Excerpt from Story of the BibleThere are two ways to use the Bible. One is the old childhood way of using a text from here or there, regardless of the time and circumstances of its origin. The other is the grown person's way, of reading it a book at a time, as it was written to be read, and with some understanding of the time and circumstances in which each book was written. It is obvious that only in this latter way can the major values of the Bible be realized. The Bible is far from being a child's book. No book in the world is more definitely addressed to the mature mind. And yet many people never get beyond their childhood approach to it, or seek to understand its books in the light of the historical situations that called them forth.The Old Testament is full of dramatic situations and great religious truths, but these are dimly perceived by most people nowadays. Grotesque elements in its art sometimes completely overshadow its most tremendous religious values - as in the story of Jonah. Superficial reading of its books often leaves us with no idea at all of the situations in which they were written and without which they cannot be understood.For the Old Testament is a very difficult book.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. - from Amzon