Customer Reviews
Reasonable introduction - By: PhilosopherKing, 19 Nov 2008 
This was a reasonable introduction to the Bible written by Protestant Scholars.
I have several much heavier books at home e.g. "Mackenzie Dictionary of the Bible", "The New Jerome Biblical Commentary", "An Introduction to the New Testament" by Raymond Brown. I also use The New Jerusalem Bible with notes & the Holy Bible RSV Catholic Edition with notes.
There are just a few quibbles:
1 Although this is pitched at a basic level the authors could have introduced more debates from modern scholarship & to have accepted the more reasonable views while rejecting the more outlandish ones.
2 There are some passages where I think the authors have dogmatically accepted a non-Catholic interpretation even when this makes the least sense i.e. when the Catholic explanation of a passage is patently far better than any alternatives. I do not wish to be polemical but books such as "The Catholic Verses" & "A Biblical Defense of Catholicism" both written by Dave Armstrong a Protestant scholar who became a Catholic have some interesting arguments on some of these texts.
3 There were a few passagesin which the authors seemed rather too tolerant towards Islam's claims for my liking. Not that I am advocating intolerance but the Biblical propheciesin the Book of Genesis certainly don't apply to Mohammed & his followers & the authors, while not saying that they did, seemed to leave the matter far too muchin the air for my liking. There was no need to have mentioned Islam at all but by mentioning it several timesin the book the authors may have misled some Christian readers into thinking that Islam is on the same footing as Christianity or that Mohammed is on a par with Jesus Christ. I am sure that the authors don't think this but trying to be "inclusive" & politically correct may well have given that impression.
Nevertheless, this was a good & humorous read & I learned among other things that oases were the 'pick up joints'in the ancient world.
Very useful - By: SCS, 07 Jun 2008 I bought this book originally as I wanted understand a bit more about the Bible, I am relatively new to the Christian faith & while I do study the Bible on a regulary basis & attend group discussions, I find I am often missing out on the context that passages are set in. Bothin terms of history & relevance to other parts of the Bible. This books sets out very clearly the different sections of the Bible & tells youin plain, & often humourous language, what was happening at this particular pointin history & what it meant for people then & what it means for Christians (and others) now. It walks yout through the Bible & explains thingsin sequence & builds up into a comprehensive knowledge base. I have found it very useful for helping me to deepen my understanding of relevant parts of the Bible, though I would stress that it is not enough to read this on its own, you really do need to study the Bible itself if you every really want to learn about God & study His word.
The Bible for Dummies - By: Rev. Gareth Bowen, 30 Jan 2005 
Very helpful book for people wanting to start to look deeper into the Bible. This will never replace a set of good commentaries but it was never ment to. I have this book on my "often used" shelf above my desk. Fr. Gareth Bowen.
