These narratives were likely a way for the Jews to explain, why they seemed to be constantly the victims of terrible events, like being conquered by foreign empires or being enslaved, despite being the chosen people of the one and only God. Rather than their victimization being a sign that their God was too weak to protect them, these calamities were actually punishments from God himself; therefore, their God is actually in control of everything all the time, and they WILL be saved by him, as long as they follow his rules.

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This is perhaps the ultimate English study Bible for thinking persons and fearless believers. Although I treasure my old KJV and Rheimes-Douay, the NOAB 4th Edition is the best biblical investment I've ever made. If I'd had this Bible twenty years ago, I need never to have bought another.Now for simple reading pleasure, instead of The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, I do in fact still very much prefer the King James Bible, which we actually read at school for grade seven English (the Old Testament) and for grade eight English (the New Testament) and thus in the early 1980s. But I also and really do have to wonder if in today's world, reading the King James Bible in a secular type of school setting would even be deemed as acceptable and as appropriate (although indeed, our perusal in English class was always completely and totally based on seeing and approaching the King James Bible as a work of literature, as a work of fiction, and not ever as religious dogma). After consulting Abrahamic religions I will move onto others. I come from a country with a melting pot of religious beliefs, from ancestry worship, to Hinduism to Christianity etc. South Africa definitely benefits you in that way. And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, The most interesting parts were not the text of the Bible itself, but the annotations, introductions and essays by the scholars and translators that worked on this edition. (I read the fifth edition.) It really would have been difficult to understand anything without the context that these essays gave to the text. What I liked: The historical essays leading off each book, section and Athens are simply outstanding. Many I read multiple times. Only word of warning here is that hey we obviously written by different authors. Occasionally they do conflict or offer repetitive information. Over-all, I found these essays critical in understanding what I was reading from both a historical and literary perspective. Likewise, the notes accompanying the text are thorough, enlightening and informative. Also I came away with a new appreciation for the wisdom and literature in some of the minor Old Testament books and even more so the Apocrypha.

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English Bible translations fall somewhere along a continuum between a woodenly literal rendition and a free, or liberal, style. An example of the former is the venerable King James Version with its flowery 17th-c. language, and the modern-sounding "The Message," as rendered by its translator, Eugene Peterson. The present work is an attempt to update the RSV. On the above-referenced continuum it falls between the KJV and the New International Version (NIV), the latter an attempt to strike a judicious balance between word-for-word literalism and a paraphrase. I heard someone say in my youth that even if the Bible is not the divine word of God, it is still the best guide going to living your life. While it may be difficult to see this is the Old Testament, it does serve to establish a context for the "new" message of the New Testament.Herbert G. May, 73, Biblical Scholar". The New York Times Archives. New York. The New York Times Company. 11 October 1977. p.38 . Retrieved 4 March 2020. The first edition of the OAB, edited by Rev. Dr. Herbert G. May and Dr. Bruce M. Metzger was published in 1962, based on the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible. [1] [2] [3] In 1965, OUP published a matching edition of the deuterocanonical and apocryphal books as well as a version of the OAB including them. [2] The deuterocanonical books are used by the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek and Slavonic Orthodox Churches, as well as churches of the Anglican Communion (including the Episcopal Church). In the same year, the OAB received the official imprimatur of Cardinal Richard Cushing for use by Roman Catholics as a study Bible. [4] [3] [5] Later, the NOAB was also warmly welcomed by Orthodox leaders. [6] Speaking of violence: most of the victims of God’s wrath, especially in the old testament are the Jews themselves. The book is an endless repetition of the same cycle of abuse: the Jews do something that makes God angry -> God dispatches some terrible punishment on them, like a foreign army that kills or enslaves the Jews -> after a while the Jews repent and make up with God, who saves them from the very problems he’s put them in -> all is good for a while, until the Jews break God’s rules once more and the cycle begins again.