The Story of the Bible In 100 Pictures: The Old Testament

By Graham Wightman

A bird’s eye view of the bible in 100 photographs and text.

50 colour photographs illustrate verses from each of the two testaments, and a short section of text then describes the photograph and explains how the verse fits into the story-line of the bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781326928216

Book preview

The Story of the Bible In 100 Pictures: The Old Testament

The Story of the Bible in 100 Pictures: The Old Testament

01.jpg

Copyright

Copyright 2017 by Graham Wightman

All rights reserved.

First Published: 2017

ISBN  978-1-326-92821-6

Bible quotations are based on the New International Version (NIV) with occasional minor changes for clarity. For example: a name is given instead of ‘he’, or the verse is not quoted in full.

It should be noted that in many cases other versions of the bible may be very similar to the wording used here. It is not intended to avoid the copyright of any other translation, nor is there any intention to change the meaning of the text.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Introduction

The BBC did a radio series The history of the world in one hundred objects. After careful consideration 100 artefacts in the British Museum had been selected and each one was used to weave a story explaining the history of the world and the way different civilisations had developed. Each object was a small snapshot of a much bigger picture. This book is an attempt to do the same using photographs to tell the story of the bible.

Why another book about the bible? A few years ago I found my teenage son reading his bible. He explained that a youth leader had challenged the youth group to try reading the bible all the way through. I had to admit I had never done that as I usually got stuck two or three books in. But I decided that if he could do it so could I, and it was quite enlightening to see the whole picture. In addition, reading the bible in different translations can bring out fresh insights. I hope this book will do the same for you. There are also many people who may not want to read the bible but may find a hundred photos something they can dip into to learn what the bible is all about.

Firstly, a few comments on the pictures. For some photographs a bible verse came to mind at the time, and the photo was taken to illustrate it. For others it was a case of reviewing photos to see if they reminded me of a particular verse. In a few cases it was necessary to look for a particular illustration simply because it is an important part of the story. There is a temptation to photograph other people’s art work (e.g. stained glass windows) where it particularly captures a part of the bible story, but these have been avoided apart from a few limited exceptions. Some of the images are not quite what you might expect, but hopefully they will make you think afresh about the passage, and I hope no-one is offended by any juxtaposition of image and text.

The text gives a bit of background about the pictures, and a short description explaining how they fit into the bible story. Hopefully every reader can get something from the book and I hope you enjoy it.

The Historical Books

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God

02.jpg

The bible starts with an assumption that there is a God. It doesn’t feel it has to prove it. Unfortunately in our day we expect proof: Scientists prove things, and they can’t prove there is a God so God doesn’t exist. However, that is an over-simplification. Scientists make observations, develop a hypothesis, and then test the hypothesis by seeing if other observations fit the theory. If we observe that there is an amazing universe that we are part of, one possible hypothesis is that there is a God who made it. Does what we then observe fit