Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious!, 26 Jan 2009
I can't recommend this book enough. It's hilarious! I've never laughed so much in my life.
Case in point: "If two Israelite men are fighting and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, her hand must be cut off without pity." Deuteronomy 25:11-12
It's like that all the way through.
Lots of crazy talk and slap stick violence.
For me, it is only rivalled in its comic greatness by the equally uproarious Quran.
Buy it now!
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143 of 191 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A ripping tale of good, evil, betrayal , redemption, etc., 15 Nov 2005
By A Customer
This book is shrouded in mystery and controversy. It centres around a jewish man called Jesus, perhaps the Son of God, apparently born about 2,000 years ago of a virgin called Mary. Jesus grows up - the story recounts very little of his childhood days - and becomes well versed in Jewish religion. He claims special powers, preaches about universal love and forgiveness of one's enemies, is recognised by his followers as the Son of God come to fulfil his father's law, but eventually winds up Jewish elders after a heated episode in the Temple who not long after hand him over to the Roman's for crucifixion. The Roman's crucify him, he dies, is put in a cave, but three days later, so the story goes, he comes back to life and gets out. He goes back and sees his friends and followers, hanging around for a while before going back home to his father who lives in heaven.
Thats the gist of it, but the problems start with the fundamental question of who wrote it. Some people called Christians who rather like this story say that God wrote it about his Son Jesus. But that is difficult to believe as there are clearly four versions of the story, all a bit different, written by four men called Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At times the story gets a bit repetitious, and one suspects that Matthew, Mark and Luke copied their stories from one earlier unnamed source. The version by John is a bit more mystical and fanciful and departs from the narrative of the other three authors a little too much for my liking.Another problem has to do with whether this book is God's final word as the Christian's who love this book would have it. They believe it is part two of a two volume set (the first part of which is known as the Torah and which is also dictated by God to a man called Moses - those who prefer the first book over the second call themselves Jews). Many others believe this is just part two of a trilogy which ends with another book dictated by God to a man called Mohamed and which is known as the Quran. Indeed, its more complicated than that, as people called Mormon's believe there is a fourth installment, dictated to an American called Joseph Smith (by God), and they call that book the Book of Mormon. When I was young and this book was given to me to read it all seemed rather simple. There was one book - this was it - and God wrote it. But as I've gotten older I've realised that whatever the truth behind this book is, its been rather confused and convoluted over the years of telling and retelling. But I do like the central message of this man Jesus - love others as you would love yourself, and forgive people for doing bad things to you. Thus, despite all the confusion and controversy, I recommend this book as a good read whether or not you think its all true, partly true, or a work of utter fiction. Happy Reading.
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50 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Can you Adam and Eve it?! Beards, hippies, and a superbully., 20 Nov 2007
The book is split into two distinct sections - The Old Testament being quite an entertaining fantasy tale involving flooding, the parting of the sea, evil snakes and the creation of the world itself! The New Testament is the sequel to the old one and like most sequels, it lacks something.
God was a bit grumpy in the first book, to be honest he behaves like a jealous child and even says that "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me" - so if you don't agree with what he says and worship him, then he's going to come after your kids, and their kids, and so on. Sounds like a bully to me, this is essentially an very old gangster story. He's the Don, the world is his patch - and he's got the power to make your family pay. Still, it's a good yarn!
The second part - The New Testament - is nowhere near as entertaining. The plot is not as epic, so the preachyness comes through strong and you can't help but feel that it's trying to mean all things to all people, this results in it contradicting itself and seeming a bit clumsy at times.
This New Testament should really have been called "Bible 2: Son of God - this time it's personal". There's a huge plot hole in the story though - this Jesus fella is a likeable hippy and ends up getting nailed to a cross only to actually appear again later on in the story. I also felt that this was a blatant rip off of Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Interpret it how you like - no matter what your beliefs are you'll find justification for them in there. Whether you like the philosophy of hate or love, you can follow either and quote passages from this book to support your actions. You can even get different versions of this book with the bits you might not want to follow cut out, genius - pick `n' mix religion! This version drops a lot of the old-speak and replaces it with Americanisations (I refuse to use a Z).
The book also misses out Gods final message to the universe, thankfully this was included in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: "Sorry for the inconvenience".
In a nutshell: Fantasy fiction fans might be a bit disappointed, 3 stars from me as it's pretty average. The first bit props it up, otherwise it would have been a 2 starrer for me. It has its uses though, if you sit reading this on a train, nobody will sit near you. Just stash your Harry Potter (or whatever) inside.
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