Pocket Guide to the Bible: A Little Book About the Big Book

A quick and fun way to get the basic rundown of how the Bible came to be and other important information of the Christian Bibles.

For me (a first time Bible reader) this little guide gives a very short,very fast, light description of the material being read.

This book gave me several smiles and grins as the author refers to himself as a third person(entity).Very good purchase. I am sharing it with family now.

This book met my need to have a profile of the Bible and its many books with its different time frames of time. I am pleased

Was not to happy with this book. It could of been better.

Going through seminary, I gathered a ton of books. I kept the ones most useful, and I also kept a few that are useful but cumbersome. Along the way, I began to believe that the reason most folks don't read theology books is not because they are above everyone's head (though this is the case sometimes) but because they are unattractive and laid out poorly and uninvitingly.What this means then is that folks miss out on some excellent information. That probably explains why I know some folks that will spend hours a day reading blogs/message boards and the like, taking in who knows how reliable information but they will never ever open up Calvin's "Institutes" - which I highly recommend btw. The websites are easy and convenient; the "Institutes" look like a doorstop.So, in seminary I purchased copious and various systematic theologies and overviews of the Bible. Two of the best overviews are "An Introduction to the Old Testament" by Dillard and Longman and "An Introduction to the New Testament" by Moo and Morris. But despite the beautiful pictures of sunsets and flowing streams on their covers, most everyone is not purchasing these books b/c they feel and look like 8th grade textbooks. John MacArthur took a stab at making the info in those books more assessable in his "MacArhur's Quick Reference Guide to the Bible" but the book is so blatantly dispensational/MacArthuresque and its interior is so ugly and cumbersome that I think he missed the mark.So to solve this problem, along comes Jason Boyett's "Pocket Guide to the Bible". He's the author the "Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse" and the "Pocket Guide to Adulthood." What he is attempting is to take this cumbersome material and package it in an attractive easy to use book and gasp...throw in some humor along the way. He wants to remind everyone that despite the fact that the Bible is a controversial book, "there's good stuff in there. Just about everyone can find something to enjoy."For example, have you ever been hanging out with your Christian friends and they drop the name of someone from the Bible and you have no idea who the person is? Of course you have. And of course, what you did was to nod intelligently so that no one in the room had any idea that you were a charlatan. Don't worry; I've been there too.But now, thanks to the "Pocket Guide to the Bible" you can carry around this handy tool in your, well I guess...pocket, and never be afraid of appearing ignorant again. All you have to do is politely excuse your self to the bathroom, pull out your handy-dandy pocket guide, and look up Ehud or Dorcas.I'm sure that some will worry that this approach to understanding the Bible can't be informative, but it is. Jason writes along the lines of the kid that laughed in the back of the Vacation Bible School class. He finds the comical and idiotic amid the pious. Who knew that kid was paying attention? If you didn't, this book will be a help.Honestly, folks want to know what's in the Bible but just are too overwhelmed to get started. As great as Matthew Henry's Commentary is on the Bible, it's still freaking huge and bigger than the Bible itself. Not as theologically comprehensive as Henry's, PGTTB does give a nice overview of what's actually in the Bible. Along the way to learning something, you'll find a chuckle or two.

Here's the thing you have to know about PGttB: it's fun to read. Yes, it's about the Bible. Yes, you actually learn stuff. But Boyett does the impossible and takes some very dry material and injects it with a huge dose of humor and gobs of intelligence. A lot of research clearly went into the book to pack it full of this much information. The book is well-organized as well. Here's the ToC:Biblicabulary - "A glossary of the Good Book," pretty self-explanatoryCast of Characters (A to J) - The major players of the Bible, plus some of the weirder minor ones too.Cast of Characters (K to Z) - See above.What Happens, Part 1 - "The Old Testament at breakneck speed," pretty much the Cliff Notes version of the BibleWhat Happens, Part 2 - "The New Testament at breakneck speed."The Brief History of the Holy Writ - "A timeline," basically the complete history of the Bible.Versions and Perversions - "A selective survey of translations," this chapter runs through the major players in the translation game. Disappointingly doesn't cover the Hippie Bible, but I'm letting it slide.List Ye Be Smitten - "Biblical Flotsam and Jetsam," a bunch of lists of really random stuff, really funny, weird things here.Who to recommend this book to? I think that anyone could get something out of this book. People who know everything about the Bible will enjoy the dry wit applied to the subject. Those who know nothing about the Bible will find themselves amused and learning quite a bit in a short amount of time. Those who have no sense of humor about the subject will probably hate this book. I was caught off guard by some of the jokes myself (in terms of being surprised, not offended), but it's always good to have fun with fundamentalists. That is what fundamentalist starts with anyways.So, in other words, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a few laughs at the expense of long-dead biblical characters while learning a thing here and there as well. Boyett does it again with a book that makes biblical theology fun.

My professor recommended this pocked book to me, will read it, and hopefully, it will help me to get a better understanding of the course of Christianity. BTW, Packing great by Amazon.