Book Review: The Bible for Dummies

It all started over 20 years ago with a little book called “DOS For Dummies,” one of the first tutorial books addressing personal computer users. The book’s tremendous success has led to hundreds of titles in the “Dummies” series, each explaining topics in “plain English”. “Dummies” books cover just about every topic you can think of, from education, history, computers, food, hobbies, travel , self help, to business and more.

“The Bible For Dummies” continues the tradition of providing a clearly written tutorial presented with a touch of humor to make reading more enjoyable.

The Bible is a remarkable compilation of many individual books written over a period of 1,500 years by many authors who lived on several continents and who wrote in three languages. Yet, the text still affects the daily life of all of us, whether it’s debates about the ethics of human cloning, abortion rights, the constitutionality of saying prayers, the pledge of allegiance in public schools, or posting the Ten Commandments in public places. Understanding the times in which we live is difficult without knowledge of what is written in the Bible. Consider that the Bible has sold more copies, been translated into more languages and has been read by more people than any other book in history. Over 150, 000 new Bibles are sold or given away every day!

People come to the Bible for a variety of reasons, notes the “The Bible For Dummies”. “You may be coming to the Bible to find inspiration and faith. You may be coming to the Bible to understand a text that plays such an influential role in our world. You may simply want to know more about what is undeniably a great work of literature. Or, you may just want to improve your score on ‘Jeopardy’.”

The Bible spans its coverage from the beginning to the end of time. It’s the story of God and His creation, particularly mankind. It shows man how he really is. The Bible is truly the owner’s manual for the human being.

The authors of “The Bible For Dummies”, Jeffrey Geoghegan, PhD, and Michael Homan, PhD, do an excellent job giving us a short, fascinating guide to “The Good Book”. While there are obviously many details they can’t address in such a brief overview, the authors do a good job at making sense out of many concepts presented in he Bible, and their clear explanation of historical facts will help clarify many points to anyone who studies the Bible. They put events in the context of the culture, the period of history and geography.

Writing anything about such a controversial subject as the Bible can be difficult to avoid “offending” anyone due to the vast number of religious beliefs. The authors are to be commended for their tactful writing, which makes no judgements or opinions about this sacred text. They simple present the facts, and give an enlightening historical background to arm Bible readers with a better understanding of what they read in the Bible.

The authors have traveled extensively throughout the lands in the Bible, and use their experience and knowledge in their explantations. To avoid misinterpretations, they didn’t use any specific translation of the Bible, but rather referred back to the original languages of the Bible, which are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

The Bible For Dummies” can be found at most book stores and sells for $2.95 in the United States ($3.95 in Canada). The “Dummies” series is an imprint of Wiley Publishing, Inc.