Rating: 
Summary: The Bible that no christian should ever skip
Review: The author did put the aim of this book explicitly clear. He would like us to not to neglect the Old Testament, as most of us had focused only on the New Testament, if we really read the Bible at all. Afterall, the Old Testatment was what Jesus read and quote. In this respect, I doubt whether his objective can be served because I really think those who had read the Old Testament at least twice could appreciate the insights that he presented in this book. The fact that he 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 it to all Christians, preferably to those who had read 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....Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure. pg 63 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 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
Rating:
Summary: A Good Message For Today's Church
Review: The basic premise of The Bible Jesus Read is that modern Christians make a mistake by ignoring the Old Testament in favor of just focusing on the New. In doing so we are giving ourselves an incomplete picture of who God is. The Old and New Testaments are meant to go hand in hand. Using Job, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and the books of the prophets, Yancey shows that when we ignore the Old Testament we completely miss out on many vital aspects of the character of God. You cannot truly understand God without seeing him through both the Old and New lense. Not as earth-shaking as his previous work, What's So Amazing About Grace (that book changed my life), but an important and thoughtful read -- especially the sections on Job and Ecclesiastes. And any book that can make the minor prophets come alive deserves to be recognized. Four Stars.
Rating: 
Summary: a wonderful excursion into the Old Testament
Review: The Old Testament stands as an enigma to post-modern Western culture. Although it contains a highly relevant message, it is wrapped in the customs, wars and seemingly endless geneologies of an ancient people. This brings us to author Philip Yancey who, like most people (Christian, or otherwise) had an aversion to the Old Testament. This continued until a writing assignment required him to read the books, songs and prophecies in-depth bringing the overall message of the Old Testament front and center to him. The Bible Jesus Read is by no means a complete survey of the Old Testament. Yancey picks Job, the Psalms, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiates and the prophets and gleans some basic themes form each in a powerful essay format. But it is a great read! The author brings up the most common questions that the layman has about the Old Testament (Why does the God of the Old Testament seem so unlike that of the New? etc.) and recounts his personal reflections on them. While he never provides a cut-and-dry answer to any of the questions presented, the journey of personal reflection is what really elightens. You will come away with a better appreciation of what the Old Testament has to offer and have some misconceptions resolved. The Bible Jesus Read is a triumph for the author. It takes an extraordinarily difficult subject that many people aren't interested in at all and turns it into an immensely enjoyable reading experience. I was in a condominium in Colorado after an exhausting day of skiing when I was given this book by a friend. Although I was tired and was planning on hanging out and watching a movie with some friends, I was glued to the book. By the time I had to go to bed, I had practically finished the book! It is truly a joy to read and has sent me on a search to devour as many of the author's books as I can.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful excursion into the Old Testament
Review: The Old Testament stands as an enigma to post-modern Western culture. Although it contains a highly relevant message, it is wrapped in the customs, wars and seemingly endless geneologies of an ancient people. This brings us to author Philip Yancey who, like most people (Christian, or otherwise) had an aversion to the Old Testament. This continued until a writing assignment required him to read the books, songs and prophecies in-depth bringing the overall message of the Old Testament front and center to him. The Bible Jesus Read is by no means a complete survey of the Old Testament. Yancey picks Job, the Psalms, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiates and the prophets and gleans some basic themes form each in a powerful essay format. But it is a great read! The author brings up the most common questions that the layman has about the Old Testament (Why does the God of the Old Testament seem so unlike that of the New? etc.) and recounts his personal reflections on them. While he never provides a cut-and-dry answer to any of the questions presented, the journey of personal reflection is what really elightens. You will come away with a better appreciation of what the Old Testament has to offer and have some misconceptions resolved. The Bible Jesus Read is a triumph for the author. It takes an extraordinarily difficult subject that many people aren't interested in at all and turns it into an immensely enjoyable reading experience. I was in a condominium in Colorado after an exhausting day of skiing when I was given this book by a friend. Although I was tired and was planning on hanging out and watching a movie with some friends, I was glued to the book. By the time I had to go to bed, I had practically finished the book! It is truly a joy to read and has sent me on a search to devour as many of the author's books as I can.
Rating:
Summary: Encountering the more disturbing portions of the O.T.
Review: The title is somewhat misleading. Rather than a comprehensive analysis of "The Bible Jesus Read", that is, the Old Testament, the author deals with certain books of the Old Testament. And if you know Philip Yancey from his previous writings, you know that he will concentrate on the more difficult, disturbing, seemingly negative parts of the Old Testament. To me, that is one of Yancey's strengths. He takes an unflinching look at reality, not an idealized vision of what everyone thinks life in God is supposed to be. And here is what life with God really looked like to people such as Job and the teacher from Ecclesiastes. In the chapter on Psalms, he deals especially with the imprecatory, or "cursing" Psalms, which seem difficult to reconcile with later Christian teachings on forgiveness and loving one's enemies. The chapter on the prophets is helpful concerning how to generally interpret them. In the final chapter, Yancey points out how the increasing absence of God (according to the Hebrew arrangement of the canon) is designed to increase the spiritual hunger that anticipates the coming of the Messiah. Previous reviewers have indicated that, in their opinion, this is not one of Yancey's stronger books. I believe, with the exception of one chapter, this book is as strong and interesting as any book he has written. Unfortunately, I had to rate it short of 5 stars because of the chapter on Deuteronomy. Portions of that chapter were taken from the companion booklet to the animated feature "The Prince of Egypt", and thus follows the storyline of the film and not the actual biblical storyline. The whole tone of that chapter just does not fit in a book such as this. If I wanted to read the flowery, overblown recounting of the storyline of the movie, I would have purchased it separately. If you get past the dross, there are valuable insights to be gleaned, but the dross shouldn't be there in the first place. Otherwise, this is an exemplary book.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be called "Reflections on the Old Testament"
Review: The title would seem to indicate that this book might be about how Jesus and the people of His time viewed the Old Testament. Instead, the book is really Yancey's comments on 5 different parts of the Old Testament. I found that in each section Yancey had one really good insight. Still, this is not a historical study in any way, and is definitely not about how Jesus read the OT. It is a light-weight book.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely well-done, honest look at the reading of the OT
Review: This book delivers in true Philip Yancey style a rare and honest look at the reading of the Old Testament. This book could not have come out at a more opportune time for me as I had just completed reading the OT for the first time! I was left feeling confused, shocked, frightened and overwhelmed at times. Reading the OT made me realize I had created an image of God not true to what the Bible presents in the OT. The Bible Jesus Read made me feel it was o.k. to have the questions and struggles I experienced and that I was not alone in my feelings. Churches seem to conveniently avoid and shy away from the difficult issues and passages as if "embarrassed" by them. It was refreshing to find a book that dealt honestly and openly with the OT issues/situations that I don't believe God wants us to overlook. Yancey's book encourages the questioning, struggling and meditating of God's Word, even if answers are not always found in the manner we want them to be. It was encouraging and comforting to see Yancey's faith in God through Christ maintained throughout the periods of doubt and questioning we all have in our spiritual growth. The only problem I have with Yancey's work is that I wish he was more prolific in getting more books out.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the flashlight.
Review: This book is not an analytical commentary, nor does it spend itself on technical matters of literary or form criticism. It is not written for the sake of theological precision, or hair-splitting on controversial issues. Rather, Yancey has chosen here in TBJR to focus on certain aspects of the Old Testament books of Job, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and the Prophets because these seem to speak most profoundly to his own spiritual pilgrimage. He explains in the preface that he wants to write about them "personally and subjectively" because they address his own "doubts and struggles, not because I expect these books to teach me the secrets of life." As in his other great writings (especially Disappointment With God), he lets us know early on that the insights he will be sharing are not only the fruit of profound scholarship, but are practical, applicable truths that have been ground out in the crucible of experience. I have often wished I'd stumble across a charged-up flashlight as I groped through some darker passages of the Old Testament... in TBJR I felt as though I were handed that flashlight quite a few times. For brevity's sake I will mention only one of many instances; simple, yet significant. In the chapter on Psalms, Yancey points out that "the psalms do not theologize." They are rather to be likened to a sampling of spiritual journals written by several people, expressing diverse and even contradictory emotions and opinions. Though I've studied theology for years, I'd never reflected (adequately) on the simple fact that the intended audience for the psalms was not other people, but God! Therefore, they must be read in an entirely different way than one would read the Epistles or other didactic books. In my opinion, Yancey is the most INTERESTING and accessable Christian writer of our time, and I even find myself often judging other writers by how "Yanceyesque" they are. Even so, the best way to truly appreciate the depth of Yancey's work, is (ironically) to set his stuff aside from time to time, and read the ACTUAL Bible that Jesus read, which is after all, the source of his own inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read on the Old Testament. Philip Yancy's discussion on "Job" is worth the price of the book. I plan to buy several to give as gifts. It is a fantastic read. I cannot put it down!! Thank you for writing this book Mr. Yancy!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not as good, but worth a read
Review: Though it isn't as bad as one review makes it sound, this book is a slight letdown after "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace?" But then, those are two of the best books anyone's ever written on the subjects. The problems with this book are simply: 1. The section on Moses (taken from a Prince of Egypt tie-in) simply does not fit with the rest. If he had reworked it a little, perhaps. 2. The themes that Yancey sounds in this one are virtually unchanged from the previous two books, which isn't bad except that he virtually has nothing new to say. You hear the same notes, and they aren't as fresh. 3. The book lacks a certain conciseness. It's short, shorter than his other two works that I mentioned, but it rambles a great deal. 4. Yancey promises to fit Jesus in. And he does, in the last chapter. Simply, this book needed a bit more editing that it didn't get. It's good, but it was bound to be a disappointment after the previous two masterpieces.
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