The Bible Book by DK (2018, ISBN 978-1-4654-6864-2)

 

Covers the Bible, Jewish and Christian, from Genesis to Revelation. 

The book covers each "Book" of the Bible separately. First the Old Testament books, which are sacred to both Jews and Christians. Then it covers the New Testament which is used by Christians only. The Apocrypha (or Pseudepigrapha) are mentioned but not really expanded upon.

The coverage is glossy from a perspective of various traditions. Some time Jewish perspective is given and sometime Christian. Also, Islam is mentioned a few times.

Sometimes ideas about the Bible from a secular view point are presented. This is not a book meant for believers. Rather this book is for people who have little knowledge of the Bible and want to learn more. Believers might also benefit from this book as it covers the whole bible in an easy to read format, but they must remember this book isn't trying to proselytize but rather just be informative. 

This book was purchased from Amazon Marketplace (AtolyeWish) on November 24, 2020 for 18.26$

 

Saint Luke by G. B. Caird (1963, ISBN 0-1402-0490-3)
Subtitle- The Pelican New Testament Commentaries.

This book is a commentary of the Gospel Of Luke from the Christian New Testament.

 The books consists of a series of sections, each covering a part of the Gospel Of Luke. Each section contains text from the Gospel Of Luke. The text is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The text also includes any variations that the translators might have noted. Next is the commentary. It explains the text, what it is trying to convey, the context of the time of the events of the text, the context of the time that the author wrote the text and also modern ideas concerning the events and time period being discussed. Following the commentary are often technical notes concerning the text. Many different versions of the text are extant and because they were written by hand by individuals that might have had different opinions about the text or the events it describes, there are differences that the translators had to choose from. The commentary also discusses the text and how it compares to the other Gospels, which parts are in common and which are unique to Luke.

This book was purchased a long time ago,

The Gospel According to Luke, New King James Version, Gideons.

The first time I read Luke, probably 50 years ago, was the Good News translation.

Book found free some where.

Saint Mark by D. E. Nineham. 1963, ISBN 0 14 02.0489 X. This is a part of the Pelican New Testament Commentaries series. This is a commentary on the Book of Mark (or Mark, Gospel of Mark.) This book contains the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of Mark. The commentary discusses the Greek text some, but not extensively, mostly just to explain the choices made by the RSV. Otherwise, the commentary is mostly about the writer of Mark (What they knew or didn't know about Palestine of that period, etc.) The commentary is mostly historical and literary and less about theology. Purchased new on 30 Aug 1978, for $4.95. Purchased at: unknown, possibly Powell's Books.

Book Of Mark. This is from the same copy of the New Testament as the Book Of Matthew. This was shorter than Matthew, I read a couple of chapters a day. Mark contains the ministry and ascension of Jesus, but not the birth story. The print in this tiny copy of Gideons is very tiny. The version of this text is the New King James Version.

Genesis: A Living Conversation by Bill Moyers. ISBN 0-385-48345-7. This book is a series of transcripts of conversations recorded for a PBS television series of the same name. The series first appeared in the late 1990s. I found this book interesting to read, however sometimes the comments seemed to be a bit silly. The stories of Genesis were written thousands of years ago for a completely different social-economic context. To expect them to represent some modern value system (in other words, to be politically correct) seems to me to be unrealistic. Most of the participants were professional religionists, i.e. people who have made a career out of studying religion.

On Genesis, A New Reading by Bruce Vawter. 1977, ISBN 0-385-06104-8. I really enjoyed reading this book. It uses the New American Bible (NAB) as its English translation. I first purchased this book back when it was new. It has taken me 32 years to get around to reading it. I wish I had read it when I first bought it. The book explains Genesis in terms of the four different sources of text, Priestly (P), Yahwist (J), Elohist (E) and the Redactor (R) and how these contribute to the inconsistencies in the text. It also relates many of the stories and names to information found in other sources and through archeology, etc. In some places it discusses the NAB and how it relates to the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX) and othe sources (Syriac etc.)

Interlinear Chumash Bereishis. ISBN 978-1-4226-0202-7. This book is a part of an Artscroll series. Interlinear means that the original Hebrew text is shadowed by a word for word English translation. This can be a bit difficult to follow at times, but it gives you a sense of how the original text reads. These books are probably only for those who are seriously interested in the Hebrew religion. There is also a commentary drawn from various medieval Rabbis, such as Rashi, Ramban, etc. The commentary frequently refers to the Midrash. This is a beautiful book, very well typeset, etc. I wish that they would have provided more information about the source of the commentary.

National Sunday Law by A. Jan Marcussen. No ISBN. This booklet is being mail to people in the United States. This book purports to explain future events based on the Book of Revelation. The style is sensational, for example, on the cover it says "A Shocking Glimpse Behind the Scenes" and "Forces unite amid stupendous crisis...". The author is a Seventh-day Adventist. He is against the so called "National Sunday Law" (see here for example Lord's Day Act or here
Lord' Day Alliance.) His theory is that the Pope and the United States of America are two beasts from the Book of Revelation that are going to help Satan ruin the lives of millions by causing them to worship the Sun instead of G-D. The book can be obtained from websites like this.

The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner. ISBN 0-15-140934-X. I got my copy of this book at Powells at the same time that I got the Biography of Satan (they were in the same section.) This book was easier to read than the Satan one, a bit less academic, but still very well written. The book covers the concept of Hell mostly from the view point of Western Civ. She includes stuff at the beginning about Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sources (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jewish, etc.) but then mostly focuses in on the idea of Hell in Christian Europe, both in religious thought and in art and literature . The book contains many pictures of paintings of Hell done over the centuries. I learned a lot from this book and will be exploring some of the subjects she discusses in more detail. This book is not a religious book.

Satan A Biography, by Henry Ansgar Kelly. ISBN 0-521-60402-8. This book provides a discussion of the character Satan as it occurs in (mainly) Christian literature. Jewish and Muslim ideas are considered only briefly. The main thrust is the "Old" vs. the "New" Satan. The Old Satan is found in the Old Testament and New Testament books while the New Satan is developed later by Christian writers like Justin Martyr. I found this book very interesting and was especially interested in the wide variety of books the author consulted to make his case concerning the Old vs. New Satan.

"In The Beginning, A New Interpretation of Genesis" by Karen Armstrong.
ISBN 0-345-40604-4. This book is an excellent read. Well written, clear and concise. The Genesis commentary is high level, covering the main ideas and themes as well as discussing the nature of the text. This is not a word for word discussion of Genesis. Also, contains the text of the New Revised Standard Version.

The Gospel of St. Matthew, By John C. Fenton. ISBN 9780140204889. This book was interesting to read because it yielded much information about the Book of Matthew. It uses the text from the Revised Standard Version. It has a short introduction and then goes through the book verse by verse. It restates each verse in plain english and explains how the verse relates to other Gospels or to the old testament.

Book of Matthew, this was the New King James Version. (I wonder what they are going to call the next King James Version, New New King James Version, Newer King James Version???) The copy I read was a Gideons (orange cover) that I found on the sidewalk. It was in perfect condition so I decided to read it. I will be reading the rest of the New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs as time permits. I have read other translations before. This one is like King James, but with a slightly more modern vocabulary.

Reading the book of Genesis. Seven different translations. I read the weekly Torah portion, a different translation every day. The translations I used were: (1) JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, ISBN 978-0-8276-0766-8. (2) The Sapirstein Edition, Bereishis/Genesis, The TORAH with Rashi's commentary, ISBN 1-57819-325-7.
(3) The Five Books of Moses, Everett Fox, ISBN 0-8052-1119-5.
(4,5,6,7) The Layman's Parallel Bible (King James Version KJV/Modern Language/Living Bible/Revised Standard Version RSV).

The Bible, A Biography (Books that changed the World series), by Karen Armstrong. ISBN 978-0-87113-969-6. This book is about the history of the bible, old and new testament. I found it interesting and easy to read.

Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World by Karen Armstrong, ISBN 0-385-72140-4. This books is about the European attempt to gain control over the Jerusalem. She discusses the reasons this was done and the effects it has had on the people of Europe and the Middle East since. In particular she discusses how the current Israeli-Arab conflict is affected by this history.