KJV Illustrated Bible Handbook
By: Holman Reference
Reviewed By: Ashley Davis
We’ve got a quick and handy resource recommendation today! Have you ever wished you understood a book of the Bible better before you just jumped right into studying it? When you read the Bible, do you feel like you’re missing something? Have you ever been curious if Christ can really be found in the Old Testament? KJV Illustrated Handbook is a great little tool for answering each of these questions, and more!
The KJV Illustrated Handbook begins with an explanation of the historical impact of the King James Version of the Bible and the steps to the final version of the KJV Bible. Additionally, it discusses the origin, transmission, and canonization of the Old & New Testament books.
What follows is a section for each book of the Bible. For each book, the handbook provides the following information:
Key text
Key term(s)
One-sentence summary
Original Historical setting
Author & date of writing
First audience and destination
OccasionGod’s message in (this book)
Purpose
First pass (a short summary)
The reliability of (this book)How (this book) fits into God’s story
Christ in (this book)
Christian worldview elements
Teachings about God
Teachings about humanity
Teachings about salvationGenre and literary style
A principle to live by
Sprinkled through these elements, readers find maps, pictures, graphs, diagrams, and other visual representations to aid in better understanding God’s Word. Additionally, each chapter concludes with a QR code that links to a video explanation of the principle this book aims to emphasize.
It’s a little book packed from margin to margin with a ton of helpful info! I first heard about this from one of our FT2 team members, Bradyn Ouellette. I didn’t realize at the time what a perfect size it is. It fits comfortably in one hand and is very easy to keep in a little nook or cranny in your devotion/study space or pop in a bag to take to a Bible study. It would even be a good gift for someone you know loves Bible study tools. I used it just this morning to dig a little deeper into the history and progression of the book of Acts as we prepare for our next Ladies on Track writer’s workshop! We recommend buying this one through Christianbook.com. They run sales often on this book, and it’s usually only $5! Shipping took about 3 weeks for me to receive this from Christianbook.
Audience:
Men and women; likely approachable for high school age readers and older.
Usefulness Rating:
This little handbook is very useful and could aid in growing the understanding of any student of the Word.
Entertainment Value:
Some of the maps and pictures, while not “entertaining,” are really eye-opening and do help keep readers engaged.
Good for Groups:
This book could be a tool to help facilitate group understanding or discussion, but it is not designed for groups.
For more information about this book or other reading suggestions, feel free to contact me directly.
