Eli

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It should be required reading for everyone.

I really don't know what else to say. If you're looking to see Jesus in a new light and what it truly meant to physically walk with HIM...read this. It was a life changing read for me. (Also, side note - I've personally met Bill Byers, the author of this book, and he is the REAL deal. Anything you read by him is going to be amazing. He writes only truth, and nothing else.)

In all honesty, the "alternate reality" storyline is a fairly thin veneer with which to display the actual meat of this book. After centuries of stories about shepherds, fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and pharisees, many people have lost track of who these people actually were in the context of their own time, and we see them through the benign lens of a comfortable Christianity that we've grown accustomed to in the West. But these people were thought of differently back in the time that the Gospels were composed. This book presents us with hippies, drug dealers, uneducated men, militants, and televangelists--people who we are more familiar with--and casts them into all the "accustomed" roles of Bible stories. In doing so, Myers shows us, at least in part, how odd, and scandalous Jesus' actions must have seemed at the time they were going on. It presents a different picture, one that adds a depth and richness to the Gospel stories than what modern Americans remember from Sunday School. I appreciated this book tremendously, because it drew me to think about who it was that Jesus was spending time with, and how he was spending that time with them. This is not, really, a story about "alternate realities." This is a book that translates the Gospels into modern times--not word for word, nor even chapter for chapter, but tale for tale.

When this book caught my eye in the bookstore I didn't expect it to be this amazing. The idea of getting a glimpse of what it would be like if Jesus had come 2,000 years later, today, was very intrigueing. In this book I was impacted time and time again over the truths, emotions, and outcome that Jesus, or "Eli", made and provoked. I was reminded and given a firm reason to why we so desperately need Jesus's blood and death. Have you ever had a Bible that translates things into "today terms"? Such as when they talk about a certain about of money and they have a footnote that says exactly how much that money would be worth today? Well, "Eli" is like a big footnote for the story of Jesus. Bill Myers puts the story of Jesus into terms that we can relate to, and the effect is breathtaking. I highly recommend this book if you are familiar with the story of Jesus, but if you aren't then please read the real thing first in the book of John in the Bible.

I had enjoyed reading Bill Myers "Blood of Heaven" trilogy and was eager to read "Eli". I was prepared to enjoy it....but my experience went beyond that. This book truly moved me. It deepened my understanding, and yes, my love for Jesus. You can quibble with technicalities in this book. Even the author admits his limitations in his preface. Yet it deeply touched my heart. Read it and you will see.

I must admit to being a little skeptical about this book before reading it, but I enjoy Bill Myers' writing, so I bought it. I'm certainly glad I did. Myers succeeds brilliantly in waking the reader up to Jesus' life and ministry. For someone who grew up in the church, this is almost a must-read. I (and I would expect most people) have a lot of pre-conceived notions and ideas about Jesus that would make a lot of His claims sound perfectly reasonable. But coming out of someone else's mouth, they sound absolutely ludicrous (unless you believe it). Not only does this show what people must have thought of Jesus 2000 years ago, but it also illustrates what non-believers today must think of Jesus and those who follow Him.Entertaining yes, but even more thought-provoking.

Bill Myers' book, "Eli", successfully satisfies a long-standing need rarely addressed outside of childrens' books. This need is that for Biblical stories written in new and involving ways, such that they attend to a mature reader's imagination, as well as aid in their spiritual growth. The average household in America contains 5 Bibles, yet it remains the least read book per household in which a copy is owned. Of the countless millions of given reasons for unread Bibles, it is safe to venture that one reason many people don't read them the same way they would any other book is that it often seems to read comparably to a history textbook -- the stories are recounted factually, succinctly, and with scarce descriptive details given. "Eli" transforms the Biblical account of the life of Christ (taking great liberty when adding details) into a vastly more pleasant style and format to read, by rewriting it in novel form. Although there is an abundance of fictional elements included to establish "Eli" as a story by it's own right, it is, effectively, a wonderfully narrative rendition of Christ's ministry in a richly depicted and well-known setting. Using simple details commonplace in modern fiction, such as facial expressions, emotional responses, and character development, Bill Myers has essentially supplied that desperately needed, very personal element of human kinship and commonality, allowing "Eli" to provide a personally engaging, highly imaginitive, and refreshing to read presentation of a unique twist on what is undeniably the single most significant and powerful string of events in history.