Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #668752 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

What happens when you try to observe all the Strictures of the Bible
Most of us try to live good lives and help others when we can. But Esquire magazine writer, AJ Jacobs, decided that he would combine the writing of his next book with his search into religion. And what better way to do this then to try and live a year following all the hundreds of rules and laws of the Holy Bible.

To start with the author begins with almost no background at all in religion of any kind. He was born into a Jewish family; he was raised very secular and labeled himself as agnostic. He went into this venture with a very objective mindset and talked to various religious Scholars from various faiths from his Orthodox Jewish heritage to the fundamentalist Christians. He did not even own a copy of his own Bible when he started the project; he had a Bible from his ex-girlfriend from ten years earlier.

His plan, which he follows, is to live the first nine months of the year per the Old Testament and the remainder of the year following the teachings of the New Testament. We see not only what he goes through in trying to accomplish his goal, but some of the reactions to those he interacts with. Of course the first time he is in public and tries to follow the law that he cannot touch a woman to receive his change. But in doing so he breaks another law and sins to explain his actions, he lies. And from there the book just flows. He does try a wide range of literal approaches to the Bible and we get to watch it all.

The book is a very entertaining read. I had never read any of his work before, but I found myself just sitting in my chair and reading page after page. He shares his journey with us from what he physically went through, but also his thoughts and what he learns from these experiences. There are a few of Bible versus he gets wrong in the pre-publication version, and some pages seem a bit slow. But this is a book that is very enjoyable to read. I am sure this will be optioned as a movie. Regardless of your personal beliefs you must read this book.

"My aunt Katie told me I was, as our people say, meshugga"
I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected it to be funny, and it certainly is, but I also got a highly entertaining course on religion. There is so much interesting information in this book, that it does not matter whether you are a faithful of any religion, or a secular person. I guarantee you will find something revealing.

The author was raised in a non-practicing Jewish household, but in the last few years has become interested in religion. Therefore, in an effort to explore this topic, and write a book in the process, he decided to follow teachings of the Bible for a year. As you can probably imagine, this is not an easy feat. Not only does the author have to adjust to a complex set of rules, but his family also has to endure the results of this quest. A fairly simple rule, like not being able to shave his beard, leads to questions at airports, scared kids, and other uncomfortable situations. But think about the harder rules to follow, like the one dealing with stoning adulterers, or the protocol for interacting with women at "that time of the month".

When most non-religious people think about what "living Biblically" means, we relate to the Ten Commandments. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. After four weeks of reading the Bible, A.J. Jacobs came up with a list of 800 rules to follow. If you add to that the fact that there are 7,000 versions of the best selling book in history, then the issue becomes much more complicated. It is no surprise that an average person breaks many, many, many rules in our everyday life.

I was really impressed by the way in which Jacobs handled this balancing act. It is not easy to write about religion without upsetting a fair amount of people, especially if there is an element of humor added to the mix. I am glad to report that the treatment of the topic is as objective as one can expect. The humor is clever and present in the right amount. This results in a pleasant read, that is greatly informative to boot. In this book, I found many facts that I did not know, and I feel like I better understand various religious groups, including some less popular ones, such as the Amish, the Samaritans, the Falwell followers and the Red Letter Christians. Kudos to A.J. Jacobs for writing such a wonderful book!

Trying almost everything in the Bible at least once
This is a social experiment I wouldn't impose as punishment on criminals, but Jacobs makes it both illuminating and entertaining. How far can he take Bible literalism for a whole year? He tries to avoid discriminating which traditions he will observe. Some hundreds of injunctions, like the one about taking eggs from under mother birds without hurting the mother, can be done once and crossed off, like a list of things to be done within 365 days. Other commands won't go away, like observing "Thou shalt not lie", when his wife keeps asking "What are you thinking?".

As I feared, Jacob's juggling act gets complicated. He notes, "In Judaism, the biblical laws that come without explanation -- and there are many -- are called 'chukim'". There's also a Hebrew term 'Chasid Shote', meaning a righteous idiot like the guy who avoided helping a drowning woman lest he break the ban on touching her.

Along the way, Jacobs searches out fellow literalists. He invites the Jehovah Witnesses to his house to learn they don't believe in the Trinity or Hell, since they claim those doctrines arn't properly in the book. He learns of Jews who want to bring back polygamy, and a gay pastor whose pamphlet titled "What Jesus Said about Homosexuality" opens to a completely blank page. He finds there's a group called "Jubilee USA", which seeks to apply Old Testament laws about forgiving debt in the Jubilee year to the problem of odious debt in Africa. In his personal quest for literalism, Jacobs finds that the line "Love ... keeps no record of wrongs" forces him to delete a computer record of incorrect statements made by his wife.

Anyway, it's a surprising trip, and Jacobs is certainly changed. He emerges from his year more grateful for life, and more funny than ever. This is a well-conceived, delimited experiment in religious practice, that's well reported, and highly productive of insights small and big.