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Not everything in our Bibles is inspired

Wandering writer

NOT EVERYTHING IN OUR BIBLES IS INSPIRED
By Neil Rees
Kingsway. 220pages
ISBN 978-1-84-29129-35

Neil Rees’s new book is something of an enigma, and a book that some people will probably enjoy — while others will find it illusive and frustrating.

Is it a book about the Bible, or is it a book about mission? Ostensibly it is the former, but it flits around in a manner that, at times, makes its message difficult to nail down.

The title, it should be said, is an attention-grabbing device: Rees quickly makes clear that he is referring to the maps, introductions, the footnotes and, of course, those tables of weights and measures that adorn modern Bibles.

Actually, he is referring to far more than these obvious additions by publishers. During the course of the book he addresses paragraph divisions, punctuation, and Bible verses — all of which have been added to the original text.

There is, it should be said, some very helpful material in this book. The chapter on Bible translation is excellent, as is the cautionary chapter on the use of those mini (and far from exhaustive) concordances at the back of many editions of the Bible.

But all too often a theme is picked up only for the writer to wander off. The chapter on verse division begins well but veers off into a discussion about women’s ministry, a discussion that says more about the writer’s missionary experience than it does about careful exegesis. The chapter on sub-titles ends up — via an illustration from the parable of the sower — discussing missionaries who are called to work in unproductive places.

The penultimate chapter takes far too long to make a basic point about ‘Study Bibles’, while the chapter on the order of the individual books addresses a ‘straw dog’ of an issue (are there really Christians out there who claim you should read the books in the order in which they appear in the Bible?).

Neil Rees is International Co-ordinator of World Horizons and his passion for taking the gospel to the world is evident and, at times, stimulating and challenging. It is questionable, however, the degree to which this book will help people appreciate and use the Bible.

Andrew Wilson,
Christ Church, Sidcup