About book Asimov's Guide To The Bible: The Old Testament (1971)
Wow. All together, it's taken me about a month to get through this. Not that it's bad, it's just very dense and at times very dry. More concerned with history than theology, Asimov gives detailed information of place and characters in the Bible, tries to explain the ever-shifting politics that drive so much of the story, and explores exactly how the Old Testament came to be in its present, finalized form. This was intended more as a reference than to be read straight through from beginning to end, but I've always been interested in ancient/Biblical history, so I did enjoy it, even if Asimov was talking over my head a lot of the time.I also have Asimov's Guide to the New Testament. But I'm going to take a break before I plunge into that one.
Asimov didn't seem to have an axe to grind, and even seemed to try not to annoy believers. I was raised with the King James version of the Bible and our's was a 'every word of the Bible is true' type church. Asimov mentioned, the story of Jonah and the whale was a work of fiction. I'm guessing, churches today accept that story as fiction. Our's of course, did not. (I guess that is part of why I can no longer accept the Bible as a work of God.) For me, the biggest surprise was, how the different versions of the Bible translated the texts differently. Some of the verses in the KJV were unintelligible, or had a different meaning when translated in other versions. Having read this, I'll have to read his Guide to the New Testament.
Do You like book Asimov's Guide To The Bible: The Old Testament (1971)?
Un excelente libro de historia. Para sacarle más provecho es conveniente haber leído los primeros libros de Historia Universal Asimov. Por lo menos El Cercano Oriente, La Tierra de Canaán y Los Egipcios (y, opcionalmente, también Los Griegos). La única crítica es a la edición española, que en todo el libro usa las traducciones españolas de los versículos citados por el autor. Como éstas no coinciden con las de las ediciones de la Biblia que usa Asimov, el traductor debe poner incontables notas al pie para aclarar las diferencias.
—Maximiliano
