Visual Commentaries Books

Incredible Mysteries of the Bible is a clever masterpiece created for simple people like me who are looking for answers to some of the Bible's most complex and intriguing questions. From the beautiful pictures to the user-friendly lay-out, this book is easily a must-have. Once you open it, you will never want to put down. Stephen M. Miller is an extremely talented author who is able to make some of the most complicated and mind-boggling mysteries in the Bible simple, clear, and easy to understand.

Incredible Mysteries of the Bible: A Visual Exploration (Zondervan Visual Reference Series)

Stephen M. Miller has a well-established reputation as author of some of the most useful Bible information books. A search under his name at this site will prove the point.

Miller has a talent for organizing a large amount of information and communicating it in a clear and interesting fashion that inevitably pulls the reader into a conversation about the material. Incredible Mysteries of the Bible: A Visual Exploration illustrates this point. Included are 40 mysteries beginning with "Where Was the Garden of Eden?" and ending with "Is Hell Real or a Symbol?" Each mystery receives two large format pages of coverage explaining what others have said and bringing to bear findings of recent scholarship. The "visual" in the title refers to the marvelous color illustrations for each mystery. This is a handsome, well-written book, providing colorful introductions to many of the mysteries of the Bible.

Gorgeous art--paintings, photos, maps--lavishly illustrate this book, helping bring to life Miller's crisp answers to vexing questions about Bible mysteries. Mysteries about the Garden of Eden, the Flood, people living hundreds of years, Noah's Ark. Some mysteries actually have reasonable solutions--like the story about Joshua ordering the sun and moon to stop. Hint: hail killed most of the enemy. Even the story of God feeding Moses and the Jews with quail and manna have science behind it. So does the collapse of Jericho's walls. Some other mysteries have only theories, but Miller seems to present the best of the lot and offers them up without bias. So we get to decide what theories, if any, seem most reasonable. Here's a warning: Pick up this book and you'll have a tough time putting it down. Every turn of the page draws you in. But the reading goes quickly because the writing gets to the point pronto.

Reed's book makes for both entertaining and educational reading. Going in, I had some general knowledge of critical biblical scholarship, but practically no knowledge of what archeology in the holy lands can actually tell us. I came away with a great appreciation of both the importance and limitations of biblical archeology.

This book is at its absolute best when it describes the context for the creation of particular New Testament texts. Its treatment of the origin of Revelation is extremely enlightening for example. I did, however, occasionally want him to be a little more critical of the historicity of the accounts in the biblical texts themselves. Instead he maintains caution, which is certainly understandable even if a little frustrating.

Overall an excellent read.

I am the author. Addison Wesley have decided not to publish
this book :-(.

You can now download a pdf of the book from the books web page
(amazon reviews don't seem to appear if they contain a url).
Hint. Search google using the three words: knosof book sentence

to any child's education. My son has been working specifically on some cognitive skills and these cards are a great way to help him see and strategize problems in a systematic way. We especially have had fun describing how we each came to the answer--and seeing how differently our brains and eyes work!

I would say that these exercises are great for EVERY kid--but for those who are needing extra help with learning difficulties and figuring out new ways to problem solve, they are a godsend!

For someone who learns best from short lists, organized thoughts, tables, flow charts, visual aids, this book is great! It breaks each book in the bible into a time line, main ideas or concepts, diagrams of travel routes, compares first and seconds appearences (or before and after ideas) of the same concept. (ex: Compares Paul's first and second voyage, compares Adam to Jesus) It's a wonderful tool for learning.

Adequate for my needs--often more information than I need for the class I am taking.

I was looking for a series of charts that would combine people and historical dates. For example, in Daniel, how do the various prophets line up with the various rulers? When do Daniel's dreams take place chronologically?

This book didn't come close. This book has outlines of each of the books. I can get that in almost any commentary. This book gave cursory discriptions and discussion about each Bible book. But, the authors did not provide enough detail to make the reading worthwhile. That level of detail made reading a waste of time.

This book is supposed to be a "Complete Book of Bible Charts and Maps!" It's NOT. Even the drawings of things like to ark of the covenant are small, roughly drawn and basically unuseable.

I was VERY disappointed with this book.

This was a decent resource, but I recommend instead:

Reproducible Maps, Charts, Time Lines and Illustrations: What the Bible Is All About Resources

I especially say this comment for homeschoolers!

This book has been an invaluable accessory to 4 years of Disciple Bible study. I love charts ... and this one has LOTS! Good timelines and explanations. It may not have the most up to date scholarship and archeological details but the amount of very helpful information in just this one volume can not (in my experience) be beaten!

I am of the generation that understands the cartoon in this book that features "who's on first" between Jesus and "Abbot Costello," so the notion of combining cartoons with scripture is somewhat problematic for me. And there's Jesus saying, "Hurry up guys, I'm sinking here! Ha! Made you look!" as he water skis behind a rowboat. And the ever-present tiny drawing of Eve with the caption "I'm waiting for Peter to try!" The colorful cartoons are a sharp contrast to the text on each facing page. And that may be the saving grace. We have cartoons to attract the current generation accompanied by well written historical background explaining the significance and motives of key characters and providing insight into Jesus' teachings with no "dumbing down." To those like me who may have doubts about this combination, I am pleased to say the drawings opposite reflections on the crucifixion and death of Jesus are appropriate and moving. No heckling Adam and Eve, no word balloons.

This book is great for anyone who just wants to learn of the culture of Jesus' world. It is easy to read and the illustrations are accurate of what it would have been like. However, the illustrations are not high quality, just sketches of sorts but still gives a good picture of the time period.

For anyone who just wants to learn a little more of Jesus' world, this book is great!