The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs & Curiosities by George W. Knight

The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs & Curiosities by George W. Knight ISBN-13: 9781593107031 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Barbour Books Released: May 1, 2007

Source: Borrowed from the library.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Why did Bible people wash each other's feet? What was wrong with Leah's "tender eyes"? Why were the Israelites forbidden to boil a young goat in its mother's milk? What did Jesus mean about His "yoke" being "easy"?

The Bible is full of puzzling things that an understanding of ancient times and cultures can help to explain. More than 750 clear, concise entries are included, covering every book of the Bible in order. Featuring more than 100 full-color images, this book is an excellent resource for Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, Christian school classes, and personal research.


My Review:
The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs & Curiosities is a Bible commentary that focuses on cultural background information. This information helps readers to better understand potentially puzzling Bible passages.

It's very easy to read and a quick read. It covered the whole Bible. Each entry gave the verse being talked about in the margin and a couple paragraphs of related background information next to it in the main text under a topic heading. There were a lot of full-color photographs that helped the reader better understand the information in the text (as in, useful illustrations rather than simply "pretty pictures").

There were several times that I would have liked to know where the author got his information since I've read conflicting information elsewhere, but no source information was provided. Overall, I'd recommend this as a good resource for a beginner in the area of Bible background since it covered a lot of good, basic information.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.