Archive for the ‘The Bible’ Category
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 by JEL
I was perusing some best-seller lists for the past few years and became curious about the top-selling books of all time. Here’s what Wikipedia has for the top 14:
- The Bible
- Quotations from Chairman Mao (Little Red Book)
- The Koran
- Xinhua Dictionary
- Chairman Mao’s Poems
- Selected Articles of Mao Zedong
- A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
- Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship
- The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
- Book of Mormon
- The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life (Jehovah’s Witnesses)
- On the Three Representations
- And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)
- The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Quite the interesting list. I think Chairman Mao’s three entries greatly benefited from compulsory reading/ownership of over 1 billion people. Five are religious books; six if you throw in the Scouting book and its link to Christianity. And Agatha Christie?
Tags: Agatha Christie, best-sellers, Bible
Posted in Irreverant, The Bible | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010 by JEL
Some critics are calling “The Book of Eli” a “Christian blockbuster.” In the movie, set in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, Denzel Washington’s Eli has the last remaining copy of the King James Bible. The bad guy (Gary Oldman) wants the book as a means of controlling his ruthless band of marauders. Eli defends The Book (supposedly because he knows its power to bring good back to the world) by hacking, stabbing, and beheading—without remorse—anyone who gets in his way.
In this article, writer S.E. Cupp makes the excellent point that if Eli were portrayed as a Muslim defending the Koran with the same methods, Muslim-Americans would be outraged that the hero “acted more like a murderous jihadist than a humble servant of God.” And rightly so.
So why aren’t Christians similarly outraged? And why does Popmatters.com say, “Christians should be lining up to embrace the Hughes brothers’ brave vision.”? Seems like just another example of the message of Christianity being completely inverted by those trying to deliver it—and completely misunderstood by the recipients.
Tags: Christianity, Denzel Washington, Hollywood, King James Bible, The Book of Eli
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010 by JEL
Scientists have long pegged the age of the Old Testament to the earliest known Hebrew writing. Until recently, that put the Hebrew Bible’s creation date somewhere in the 6th century B.C. Now, with the discovery of a 6-inch piece of ancient pottery, the O.T. just got 400 years older. That is, if you believe that the Bible’s authors started the instant they had a written language with which to work.
On the surface of the pottery, dated to the 10th century B.C., is written some text about how one should treat slaves, widows, and orphans. The content is apparently similar to Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, and Exodus 23:3.
Tags: Bible, Hebrew Bible, Old Testament
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 by PJM
Quick. Take a look at the following magazine covers and figure out what they have in common.
Could you figure it out without reading the text? The answer is that they are all Bibles. They are, in fact, called Biblezines, and they each contain the complete text of the NCV New Testament. As the cover teasers suggest, there is also additional material interspersed with the biblical content that addresses burning issues like “How to Attract Godly Girls” and asks relevant questions like “Do U Rush To Crush?”
The first cover clearly tries to mimic a girl’s TeenBeat-like magazine, the next is similar in style to a boy’s extreme sports mag, the next looks like Redbook, and the last version which targets men is supposed to look like…I have no idea what that is supposed to look like. If you click on the covers, you can see that they receive mostly favorable praise along with the occasional one-star review from those who are offended by the entire concept.
Tags: Bible, Bible sales, christian book, Christianity, popular culture
Posted in The Bible | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 by JEL
In spare moments, of which there are increasingly few, I like to research Bible design and see how What He Said compares and contrasts with other books from the past and present that try to ease a reader’s access to the words of Christ.
I recently came across this article which provides a nice overview of Bible design from the times of illuminated manuscripts to what the author, Matthew Griffin, calls “postmodern power plays.” He ends the piece with some interesting thoughts on timeless design:
“A truly Christian design of the Bible is one of balance. It is excellent, beautiful, and well organized. It does not elevate utilitarian concerns to the exclusion of beauty. Nor does it elevate embellishment to the exclusion of meaning. Its aim is toward God’s truth, not personal rhetoric. It is not afraid of legitimate graphical diversity. And It respects the text as a unified work of literature.”
I really like his definition and believe that What He Said (even though it’s not the entire Bible) meets his criteria. It is certainly graphically diverse, but does not disrupt the text as a unified whole.
Tags: Bible design, Gutenberg, illuminated manuscripts, Matthew Griffin
Posted in The Bible, What He Said - The Book, Words of Christ | No Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009 by PJM
My father often jokes that Jesus (and Shakespeare) only talked in clichés.
He is referring to the fact that much of the language from the Bible has been appropriated into our daily speech and cultural literary works. In fact, many readers of What He Said have marveled that certain phrases came from the Gospels and not from far more recent sources (like the speeches of Abraham Lincoln or the lyrics to a White Stripes song). In reviewing the nativity story from Luke, I was struck by the fact that Joseph and Mary offered a “pair of turtledoves” to Simeon in Jerusalem shortly after Christ’s birth.
Now I have to keep looking to figure out if three French hens show up anywhere in my reading.
Tags: Bible, Christmas, modern culture
Posted in Christmas, Four Gospels, The Bible, Words of Christ | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 by PJM
Now that we are in the Christmas season, I have been spending some time in the margins of What He Said. The Gospels of Mark and John begin when Jesus is an adult, but Matthew and Luke both give accounts of Christ’s birth. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting about some aspects of the two birth stories that interest me.
The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus, as told by Matthew. Jesus is the son of Joseph who was the son of Jacob who was the son of Matthan who was the son of Eleazar… But, Luke (in Chapter 3) tells us that Jesus is the son of Joseph who was the son of Heli who was the son of Matthat who was the son of Levi… What’s going on? Was Joseph the son of Jacob or Heli?
I’ve read that Jesus’ ancestry in Matthew is through Joseph and His ancestry in Luke is actually though Mary. When Luke says that Joseph was the son of Heli, he really means “son-in-law.”
This seems to be consistent with another difference in the two accounts of Christ’s birth story. Matthew has an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph (whose ancestors he has just listed). The angel explains to Joseph the circumstances of Mary’s motherhood and tells Joseph to name the child Jesus. But, Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to reveal the mystery of her being with child and tells her to name the child Jesus. So, it makes sense to me that Luke would trace the genealogy of Christ through Mary.
I would love it if a more astute Biblical scholar would step in to let us know if my thinking is off-base.
Tags: Bible, Christmas, Four Gospels, Genealogy, Jesus, Joseph, Mary
Posted in Christmas, Four Gospels, The Bible | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 30th, 2009 by JEL
You think it’s hard to read the Bible? Try writing it…by hand! Actually, not all by yourself. Find around 31,000 others and have them each write and submit a verse. Put it all together and voilà, in 9 months you’ll have a finished Bible.
Bible Across America, a special project commemorating the 30th anniversary of the New International Version, created the project and just sold one of the 2 copies on eBay for $15,000. Proceeds from the sale are going to Biblica. Read the full story here.
Tags: Bible, Bible Across America
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by JEL
The Biblical Botanical Gardens Society in Florida is in the process of creating The Oasis, a 21-acre parcel populated with plants like hibiscus, bamboo, cacti, and a Jerusalem thorn. All the plants featured are species that Jesus lived among 2,000 years ago.
Tours and events will attempt to re-create first-century life, and donkeys, sheep, and camels will be sprinkled about to add further context and color. The cherry on top? “Sandals will even be provided to enhance the experience.”
Tags: Bible, Biblical gardens, Jesus, the oasis
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by JEL
A book club at Kirk in the Hills church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is setting out to read the Bible in 90 days. The story has some good quotes from participants that touch on our motivations for creating What He Said. For instance:
“As a Christian, I thought [reading the Bible] was a good thing to do. But it’s a little intimidating to just crack it open and go cover to cover on your own.”
— Amy Maple
The founder of the Bible in 90 days program, Ted Cooper, added this:
But even though “so many people start reading the Bible, hardly anyone finishes.”
We would love to start having some Bible study groups and book clubs make What He Said their next selection.
Tags: Bible, Bible study, book club, What He Said
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
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