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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 220.95
EAN num: 9780517345825
ISBN number: 051734582X
Label: Gramercy
Manufacturer: Gramercy
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 1296
Printing Date: December 12, 1988
Publishing house: Gramercy
Release Date: December 12, 1988
Sale Popularity Level: 48696
Studio: Gramercy
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In Asimov's Guide to the Bible, Isaac Asimov explores the historical, geographical, and biographical aspects of the events described in the Old and New Testaments. Asimov's attempts to illuminate the Bible's many obscure, mysterious passages prove absorbing reading for anyone interested in religion and history.
Amazon.com:
Isaac Asimov thinks big; readers of his science fiction works are familiar with his grasp and mastery of scale and how the individual stories unfold within the epic work. In Asimov's Guide to the Bible he utilizes this skill to pare down and untangle the many intertwined threads of biblical history and mythology. He views this guide as a way to illuminate the world of the Bible by incorporating the secular aspects of history, biography, and geography into a deeper understanding. Asimov's Guide to the Bible is not a book to be read in continuum but an indispensable companion to any journey through the Bible. Situating the writers of the various books of the Bible in time and space, Asimov gives its writings context and also explains how that context has morphed with time. While some of his conclusions and 'qualified speculations' may challenge certain traditional assumptions (for example, there is no reference in the gospels to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute; rather, she was a madwoman whom Jesus cured by casting out seven demons), his aim is not to tear it apart but to flush out some of its mysteries, give it a context that the average Bible reader can understand, and therefore make it more real. --Jodie Buller
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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My daughter suggested that I give her a Bible concordance as a Christmas gift. I bought one for her and then looked for Asimov's guide, which I have in my library and consider the best available guide to the Bible. Fortunately, I found it on Amazon. She was fascinated with it. Asimov knew what he was writing about. He wrote 200 books and I consider this among his best. He didn't just "translate the King James version into modern English"; he shared his vast knowledge of ancient history, geography, and languages.
Rated by buyers -
This work was published in 2 volumes: OT 1967 and NT 1969 and sadly, the information in this book is outdated because so many new discoveries and evidence about this subject has exploded in the 1990s and 2000s. So, to a student of biblical criticism this book was rather a bore at times but, if you are new to the game I would recommend this book to get you started.
I am sure this would have been a great read in the 1960s - 1980s.
Rated by buyers -
This book can be only described with one word. AMAZING!
The insight and knowledge of the late Isaac Asimov is shown here with such an amazing simplicity. He can explain the mystery of life in laymen's terms with extreme ease.
This book, while vast and detailed, is a must have for all the people that have that itch to understand all the mysteries of the bible and only find books that only confuses them more.
Rated by buyers -
Isaac Asimov was widely considered the best science writer of the 20th century, because of his outstanding ability to make his subject matter interesting and understandable to the layman. This book gives the reader the historical background of the writing of the Bible and of the events recounted therein. Knowing this background material makes the Bible more readable and more understandable. Having been written by Isaac Asimov, the Guide is so interesting that you may have difficulty putting it down, but it is also a valuable reference work, to be kept handy whenever you read from the Bible.
This is not a scholarly work of biblical criticism, nor does it endeavor or pretend to be. If you are looking for such, look to books by such as:
Marcus Borg (e.g. Reading the Bible Again For the First Time ),
John Dominic Crossan (e.g. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography),
Michael Goulder (e.g. St. Paul Versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions),
Burton Mack (e.g. The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins), snd
John Shelby Spong (e.g. Liberating the Gospels). THIS IS A MUST READ before reading (or rereading) any of the gospels.
These are all excellent books, well worth reading, but they don't give the reader the background Asimov does.(nor are they to be faulted because they don't, any more than Asimov's guide should be faulted for not being serious biblical criticism).
watziznaym@gmail.com
Rated by buyers -
Asimov's book gives a very good secular view of the Bible and puts the events occuring in the Bible into historical perspective. It also provides an understanding of the the structure of the Bible, e.g., what is considered canonical (by Jews, Catholics, Protestants), who likely wrote what (although the scholarship may be dated), what was occuring in history when the various books were written, etc. Consider this a book for Bible 101 to teach basic Bible literacy.
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