[UPDATE 3/24/2019: In recent days, Sally Lloyd-Jones has spoken strongly in favor of the inclusion of a homosexual couple in one of her other books for Christian children. Readers should be aware when making choices about the purchase of her products.]
Every Story Whispers His Name
When I heard about the Jesus Storybook Bible, the concept of it really intrigued me. The subtitle is Every Story Whispers His Name, and that is the whole idea behind the book. Unlike most Bible storybooks, which are essentially random collections of Bible stories with no apparent connections between them, this one is built around the central theme of the Bible itself – Jesus and His coming to provide our redemption. I was thrilled to receive a copy to review so I could experience it for myself.
My Signature “Nitpicking”
I am admittedly quite particular when it comes to Bible storybooks or children’s story Bibles. Because it’s Scriptural accounts and teachings we’re dealing with, I demand a very high level of accuracy. I have no problem with paraphrasing, but believe it is essential to preserve the meaning of the original text. With that in mind, I am not crazy about the exact wording used in a number of places in this book. To offer a few examples…
In the account of the Fall, the big lie that is supposed to have been introduced is that “God doesn’t love me.” While that may be true (not that God doesn’t love me, but that that particular lie was introduced), the primary issue here was that of pride – “I don’t need God.” A similar inconsistency shows up in the account of Noah, where “disease and death and destruction” are described as “all the things God hates most,” when what God hates most is sin.
“Ark” is said to be “short for a very large boat” (It really means a “box”); God is said to promise, “I won’t ever destroy the world again,” (which is less specific than the actual, biblical promise), and Jericho’s walls “crumbled to the ground, like sand,” rather than falling down flat. I don’t find these (and some others like them) to be insignificant differences, as many of them either alter doctrinal foundations, or communicate something clearly at odds with what the original biblical accounts communicated. For instance, the Bible clearly teaches us that God will destroy the earth again – just not with a flood.
The Heart of the Book
HOWEVER. While these might not be insignificant choices of wording, they are insignificant in terms of how much of the book they comprise. I will probably be attacking our copy with a marker to make some minor changes to the wording, but the overall concept does, indeed, carry through loud and clear. The author does an excellent job of carrying the common thread through the story, and of pointing out types and shadows in Old Testament stories where many adult readers may not have even been aware of them. She emphasizes God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” Yet sin is not overlooked.
The writing is geared very well to children. Stories are “translated” into language that they relate to, without (for the most part) dumbing things down. In other words, it isn’t so much brought “down to their level” as into their world.
And while I might complain about some small inaccuracies, accuracy clearly was taken into consideration when this book was being put together. Jonah’s fish was a fish – not a whale. The nails left prints in Jesus’ wrists, not His palms. He was a toddler in a house when the wise men found Him, not an infant still in the stable. These are details that are not given much attention in most children’s story Bibles, but which I really appreciated being handled so carefully here.
The Bottom Line
All in all, ‘though I could wish it were edited slightly more for accuracy, I think this is a very well-done book. It presents God’s Story with the beauty it rightly deserves, and reminds us of how great God’s love for His children truly is. I would encourage you, if you purchase it, to read over it first before you hand it over to your children, but I wouldn’t discourage you from purchasing it.
This sounds just like our thoughts about it! Because the boys are so little, we’ve just re-worded the places we don’t believe are accurate and we don’t have to worry about them reading it on their own and being confused. If we do our job well, then by the time they ARE old enough to read it by themselves, they should be able to recognize the inaccuracies to come and ask us about them. Because, like you said, it brings Scripture “into their world,” and I feel that we’d be throwing the baby out with the bathwater to get rid of it. I like it myself, and have new perspective on some parts of Scripture by how it’s presented in The Jesus Storybook Bible. For accuracy, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars (from what we’ve read so far, anyway), but for concept, intent, and “heart,” I would definitely give it a 5.
That’s an excellent way to put it in a nutshell, Bekah!
I’m disappointed that it wasn’t edited better for accuracy, because everything else is SO amazingly well done that it would be perfect (or, you know, as close to perfect as anything not the actual BIBLE can be) with a little more editing.