Halley's Bible Handbook with the New International Version

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Summary: Halley's Bible Handbook
Review: Although this handbook is not a verse by verse commentary it thoroughly covers the scriptures. It is so clearly written and complete that beginners as well as more advanced Bible students will find it useful. The scripture commentary contains chronologies, tables and sidebars which bring together information on the books, people, chronology, geography, and even musical instruments.

With Halley's Bible Handbook you can find Old Testament scriptures which predict the coming of the Messiah, compare the Gospels, read and see pictures of archeological finds, learn about the life of Paul and much more. Some of the articles included are: Bible Backgrounds, A Brief History of the Western Church and How We Got the Bible.

As well as students I recommend this book for Sunday School Teachers who want to expand and make their lessons more interesting.

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Summary: Halley's Bible handbook
Review: I am a free-thinking seeker; i.e. I study the Bible and try to follow Jesus' teachings but am not "officially" a Christian. As such, I am appalled by the narrow-mindedness of the author Halley. He obviously loved the Bible up to a fault. I don't hate him for it, but I sincerely hope that readers will not be influenced by his attitude towards modern scholarship and research. Criticism is important and will not hurt your faith at all, if it is really strong. Welcome it and your understanding of the Bible for what it really is can only deepen.

This book is for beginners, and yet I wouldn't want it to be the first companion-volume to the Bible that you use. If it must be, then just refer to it for its introduction to the Bible and each of its books, the overviews, and the tips on Bible-study. These things are what compel me to give it 3 stars. Ignore most of his comments, especially his harsh condemnation of modern research. This guy was a fundmentalist if not a fanatic, out of touch with modern times.

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Summary: after all the hype...
Review: i could only read an hour of this. maybe i should have treated this as a reference guide. dry, boring, long.

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Summary: Pleasant presentation but distinctly non-scholarly
Review: Some years ago at a friend's house with whom I was in a Bible study, I picked up an old edition of Halley's Bible Handbook, and thumbed through it. It appeared to be a great resource with lots of useful and interesting cultural and textual background on the entire Bible. I decided I needed to get myself a copy. What I found in a Christian bookstore was a new edition of the Handbook that was distinctly different from the older edition I had looked at, in both style and substance. The book is attractively presented with photos of the regions pertinent to various parts of the Bible, with text "chunked" out into digestible sections and sidebars. As I started to read through it, though, I realized how different this really was from the previous Halley's.It appears that what happened is that after Dr. Halley passed away, those who continued in his estate, including subsequent revisions of the Handbook, replaced what was an informative and useful guide into something that is instead distinctly fundamentalist and anti-intellectual in tone. You should realize that I am an evangelical Christian, so when I say "fundamentalist," I mean just totally ignorant of modern scholarship, evangelical scholarship or otherwise. Other reviewers have already pointed out this general and widespread characteristic, and I wanted to register my agreement while making it clear that I'm not coming from some "liberal," loosey-goosey perspective.An example: in introducing the book of Daniel, it starts right off the bat with something like "Unbelieving minds deny the authorship of Daniel, but..." and then proceeds to be simply dogmatic instead of presenting the perfectly respectable scholarship which defends the authorship of Daniel in the era when it was purported to be written. This kind of tone is present throughout the book. Looking at Amazon's offerings, I see another edition of Halley's Handbook dating from 1961, and it would appear that that is more or less the one I was originally attracted to. That one I recommend, and that much more than this 1100-page tract.

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Summary: after all the hype...
Review: This book provides a great background for both the Bible in its entirety and for each book of the Bible. It gives a brief introduction with details such as the probable writer for the book, its theme, and important notes to keep in mind while reading the book. Each book summary is then broken down into individual chapter summaries. The book also contains some basic Bible study techniques and maps of locations talked about (i.e.- the location of the seven churches in Revelation). In response to the criticism other reviews have given this book: This book is intended to encourage and supplement Bible reading. It is not intended to provide what the Bible provides nor is it intended as a commentary. Everything is based on facts as opposed to theory/opinion unless otherwise stated. The intention is to point the reader to the Bible. The second important thing to remember is that Halley originally published this book in 1924. It is natural that some of the new criticisms and ideas may not be mentioned. This does not make the author a liar or the book false; it simply means that every criticism and idea mentioned since that time is not worthwhile considering the purpose of this book. One final note: Henry Halley devoted his life to helping others get into God's word, and was known for the large portions of the Bible he had memorized. There is no questioning that he had the credentials to write such a handbook.

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Summary: Great Resource
Review: This book provides a great background for both the Bible in its entirety and for each book of the Bible. It gives a brief introduction with details such as the probable writer for the book, its theme, and important notes to keep in mind while reading the book. Each book summary is then broken down into individual chapter summaries. The book also contains some basic Bible study techniques and maps of locations talked about (i.e.- the location of the seven churches in Revelation). In response to the criticism other reviews have given this book: This book is intended to encourage and supplement Bible reading. It is not intended to provide what the Bible provides nor is it intended as a commentary. Everything is based on facts as opposed to theory/opinion unless otherwise stated. The intention is to point the reader to the Bible. The second important thing to remember is that Halley originally published this book in 1924. It is natural that some of the new criticisms and ideas may not be mentioned. This does not make the author a liar or the book false; it simply means that every criticism and idea mentioned since that time is not worthwhile considering the purpose of this book. One final note: Henry Halley devoted his life to helping others get into God's word, and was known for the large portions of the Bible he had memorized. There is no questioning that he had the credentials to write such a handbook.

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Summary: Halley's Bible handbook
Review: This is a wonderful book. Every Christian should have one in their library. It is very helpful when studying the Bible. I have now ordered the CD-Rom version of this book. I am so glad it has come out in CD-Rom because I am now legalally blind and cannot use it in book form anymore.

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Summary: Grossly simplistic
Review: This is not a book for anyone who knows the Bible, nor for anyone who wants accurate information about it. Much of the material is dated and inaccurate (for example, for the Authorship of Genesis, it simply says "Moses - commonly accepted," which is simply false. You may or may not think Moses wrote it, but his authorship is NOT "commonly accepted," and for the book to say that it is is simply dishonest.). The section on Church History is basic Anti-Catholic screed, all about evil Popes with nary a word about the history of Protestants persecuting Catholics. Oh, and it also says that the Pope is the antiChrist.

This may interest a few extremist fundamentalists, but no intelligent Christian would lend it an ounce of creedence. Much better to stick with guys like N.T. Wright or L.T. Johnson, who are both Christian AND intelligent.