Perspective

003

With this issue, Bible Review completes its second year of publication.

And we have already established ourselves as a unique magazine. Nowhere else is the layperson exposed to the range of biblical subject matter found in Bible Review.

We are for people who love the Bible—all of it not just the more familiar stories of Genesis and the Gospels. We cover those too, but we also look into the nooks and crannies, into the byways of the Book, into its history and context and the way it was put together. We explore things like why the last verses of Chronicles are repeated as the first verses of Ezra, and the different ways the sensuous love poetry of the Song of Songs has been interpreted, and, coming in future issues, the puzzling questions that have been raised about the Book of Esther, and the strange world of the letter of Jude.

Bible Review is also unique from the scholars’ viewpoint. Never before has there been a publication in which Bible scholars can present their ideas to a wide lay audience—an audience that can understand and appreciate these ideas so long as they are expressed with grace and clarity.

Bible Review is unique in other ways as well. It makes learning enjoyable, even fun—Bible quizzes; Bible contests; book reviews; letters to the editor, both extravagant and foolish, insightful and wise; illustrations by the world’s greatest artists, superbly reproduced; thoughtful ruminations by some of the most renowned scholars.

Bible Review also uniquely teaches by indirection. You learn even from the most enjoyable and popular parts of the magazine. And in the major articles, there is always a secondary theme from which you learn, almost without realizing it. For example, in this issue one article discussed the various ways in which great artists interpret the story of Abraham and Sarah’s expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. But in the background is the fact that Genesis recounts two different versions of this expulsion, and when you finish reading this article you will have learned much more about these two versions of the Hagar-Ishmael story and the ways they differ than you might realize.

The same goes for the familiar David and Goliath story discussed in “The David and Goliath Saga.” The focus of this article is on how the final version of this biblical episode was edited, but you will end up knowing a lot more about the David and Goliath story, as well as how it was edited.

The acceptance—even welcome—that Bible Review has received from you and other people around the world who cherish the Bible has been nothing short of phenomenal. But we are still not financially viable. We need the support of everyone for whom intellectual Bible study is not a threat to faith and understanding, but is an additional way to a more enriched understanding of the Bible’s message. So please continue to support us and tell your friends about Bible Review.

For our part, we continue to believe that there are enough people out ere able to appreciate the Bible on many levels to bring us to solvency as well as success in terms of influence and acceptance. And we are well on our way to this goal even if we are not quite there.

But we must not be complacent. And we know we can do better. I would welcome your views and suggestions about the thoughts I have shared with you.