Crazy Book

A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms

Rolf A. Jacobson, Karl N. Jacobson, Hans H. Wiersma

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781506418445
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506418452
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The Bible can be hard to understand. To many of us, it often does seem like a crazy book. But, according to the authors of Crazy Book, the crazy book we call the Bible actually teaches us the sanity that we need. The sanity that lets us know who God is, who we are in light of God's love, and where God's love can be found and experienced.

Very similar in tone and organization to Crazy Talk, the authors of Crazy Book unleash their passion, faith, and humor. This time they have their sights on the Bible and biblical terms, and they don't hold back. Here, they've elected to focus on major people, events, places, books, and types of literature in the Bible, communicating the life-giving truth of the Bible via often knock-em-dead humor. The volume's savvy and sassy overtones are bound to leave an impression. This is an accessible book almost devoid of scholarly jargon but filled with scholarly insight.

The revised and expanded addition includes new and expanded entries and all new images.

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Book Reviews

Nota bene: Each of these book reviews includes a rating from one to five stars. Yes, we had the gall to “grade” the word. But we’re in good company. None other than Martin Luther ranked the books of the Bible according to which ones he thought preached the word most clearly and faithfully.

Acts of the Apostles, The

Author: Dr. Luke^[1]

Vellum: 28 chapters

Publisher: Spirit Moves Books

Review: ★★★★★

By Cecil B. DeMille

The Acts of the Apostles is an epic of epic proportions. In fact, I wish I had lived long enough so that I could have given the story of the apostles the same epic treatment I gave the story of Jesus in my epic film The King of Kings (1927) or the same epic treatment I gave the story of Moses in my epic film The Ten Commandments (1958). The challenge would have been who to cast for the lead role. Because the lead in the Acts of the Apostles isn’t Peter or Paul. No, it’s the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of the risen Christ (promised in John 14:26)—who is driving all the action in this epic epic. As much as I like ol’ Chuck Heston in the role of Moses, I just don’t think he could pull off the Holy Spirit.

Casting issues aside, Acts gets going with the followers of Jesus not getting going. They’re all just sitting on their hands there in Jerusalem, epically inert. But then! [Enter stage left] The Spirit arrives and gets things going with the sound of a rushing wind, tongues of fire, and a real neat trick of getting people to preach in languages they do not otherwise speak. In my day I had neither CGI at my disposal nor the direct supervision of the Spirit to take the special effects to the next level. [Sigh.] But, speaking of preaching: the preaching in Acts is epic preaching powered by the Holy Spirit—like Peter after he’s arrested (4:8), Stephen after he’s arrested (7:55), and Paul after he’s not arrested but in front of the authorities nevertheless (13:9). Yes, there’s a lot of Spirit-inspired preaching in Acts, and a lot of people getting in trouble for it, even dying for it. But the point is that things really get going when the Spirit is acting—things like preaching and teaching, the apostles representin’ with boldness, “signs and wonders,” and more and more people believing the message about Jesus in more and more places—beginning in Jerusalem, and spreading throughout the Roman Empire to places like Galatia, Philippi, Corinth, and finally Rome! Acts is so epically epic they really should have asked me to make the movie.

Amos

Author: Amos Ha-Noqer

Papyrus: 9 chapters

Publisher: SJW Press

Review: ★★★★

The plot of this deliciously sarcastic book can be summed up by the first words out of the prophet’s mouth: “The Lord roars from Zion” (1:2). At whom does the Lord roar? Why, at the rulers and residents of the Northern Kingdom, sometime around the year 760 BCE. But also at you and me, dear reader, for we are prone to the same sins as they were. Why does the Lord roar? Because they—we!—“have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes” (2:4).

To unpack Mr. Ha-Noqer’s sarcastic condemnations, it will be helpful to know something about daily life in his times. Mr. Ha-Noqer uses many metaphors and illustrations to get his points across. Take, for example, the bit about the plumb line. “The Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb line.’ Then the Lord said, ‘See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel’” (Amos 7:7–8). A plumb line is a carpenter’s tool used to assure that walls and the like are, well, plumb (meaning straight up and down). The prophet’s point was that the people were not “upright.” God had measured them out of plumb, or less than “righteous”—in a word, crooked. In these days of instant outrage, it’s this kind of subtle approach that makes Amos’s book such a pleasure to read.

It will help if the reader has an ear for sarcasm, because the prophet’s words drip with it, like a leaky faucet. For that reason, this book might find a potential audience among teenagers and others who appreciate sarcasm as a mode of meaningful discourse.

See also: Amos; Prophets, Minor

Chronicles, 1 and 2

Author: Ann O’Nymous

Papyrus: 65 chapterzzzzz

Publisher: De Rivative & Sons Publishers

Review: ★★

First and Second Chronicles is Ms. O’Nymous’s editing and revising of earlier historical works, namely, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings. This second helping of history is remarkable in large part for two things. First, it demonstrates an outrageous and unsubtle concentration on the Southern Kingdom (Judah), all but ignoring the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and its history. Second, it celebrates the building of Solomon’s temple in much greater detail, to the point where specific groups of Levitical singers are identified according to their role in Solomon’s praise ensemble. These, among other changes, mark Ms. O’Nymous’s work in Chronicles as something almost completely different.

While one hesitates to suggest that reading 1–2 Chronicles is barely worth the effort, it certainly is important to read Samuel and Kings first in order to appreciate the sometimes subtle and sometimes painfully obvious nuances and differences in emphasis that one finds in Chronicles. Ms. O’Nymous’s work is also commendable because she has preserved some pieces of Judah’s story that the earlier mentioned epics do not include.

Colossians

Author: Paul, with a little help from his friends

Vellum: 4 chapters

Publisher: What’s in a Name Press

Review: ★★★

Jesus is Lord. That’s what Colossians wants to make abundantly clear, especially chapter 1. But Colossians wants to make other things abundantly clear as well. For instance: watch out for those false teachers whose words captivate (2:8). Beware of those legalists who tell you “stop, can’t touch this” or “can’t taste that” (Col 2:21). But on the other hand, put to death fornication and impurity and passion and evil desire and greed (Col 3:5). (Note: that whole “put to death” language is metaphorical, if it weren’t, this book should be banned from libraries along with Huckleberry Finn and Left Behind.) Oh, and while you’re at it, clothe yourselves with Colossians 3:12–17, a passage that’s also nice to read at weddings. (Note: again this “clothing” language is purely metaphorical; if you show up at a wedding in just Colossians 3, you probably won’t get in.) For more about the writing of Colossians, see the book review on Ephesians.

See also: Paul (Saul of Tarsus)

Corinthians, 1 and 2

Author: Saul of Tarsus, aka the apostle Paul

Vellum: 29 chapters

Publisher: Paulus Press

Review: ★★★★★

By Pompeii the Sailorman

Readers familiar with Paul’s other works will certainly welcome Corinthians to the collection. This work is divided into two volumes and represents a compilation of letters Paul wrote to the Christians living in Corinth, Greece. As most readers know by now, Paul is the one who planted the seed of the gospel in Corinth—no easy feat in that rough-and-tumble port of call. A guy passing through could get just about anything he wants in Corinth, including any religion, and any god or goddess. Anyway, thanks to others who watered the seed that Paul planted, the church in Corinth was a growing concern with growing concerns. Paul’s anthology addresses these concerns.

Part of the fun of reading Corinthians is reading between the lines. Like listening to one side of a phone conversation, we can only guess as to the exact nature of the questions and concerns arising out of the Christian community in Corinth. It’s clear that there were conflicting opinions—and conflicting opinion leaders—and that such conflict inspired some in Corinth to seek the counsel of their founder, Paul. Paul readily offers such counsel, covering a variety of subjects, including how to handle differences of opinion, how to “know nothing except Christ crucified,” how to think about food sacrificed to idols, how to deal with issues of marriage and the single life, how to honor the Lord’s Supper, how to share the wealth, and, in general, how to be the “body of Christ” with all its parts working together. Not to be missed is Paul’s hilariously “foolish” boasting jag (in 2 Corinthians 11), by which he exposes the “super-apostles” who were stirring things up in there Corinth. Wait . . . foolish boasting? What’s next? Army intelligence? Jumbo shrimp?

Not intended to be the theological tour de force represented by Paul’s Romans, 1–2 Corinthians nevertheless offer a profound “inside look” at the struggles of an early Christian community, not to mention sound guidance for all Christian communities everywhere.

Daniel

Author: Dan Nonimus

Papyrus: 12 chapters

Publisher: Fiery Furnace Books

Review: ★★★★

By Bob the Tomato

Not one but two of the first four episodes of VeggieTales were inspired by stories in the book of Daniel. So I’m definitely the right tomato for the job of writing this review. (For those of you scoring at home, those episodes are the first, Where Is God When I’m S-Scared?, and the fourth, Rack, Shack & Benny.)

So the first question to ask about Daniel is, Exactly what kind of a book is this? Christians count Daniel as one of the major prophets. But it is not like other prophetic books in many ways. In the Jewish tradition, the book isn’t considered a prophetic book but one of the Writings (along with books such as Psalms, 1–2 Chronicles, and Job). I’m with the Jewish tradition on this one. This isn’t a book by Daniel, and it doesn’t have the same kind of prophetic speeches that you’ll find in, say, Hosea or Amos. Instead, it’s a narrative that was written many years after Daniel lived. In fact, of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, Daniel was the last one written—somewhere around 165 BCE. Daniel lived during the Babylonian exile, when the people of God struggled beneath the yoke of Babylonian tyranny. As it happened, 165 BCE was in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table Of Contents
• Introduction
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
• Book Reviews