Status
Available
Collection
Description
"The Story reveals the unfolding, grand narrative of the Scriptures. Condensed into thirty-one accessible chapters, The Story sweeps you into the unfolding progression of Bible characters and events arranged chronologically from Genesis to Revelation -- allowing the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible to read like a novel"--From publisher's website.
Publication
Zondervan (2011), Edition: Teen, 496 pages
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2012)
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Other editions
User reviews
LibraryThing member saltmanz
The Story is not, as I initially thought, a novelization of the Bible (which would have been neat, though how you could actually write such a book is beyond me.) Rather, it is the Bible, but abridged and reorganized in chronological order to present a (mostly) continuous story. It's a great idea,
By far, the best part about The Story is being able to read the Old Testament in chronological order. The individual stories one grows up hearing in Sunday School are often hard to relate to one another, and the disjointed nature of the OT makes piecing together an actual timeline of events difficult. The Story does that for you. Thus, you can read about the history of the kingdom of Israel as one continuous narrative, and really get a sense of the sequence of historical events.
The New Testament works in the same fashion, merging the four Gospels into a single narrative, and continuing through the book of Acts and various letters. I honestly found the New Testament to be less interesting than the Old, mostly because, like much of this book's target audience, I'm much more familiar with the NT events. But aside from that, there's nowhere near as much actual story in the NT, which covers only a few decades compared to the OT's thousands of years.
Most of the problems I had with The Story are editorial. Often the choices of what to cut seemed odd: for example, the prophetic dreams from the stories of Joesph and Daniel are omitted, and only referred to. And speaking of Joesph, the chapter featuring his story was mostly concerned with what happened after he was reuinted with his brothers (usually seen as the end of the story); previous events were summed up on just a few short pages. Another thing that The Story did was insert transitional text, either to tie one story to the next, or to summarize material that had been skipped over for one reason or another. This transitional text was clearly marked (so as not to be confused with actual scripture) but was written in an awkwardly informal and occasionally preachy tone that irritated me more often than not.
That said, I'm glad I read it, and would actually recommend it to someone interested in reading the Bible story. It's certainly not a substitute for a real Bible, but it is a useful tool toward understanding one.
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even if I found the execution to be wanting.By far, the best part about The Story is being able to read the Old Testament in chronological order. The individual stories one grows up hearing in Sunday School are often hard to relate to one another, and the disjointed nature of the OT makes piecing together an actual timeline of events difficult. The Story does that for you. Thus, you can read about the history of the kingdom of Israel as one continuous narrative, and really get a sense of the sequence of historical events.
The New Testament works in the same fashion, merging the four Gospels into a single narrative, and continuing through the book of Acts and various letters. I honestly found the New Testament to be less interesting than the Old, mostly because, like much of this book's target audience, I'm much more familiar with the NT events. But aside from that, there's nowhere near as much actual story in the NT, which covers only a few decades compared to the OT's thousands of years.
Most of the problems I had with The Story are editorial. Often the choices of what to cut seemed odd: for example, the prophetic dreams from the stories of Joesph and Daniel are omitted, and only referred to. And speaking of Joesph, the chapter featuring his story was mostly concerned with what happened after he was reuinted with his brothers (usually seen as the end of the story); previous events were summed up on just a few short pages. Another thing that The Story did was insert transitional text, either to tie one story to the next, or to summarize material that had been skipped over for one reason or another. This transitional text was clearly marked (so as not to be confused with actual scripture) but was written in an awkwardly informal and occasionally preachy tone that irritated me more often than not.
That said, I'm glad I read it, and would actually recommend it to someone interested in reading the Bible story. It's certainly not a substitute for a real Bible, but it is a useful tool toward understanding one.
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LibraryThing member iddrazin
The purpose of this book of selections from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible is disclosed in the last page of the volume, to hear “the truth. You’ve come face to face with the most important message you will ever hear: Jesus, God’s Son, came, lived died and rose again.” The
The editors of the book present 31 chapters, 21 from the Hebrew Bible and 10 from the New Testament, each focuses on a different event from the many that occur in the Bible. They include a “Timeline” giving what the editors consider the years of the episodes; short comments in the middle or end of some of these quotations from the NIV that connect one selection with the next when the editors delete some of the biblical narratives; and definitions of terms at the bottom of certain pages. Scholars will have some problems with the editors’ information and comments.
• Many will disagree with the dates offered by the editors. For example, the consensus among scholars is that we cannot know the exact year of the Israelite exodus from Egyptian bondage, but it most likely occurred around 1200 BCE; they have the precise year 1446. The Bible has Abraham born 1948 years after creation, which is 3823 BCE; they have 2091. The Bible does not give the year of Moses’ brother Aaron’s death; they have 1406. There are many other similar differences.
• Some of the definitions are designed to suggest that the books of the Hebrew Bible teach about Christianity and Jesus. For example, the “holy spirit” in the Hebrew Bible is defined as “The manifestation of God who dwells within those who believe in Jesus Christ and empowers them to follow God’s way. God is one God but acts in three ‘persons’ of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.” One may, of course, interpret the Bible as one chooses, but in fairness, one should say that this is an interpretation and it is not explicit in the text. They translate “messiah” as “A name of Jesus that emphasizes his role as God’s chosen deliverer.” Actually, messiah means anointed, a king or high priest who had oil pored upon his head when he became king or high priest. Jews looked forward to the coming of a Jewish king, which is synonymous with messiah, to rule over them. Christians felt that Jesus was this king.
In short, people need to beware as they read this book because scholars disagree with many of the supposed facts.
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author tells readers that they must “take a step down the narrow path that leads to unimaginable glory.”The editors of the book present 31 chapters, 21 from the Hebrew Bible and 10 from the New Testament, each focuses on a different event from the many that occur in the Bible. They include a “Timeline” giving what the editors consider the years of the episodes; short comments in the middle or end of some of these quotations from the NIV that connect one selection with the next when the editors delete some of the biblical narratives; and definitions of terms at the bottom of certain pages. Scholars will have some problems with the editors’ information and comments.
• Many will disagree with the dates offered by the editors. For example, the consensus among scholars is that we cannot know the exact year of the Israelite exodus from Egyptian bondage, but it most likely occurred around 1200 BCE; they have the precise year 1446. The Bible has Abraham born 1948 years after creation, which is 3823 BCE; they have 2091. The Bible does not give the year of Moses’ brother Aaron’s death; they have 1406. There are many other similar differences.
• Some of the definitions are designed to suggest that the books of the Hebrew Bible teach about Christianity and Jesus. For example, the “holy spirit” in the Hebrew Bible is defined as “The manifestation of God who dwells within those who believe in Jesus Christ and empowers them to follow God’s way. God is one God but acts in three ‘persons’ of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.” One may, of course, interpret the Bible as one chooses, but in fairness, one should say that this is an interpretation and it is not explicit in the text. They translate “messiah” as “A name of Jesus that emphasizes his role as God’s chosen deliverer.” Actually, messiah means anointed, a king or high priest who had oil pored upon his head when he became king or high priest. Jews looked forward to the coming of a Jewish king, which is synonymous with messiah, to rule over them. Christians felt that Jesus was this king.
In short, people need to beware as they read this book because scholars disagree with many of the supposed facts.
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LibraryThing member nirrad
A fast read and good for new or non believers, but left a lot out not really for older believers
LibraryThing member aegossman
Actually read the NIV of this. Loved the concept of this as a bible enthusiast. I would have liked it more if it wasn't so abundantly biased seeking not love of the Word of God but to make converts to Christendom.
LibraryThing member bohannon
My home church committed to working through this book in the year 2015. So, in January, our Pastor started following the outline of stories for most of his sermons over the course of the year, and our small-groups followed up and discussed the corresponding chapters (and his sermons) during the
(2016 Review #18)
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week that followed. The book was a great introduction to the core stories of the bible -- and for a church like ours, and a small group like mine, where many people are new to engaging with their faith (either cause they are so new to it, or they grew up in traditions where scripture knowledge was not prioritized), it was incredibly helpful. The book hit the core stories that many know in odd incomplete ways from pop culture and pop religion, but exposed them to the real, complete story as in scripture. Then followed up with good discussion questions. In our group we also used a companion video that was very helpful for kicking the discussion off. (2016 Review #18)
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LibraryThing member shelbycassie
Might be good for someone that has never read the Bible. Passages not marked off as to where they came from in the Bible.