Rating: 
Summary: challenging and thought-provoking in typical Yancy fashion.
Review: All Yancy's books are well-written and thought provoking, and this one is no exception. However, I had a real problem with Yancy's statement that Africa is the most aggressively Christian continent in the world, yet is a country that suffers inexplicably because God allows the good and righteous to suffer. This is simply not true. While I agree that Christians suffer as much as anyone else, famine, disease and suffering in Africa are due largely to violence, rampant AIDS and despotic military leaders.
Rating: 
Summary: Yancey marvelous but subject comes short of expectation
Review: As a lifelong admirer of Yancey's work, I do not believe this is among his best work. Although impressive, the title is a little misleading. I did not come away with much insight other than a couple of old testament quotations that were presented in a modern light. I had honestly expected more fundamental revelation such as I found in Richard Patton's marvelous "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing Years". Although lucidly written I didn't find the mother-lode the title would suggest.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Tool for beginning a study of the Old Testament
Review: First things first, to get it out of the way, I have to say I was disappointed with the title. It IS terribly misleading. While reading the jacket and flipping through the pages will bring to light the true nature of the work, it's hard to not feel 'lied' too when you expect one thing but get something totally different.With that said, I believe this book stands alone and can be an invaluable tool for anyone 'put off' or even intimidated by the Old Testament. Yancy does a wonderful job in tailoring a very readable book that puts into prospective the context in which the Old Testament was written. While reading this book, an air of excitement comes forth and the urge to pick the Bible and read through some section that Yancy details and sheds light on comes frequently. You actually begin to look at the books (ESPECIALLY the prophets) differently and that changes the whole way in which you read them. Yancy's insights and applications provide both guidance and encouragement for the average reader encountering the Old Testament. The first chapter gives recognition to the much ignored and shunned Old Testament. Yancy is right on when he says that few Christians appreciate or realize how much the Old Testament goes hand in hand with the New. You can't get far in understanding the Son or the Spirit until you know the Father. The chapter on Job took on greater significances for me, personally, after September 11th. Again and again the problems and questions surrounding pain and tragedy faces us day and night with answers sorely needed in the comforting process. Many Christians turn to the book of Job and the example of the man who lost everything through no fault of his own only to 'pass his test' and receive double in reward. However many Christians use that example the wrong way and with the wrong message. Yancy does an admirable job is showing that the focus of the book is not in the pain that Job suffers but in the underlying message that we matter to God and sometimes we just don't see how our present circumstance fits into God's greater plan. The chapter on Deuteronomy could have stayed away from the 'Prince of Egypt' tie in but was an easy and enjoyable read none the less. In Chapter four, Yancy deals with the cursing the psalm quite well and I believe that it is this Chapter and the Chapter on the prophets that most changes the way you view those particular books after reading 'The Bible Jesus Read'. It is truly eye opening to look at the psalm 'over someone shoulders' and see them as conversations with God and then listen to God speak back in the prophets. It is incredibly profound and for those two chapters alone this book is worth the cost of purchase and time of reading.
Rating:
Summary: Giving the Old Testament It's Due
Review: For about ten years, I have preached at many churches and found an amasing amount of indifference to the message of the Old Testament. It amazed me that those who claimed to be followers of Jesus could so indifferent to the part of the Bible which reveals His coming, His identity and His mission. Sadly, this attitude is common among many. The Old Tesament doesn't have the message of salvation, they say. That's not only desperately mistaken, it doesn't give proper credit to the Lord for how He would reveal His perfect revelation of Himself! Finally, in his unmistakably introspective style, Philip Yancey has set the record straight. He seems to reach into the mind of the Lord to show us how the Jewish Scriptures were a vital part of Jesus' life and His earthly ministry. He shows his readers how Jesus, who dwelt with the knowledge that the Old Testament spoke openly of Him, reached out to the people of His day and became for them a fulfillment of those Scriptures. This book is a must for not only the theologically trained, but also for the layman who looks for understanding of how the Old Testament is relevant to his or her own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Rating:
Summary: Shame on me
Review: I am so ashamed of myself because before reading this book I had been quite proud of having read many spiritual books and the whole Bible four times. However, I still failed to realize that the title of the book simply meant the Old Testament, and that I was very ignorant of the Old Testament. Back to the book itself. The author had expressed that he would like modern christians to re-balance their interest between the Old and the New Testaments, when most of us had certainly put our time on the later one, if we had read it at all. Afterall, Jesus did read and always quote from it. In this respect, I doubt whether his objective can be served because I really think those who had read the Old Testament twice could appreciate the insights that the author had observed and the majority had neglected. The fact that the author had focused only on Job, Deuteronomy, Psalm, Ecclesiastes and the books of the prophets as a whole made it an ordinary Bible commentary instead of the other Yancey works with clear central themes. Nevertheless, this book is still up to the average but still outstanding Yancey standard, perhaps except the part on Deuteronomy, which some other reviewrs shared the same not so positive opinion with me. Anyway, I would strongly recommend this book to all Christians, preferably if one had read the relevant books in the Old Testament at least once. As usual in all my reviews, I would like to copy and paste some messages for your reference. Hope they would help you to better understand the goodness of the book. ""Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." We usually interpret that commandment in a narrow sense of prohibiting swearing," said Webber, who then proceed to expand its meaning to never live as though God does not exist. Or, stated positively, Always live in awareness of God's existence. ...Any key to living in such awareness must be found in the Old Testament. pg 29 The Old Testament gives clues into the kind of history God is writing. Exodus identifies by name the two Hebrew midwives who helped save Moses'life, but it does not bother to record the name of the Pharaoh rulng Egypt. First Kings grants a total of eight verses to King Omri, even though secular historians regard him as one of Israel's most powerful kings. In his own history, God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Fiath is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heros of faith, not strength or wealth. pg 32 At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering. ...At such times we focus too easily on circumstances - illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck as the enemy. We pray for God to change those circumstances.....When tragedy strikes, we too will be trapped in a limited point of view. Like Job, we will be tempted to blame God and see him as the enemy.... I hesitate to write this because it is a hard truth, one I do not want to acknowledge: Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure.....In a message to Ezekiel God includes Job in a list of three giants of righteousness. The other two mentioned, Noah and Daniel, learned faith in the midst of a massive flood and a den of lions. pg 63/64 God did not condemn Job's doubt and despair, only his ignorance. pg 70 Bear it up; keep smiling; suffering makes you strong, say some spirtual advisors - but not the psalmists. They do not rationalize anger away or give abstract advice about pain; rather, they express emotions vividly and loudly, directing their feelings primarily at God. pg 122 Many psalms convey this spirit of "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," a way of talking oneself into faith when emotions are wavering....For the Hebrew poets, God represented a reality more solid than their own whipsaw emotions or the checkered history of their people. They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith. pg 123 The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless. T.S. Eliot pg 154 Ecclesiastes insists that the stones we trip over are good things in themselves: "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Yet by assuming a burden we were not mean to carry, we turn nudity into pornography, wine into alcoholism, food into gluttony, and human diversity into racism and prejudice. Despair descends as we abuse God's good gifts; they seem no longer gifts, and no longer good. pg 159 Unless we acknowledge our limits and subject ourselves to God's rule, unless we trust the Giver of all good gifts, we will end up in a state of despair. Ecclesiastes calls us to accept our status as creatures under the dominion of the Creator, something few of us do without a struggle. pg 160 Why read the prophets? There is one compelling reason: to get to know God. The prophets are the Bible's most forceful revelation of God's personality. pg 180
Rating:
Summary: The Good Old Book
Review: I find it difficult to understand the Old Testament. It just seem so ancient that at times it does not speak to me. Let this book, "The Bible Jesus Read" open your eyes to a different and fresh insight into an important part of God's revelation. Philip Yancey takes you through the books of the OT with "some sort of summary", point out details you might have missed (if you "fast read" it like I do, there must be more than a few) and suggest a different -and I should say, easier- way to appreciate it. This is not a commentary or a study guide but perhaps one side of the conversation when two believers yearning to get to know God more talk about the "good old book".
Rating: 
Summary: Faulty in spots, helpful in others
Review: I have enjoyed reading Philip Yancey's books over the years, but this is not one of his better ones. Like others, I feel the chapter on Deuteronomy is melodramatic and erroneous (not to mention boring.) Although the title is "The Bible Jesus Read", this is not a scholarly attempt to discuss the Hebrew or Greek scriptures available to Jesus during his lifetime, and only selected sections of the Old Testament are examined. On the other hand, the chapters on the Psalms, Ecclesiastes and the Prophets are sparkling with helpful literary allusions, exegesis, and insight. They achieve the author's goal of making the Old Testament a little easier to understand for the general reader. If you haven't read a Philip Yancey book before, try one of the others first, such as The Gift of Pain, Where is God When it Hurts, or Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. If you have wanted to do more reading of the scriptures (either for literary or spiritual purposes) and need some helpful guides, this book - along with the NIV Student Bible compiled by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford - will be a good companion.
Rating: 
Summary: Rambling and Slightly Flaky
Review: I have never read one of Philip Yancey's books before. If this is an indication of what the others are like, then I've not missed anything. I flipped over his protrayal of Moses as feeble, and with cataracts; the Bible explicitly speaks of Moses at his death as being strong and not having cataracts. The author also is a bit depressive for me. Life isn't as black and depressing as he protrays it, and the Old Testament isn't just full of people ranting and questioning God because they are depressed with life. This book leaves us with very little hope in the end. It even tells us, "Do we matter? Does god care? We must live in faith, aware that those questions will lack a final answer until that decisive day when God does act, spectacularly, in Jesus' Second Coming." We have to wait until the Second Coming to find out if God cares? If so, then I want nothing of Christianity. Jesus dying for us obviously shows us that God cares. Read another book.
Rating:
Summary: Good for those Christians who think like unbelievers
Review: I have never read one of Philip Yancey's books before. If this is an indication of what the others are like, then I've not missed anything. I flipped over his protrayal of Moses as feeble, and with cataracts; the Bible explicitly speaks of Moses at his death as being strong and not having cataracts. The author also is a bit depressive for me. Life isn't as black and depressing as he protrays it, and the Old Testament isn't just full of people ranting and questioning God because they are depressed with life. This book leaves us with very little hope in the end. It even tells us, "Do we matter? Does god care? We must live in faith, aware that those questions will lack a final answer until that decisive day when God does act, spectacularly, in Jesus' Second Coming." We have to wait until the Second Coming to find out if God cares? If so, then I want nothing of Christianity. Jesus dying for us obviously shows us that God cares.
Rating:
Summary: I have "Pre Ordered" and I can't wait to receive this book!
Review: I have read "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey. I LOVED them both and would highly recommend them to anyone. I cannot wait for this new book!!! BRING IT ON!!!
| 
