Customer Reviews

The Story Bible: The New Testament [Volume II]

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I'm a huge fan of Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth." She captured the feel of Chinese life, while also painting the sometimes dark, sometimes bright hues of human existence and struggle in any culture or era. With this in mind, I was excited to see how she handled the localized, yet universal, story of Jesus in the time of Herods and Caesars.

Buck does a fine job of encapsulating the New Testament, making it feel approachable, readable, believable, but she does little to add to the existing story in the Bible. Of course, it's a daunting task to take on the most revered and bestselling book of all-time. To put too much personal interpretation would be to invite criticism. To add nothing new would be to nullify the project's usefulness.

Sadly, I think Buck erred on the side of safety here. She gives little theological, historical, or personal insight, instead paraphrasing what already stands in numerous versions in English alone. I respect her writing. I respect even her desire to make the Bible more accessible to others. I'm just not sure that I could recommend this over a New Living Translation of the New Testament or even the New King James Version. Perhaps this explains why I had such difficulty finding a copy of Buck's book.

The Book came in excellent condition and shipping it out was on time.
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