Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never...

Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned | Kenneth C. Davis | Eye-Opening -- But I Doubted his Arguments and Questioned his Agenda

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Don't Know Much Ab...

	Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned Kenneth C. Davis Avon Books (Discus), 1999 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 138 reviews view larger image
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Nine out of ten Americans own a Bible, but how much do they know about the one book that has influenced human history more than any other? Don't Know Much About the Bible by New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis is designed to illuminate everything we need to know about the Good Book but never learned.

With wit, authority, and intelligence, Davis brings the world of the Old and New Testaments to vivid life, setting the panorama of the Scriptures against the historical events that shaped them; clearing up misconceptions and mistranslations; summarizing Bible stories, parables, and miracles; and adding fresh new insights to the world's most owned, least understood book.

Davis is uniquely qualified for the assignment. The creator of the bestselling Don't Know Much About series, which has more than 1.6 million copies in print, he now illuminates the bestselling book of all time using his inimitable question-and-answer approach and providing a key to the people, places, and "household names" we need to unlock "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

Relying on up-to-date research and improved translations, Davis set out to uncover what the Bible says -- and doesn't say. Don't Know Much About the Bible is the result of his efforts and includes the following observations: There are two different Creation stories told in Genesis, but no apple in the Garden of Eden story. Noah invented wine and cursed the son who had seen him drunk and naked. There was no "coat of many colors" in the story of Joseph and his jealous brothers, but rather a long-sleeved robe. Moses didn't write the Torah and he didn't part the Red Sea in his escape from Pharaoh. The Sixth Commandment does not condemn all killing. Jericho's walls may have tumbled down because the city lies on a fault line. King David probably didn't kill Goliath and didn't write the Psalms.

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Don't know Much About the Bible

Great book - as usual Davis explains the basics and makes you aware of things you thought you knew about in a different light. His books are always informative and easy to read and this one is no different. The Bible is challenging to understand and he helps make it more clear showing the whys and hows of the times and social mores in comparison to present times.

Eye-Opening -- But I Doubted his Arguments and Questioned his Agenda

Kenneth C. Davis's "Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned" is an interesting popular history/theological discourse on the Biblical stories many of us don't know or don't remember. Davis, the author of other books in the "Don't Know Much About" series, has written an interesting and entertaining book, but, while I did learn something about the Bible reading this book, I have little faith that Davis's views on many of these subjects are correct.

Davis tells many of the Biblical stories in blunt, revealing language. He enjoys shocking the reader and bringing out the unsavory portions of the Biblical stories - the sex, the murder, the intrigue - that many people don't realize are there. He gives the historical context of Israel and tries to explain the role of many of the Biblical stories to the early Jews. Davis also recounts and explains the recurring themes of the Old Testament and helps tie together the stories and morals in ways that short Biblical readings every Sunday don't or can't do. This is where the book is the strongest.

However, although I am not in any way a Biblical scholar (else I probably wouldn't have been reading this book), there was enough in the book that made me mistrust too many of Davis's perspectives and his factual statements about the history of the Bible. Davis presents his perspective as the "truth" about the Bible, but two particular nuggets made me doubt his perspective:

-Davis wrote that "most scholars agree" that the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) were written by four authors: J, E, D, and P. This is the "documentary hypothesis." However, some basic research reveals that the documentary hypothesis began to lose favor by most scholars in the 1960s and now is only one of several competing hypotheses behind the authorship of the Pentateuch.

-During the Proverbs discussion, Davis quoted: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die" (Proverbs 23:13). He said that equating discipline with beating is a bad idea and that it turns morality upside down. Then he went on to say, ""In an era of commonplace child abuse, even hinting that the Bible condones such behavior is a grievous mistake." That method of "analysis" - condemning a Biblical proverb because of a perceived modern problem - is completely out of place in a supposedly-historical treatment of the Bible and made me doubt Davis's entire approach.

Davis's book is interesting, eye-opening, and thought-provoking. Ultimately, though, I doubted Davis's arguments and questioned his agenda. Still, this book may spark interest in the Bible and provide a loose framework, however flawed, for further learning about this book that so many of us know, but few know well.

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