays them.

My own young children have been given many Bible story books, but most of them focus only on the cute, feel-good stories such as Noah's ark, baby Moses floating in the reed basket, and baby Jesus in the manger. The Picture Bible, on the other hand, contains a much broader story selection, even some more graphic drawings, such as Goliath being slain by David. (Don't worry, it's not TOO graphic.)

There's only one problem with this "Bible:" The characters look quite caucasian. The drawings are probably not ethnically accurate.

I RAN INTO THIS AWSOME BIBLE WHEN I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL AWAY FROM HOME FOR WHILE WHEN A LADY PUSHING A CART WITH BOOKS HANDED IT TO ME SMILED & WALKED AWAY I CAN'T REMEMBER IF IT WAS A NURSE OR A NUN BUT IT HELPED ME THREW THE UPS AND DOWNS WITH MY STAY AT THE HOSPITAL. AFTER I WAS RELEASED FROM THE PLACE I GAVE IT TO MY SISTERS KIDS AND THEY ENJOYED IT AND READ IT OVER & OVER I HAVE A COPY OF MY OWN AND THINK EVERYONE IN THE WORLD SHOULD TOO.

I thought, Could it be...? When I saw this Picture Bible in the book store I just had to pick it up and leaf through to see if it was really what I remembered from the 1970s.Yes! Those "comic book"-style bible stories we were given after Sunday School - printed in full color on 8 and 1/2 by 11, folded brochure-style for us to read during the sermon -were collected and printed in a book format as an illustrated Bible. My sister and I spent a few years of Sunday mornings sitting in a non-airconditioned Sanctuary, our restlessness nicely relieved by these pamphlets (called "Pix" back then). I hadn't seen them since, so I was glad to discover that they have been kept in print for the next generation here.

The "Pix" stories are all faithfully based on Bible stories, illustrated to be as historically accurate as possible. They are well-drawn, not cartoonish at all. Each story has to fit into one or more three-page segments, each citing the chapter and verses it is based on. The writers and artists do not take liberties, wanting to be true to the Word, so the dialog can seem a bit simplified or stilted here and there, especially during sequences when people are speaking for which the bible does not provide exact quotes (for example in the story of Moses meeting Zipporah's father Jethro, Jethro says "I need a shepherd - why don't you stay with us?" Moses: "Thank you, I will"). Then again, comics aren't exactly known for great dialog! On the other hand the colors are brilliant and a bit exaggerated from what I remember. It helps to remember that this was written with children in mind.

Note that while this book is titled The Picture Bible, it is far from a complete illustrated bible. To include absolutely every bible story in here, it would have to be impossibly huge, maybe even several books. The Picture Bible covers what I would call the main highlights, which make interesting and dramatic stories for kids. In all, I count nearly 800 illustrated pages.

Although I bought The Picture Bible for my second-grade son, I admit that I have re-read through quite a lot of it myself. It is a great way for kids and, ahem, adults, to review their bible history quickly. I would not recommend this as a substitute for a regular copy of the Bible, but it is a great supplement and a teaching tool.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

Wow, this bible is amazing and a great base for young children to learn and remember bible stories.

My parents got me a picture bible when I was young. I don't know how many times I read it all the way through (once in 2 weeks), but it was great. Looking back, I now realize that this book was a large reason for why I now remember so much about the bible stories, and it's helped form a solid base of knowledge for me to start really asking and thinking about the harder questions to get a good understanding of God and Jesus and his relationship with us.

I didn't remember which bible it was, and I started looking for it on amazon for a new Christian friend. As soon as I saw the same ol' drawings in "The Picture Bible" from the website, it instantly brought back a flood of memories, and I knew this was the one (although probably in a much earlier edition).

I don't know how it will work on my friend, but in the hands of a kid who likes to read comic books over and over again, this is perhaps one of the best tools to instill a solid base of biblical knowledge...and without even feeling like church or Sunday School.

As a child I picked up the PictureBible one summer day and could not put it down until I finished reading it in the evening. I had read the entire Bible, but was not until I read the PictureBible that I saw the whole "picture." I starting reading the PictureBible to my daughter when she was only two. When friends of ours got together for Bible Trivia, my husband and I were winning. I attributed this win to PictureBible and how it is easy to read, understand and accurate. I recommend this book highly to any child or adult.