Customer Reviews

How to Read Your Bible

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As a college professor and pastor I have read more than twenty books on how to study the Bible. This is the first book to put so many practical helps into such a conversational style. The realistic dialogue between the friends in this book guides the reader through answers to real questions people ask about the Bible. The "snapshot" sections and tables are well-thought out and stategically placed. They make the chapters the most comprehensive and reader-friendly to date. The "15 minute" reading plan makes Bible study feasible for busy people. I'm recommending this book to my students. Dr. Marty Trammell, Corban College

Fantastic! How to Read Your Bible drew me irresistibly from one page to the next plunging me into a vibrant, energetic world of clashing world views, collegiate inquistiveness and a host of characters that will not soon be forgotten. In seamless transitions from story to instruction the authors ability to anticipate my questions by placing the action on pause, guide me through the simple and complex arguments, then provide biblical answers was as pure an example of great teaching as any I have experienced before. Just cracking open the Bible is daunting enough without the added frustration of deciding what tools to use to help me through it. The beauty of this book is that it gives the reader elementary training that whets the appetite for graduate level study. I have purchased numerous books from Amazon and this is the first time I felt compelled to write a review-the book is that good.

This book addresses many of the "reasons" used for not reading the Bible in its entirety, challenging the reader to reexamine their spiritual life in a personal way.
How to Read Your Bible can aid in spiritual growth when Scripture reading becomes a daily part of life-providing a brief synopsis of each book in the Bible along with a guide to help personalize what you're reading in a life-changing and applicable way.
Whether you've studied the Bible cover to cover many times or you've just picked it up, grab a copy of How to Read Your Bible, an excellent companion for the duration of your reading journey.
This year, resolve to daily Scripture reading-the Sanford's have included four easy to use reading plans-pick one, use it, and read your Bible!

The author's have adopted an unlikely (but highly successful) approach to this book--part novel, part instruction manual. It answered so many of my questions, things I asked professors but never received a straight answer on (like cannonization). Honestly, if you're considering buying this book, do so. You really won't regret it. I was both challenged and an encouraged by it!

The Sanfords have provided an excellent "driver's ed" course for getting into the Bible. This is the answer for those who hear the admonition to "read your Bible" but lack Bible study skills and an understanding of Biblical history. The imaginary narrative about college students reading the Bible reminds us that even this age group can be tooled to understand and apply scripture. The Sanfords also give helpful book summaries, pull out key verses, and add helpful diagrams and charts. The final pages offer suggestions for personalizing the Bible plus several charts for reading through the Bible. Whether bought for personal use or group study, this book will help you achieve a goal of reading through-and understanding-the Bible.

David and Renee have suceeded at 'putting the cookies on the lower shelf' for topics that are at times left to the academics. Because they've done this I can understand the issues more fully as well as have a way to better relate this information to others.

Disappointing. Ostensibly appropriate for college students--at least they are featured in the mock dialogues that set up the issues the authors take on--but the answers and insights given wouldn't satisfy college students who actually think about this stuff for more than ten minutes. For example, the authors simply assert the traditional view that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible by himself. While I didn't expect a full-on discussion of the documentary hypothesis, I certainly wasn't looking for such a simplistic position that doesn't even acknowledge the complexity of the issue. The discussion of biblical inspiration was similarly simplistic. The authors commend "verbal plenary inspiration" to the reader, but don't really explain the fullness of this very technical idea. Again, I realize that this isn't a deep theological work, but the inspiration of scripture is a profoundly mysterious reality; even beginning Bible readers need more than some proof texts and a soundbyte of unexplained jargon. Telling a beginning Bible reader--or any Bible reader!--simply that "verbal plenary inspiration" is the correct understanding of inspiration without discussing what the words mean and what other Christians have thought about this issue isn't very helpful.
Also disappointing was how the apparent contradictions in parallel accounts are also summarily explained away. No discussion of tensions, of the phenomenon of differences between eyewitness accounts. And to top it all off, the actual Bible study plans that are offered aren't anything special. I didn't need to buy this book to get another "Read the Bible in a year" plan. The reading plan that emphasizes biblical characters and the one that focuses on "the highlights" of each book may have merit--but I was definitely hoping for more. I've only glanced at the sections that give their approach to principles of application. Some of it looks okay, and some of it is clearly simplistic. For example, they offer a chart that differentiates between commands "to obey," commands "not for me," and commands that are "out of date." So, looking at the Pentateuch, the authors identify a number of command that are "not for me," and "out of date." It gives the impression that we don't need to even bother to figure out the spirit of the commands. Just because we don't worry about not gleaning to the edges of our fields doesn't mean we can just say, "Ah, that command's not for me!" and move on.
There may be some useful stuff in this book, but the simplistic approach to complex issues, cheesy stories with stilted dialogue used to set up the issues, the questionable application principles, and the lack of creative approaches to actually reading the Bible make this book not worth your time.