The Old Testament: King James Version

I’m in awe. Before reading this cover to cover, I was familiar with the traditional “Bible stories.” But now I see that talking about and studying them out of context can only yield partial wisdom and sometimes downright trite interpretations.

The Old Testament is not for the faint of heart. Dense and dull when taken at face value, mind expanding and joyful when understood at a spiritual level, this book takes work! I found it useful to reference outside sources for context and explanation of aspects unfamiliar to me.

The structure and poetry of this book are meticulously crafted by who knows how many people over who knows how many years in order to tell the story of the House of Israel. Which I believe symbolizes the story of each individual human being. The main message of the book as I understood it is basically this: God loves his children, He asks them to follow him and promises them massive blessings if they do, people promise to follow God and immediately fail, thus forfeiting the promised blessings. But God is merciful and redeems them anyway.