Rating: 
Summary: Great Introductory Text
Review: Do you find yourself wondering where to start in regards to studying or making sense of the bible? This is a perfect resouce if that is the case. If you feel an urge to know more about the bible and you want to know where to start, this is a great place. Time after time I run into people who start reading the bible in Genesis and by the time they get to Leviticus they are lost. This text will give you a better idea of where to start and what it means, and what the bible is trying to accomplish. By no means a hermenuetical masterpiece, this book does not need to be. It is useful and effective. BJoseph Dworak
Rating:
Summary: Great Introductory Text
Review: Do you find yourself wondering where to start in regards to studying or making sense of the bible? This is a perfect resouce if that is the case. If you feel an urge to know more about the bible and you want to know where to start, this is a great place. Time after time I run into people who start reading the bible in Genesis and by the time they get to Leviticus they are lost. This text will give you a better idea of where to start and what it means, and what the bible is trying to accomplish. By no means a hermenuetical masterpiece, this book does not need to be. It is useful and effective. B Joseph Dworak
Rating: 
Summary: A Quick, Easy and Painless Introduction to The Bible.
Review: I found the book to be an entertaining introduction to the bible. You start by taking your Bible IQ, which introduces you to the overall structure of the bible as well as providing some tantalizing hints of what lies within the Bible's covers. The bible is then covered in its entirety, which of necessity makes it less than thorough, but also not nearly as daunting as picking up the real thing. The book is well organized. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the content, and then breaks up the book(s) of the bible covered within the chapter into easily digestible sections. Side bars offer interpretive comments, as well as citing notable verses. Chapters conclude with a summary of what you need to understand in order to continue with the next chapter. The authors cite Book, chapter and verse, so if you're curious, you can go to the real thing. They try very hard to explore a variety of topics, and to lead you into some "primary source" material. It is a very good, low-brow introduction. Don't expect to be overwhelmed by its scholarly value. It is closer to entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview
Review: I found this book to be very educational and easy to read. Definitely must reading for anyone who wants an overview of the Bible.
People interested in this book will also enjoy: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Biblical Mysteries and also Don't Know Much about the Bible.
Rating:
Summary: Great starter for the Bible
Review: I learned so much from this book. I can actually have an intelligent conversation about the stories of the Bible now! This book is written in our language, and is easy to follow. It is so interesting, I couldn't put it down. I followed along in my KJV Bible and the Idiots Guide is right on the money. Now I feel like I can begin to read the Bible with more understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Overview
Review: I quite liked The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Bible. It gave me a nice overview of where to find things, and had a nice amount of humor without overdoing it or being sacreligious. I didn't agree with everything they said, but I'd still give it four stars.
Rating:
Summary: Best I've seen
Review: I'm pastor of a church reaching out to folks who have only been Christians for a short time, and who have tons of problems. I have been searching for something to introduce them to the Bible quickly. This book is it! I love it. People will read it, discuss it, use it. I am going to standardize on it, presenting a copy to every convert during our New Christians' Training program we call First Class. I had a hard time putting it down, myself, and I have two graduate degrees, the better part of another, and have been a pastor in mission situations for more than 40 years.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fanciful History of the Bible
Review: If Campbell and Bell are to be believed then no important eventin the history of the Bible came until after theReformation. Comically, these authors can only refer to the Catholic Church as the "important people" when assigning it credit for deciding which books belonged in the Bible; although, Bell and Campbell are able to mention the Catholic Church by name when accusing it of adding books to the Bible at the Council of Trent. The Catholic Church did not add books at Trent and only reaffirmed their rightful place in Sacred Scripture. Campbell and Bell also error in claiming that the Roman Catholic Church broke away from the Orthodox Church. This is incorrect, and any dummy can easily reference the far wittier "Complete Idiot's Guide to Biblical Mysteries" in the same series to discover that the reverse is true. Bell and Campbell state in the foreward that they have written without bias. I will not make such claims.
Rating:
Summary: I very much liked this book
Review: It fills a much needed role in the modern library, as there are far too few books helping to spread the word of God among complete idiots. Too long has the idiot community suffered without faith or proper churchifying of any sort. But no longer, thanks to this revised edition of the idiot's guide.
My only complaint is that this publisher also prints an "Idiot's Guide to the Kama Sutra." While it's all well and good to encourage the mentally-handicapped to take a healthy interest in Christ, I don't think it's socially responsible to encourage them to breed overmuch.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but biased
Review: It is written by religious people for religious people. It fails to point out the the Hebrew people were not awear that a bat is not a bird among other scientific errors. But if you want to read about the good parts of the bible, this book is for you; because it only focuses on the book's good side.
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