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t1grm
Original Poster
3,934 posts
114 months
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No I m not going all religious.
I ve just finished reading a collection of books about the early Mesopotamian kings (Chaldea to Sassania) and there is quite a lot of cross references to the Old Testament. So I d quite like to re-read the Old Testament to refresh my memory from an historical perspective. I m not much interested in the New Testament that s Christian propaganda IMHO.
You d think buying a copy of the Bible would be quite straight forward. The Bible is the Bible after all? No. Doing a search on Amazon for Old Testament brings up any number of abridged, annotated, and illustrated volumes. I m just after a straight English language copy of the Old Testament without any slant on it from various modern religious factions. Can anyone recommend one?
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petros
2,258 posts
59 months
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King James version is very good.The Old Testament is interesting but the New Testament is the story of the life of Jesus written by the people who new him.
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t1grm
Original Poster
3,934 posts
114 months
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petros said:| King James version is very good. |
Thanks petros said:| The Old Testament is interesting but the New Testament is the story of the life of Jesus written by the people who new him. |
Without wanting to get into a religious argument I doubt that. Some Gospels were written up to 100 years after he died IIRC. I see it in a similar way as these people who write royal biographies yet seem to have no or very little access to the royal family. It s all speculation or second hand information. >> Edited by t1grm on Saturday 14th May 19:25
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agent006
10,094 posts
94 months
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I think that's what he means.
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Pigeon
17,042 posts
76 months
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cymtriks
2,763 posts
75 months
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Not King James This one was compiled before a LOT of digging, cross referencing and other research was done. It is written in a style of English that is dated. It is preffered by a lot of traditional Christians as it's generally considered to read better, both by yourself and out loud. A good example of why you don't want this one is the sea parting in Exodus. King James translation places this at the Red Sea. More modern Bibles place this event in the Nile delta, namely in the Yam Souf, or "Reedy Sea". The Nile delta version neatly places this event at the Tsunami of the Crete/Minoan volcanic eruption circ 1450BC, in which a series of very large waves went up and down the delta making the waves that drowned the Egyptian army. The best Bibles for your purposes will indicate known conflicts with other texts and will point out why the translation they quote has been chosen though most will be very brief on these topics. A very good text that you MUST  read for your purposes is "A test of time" by Rohl which places the events of the old testament into their historical context and contains extensive references to other regional histories in the Middle East.
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puggit
18,772 posts
78 months
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Get one with thin pages - mate of mine at Uni used to tear out the pages and use them for roll-ups 
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simpo two
35,410 posts
95 months
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petros said:| the New Testament is the story of the life of Jesus written by the people who new him. |
It's a collection of short stories by many contributors compiled over hundreds of years from the oral tradition. Everybody can find a bit to quote to suit their purposes.
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kenny chim 4
1,237 posts
88 months
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simpo two said:
It's a collection of short stories by many contributors compiled over hundreds of years from the oral tradition. Everybody can find a bit to quote to suit their purposes. |
Some New Testament historians have even suggested that the Book of John was written by Christ himself 
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