Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible
by Michael F. Bird

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian nonfiction

In this book, Michael F. Bird explains how the modern Bible came to be, the need to take it in its proper context, and other nitty gritty details about the Word of God. It’s purported to be accessible to everyone, which means the fact that I struggled to understand some portions of it make me feel kind of stupid. Really, though, in a lot of ways it was similar to many other more intellectual, theologically deep books I’ve read, though not all the way through. Still, it makes me wonder why so many reviews talk about how easy it is to read.

As for the content, some aspects of this book were nothing new for me while others were quite new. For example, I’ve never before heard that the apostle John, the author of the 3 epistles named John, and the John who wrote Revelation might not all be the same John. My concern, though, lies in this book being read by new Christians or those who aren’t very strong in their faith. Even I, who 100% believe the complete accuracy of the Bible and the ability of God to protect His Word as it was handed down over the millennia, found myself beginning to question how accurate what I read can be when Bird gets into the details about how we got the Bible. Maybe that’s because he never quite touched on God’s sovereignty, that He had the power to guide the men who wrote, translated, edited, compiled, etc. the Bible and keep it intact to His wishes. On the other hand, He hasn’t stopped some translations and paraphrases from coming out that water down the truth, so therein likes the concern that this book could actually lead some people to question the Bible as a source of truth. His comments about learning about the historical and cultural context of the different parts of the Bible were intriguing though. I have no plans to try to read Josephus now, but there are more accessible options that I plan to look into. Overall, I can see the merit in this book, which my husband, who read a couple of chapters of it for one of his pastoral training classes, recommended to me, but I am not sure I’m the right audience for it. But I’m not really sure who is, since people who are newer to Christianity might not be able to follow some of it or might actually become confused about the authority of scripture and more mature Christians likely already know much of what is contained within.

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