Kas sa tead... ... et Piibel on kogu maailma rahvaste lemmikraamat? ... et Piibel ei ole ainult üks raamat, vaid terve raamatukogu? ... kuidas sai alguse kirjaoskus? ... esimese eestikeelse Piibli pealkirja? ... millal leiutati trükimasin? ... kuidas töötavad Piibli tõlkijad? ... mis on Piiblis erilist?
Ava "Raamatute raamat" ja otsi vastuseid neile küsimustele! Loe lugusid inimestest, tänu kellele on meil emakeelne Piibel! Õpi lugema salakirja! Valmista endale salajane keerik! Avasta endale mõni põnev sündmus raamatust, mis muutis maailma ja veel tänapäevalgi muudab inimeste elu!
This covered a lot about the Bible! From the earliest manuscripts to modern translations. The canon’s creation and format were mentioned. It showed how translators worked with other languages and how they printed the final draft. For today’s children this was very dated but I still think this is very educational to children interested in their Bible.
I wanted to like this text of basic Bibliology for kids. It is recommended by several home school programs, and is a long form picture book of the type that I find useful across ages.
However, this book is severely dated. Published in 1985, the book opens with statistics from the 70's. These statistics reference English language translations from the 1970's as well as monetary scales (a copy of the Gutenberg Bible was sold at auction in 1978 for 1,265,000 British pounds). The information about the state of Bible translation is severely outdated and doesn't contain the 25 years worth of work that have been done since the book was published.
Sections on the composition of the Bible and overviews of the Old and New Testament and the Bible's salvation message are adequate, you can purchase these types of reviews in other worthy books (for example, Henrietta Mears "What the Bible is all About" which has aged much better).
Additionally, the flow of the book is disjointed with heavy emphasis on the English Bible. I found the inaccuracies about Luther concerning. In a book of little facts that introduces a topic to young readers, if I find something I know to be inaccurate, it makes me question the rest of the book and read more critically.
Many of these criticisms aren't the fault of the author. This work was fantastic in 1985. But this is 2013 and the world has changed significantly. Our children are confronted daily by a post-Christian society, they need to be equipped for apologetics. Our children need a better chronological understanding of the events associated with the history of the Biblical text. They need a grasp of the incredible manuscript evidence for the Bible that exceeds any other ancient script (largely ignored in this work). They need to be educated in the major archaeological discoveries of the 19th century that confirm the Biblical text. Their globalized world demands attention to translations for other language groups beyond English, and the latest information on how technology is assisting with the translation work of today.
In conclusion, perhaps the most distressing thing about this work is that it is the recommendation of many home school communities. Are we so much living in the past? We need an update to this work or a completely new approach. It almost inspires me to create something for my students myself!
__________________________ Because this book is so highly recommended, I include page by page notes below for those who cannot get a copy of the book but are debating about using it.
Sections on the composition of the Bible (a library of books divided into two testaments and by genre), profiles of Biblical writers (Moses, Ezra, Peter, etc), an overview of the Old Testament, an overview of the New Testament, and the world of the New Testament age well. And while a review is always great, they are not a reason for you to purchase this book.
The meat of what we are looking for begins on page 5. Section titles include: How writing began (with a reference to 30,000 years ago), alphabets grow, the Rosetta Stone, Languages of the Bible and a simple code cracking activity. It is stated that "Aramaic was the official language of the Persian Empire." This is something I didn't know.
The next sections are: From Clay to Books, Papyrus, Writing-boards, clay tablets and parchment, with an activity on how to make a scroll. God's secretaries explains the roll of scribes both in the copying of Biblical text and within society generally (collecting tax, record keeping, legal documents, personal correspondence, etc).
The feature on the Dead Sea scrolls struck me as dated and a missed opportunity to emphasize how this rather recent discovery confirmed the Biblical text. Putting the Bible together begins with The Old Testament and Moses, drawing from the Biblical text (without reference to specific passages which I thought was unfortunate) information about how the people of ancient days preserved the text.
The New Testament section closes with a brief reference to the Councils of Laodicea (AD 363) and Carthage (AD 397). Again, this information is presented briefly, and matter of factly, missing an opportunity to prepare kids for true apologetics.
Spreading the word and the earliest translations covers the text from Hebrew through the Septuagint and from Greek to Latin to English. The chart here is helpful, but one feels more information on the motivation for translation of the Septuagint, how language was already changing, and what that translation was used for is another significant missed opportunity. Thankfully, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian/ Georgian, Germanic and Slavic translations are covered in "the earliest translations". This is important to emphasize to english speakers that it is not all about them, and to demonstrate the monumental task of translation.
Monks and Manuscripts addresses the role of played by monasteries in preserving the text through the dark ages. It also talks about mystery plays and stained glass in presenting the word to the common, illiterate, people. There is an activity imitating monks by making a decorated Psalm. A feature box provides more, and someone repetitive information on the early English Bible. The timeline is sketchy here as the early translation work in other languages would have been going on simultaneously.
The next section "Revolutionary Times" focus' on the reformation. The artwork featuring "Wanted" posters of the reformers is well done. But, strangely, Hus, Waldo and Wycliffe are not joined by Luther. The printing revolution is explained with an activity to make your own printing-block.
The explosion of translations section suffers from a simplistic graphic. The text discusses printing, the fall of Constantinople, the Renaissance and the Reformation and how they worked together to generate translation projects across Europe. These four paragraphs are good. The mini paragraphs on specific translations are not so good. Luther appears here, but some of the information about him is disappointingly inaccurate. And the text doesn't convey the significant role Luther played in the Reformation. The short paragraphs on other (non-English) translations are good, but more information would be nice and some context for how it all fits together. Also, space and time is wasted to once again talk about the English translation. My difficulty with this is that the presentation is neither chronological nor subject arranged. Let's either have the history of hte English Bible as itself or work it into the chronology, but the presentation in this manner strikes me as muddled and I am not learning this for the first time.
Now we get a full two page layout on the English Bible. The graphic is okay, the text a bit brief. An effective feature box contains text from Wycliffe, Bishop's Bible, Douai, Coverdale Bible, and the KJV. This is excellent to show us how language changes. However, the texts are neither dated, nor in chronological order according to the graphic on the facing page. Why not make it easier for the learner to follow?
To the Ends of the Earth talks about the intersection of translation work with colonization and the missionary movement. In my opinion, it is too brief. The feature on Bible Societies is effective. "Sometimes great movements can be sparked off by what seem like very small events..." with stories about the contributions of largely unknown people.
Translator's Tales talks about missionaries who engaged in translation: Carey, Marshman, Adjai turned Samuel Crowther, Ellis, etc.
Into Every Language starts to show the age of the book again. All the statistics are at least 30 years outdated, as well as the next page on how translation is done. The English Bible for the Modern World feature covers work in English after the KJV, but it is vague and ends with the NIV (again, very dated).
What's so special about the Bible? reviews what the Bible says about itself and it's power. It also features the stories of 8 real people who the Bible has impacted. I only knew one (Charles Shulz). I assume these others are people who would have been well known in the early 1980s. It also reviews, once again, the big picture story of the Bible in 10 paragraphs.
Reading your own Bible encourages kids to get into the word themselves, while strongly promoting the Good News Translation. This section is okay.
I have since discovered the work of Ben Avery, which is updated in presentation, art, language and research. I highly recommend it instead.
Written in 1985 the visuals and some of the information in this book is very dated (specifically information in the second half. The first several pages are about the Bible itself. An overview of the different books, human authors, and the very broad storyline. From there it covers ancient writings, how alphabets came to be and the work of scribes. The second half of the book covers the earliest translations and moves to focusing primarily on the English versions of the Bible. The information in the second half is obviously dated as the book cannot discuss more modern translations since 1985, and the statistics on global transactions are also out of date. Overall it depends on what purpose you use this book. If it's for information about how the Bible came to be prior to the Protestant Reformation it is a good resource for young students. However for information after the reformation it is probably wise to seek another resource as the information is dated and primarily focuses on the English Bible and the work of western Christians.
A very dated resource. This book was clearly published in the 80s and has not been updated since then. Is some of the information timeless and does it provide basic information for children. Yes it does. Is it possible to fill in the information for the past over 30 years ?? Possible yes, but the point of the resource is to not create additional work and there is definitely information that should be filled in and updated for children. I purchased this book in a bundle and I will keep it for now, but I will be looking for a better resource to introduce these important concept to my children at the same time. I would not seek out this book to add to our library.
I read this first to my kids in 2007 and whenever I'd see it on my shelf, I'd think, "That would be a good book to read again to the kids." Well it's 2021 and I finally got around to reading it again and... meh. That's the best I can say. It was boring and outdated, very Usborne in style and I do NOT like their books. I'm probably rating it higher than it deserves for nostalgia's sake, because I remember thinking it was such a great resource. But if you like Usborne and you like outdated statistics, this book is for you! ;-)
How the Bible Came to Us takes the reader through the history of how writing, printing, and eventually the Bible as we know it came into all the languages that we have today. It's very easy to understand with helpful illustrations.
This book is definitely great for all ages, even up to adults as new Christians, but it seems to be aimed primarily toward upper elementary or even middle school.
Great resource for kids (and adults too) showing how the Bible came to be as we know it now. Touches on the writers, Biblical timelines, scribes and translators, as well as missionaries.. Also goes into how publishing has changed over the centuries (papyrus to parchment to codex). Lots of illustrations, color and graphics. Index, scriptural references.
Every year we always began our homeschool year with a foundations week. This book was an excellent read for our Bible study foundations. We read through it many times through the eight years we homeschooled.