I've finally finished the Old Testament on my "Read through the Bible in *cough cough* years!" plan. This time through I'm reading "The Message" paraphrase, just for a change of pace. You could say that this post shouldn't be a "Books of 2011" post, but I figure that this is a good compromise between doing every single book of the Bible and just doing one post for the whole thing (assuming I finish it anytime soon). But I digress...
So what can you say about the Old Testament--this Jewish history written thousands of years ago? It has everything from epic tales of battle to (impressively explicit) love poems--and yet everything in it is a setup for the New Testament. Kind of amazing.
Anyway, it is essential reading for everyone, really. Whether or not you believe in the message of Jesus Christ or not, the fact that everything in our culture (and most others) is built on this foundation makes it something good to have under your belt.
I don't know how exactly to rate something like this. Hmmm... 39 days and nights out of 40.
4 comments:
Are you using a standard King James Bible or a Modern English Version? Also are you using one of the excellent Bible in a Year variant's? I used a Modern English Bible in a Year Bibles while teaching Sunday School at the same time and loved it. I have to say it was one of my very best years and I learned a lot.
My favored version for general use is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It's more lyrical in my view than the NIV or most other modern translations, and keeps the biblical revisionists out of things (the NIV people lost my business when they started the Today's New International Version--no more genders!).
I'm reading through The Message right now, though, which is VERY colloquial but still coming from a traditional point of view. Eugene Peterson, the guy who did it, makes a point to say that it is NOT a translation--it is a paraphrase.
Probably more than you wanted to know...
Nope, I know what your talking about and have used a number of study Bible's as well as viewed a lot of different Bible's at Christian Book Stores. Two of my past college courses were Bible related and not the least bit easy either.
I first read the King James version (Old and New Testaments) when I was nine; it wasn't until my teens that I discovered it had left some out, so I didn't read the Book of Maccabees until then. You might find them interesting if you haven't read them already.
Since then, I have read most of the Apocrypha also, but I'm afraid I still don't believe it. Just my take on it, though; if other people believe it, I have no problem with that.
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