The 50 most meaningful moments in the Bible, each explained in half a minute The Bible has been a bestseller from its earliest days but its a little like A Brief History of Time: most people have a copy, and we all think we know what its about, but if you have read it, it was most likely when you were still at school. Do you know why Noah built the Ark? Where Sodom and Gomorrah are? Who was at the Last Supper? And who are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? 30-Second Bible offers a fast track to a working knowledge of the Good Book to everyone who hasnt quite (or entirely, or recently) read the Bible. Split into seven sections, it covers the favourite stories, parables, miracles, Gospels, prophets, personalities, battles and politics, as well as offering a brief explanation of how the Bible came about and which historical figures helped it become the power that it is. It establishes the differences between the Catholic, Protestant and other bibles, discusses why it is the subject of so much debate, and offers insights into the meaning and significance of its characters and stories.
I got exactly what I wanted out of this: reacquaintance with a somewhat significant aspect of caucasian history, and bases from where to start further study.
Cool book for someone whos never read the bible’ enlughtening to get an introduction. Gotta say they did a really good job organizing and summarizing for readers’ job well done !
Appropriately enough, it took me thirty seconds to decide this book was garbage. Saying there was "evidence" for Noah's Ark being a "cultic sacrifice"? Come ON. Noah didn't take seven of every clean animal because he wanted Noah to form a cult; he took seven of every clean animal so he and his family would have something to EAT on the boat. Remember, vegetables would likely be in short supply, and dry grain wouldn't supply enough protein for everyone to get by. Especially since they would need to feed some of the grain to the animals. And all that doesn't even mention the carnivores, who would not survive forty days of being fed nothing but grain; the clean animals would keep them fed, too.
I don't like to make assumptions, but it seems to me Mr. Manning is deliberately twisting Scripture to make it appear worse than it is. Either that, or his research consisted of flipping through a storybook Bible, adding some subtext, removing the pictures, and saying "Done."
I remember when Reader's Digest was going to condense the Bible as part of their habit of shrinking books for easier consumption. Did not like that, like this even less. It is user friendly, easy to read, and delivers on the time promise. But I do not think the bible can be reduced to such an abbreviated attention span. Certain scholarly assumptions are given as "given", when there is far more opinion. Other things are left out, by design.
I was looking at this to recommend to my church folks for their own reading habits of the bible. Not going to be able to do it.
But I appreciate the opportunity of Goodreads to share my view.
Fait une tournée générale des différents livres et événements importants de la Bible. Je m'aurais attendu à en apprendre un peu plus, n'étant pas un expert, tout en ayant une éducation catholique. je conseillerai peut-être plus à des personnes qui n'ont jamais entendu parler de la Bible ou très peu. Bref, un livre bien fait comme cette collection nous y a habitué, mais manque un peu de profondeur!