The Most Important Stories of the Bible

When reading the bible, the context of a particular story is essential to delving into the meaning of a passage. However, most people don’t read through canon from Genesis through to Revelation and remember the entire storyline of scripture. For those that require a survey of the story line of the scriptures by looking at pericopes to provide both a slight recap on the narrative development from the previous section, the story itself and finally a truth derived from the story. When looking at a book such as this one, I personally think of content focusing more on the Old Testament than the New. The brevity of the book restricts the number of stories that are able to be included within the section covering the Old Testament which means that the stories included, on the whole, are ones that would generally be covered to the detriment of stories that lead to a fuller understanding of the Old Testament canon. For example, the table of contents only includes one entry for each of the Major Prophets, and scarcely mentions the Minor Prophets. Although this is biased towards the common stories that established church members will have heard, this does not invalidate its use for new believers or those that are established. When thinking about the New Testament, elements that complicate the storyline and make that the section less enjoyable to read specifically the in depth description of Paul’s missionary journeys are not included in the book. Overall the book doesn’t presuppose any information and thus it is appropriate for new believers.

I was provided a digital copy of the book through NetGalley, but all thoughts included are my own.