Old Testament in Three Hours Book

The Old Testament can be hugely confusing: 39 separate "books" covering myth, history, law, poetry, prophecy, and all those endless lists of "begats"--all of it well over 2,000 years old. How on earth do you find your way around it all? And is there any point in even trying? Is the Old Testament relevant in today's world? Richard J Gill, a United Reformed Church minister, believes it is. This book grew out of storytelling with his own congregation; it attempts to tell the entire story of the Old Testament as simply as possible in one sitting. And to a large extent it succeeds. Gill doesn't skate over the problems of the Old Testament: different versions of the same stories, divinely sanctioned brutality towards enemies, the assorted wives and concubines of many of the great leaders, and the question of whether some stories are history or mythology. This is certainly not a fundamentalist interpretation! Neither--though it clearly draws on the author's scholarship--is it in any way a theological, academic book. It does what it sets out to do: to give a very quick overview of the main events of the Old Testament in an often light-hearted style. It also draws out questions, often of a rather thorny moral nature, for group discussion, rather than claiming, as so many doctrinal or devotional books do, to have all the answers. This is a useful, and inexpensive, addition to any minister's resources. --David V BarrettRead More