An Accurate Representation and Illustration of the Bible Stories They Never Tell
924545
This is not a children's book - just as the bible is not a children's book.

The bible is filled with rape, incest, genocide, infanticide, intolerance and hatred - and this is truthfully and honestly reflected in Illustrated Stories from the Bible.

Anyone offended by this book, should (quite rightly) be offended by the bible and the message of intolerance and hatred it carries.
1460942
This version of the Bible (Genesis) only, treats the Bible with all the respect it deserves, which is to say none whatsoever. It's a refreshingly blasphemic treatment of the ridiculous fiction which is Genesis. I don't know how anyone could possibly believe a word of Genesis which is one of the most unbelieveable books of the boring and long winded Bible.
2166111
Delightful version of Bible stories.  The Kindle version isn't illustrated.
2908814
Five-Minute Bible Stories, written by Lois Rock and illustrated by Richard Johnson, is filled with stories retold from the Bible. There are 20 stories all together: the first 12 from the Old Testament and the rest from the New Testament. The topics covered range chronologically from the Creation to Jesus' Resurrection. Each story begins with a short paragraph or two of background information leading into the story's action.

The pages are illustrated with paintings mostly in shades of brown, greens and blues, like the one on the cover. Each page contains at least one illustration as all the pages have a small picture in either the upper left- or right-hand corner. Most of the pages also contain an additional illustration, most of which cover half a page or less. There are only a few full-page illustrations.

What I Like: I like the range of stories. This is a nice collection of Bible stories that those already familiar with will enjoy; it is also a well-rounded collection of stories for those unfamiliar with the characters and concepts of the Bible.

I also like the length of the stories, as young children's attention spans tend to be quite short.

And, I think the length of the book - 20 short stories in 96 pages - in a hardcover book is a great value for the price.

What I Dislike: Because the stories are so short (even though I like the concept of the short-story format) much gets left out of the retelling. For instance, in the story of Daniel, we are told that Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions, and that he survived the night. But, there is no mention of how he survived and of why the lions didn't kill him. I think those are important concepts, too.

Overall Rating: Very good.

Age Appeal: The publisher suggests 4 to 8 as the appropriate ages for this book. That might be true if these were read-aloud stories only. This age group can easily sit and enjoy these stories, as they are short enough to be read in five minutes or less. However, older children, 9 and up, will be able to sit down and read the stories themselves.

Christine M. Irvin - Christian Children's Book Review
3604143
The Bible stories are recorded completely, sensitively and accurately - A great book to read to children with a wonderful question and answer facility at the end of each story.  I would recommend this book to those who wish to bring an accurate account of the Christian Faith to both younger and older children
4135452
The CEB Storytellers Bible is just that-a Bible that tells stories of faith, of endurance, of love and of change during Biblical times that can be applied to today's troubled times.

This version of the Bible is an excellent edition to your library of Bibles, or if you have not had a Bible, or just want a new edition this is great.  I normally enjoy a King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, so this was a different treat with gender neutral language and a more modern language style.  Whatever version of the Bible you choose as a Christian (if you are one, or if you are just exploring a different faith for variety) I enjoyed this one.  This Bible has all the standard contents of the Bible (New and Old Testament) and is written in a more conversational, fictional novel type type which makes the verses of the Bible more readable in my opinion. (Please note the Psalms, the Chapter of Job, and Isaiah look as they do in other Bibles).  The language is very modern, and can be enjoyed by scholars of the Bible or by people who are not familiar with the message of this book at all. There are Midrashim sidebars, a preface to the CEB, a narrative introduction to Genesis, Charts, Maps, and a story and Map index.  What I liked best was the historical sections of this Bible, in dark blue in some chapters, that describe the time or the history of the  particular  passage being discussed.  These were the 'Midrashim' sidebars.  This version of the Bible runs 1761 pages, not including the Map section at the end.  This is an excellent hardcover book, although the pages are flimsy in every Bible I've ever had the type and the page are similar so there is nothing new here.  The only possible dislike to me is the cover of this book-exactly what are those ugly people doing?  Are these people supposed to be 'fishers of men'-if so, why don't they look a bit happier to be following Jesus and to be blessed to have eternal life? The Ugly Christian Fishing Twins (UCFT for short) are weird, are horrid illustrations for such an expensive book,  might make someone not by it because they make the book look cheap, and distract from the important message of this Bible.  Why couldn't these people at least smile, aren't they doing the Lord's work?  The cover is nothing I would get a tattoo over.

I must emphasis that I am not a Bible scholar, and have never read any Bible from cover to cover.  Rather I am a Christian enthusiast, while not following all of the scripture to it's entirety I am a fan of following the word and having faith.  Otherwise, despite the awful cover I highly recommend this book, and feel it would be ideal to be used for older Christians to try a different Bible for a while, or for new Christians who like modern language for their scripture.  Overall I enjoyed this interpretation which is why I gave this book five stars.
3877278
Fascinating interpretation of of biblical stories!
1437130
Kregel Publications sent this book to me to review for a blog tour.  Here's what I wrote:

It is a small (perfect size for little hands), hardcover book that comes in white, pink, or blue.  Kristina Stephenson is the illustrator; the illustrations are very well done - bright & beautiful.  They definitely catch your eye and will keep little readers engaged.

I like the book's table of contents.  It divides the stories into Old Testament and New Testament, with 9 and 11 stories, respectively.  Author Ms. Toulmin has chosen to include some of the most popular (not the most important) stories such as Rainy Days (Noah's story), The Giant and the Boy (David and Goliath), Bread and Fish (Jesus feeds the 5,000), and The Cross.  It does not have the bible references next to each story so that the reader would know where to look in order to read the real version.

Kregal sent me a pink copy, and I immediately thought, "Oh, neat!  I'll give this to my new niece, Sophie."  But then I started reading it.  There are way too many theological errors in this book; it does not at all follow God's Word.  I would never give it as a gift or be able to recommend it in good conscience. There are simply too many errors - serious ones that will lead children away from God, not to Him.

1. The fall is missing.  Without the fall, how can children learn from this "bible" to trust in a perfect and holy Savior when they are not even made aware of their need for Him?  The fall is essential to a person's understanding of the gospel - a bible cannot be without it.  If there was no fall, Jesus wouldn't have had to shed His perfect blood.

2. In her New Testament stories, there is no anticipation of Jesus' death when, in fact, He told of it many times (to list a few: Luke 9:21-22, 44-45; 22:19-21; Matthew 26:26-29; Matthew 20:17-19).  But Ms. Toulmin still writes in The Cross (page 152), "Goodbye, Jesus," they said. "It's all over now."  In the book's next and last story, Alive, Jesus is alive and tells the people, "God can put everything right.  Go and tell everyone in the world," (p. 156).  That's the end (except for a short blessing on the last page).  What's wrong with this?  Put what "right"?  If readers don't know about the fall or their sinful nature that separates them eternally from God apart from Jesus Christ, why would they need a Mediator?  Unfortunately, there is no encouragement to trust Christ as your Savior by repenting of your sins and living by faith.  According to Ms. Toulmin, children are just to go and tell everyone that God can fix our world when they will not know (according to this book) what is truly wrong with it.

I'll just show one other example of a theological error: Toulmin writes, "God made woman.  'Your name is Eve,' he said," (p. 13).  God's Word says in Genesis 3:20, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living."  Adam named Eve, not God.  And Adam named her after the fall.

I'm disappointed in Kregel for publishing this book - why didn't their editors catch these obvious errors?  I am just a pastor's wife who hasn't been trained at a seminary, but anyone who studies God's Word knows that this little book is missing the key doctrine that differentiates Jesus as a Savior from Jesus as just another good person in our world.  Rest assured - this book will not be going to sweet little Sophie nor anyone I love.  Kregel, I hope you fix your error and stop its publication.
2658526
In the controversial and very fine book 'Goodbye Gutenberg: How a Bronx Teacher Defied 500 Years of Tradition and Launched an Astonishing Renaissance' Valerie Kirschenbaum took a leaping step toward exhuming illuminated manuscripts in the language of contemporary modalities to introduce a new way to read, to learn, to enjoy books.  Now Valerie Kirschenbaum AKA Ruth Rimm has created the first in a series of books, each of which will bring the New Testament of the King James Version of the Bible to the attention of those people whose visual training, she feels, needs the addition of the graphic to make the historic document relevant - or at least accessible - to the masses who find the black and white, densely packed language of the usual bibles unapproachable.

She has wisely teamed with a very fine artist - Alejandra Vernon, whose solid reputation is based on her skills with collage and paint and enormously sensitive imagination - to create what is now a lushly colorful, immediately accessible version of the Gospel of Matthew (and incidentally including the book of Ruth).  The design incorporates not only Vernon's fine figurative narratives but adds the 'gimmicks' of computer screens, cell phones, credit cards, keypad buttons, etc to make the flow like a computer game.  Does this enhance the written word?  That is up to the reader to decide.  Doubtless there will be purists who believe this 'updating' cheapens the 'sacred', but every art form has its detractors.  For this reader the design does become a bit overwhelming and distracting at times, bordering on questionable taste, but those flaws are more than compensated by the lovely artwork of Alejandra Vernon, an artist who understands illustration - a field unto itself - as well as art.

There is a chapter written by Valerie RUTH Kirschenbaum RIMM that relates her conversion from Judaism to Christianity of the evangelical form that, while informing the reader of the history of 'why the Bible in this form', is a bit overbearing.  She made her points about the visual book format in her original book, making this addendum to her first Designer Bible volume seem self serving and preachy.  But one must give RIMM credit for her own messianic vision.  This form of the bible may just find an audience and the results may be part of the re-examination of  religion around the world.

Technically the book is well made, on fine paper, with excellent color reproductions.  The cover is a bit of hard sell tactics (the title is '.Christ' - read as 'dot Christ' - and along with a cell phone and "OPEN" key and illustrated toolbar), but pause long enough to get into the concept and you'll probably find yourself actually reading Matthew for the first time!  Grady Harp, September 05
1111148
The photography and the faith-inspired art alone reveals the Truth of  "who Jesus is" in spite of the well disguised but misleading bible history and  errors in the shallow research characteristic of atheistic journalism and perspective.  Believers will love the images and but disappointed in the slant ...agnostics will be teased but mislead due to the errors ...atheists will be uncomfortable but relieved that it offers no challenge.  The Truth is...no matter who you say He is...We all know why He came!
570898
The illustrations alone are worth the price of admission.  Strangely, the pictures of people are great while pictures of maps and towns seem kind of "child-like".  Its hard to believe it is indeed a children's Bible (since it has pictures of Samson with his eyes gouged out) and does not change some of the more horrific stories.  I remember why I loved this book as a child and it had nothing to do with being religious, it is simply "epic".  I think it is actually a good way for ADULTS to get familiar with the bible as well.
2278137
Though the Ark tablet is the most recent and oldest of the tablets translated that tell something of the ark and flood it is by no means conclusive. Finkel puts forward a new idea of what the ark was but  what every reader should know is that the story of the flood was a popular story in ancient times and  has been REWORKED countless times. Many variations of this story exist in  Mesopotamia alone and DEPENDING on which variation you prefer will likely change the look of the ark and the way in which the story is narrated. This story according to S. Dalley was told by "skilled musician-poets"  in an  "endless variety"  of retelling and had been  transmitted over land and sea for more that two thousand years.  Its not surprising in the least that Genesis also shows reworking, with two or more variations given in the same narrative. The only thing the Ark tablet proves is that this story was popular in Mesopotamia, that it bears a strong resemblance to the Genesis story and that it is just one more of the many variations that exist. What i find to be an absurdity is that Genesis is always shown to  be a hack while the Mesopotamian sources are given  priority, when in reality, neither of the sources are an original but clearly reworkings from something else. With all that said the author himself does a good job writing and is humorous and humble. I enjoyed his views on the competing ideas for the ark's final resting place and how he rekindled my excitement for a subject i have long found interesting.
991979
This is the Bible. It is not a Children's Bible. So, when someone kills someone else, you see blood. While Noah's Ark floats safely on the flood waters of the Earth, you get to see the rest of the world drowning. When the waters recede, skeletons remain. This is a literal take on the Bible, and it's marvelous. A must read for all believers in the God of Abraham.

The only thing it's missing is the second half of the Old Testament. There are a lot of great stories that didn't make it into this one. But it's still a fantastic buy.
1731310
This is definitely the best kids' retelling of the Bible I have tried, by far.  Many have a lot of moralizing exposition which detracts from the narrative and is unfaithful to the text.  This isn't free from that, but it's far closer to a straight-up retelling than the majority.  The pictures are good, and the story-telling is clear, fast, gripping.  There are small anachronisms (e.g. we are told that God made Adam and Eve with immortal souls, which isn't in the original and isn't in keeping with the time the text was produced -- never mind, historical accuracy is obviously not the main goal here), but there are also plenty of things this version gets right (e.g. it doesn't suggest that the Fall was Eve's fault because she was a woman).  Lots of interpretation is added in (e.g. to make God's favoring of Abel's sacrifice make sense -- in the original the favoritism is not explained at all); but the interpretation is mostly pretty tasteful, relatively speaking.  I find myself editing only a little while reading aloud, e.g. I draw the line at saying that everybody killed in the Flood was "evil" as if from a position of narrative authority; but I feel the need to do this kind of thing much less with the Action Bible than others I've tried.  It also makes the stories go fast enough and clearly enough that it is a real page-turner.  Everybody in my house has enjoyed it. I got this originally for my then-7 year old daughter, who has read it several times.  She is now 11 and knows the main Bible-story canon far better than many of her church-going or shul-going peers.  Her younger sisters, age 5 and 6, have been interested in having me read it aloud for them; I read the story of Job to them this morning (and cried...), and the kids were begging for another story after it; the eleven year old doesn't want to share, so I am getting another copy.  I should also note that I am an atheist.  I'm very happy to have my kids know the Bible, because it is such an important, fascinating and influential amalgam of literary/ historical texts.
3842474
This is not a bible as in letters on a page.  It is literally like a comic book edition of the bible.  I read a previous edition when I was about 12.  It's amazing how the images stick in your mind over the years.  Anytime I hear the name Jezebel my mind automatically pictures the image of her from this bible, which is the same with Paul, David, Moses and several others.  All my life I've won at trivia games because of the knowledge of bible stories I gained from this book.  It's really hard to forget when you have the image in your mind to reflect on.  The art and layout of the cartoons really reminds me of Prince Valliant that used to be in our local paper on Sunday mornings.  They're beautiful drawings and they really stick with you.
4169780
I had been looking for a book presenting Bible stories in an accessible way.  While the focus is narrowed to the stories of women, I got far more than access to Bible stories with "After the Apple".

I liked that Rosenblatt explained how concepts originated.  For instance, the word commonly translated as "rib" (Adam's) technically means side.  I also liked that she put stories from the different Bible chapters together. For instance she tells how how David grew from the lyre playing shephard boy who slew Goliath to being a King.

In Sunday School we drew pictures of Jacob's ladder. We learned about the beauty of David's "royal city" and sang about it.  We did NOT learn about Jacob's concubines nor of David ignoring his daughter's rape by his son.  With no paternal protection, she could have been stoned were it not for another brother who had a moral sense and or cared about her. In the end, David moarns for this son... not the fate of the daughter.

The Bible's world is very disturbing.  Death by stoning for rumored infractions is a threat for all, especially women.  The masses most likely lived on subsistence diets. It seems to be a Darwinian world and the male id, among the elite, appears to be unrestrained.

Other than the Queen of Sheba (somewhat), the women cited in this book are immortalized in the Bible for their sexual interactions (whether in marital or union or not) with men.  It makes you weep for all the other women who did not/could not approach the palace, a sheltering tent or even a smile.  What of the homely/ugly, the unsponsored, the sick?  The presumably better lives of these few women cited causes one to wonder about the foundations of this society.

Rosenblatt gives these stories a very sympathetic treatment. They add to the understanding of history and ourselves.

I give this book 5 stars because so much complex material is digested for lay people like me to understand it.  I cannot say I enjoyed it because there was too much repression and pain in the lives of these (few) heroines.  Empathy among the characters, particularly the men to the women, is rare.

The inspiration for me is not in the stories but in how far societies of the world have progressed since this time.
4446554
This was an excellent book! Shafer includes every possible reference to Jesus, but also sets them in their historical context. They were written after the Gospels. In addition to this, there is a difference between the references in the Palestinian Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud. If we look at what was happening in each specific region, these differences make sense.

The basic thesis of this book is that the Talmudic references are a reaction to the growing church. They reveal knowledge of the written accounts in the Gospels (not direct knowledge of Jesus), and are a counter-narrative.

These stories preserved the authority of rabbi's, by rejecting the authority of Jesus. In other words, they served to draw the line on orthodoxy (apologetic purposes).

Here is where their historic value comes into play: not by shedding light on the historic Jesus, but showing differences in Palestine and Babylon. Jews in Palestine had to refrain from writing anti-Christian polemics due to Constantine's conversion to Christianity. But the Jews in Babylon did not. They lived in another empire. And this empire persecuted the Christians. Hence the freedom to write anti-Christian polemics.

Shafer's thesis is compelling, especially when the Palestinian & Babylonian Talmud's are set against the light of politics happening around them. When we look at Justin Martyr's defense against a rabbi, Origin's rebuttal against the pagan Celsus (who picked up stories from Jewish apologists), and Tertullians writings --- we gain additional evidence these stories were written to counter the claims in the Gospels.

In light of their late date, and their propogandistic purposes --- they have little value in unwrapping the historical Jesus. But they do shed light on the formation of post-Temple Judaism, and Christianity's divergence from it.