Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible, Edited by Wayne Grudem

This guide to reading the Bible is a good sourcebook for the serious Bible Student. It is not a casual read. Each of the chapters is a different article that is written by an "academic" writer. Each article covers a different aspect of the Bible. Part one of the book is focused on the Old Testament and each chapter delves into the Historic, the Poetic and the Prophet's.

Part Two is titled: Background to the New Testament and deals with the 400 year gap between Old and New Testament. It deals with the history of the culture at the time of the writing of the New Testament and a specific chapter on the Jewish world at the time of the New Testament writing.

Part Three deals with the Theology of the New Testament and then three chapters. One Chapter deals with the Gospels and Acts. The next Chapter deals with the Epistles and the final Chapter deals with Revelation.

Again, I felt that this was a good book, but fairly academic. Not all of the details are needed by everyone interested in reading a Bible and wanting to have a brief background. There are more technical discussions than the casual reader needs to be brought into.

Thus this is a good book for Pastors and serious Lay Leaders who are looking for an introduction to the Bible.

Two other books that do well to bring you an overview of the Bible are:
1. God's Big Picture, tracing the storyline of the Bible by Vaughan Roberts, this would be a great book for the casual reader and Theologian
2. Welcome to THE STORY Reading, Loving and Living God's Word, by Stephen J. Nichols

The difference between Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible and these other two books are that the first book is a compilation of writings and thus there is not as good a flow to the writing. The other two books are by single author's and the flow is better. Also they are not as academic as the first.

I appreciate Crossway Publishing putting together this group of writers and if you are serious about getting a background of the Bible you will enjoy the book. But if you are a more casual reader then these other two books are good.

Enjoy!