The Bible, Book by

Almost nobody fails at reading the Bible because they lack faith. They fail somewhere around Leviticus.Starting at Genesis and reading straight through is the single most common plan and the single most reliable way to quit. It is not your fault. It is a library of sixty-six documents written across roughly a thousand years in three languages, in poetry and law and letters and vision, and nobody handed you the map.This is the map. A clear, patient guide to every book in the Bible, written for someone who is genuinely starting from scratch - new believers, returning believers, and curious readers who are not religious at all.WHAT'S INSIDE- What the Bible actually is: how the collection came together, why traditions count different numbers of books, and how to choose a translation- All sixty-six books, one at a time: what is in each, what it is doing, who its major figures are, and whether to read it now or later- The single most useful skill for reading the Old Testament - understanding how Hebrew poetry works- What a prophet actually was, which is not primarily someone predicting the distant future- The four hundred years between the testaments, and why the New Testament makes little sense without them- The four gospels characterized distinctly, and why they differ- Paul's letters placed in the real situations that produced them- Revelation read as apocalyptic literature written to people under pressure, with the main interpretive approaches presented fairly- Difficult passages faced rather than skipped: violence, slavery, the status of women, judgment- Four reading plans, a sixty-term glossary, and twenty honest answers to the questions people are embarrassed to askWRITTEN TO BE USABLE BY ANYONEWhere Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and academic traditions read a passage differently, this book presents the main positions and attributes them rather than declaring a winner. It belongs to no denomination and argues for none. Scripture quotations are from the public-domain King James Version and are always cited.You do not need to believe anything to read this book. You only need to want to understand what is in there.