A.D. The Bible Continues: The Book Of Acts, With Notes And Insights From Dr. David Jeremiah

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.]

This book is the result of the marketing efforts of the creators of a forthcoming NBC television event that seeks to bring the stories of Acts to a contemporary and mainstream American television audience. Given this context, I wish to review this book for what it is, not for what I would wish it to be or prefer it to be. To be sure, this book is not an in-depth history of the Apostle Paul [1], nor is it an attempt to place the rise of Christianity within a larger historical or theological context [2]. What it claims to be is what it is, a modest and glossy attempt to make the Bible more accessible and presentable to a wide audience, as a companion piece to what expects to be a popular television miniseries. Everything about this Bible is about appealing to a wide audience of people who need first to become familiar with the text of the Bible itself, and its historical claims, before they can engage in any sort of serious or substantive discussions about the meanings of the Bible and its layers of understanding. Given this very straightforward and limited goal, it is worthwhile to judge this book on the standards of its ambitions in providing an accurate but surface-level understanding of the Bible’s stories without engaging at length and at depth about the larger meanings of those stories about from their obvious Christological importance.

This book has a suggested retail price of $15.99 according to the back cover of my book, and what follows is the material that is included for that sum. First, there is an introductory text of about twenty pages from the author as he discusses the fundamental importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel message. Included in this is some thoughtful, if brief, commentary on the outline of Acts as well as its curious conclusion. After this comes the chapters of Luke dealing with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Living Translation, helpful for Passover study, that set the context of the church’s missionary activity in acts. After this comes the book of Acts in paragraph form (with no verses, but divided according to its chapters), also in the New Living Translation, interspersed with photos from the miniseries as well as brief biographical sketches of such people as Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul, Stephen, John Mark, Luke, Agrippa, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Lydia, Priscilla and Aquila, and Herod Agrippa II, with strengths and weaknesses as well as a brief statement of the lessons that can be learned from their portrayals in scripture. After this comes an epilogue with Jesus’ call in Revelation 22:12-17, also in the New Living Translation, closing commentary featuring a call to action as well as a historical outline of the history of the early church, and some appendices including maps and the compiler’s favorite verses from Acts. All of this takes up about 175 6” x 9” pages.

Does this book achieve its aims? It is likely that the miniseries AD: The Bible Continues will be popular. It is also likely that the companion volumes are likely to be popular, at least for a few weeks, based upon the popularity of that miniseries. This book presents an easy-to-read translation of the latter part of Luke, the entire book of Acts, and a single passage of Revelation, in a form that serves the purposes of a story but is not suitable for deep theological points, on account of its lack of fidelity to the most reliable ancient texts like the Bynzantine M-Text or the Aramaic Peshitta. That said, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will use this book to make any deep theological points in the first place, so this danger seems remote. Where the book fails, and blame for this falls on both the producers of the miniseries as well as the compiler of this book, is the lack of historical accuracy and precision in the presentation of the people of this book and the language used about the resurrection of Christ. Specifically speaking, the compiler makes a comment about Easter that fails to point to the biblical nature of the Passover and wave sheaf offering that form the biblical context of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a serious failing, as Mr. Jeremiah is presented as an insightful and popular author. On the side of the producers themselves, this book includes drawings and still photos from the miniseries that demonstrate some problematic casting choices, including the minimizing of the Jewish nature of the early church, and casting both the Apostle John and Mary Magdalene as blacks, in gross defiance of their identity as Galilean Jews. This is all the more troubling when given the fact that at least two of the people in Acts are given a likely or nearly certain African origin, namely Simon Niger, one of the leaders of the early Church of God in Antioch, and the Ethiopian eunuch converted by Philip in the Judean wilderness. The implication of these critical casting choices that this book is pandering to contemporary political correctness strongly detracts from its ability to convey genuine biblical truth or an accurate understanding of the Hebraic context of biblical Christianity. Fortunately, the book takes fewer liberties with the text of the Bible than with its visual representation.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/book-review-st-paul-the-traveller-and-the-roman-citizen/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/book-review-paul-apostle-of-the-heart-set-free/

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/book-review-spirit-of-antichrist/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/book-review-primitive-christianity-in-crisis/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/book-review-a-new-history-of-early-christianity/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/book-review-in-the-shadow-of-the-temple/