Book review from Christian Book Reviews <http://christianbookreviews.com >
I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: Old Testament Stories - Val D. Greenwood Millennial Mind Pub (October 2008) Topic: Christian Education Summary: Major stories of the Old Testament arranged in a chronological form with Scripture references Rating: 5 stars
For many new Christians (and some old Christians as well), reading the Old Testament may sometimes seem less a source of inspiration than perspiration. They know there are many vaguely familiar stories but they seem lost in a sea of genealogies and lists of ritual purity laws. Moreover, the sheer size of the Old Testament can seem overwhelming and impractical for searching out the desired accounts. When we add the sometimes difficult prose for a young or novice reader even if they happen to stumble onto what they seek and the fact that accounts may appear in multiple places, it can add up to a lot of frustration when those who have been steeped in the Bible since childhood effortlessly sail through its pages. Val D. Greenwood has come to the rescue for many a frustrated novice Bible reader with the publication of I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation. Beginning with the creation accounts in Genesis and working his way through the Bible chronologically, Greenwood covers all the major Biblical figures in detail and gives accounts of the most well known and important events in the Old Testament. Best of all, with each account, he gives the location of the relevant Scriptural accounts so the book can serve as an introduction to the reading of Holy Scripture directly. The book is divides into sections covering all the major eras of the Old Testament beginning with the creation accounts and ending with the period following the return from the Babylonian captivity. Each section has an average of eighteen chapters of a few pages each. Each chapter covers one of the important stories from the Bible. The text is very user friendly without being simplistic and manages to convey the material in a manner that can appeal to a wide range of backgrounds and ages. If used as a tool for Bible study, one can go through the book, reading the Scriptural references given, and emerge with a solid background in the Old Testament. After working through the book this way, the reader will be much more comfortable reading the Old Testament on their own since they now will have some context to situate their readings. Besides the obvious aid to Bible study, this book would also be extremely valuable to those involved with Christian education at all age levels. It would be very suitable as a text for a class on the Old Testament for adults and/or teens and would also be helpful for teachers of Sunday School for younger children so they may better explain Old Testament stories to their young charges. Val D. Greenwood has managed to fill a void with I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation by supplying all the classic stories from the Old Testament in a very thorough yet engaging form. This book should be in the library of every Christian involved in teaching God’s Word and would be a blessing to any new Christian undertaking their first encounter with the Old Testament. —Albert McIlhaney ~~~~~ | 5 stars A more accessible and 'reader friendly' language style than the traditional Biblical translations, February 9, 2009 By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) The Old Testament is a compilation of some of the most famous and enduring stories cited in the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Now Val D. Greenwood has created a compendium succinctly re-telling two hundred of these Old Testament tales in "I Will Make Of Thee A Great Nation" in a more accessible and 'reader friendly' language style than the traditional Biblical translations that most people are familiar with. Placing each story within an historical context and through the profuse use of source citations and footnotes, this 367-page anthology is thoroughly appropriate for the non-specialist general readers, as well as Bible students, making it a very highly recommended addition to personal, family, church, and community library.Religion/Spirituality reference and reading list collections.
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Good Collection Of Stories, March 6, 2009
by Gregory Cohoon (Greensboro, NC USA) (from Amazon.com) This is a good collection of Old Testament stories. This is not a Bible translation, it's a paraphrase -- taking many of the stories in the Old Testament and simply telling them as stories. I think the way these stories are presented would be a good way to introduce young children to Bible stories. This book would also be welcome in an adult library, not as a study resource, but as a convenient way to remind you of the main points of Old Testament Bible stories. There's something refreshing about reading the stories in this form. I have a minor complaint about the presentation of the book -- the text is double-column. In some ways, that presentation takes away the charm of reading the stories as stories, and makes it seem like you're reading a textbook. --------- Review from Avid Christian.com (http://www.avidchristian.com/great-nation.html) (March 2009) I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation is written by Val D. Greenwood. This is a book containing 219 Old Testament stories. You could say that this book is a translation of Old Testament stories as told by Mr. Greenwood. Footnotes are included that add information or insight to the stories. This book is a good study aid in Old Testament studies. It is not and I’m sure it was not meant as a replacement to the scriptures. It is a convenient and easy way to work your way through these stories. You can always and should always back up anything you read with our own scriptural study. I’ll have to say that I didn’t have to read many stories before read something I had not read before. I questioned it a little, but a quick look at my Bible proved the new information to be true. There were also some things emphasized that I would not have put emphasis on, but that’s okay, it’s good for this book to make you think, study and do your own research. If you would like to start through the Old Testament stories in addition to your regular Bible study I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation is a good addition to your library ~~~~~ |
Val Greenwood has done a wonderful service for those who love the Old Testament. He has provided an incredible tool for a better understanding of the Old Testament. The stories are true to the scriptures and are without ornamentation, embellishment, or fictionalization. I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation will surely become an indispensable and timeless additon to the library of every Christian family. —Thomas G. Chapman, chaplain at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology ~~~~~ Perfect for people who haven't read the Old Testament , April 5, 2009 By Donald J. Parker "Donald James Parker - autho... (Seattle, WA USA) Obviously, Mr. Greenwood is a scholar. He has a love for scriptures and an attention to detail. His book not only has the retelling of various passages from the history of the Jewish nation before Christ, but also contains a wealth of footnotes that explain terms, motivation, and relationships. The back of the book contains maps, a pronunciation chart (every pastor needs something like this), and a name index that describes the significance of the various people who influenced the world in those days. And a subject index is also included for those who want to jump right to a topic. From the title we see that the scope of the work is not the entire Old Testament but rather a focus on the nation of Judah. My understanding of the nation of Judah as compared to the nation of Israel was almost zilch. The relationship between these two nations (with Judah being paired with the tribe of Benjamin) was one of the biggest advances in my knowledge gap. Mr. Greenwood's writing is invisible. That sounds like an indictment, but actually that comment is meant as a compliment. I mean I didn't notice whether the writing is good or bad, because I was flowing with the idea the writing is supposed to convey. If the writing was bad, I'd notice and be distracted from the content. If the writing was salient, I would have been distracted by my stopping to admire the phraseology or perhaps to decipher a phrase that was overly complex in nature. Either way I would be distracted and my absorption of the material would be impacted. The author's goal here is not to impress us with his literary prowess. He's trying to deliver the word of God in a more digestible and condensed format. I think he succeeded admirably. Since this is just a retelling of material that already exists, there is no major element of creativity involved here to critique. The author's major challenge is to determine what to include and what to omit. After the decision on what to include, he had to determine what to focus on and what to mention briefly. This is an area that some might criticize. For example, some might want to see more about King Jehoshaphat and less about King Saul. I don't know enough to be critical or laudatory here. I know I learned a lot, but I have no clue about what should have been included or stressed in this work but wasn't. This type of analysis really requires a Biblical scholar. The book itself is beautiful with a cover that impressed me greatly when I opened the package. One issue with it, in my eyes, is the size. There are only 309 pages of actual stories with a total of 367 pages including the various appendices. That is hardly intimidating for a work of this proportion, but the physical layout of the book is eight by ten inches, making it a little cumbersome to handle. This is not a book you can take to the gym and read as you walk around the track or workout on a cardiac machine. Since that is my favorite way to read, so I can assassinate a pair of birds with one rock, I found it mildly frustrating to deal with the increased size, but some people might consider this to be advantageous. The price of the book is also on the hefty side - $29.95. This is not a book that you read once and deploy it as a dust collector on your shelf. You'll want to use this as a research tool. If you do so, you should get your money's worth. This is a great resource, not intended to replace the Old Testament but to augment it. Thus I now need to get my Bible out and begin to read through it from start to finish, so I can reinforce what I've learned from this book and pick up those things which were omitted from it. ~~~~~ Church Book Shop (date unknown) http://churchbookshop.net/christian-book-reviews-page8.htm I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: Old Testament Stories By Val D. Greenwood Val Greenwood has come to the rescue for many a frustrated novice Bible reader with the publication of I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation. Beginning with the creation accounts in Genesis and working his way through the Bible chronologically, Greenwood covers all the major Biblical figures in detail and gives accounts of the most well known and important events in the Old Testament. Best of all, with each account, he gives the location of the relevant Scriptural accounts so the book can serve as an introduction to the reading of Holy Scripture directly. The book is divides into sections covering all the major eras of the Old Testament beginning with the creation accounts and ending with the period following the return from the Babylonian captivity. Each section has an average of eighteen chapters of a few pages each. Each chapter covers one of the important stories from the Bible. The text is very user friendly without being simplistic and manages to convey the material in a manner that can appeal to a wide range of backgrounds and ages. Val D. Greenwood has managed to fill a void with I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation by supplying all the classic stories from the Old Testament in a very thorough yet engaging form. This book should be in the library of every Christian involved in teaching God's Word and would be a blessing to any new Christian undertaking their first encounter with the Old Testament. | Very useful and welcome tool for students of the Old Testament,
(March 28, 2009 )By Jaroslav Melgr "jaroski" (Colorado) - [5 stars]
This is a very nice volume aimed to introduce the Old Testament (OT) to a person who would not typically feel inclined to pick up KJV and read the OT cover to cover. It's neither a re-translation nor a complete OT, but a selection of 219 stories from the OT told in a more accessible modern-day English. It could also be well used in a family setting, helping the children familiarize with the most common scripture stories. However, with that said I believe that even seasoned students of OT will find value in Mr. Greenwood's book. The stories are told in a refreshingly plain speech and offer a different perspective. Though told as seen through someone else's eyes it is still remarkably unbiased and balanced account. The OT is a large volume or work and it isn't easy to understand at first. I remember the first time I opened the bible at the beginning and felt utterly overwhelmed and unprepared to comprehend what lied within. The OT is also much underappreciated volume of scripture. Many bible students touch on it only when they have to in seminaries or Sunday school classes and rush off to study the New Testament (NT) to discover the mysteries therein.... Yet it is my belief and my experience that the OT is a treasure trove of wisdom, knowledge and a key to proper understanding of the NT and Christ's atonement. So Mr. Greenwood did a great service to us all by putting together this book. His experience studying and teaching OT for a number of years clearly shows through. He gets to the essence of each story and when he gives an interpretation or explains meaning of something he clearly documents his interpretation with references to biblical passages. Once again, it provides the reader with a fresh view of the stories many of us are already familiar with. The book also includes a section with biblical maps, pronunciation guide, name index with description of each character and references to where to read about them, subject index and bibliography. I highly recommend it to both beginning and advanced students, but especially to parents and teachers interested in fostering the love of the scripture and of the Old Testament. ~~~~~ I Will Make Of Thee A Great Nation Val Greenwood ISBN: 9781589824393 American Book Publishing Reviewed By Dominique Sessons
Official Apex Reviews Rating: 5 stars If you’ve ever tried to read the bible from start to finish, you know just how difficult it can be to piece together its various elements into a cohesive, comprehensive whole. With its extensive genealogical mapping and sporadic historical references, the Holy Book provides the reader with a wealth of insightful information – but that same information can often confound the reader due to the mercurial nature in which it is often presented. In addition, if you’ve ever tried to read the bible to children, it can be quite a challenge to explain to them the apparent discrepancies that exist from one section to the next. Trying to reconcile why God appears to command one thing in one biblical book and then demands something different in another is not only confusing to the kids who hear it – but to the adults who try to explain it as well. In I Will Make Of Thee A Great Nation, however, author Val Greenwood provides the solution to all the aforementioned problems and more. Within the pages of his extremely well-crafted anthology, Greenwood presents the reader with a detailed, thorough analysis of the Old Testament, covering all major eras and incidents cited in the biblical text. Some of the characters and events on which he expounds are familiar, while others are less well-known, but all are given an equal amount of Greenwood’s time and attention as he helps the reader become more acquainted with their spiritual and historical significance. An added bonus of Greenwood’s anthology is that he has crafted it in “reader-friendly” fashion, presenting the material in simple, easily relatable terms. Also, he provides the reader with sound scriptural support, which helps provide the much needed biblical context often missing from other anthologies that aim to translate and clarify ancient text. Ministers, Sunday School teachers, and Christian scholars the world over will benefit greatly from adding a copy of I Will Make Of Thee A Great Nation to their permanent libraries. Through his enlightening treatise, Val Greenwood has provided them and readers of all ages with unfettered access to understanding the greater context of biblical scripture, ensuring their ultimate success in teaching the truth of God’s Word to others. Highly recommended. |
