Cliffsnotes on the Old Testament

The Cliffs notes for the Bible is hardly an attempt to "condense the entire 39 books of the Old Testament into a little yellow book." I would not be so condesending, it does a very good job at condensing many scholars' perspectives on who's writing is included in it and the times the texts were written during; even touching on *some* pop Bible stories and the "great questions" they analyze. It introduces Bible newbies (and some oldies) to the notion the Bible wasn't written like a movie, by a few people in the span of a few months or even years; the Old Testament includes work by many people over the span of hundreds of years. Such a long time, that original documents wore out or decayed, thus needed to be copied down to a new hard copy...he briefly mentions instances of editorial modifications, he does not discuss language conversions however. I believe an overview of a very complicated piece of literature is great, before or after sitting down to read it in vast quantities. He does a good job at staying in an objective tone, not rambling on to preaching tangents. Again, this is not an attempt to condense the OT, but provide insight into who the current studied folks consider the authors and when the manuscripts were brought together.

This little, straightforward text helps one appreciate one reason why the Bible is probably the most widely read book in world history: it contains the wisdom of a people who faced radically varying circumstances over hundreds and hundreds of years. Cliffs also introduces beginners the idea that the Bible is FAR more fascinating than a religious monolith...it contains the gradually and sometimes radically changing thought of a people throughout the ages.