How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

I recommend this book. This is similar to Paul Copan's excellent book, "Is God a moral monster." Copan's is much more detailed, but this is book is a much easier read. I recommend having both books, as well as Fee and Stuart's "How to read the bible for all it's worth" as the absolute best book on the subject.His approach to reading in context and understanding the cultural background is very useful.There are a few places where his exegesis is a bit sloppy. For example, in his attempt to explain the passages about women in the NT, he bends over backward to avoid the plain meaning (it seems like he is REALLY afraid of offending women). In the OT, he doesn't give a proper explanation of the passage about marrying a rapist - which the OT doesn't command at all, but is based on a bad translation, as well as not taking the passage in its immediate context.But overall, an excellent read.

Fascinating . Makes so much sense. Enjoyable and thought provoking.

Whether you are firm in your faith or don't believe at all, I highly recommend reading this book. A lot of arguments that I see are addressed in this book. I see people all the time say things like "I wouldn't want to worship a God who condones slavery and rape." And this book gives great answers to those assumptions. So whether you're firm in your faith or not, it's a great book to read so that you can respond to the people who say those things.

Good book. Written well and presents some good discussions surrounding difficult parts of the Bible. Probably good for a new believer or a child approaching highschool who’s grown up around the Bible, but is beginning to get concerned/confused about stuff they’re reading in it. Enjoyable read for me as a long time believer who’s struggled with these topics and I appreciated the detail and new perspectives/approaches for discussing it all.

This book looks at many questions raised by persons critical of the Bible and some of the stories contained within it. It provides a method of looking at the questions raised by critics and sets the events in the time period in which they occurred. The times and culture then is substantially different than the time we live in and must be read according to the practices and cultures in which they occurred. The explanations are credible and clear. It would be a great benefit to Christians to read the book to understand the stories and explain them to those criticizing them.

This book Addresses a suite of heavy topics from the Bible. I would not call this a “fun” book: but gives good answers to some of the very tough objections of modern skeptics of the Bible.

Using it with the videos and complements them wellFleshes out the videos with additional information.Have not reviewed the study guide

Through the years, I have read, studied, and questioned scripture. I have read various authors with different explanations for assorted texts, so I was curious about Kimball’s take. There are times when his explanations align with typical western evangelical Christianity and others that diverge.In chapter two, Kimball explains that the Bible is an anthology of books by over 40 authors which explains the variety of writing styles. Yet God still made sure they chose “the exact word God wanted” while still writing in their own voice. It’s all useful but it also sounds crazy?He also makes claims that I did not see a footnote or other evidence for (perhaps because I read it on kindle?) such as including the New Testament as Holy Scripture (the New Testament did not exist when Paul wrote that letter), the angelic realm was created in Genesis 1-2, and the Levitical rules would have sounded normal in their time.In part three, chapter 8, Kimball turns a corner as he explores scriptures that have been used to keep women down. I was impressed as he expounded on “helper/ezer” and “rib” in Genesis. Kimball highlighted female leadership throughout the Old Testament. He also explained the New Testament verses used against women.Part four addressed what some would consider a chasm between science and scripture. I appreciate that Kimball included multiple views of Genesis while explaining that scripture does not contain scientific literature.Unfortunately, he wrapped up his book with a section on the violence especially in the Old Testament which once again aligns with typical western evangelical Christianity.Overall, the book is good and worth the read. If you’re asking about women in scripture or how to approach Genesis, it definitely has some good info. If you’re questioning the violence or wrath of God, read something else.I bought this book and this is my honest and unbiased review.

As a Christian for more than half my life, my walk has not been without its struggles. Some of those struggles have been from fellow Christians preaching a distorted view what true Christianity is. So many of them, despite good intentions, were completely off base. Reading this book exposed so many of my own prejudices in such a profound way. I have always gravitated towards sermons that are rich in history and biblical context. This book packages so many of those sermons that many pastors tend to avoid.Great book.

I see people Bible so much these days and I have been looking at various resources to help but this is the best one yet. Now I feel much more confident to talk to others about the Bible and what it means to me.

This book makes sense of some of the verses that I either didn’t understand or were misinterpreted by well meaning brothers and sisters. Now I know “never read a Bible verse (on its own)” and can view scripture in a whole new way that helps me to conclude that it is a unified “library” that leads to Jesus. Thanks Dan.

Really enjoying this book! Only a few chapters in but it gives such great context to the Bible. First time I’ve picked up a book and immediately wanted to start taking notes, highlighting, bookmarking…I can’t get enough of it. I’ll definitely be reading it a few times.

One of best books about the Bible!