The Everything History of the Bible Book covers a range of topics worthy of the word "Everything', however, it's light on relevant information and painfully light on evidence.
Take this sentence on "Biblical Inspiration': "A book was not the word of God because it was consented to by God's people, but it was consented to by God's people because it was the word of God”.
If you said something like that to your garden-variety sceptic, you'd expect a reply like this: "Well, you Christians would say that, wouldn't you?"
Apparently the author did not expect such a reply, because he lets significant questions like that one through to the keeper so he can tell us things like; "If Luke wrote Hebrews, then he, by sheer number of words, wrote most of the New Testament”.
And there's plenty more useless trivia where that came from. In Chapter eight we learn a theory about why Genesis records no anger on God's part when Noah, apres voyage, has a few too many celebratory drinks. Apparently, the flood might've caused a shift in atmospheric pressure, lowering the old sea dog's alcohol tolerance.
Interesting? Definitely. Relevant to people's real concerns with Biblical historicity? I'm not so sure.
Unbelievers are a target audience for this book, but you won't catch me giving a copy to my non-Christian friends. There's just not enough evidence in there and too great a sense of "take my word for it'.
The Everything History of the Bible Book might serve as an introduction to the study of Biblical history (it's definitely not a reference). But it's too advanced for kids and nowhere near advanced enough for adults. At the end of the day, there are plenty of other books available that do a better job of exploring the historical background of the Bible " ask your preacher to recommend something else.
