The Bible Jesus Read

Phillip Yancey wrote this beauty.

It was published in 1999 and is 219 pages long.

I have always known Yancey as the “grace guy” due to the fact that the very first book that I read of his was a piece put together on that topic. I had my suspicions that this book would be far more of the upper-division-bible-ish type read that I had to handle during my undergraduate and graduate days in college. I was fairly accurate in that assessment. One read made me realize that the books haven’t changed, I have. (My wife applauds loudly)

In The Bible Jesus Read, the main drive of the work is to attempt to show the great value of books such as Job, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, the prophets, etc., books which are largely overlooked or misunderstood by modern Christians.

Yancey wants to stress the importance of each book by explaining that Jesus read this stuff and "scrolled" through it with his reads. Yancey also explains what he believes are the best mindsets to understand the purpose of the Psalms, Proverbs, and other previously mentioned books, so that we can better understand our God. The thing I love about him is that even though he is very educated and a talented writer, he is very humble and flees from the tempation that many authors succomb to, the desire to sound lofty.

For example, I thought his words about the Psalms were particularly helpful as he explained how the Psalms were not purposed for doctrines and decrees, but they reveal the joy, anguish, worry in human authors who were pursuing the heart of God.

It is important that we realize that Jesus used (what we call)the Old Testament as His Scripture, not the New, since it had not been written yet. It shows that a good understanding of the OT is essential to a full understanding of the new. I recommend this work by Yancey to any believer.

The Bible Jesus Read provided me with new insight and interest in books that I previously found complicated, boring, or confusing.

I give thanks to Yancey and his work for providing me with a new outlook on the Psalms, Job, and Ecclesiastes.

Your life will be better for reading this work.

Just sayin'.