Customer Reviews

Tower of Babel

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had also purchased this book for my lower grammer aged kids in order to supplement the account of the tower of Babel in Genesis. I was so diappointed because of exactly the same issues raised by the previous reviewer. Like Tiffany, we aslo read and enjoyed The True Story of Noah's Ark and enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, Ms. Clanin's book is 99% speculation. I also found it irritating that she presents it as fact. I looked in vain for even one sentence that had words such as "maybe, perhaps, it is thought, some think.
While I also took issue with her statement on p. 21 "God has given us a free will to love and obey Him or to sin and disobey.." (Oh really? Try telling that to Baalam who wanted to curse the Jews for money but was not permitted to by the Lord.) the last straw was the text of page 13 which states that "before people had the bible, God used the stars to tell the story of Jesus." I understand that some well respected evangelical leaders promote this idea, but it's a fable. Hebrews 1:1 states "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the PHROPHETS,(not the stars?) has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.....(or the stars if you are part of a people without the bible in your own language?)"
For a better analysis on the shortcomings of this fable, check out this site (...)
So! I don't have another recommendation ,except to perhaps read the account from a children's bible. But definitly pass on this one.

I'm very frustrated with this book. While I do admit it is a good read for a child, I must take issue with a few items. First, if you're going to throw some fiction into the Bible's account, I certainly wish that would be specified at the beginning of the story. (much the same way "The True Story of Noah's Ark" does by the same publisher, stating at the beginning that this account is based on the Bible, but we've thrown in many speculative thoughts...)
For example, when I went back and read the account in Genesis about the tower being built, I found no reference to Nimrod actually starting the whole idea. I found no reference to Nimrod wanting to build it as a temple to turn people away from God. And I certainly have never seen a reference in the Bible that indicates that "before people had the Bible, God used the stars to tell the story of Jesus." Or that each of the 12 constellations told a part of God's story. Especially since other places in the Bible tell us NOT to look to the stars for answers!
I take issue with adding to or taking away from the Bible, although I'll be the first to admit that I don't know if there are more references to this story elsewhere in the Bible that actually state these things that I've got a problem with. But in all my years of studying, I've never come across these things.
And I take even more issue with throwing in a "free will" agenda into a children's book that has been recommended to me to use in our homeschooling class to teach my child more about how languages came to be.
As a Reformed household that stands firmly on what the Bible actually says, my husband and I have a real problem, well, better make that problemS with this book.
Again, decent read, but depending on your view of the Bible, you may want to think twice before sitting down with your kids on this one.
Still unsure if I will keep it. There's just too much to have to skip over at such a young age as my children are. When they are older and more grounded in their faith and understanding of what the Bible ACTUALLY says, then sure, no problem. Good book when that time comes.

I bought this book as part of TOG homeschooling curriculum even though I read the reviews below and realized it was a risky purchase. For 6.99 I figured it couldn't be that bad, and I did not have the same beefs as the reviewers below shared. I was not concerned that the gospel was presented as a choice, I was not concerned that Nimrod was mentioned, and I was willing to take a chance on the constellation issue.

After I got the book, however, and read through it myself, I decided not to give it to my kids. I found it confused the major issues, which to me are: the pride, the languages, the dispersion. The main focus of the book was, indeed, Nimrod. It was as if you were reading his interpretation of the story's events, which filled in all the missing pieces of information. It should have focused more on the original great commission and the people of God and their rebellious hearts.

All kinds of extraneous information was put into the story--Eber's righteousness, Nimrod's priests, the influence of Satan hovering over the tower, a lightning storm right before the languages were confused... on and on. I was very surprised God's thoughts, however, were left out since they are in the biblical account! The whole thing reminded me very much of the Jewish tradition of midrash, where Jewish authors take Bible stories and spin them, or interpret them, or add things to the story to make a bigger Scriptural point. Eric Kimmel does a lot of this, and Miriam Chaikin, so if you like them, you might like this. But in my opinion, it came across like a bad fairy tale.

The constellations thing was also a much bigger portion than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a handwaving sentence, it was actually two pages worth. I have heard this kind of doctrine taught before in some conspiracy-young-earth-type creation circles (i.e. those who believe in the Nephilim skulls, etc). It is probably going to raise questions from a little kid that don't need to be raised. So might the ending of the story which attempts to explain how racial characteristics just appeared in each tribe after they were dispersed. Probably best to keep that out if it can't be explained well.

I gave it two stars because it has nice pictures, it is a good length, and it has the gospel message on the last page in the back. But if you care anything at all about faithfulness to the original text, this is not the account of Babel to share with your kids. Jon Taylor's pop up "Tower of Babel" is definitely better.

You people have got to lighten up!! These are real stories in novel form. There is so much historical fiction out there that no one seems to object to. Just read anything about Ancient Rome or Greece that is in novel form or the movie "Titanic". No one seemed to object to the Jack and Rose thing. This is a book written with a little artistic license. Just fair thought it may be, the characters are real and so are the events.

I read both of the earlier reviews, and was not fazed by the concerns raised. Historic Christianity, whether Orthodox, Catholic, or even Lutheran, Anglican, or Reformed, acknowledge the concept of a 'free will,' so that was a minor point raised; if Man cannot choose God, then he is an automaton, and thus, is not fully human. Granted (theologically) that the Almighty predisposes those who DO choose first, but that was not the point of this book.

Also, the character of Nimrod is both present in biblical OT scenarios, as well as in much of the culture of the West; one thinks of Christopher Smart's "Nimrod the Mighty Hunter" as set by Britten in his church music.

What bothered me, and what made me say 'no' to this age-range/pre-history text, was the puerile way in which the author presumes current 'multicultural dogma' has ANY merit at all (or continuing legitimacy) in discussing issues of race, division of the nations and the confounding of tongues, as per the Biblical data, for even children as young as this text is geared toward! What is this current malaise/mentality- indoctrinate them when they are babes, so that they will be compliant multiculti drones when they hit the streets?

Clanin's preaching in this small book ("Why, that would make us bigots!"- she wirtes) is of an ilk, just like the ICR crowd's dictum that three Noahic sons'(and the attendant genetic impossibility of) fathering the entire human race after the Flood; both authors indulge in both bad genetics and bad science. So too does this author seek to preach the doctrine of racial equanimity in re-telling the story of Babel- the definitive squashing of any human attempts at 'multiculturalism' by God in the first place!

That Clanin can continue to say this in a book for children, in the face of recent research; (Herrnstein and Murray's "The Bell Curve," Vanhanan's (sp?) "IQ and the Wealth of Nations") recent history (Lest we EVER forget how racial 'harmony' fell apart so quickly in the Dome, during/after Katrina?) or Taylor's "The Color of Crime"; or even the fact that the Scriptural record is NOT a book of science, but a book of faith, chronicling the call of YHWH to one group of people alone, both in the OT, as well as in the NT: ["I am come only to call the lost sheep of Israel to repentance"- Christ] indicates that Master books, (the publisher) is being 'squeezed by the world's mold,' rather than what St. Paul said Christians were to do, which was to squeeze the world to the Church's mold! The only crowd this book will appeal to is the dying liberal protestant congregations, who preach the gospel of racial egalitarianism, feminist clergy legtimacy, and 'head-in-the-sand-we-are-the-world' claptrap. And perhaps that was all the author was aiming for- a 'niche' market, rather than being true to either scripture, or anthropological and historical realities.