From Publishers Weekly
"This is not the Bible," Wangerin (The Book of the Dun Cow; Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace; etc.) says of this newest work. But it is a novel featuring many of the Bible's most dramatic characters. He partitions the whole into eight parts: half focus on personalities (The Ancestors, Kings, Prophets, The Messiah), and half concern themselves with epic themes (The Covenant, The Wars of the Lord, Letters From Exile, The Yearning). Retelling the stories of the Bible in novelized form allows Wangerin to be more selective: no slogging through seemingly endless genealogies or the minutiae of military conflicts for him. Instead, he imagines the finer points of the tension between Sarah and her slave, Hagar; the words Isaac might have used in blessing Jacob; or the drama of Jesus's baptism by his cousin, John. In doing so, he also makes some curious inventions. Does Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, become a justifiably more interesting character, for instance, if he is presented as willingly making nails for the evil ruler Herod to use in crucifixions? For adult readers who are intimidated by the sheer bulk of the Bible, or for those who desire a novelist's different perspective on some very familiar stories, Wangerin is likely to be a welcome voice; for others, however, the novel will feel like an ornate but pale imitation of a great book. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Renowned storyteller Wangerin (Ragman and Other Cries of Faith, HarperSanFrancisco, 1994) here selects portions of the biblical narrative for retelling to a contemporary audence. Ever the raconteur, Wangerin evokes the deep and powerful emotions that motivate all human behavior. Yet rich as these retellings sometimes are, many of his characters lack even the depth with which they are presented in the biblical acccounts. Unfortunately, Wangerin's "novel" reduces the power of the Bible's multidimensional characters to the flatness of much of today's most popular spiritual fiction. Buy only where Wangerin is popular.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
This novelization of the Bible doesn't include every story in the scriptures, and many included are abridged. Some are told from the viewpoint of one of the characters involved. In reading his own work, Wangerin displays energy, enthusiasm and passion. At times, his enthusiasm spills into over-acting, and some of the vocal characterizations are a bit stereotyped. However, these lapses don't detract from a performance that quickly captures one's attention and keeps it. M.T.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
You can't actually turn the compressed language of the Bible, by turns poetic and tedious, into a novel, but Wangerin is a good man to try. He's a former pastor who grew famous with his young-adult fantasy, Book of the Dun Cow (1978), and its sequel, The Book of Sorrows (1985). Wisely, he begins with another beginning than Genesis: Abraham and Sarah in their childless, embittered old age, destined to sire multitudes. Here and elsewhere, Wangerin allows a trace of his trademark whimsy: Sarah, trying to comfort her aged husband in his disappointment that she has been barren, hints diplomatically that he should try to impregnate a servant girl. Abraham stares at her imponderably; Sarah lowers her eyes and says, "It was just an idea." Quickly, too, the reader understands that Wangerin's novelized Bible is not just a gimmick, but a form of commentary--on faith, for instance, in the merciful God who allows Sarah to conceive Isaac and, equally, in the incontrovertible will of a capricious, jealous God who asks for young Isaac's sacrifice. Something like the ebb and flow and counterpoint in a novel has indeed evinced itself by the end of Abraham's story, but Wangerin's skill shines brightest in his final 300 pages, a synthesis of the Gospels that poetically captures the courtship of a small-town couple named Mary and Joseph, the birth of their son, and the rise, political repression, and crucifixion of a messiah. An inevitable failure, perhaps, but also a gallant effort that is frequently spellbinding. John Mort


Benjamin S. Carson Sr., M.D.
" . . . breath[es] life into the pages of the Old and New Testaments."


Eugene H. Peterson
"Walter Wangerin Jr. releases our imaginations to take in all the color, texture, and grit implicit in the biblical story. . . ."


Philip Yancey
"Walter Wangerin Jr. has accomplished a feat of imagination and faith."


Book Description
A master storyteller dramatizes the entire Bible as a single epic story that readers of fast-paced novels will enjoy.


From the Publisher
The Winner of the 1997 Christianity Today Book Award--Now in Softcover Since its release in February 1996, The Book of God has sold over 165,000 copies and appeared consistently on the Publishers Weekly and ECPA best-seller lists. It was selected for the 1997 Christianity Today Book Award and is a Gold Medallion finalist. It has garnered the praises of Christian and secular critics alike. Truly, it is an amazing book. But then, as those familiar with Walter Wangerin Jr. know, amazing is what you'd expect when this master storyteller brings his gift to bear on the Story of all stories--the Bible. The result is more than magnificent--it's momentous. Here is the entire, grand story of the Bible, retold with exciting detail and passionate energy, and peopled with characters that live, breathe, and feel. . . . The valley beneath her feet was lovely, patchy green and yellow, divided into the plots of the farmers, the wheat and barley just springing up. Oh, she felt so sad. Yes, and at the same time happy. Excited. Not content, really. Scared. Mary bowed her head, buried her face in her arms, and wept. Suddenly a hand seized her shoulder in a very strong grip. In the same instant thunder crashed at her ear. She jumped and would have tumbled from the cliff, but for the hand that held her. The thunder said, Hail! Mary opened her eyes, terrified. There was no one there. No one there, no person, no hand at all--but a dazzling pillar of light, its base upon the rocky hill, its pinnacle endless in the heavens. The light said, Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you. Mary before the angel Gabriel . . . Jesus laughing with a Samaritan woman . . . Wangerin portrays human faces and emotions, real places and events, to help the reader feel what it was like for each person to be caught up in the events of a particular time and place. >From Abraham wandering in the desert to Jesus teaching the multitudes on a Judean hillside, The Book of God follows the biblical story in chronological order. Priests and kings, apostles and prophets, common folk and charismatic leaders--individual stories offer glimpses into an unfolding revelation that reaches across the centuries to touch us today.


From the Author
Walter Wangerin Jr. first came to prominence as the award-winning author of The Book of the Dun Cow. He has since won many other awards and honors for his books, including the best-selling Book of God. Wangerin holds the Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he is writer-in-residence


From the Back Cover
The Bible as a Single, Powerful Story. Here is the entire story of the Bible, narrated by master storyteller Walter Wangerin Jr. Reading like a great historical novel, The Book of God dramatizes the sweep of biblical events, making the men and women of this ancient book come alive in vivid detail and dialogue. From Abraham wandering in the desert to Jesus teaching the multitudes on a Judean hillside, The Book of God follows the biblical story in chronological order. Priests and kings, apostles and prophets, common folk and charismatic leaders--individual stories offer glimpses into an unfolding revelation that reaches across the centuries to touch us today. Wangerin recreates the high drama, low comedy, gentle humor, and awesome holiness of the Bible story. Imaginative yet meticulously researched, The Book of God offers a sweeping history that stretches across thousands of years and hundreds of lives, in cultures foreign and yet familiar in their common humanity. History and fact take on personality and warmth. Wangerin shows you human hands--Abraham raising the knife over his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, a priest offering incense in the temple at Jerusalem, Joseph the carpenter at work with his tools. He shows you human faces--Moses and Aaron face-to-face with the king of Egypt, Mary smiling like a white rose, and Jesus laughing with a Samaritan woman. Gardens, humble homes, olive groves, palaces, temples, and the hills of Judea shining in the afternoon sun--Wangerin makes the places where the events of the Bible took place come to life in the imagination. Wangerin helps you understand what it was like for each person to be caught up in the events of a particular time and place--a time and place where the eternal God somehow reached out and touched ordinary men and women. The book of God is no ordinary book. Written by a born storyteller, it is the magnum opus of one of the most respected and beloved authors of our time.


About the Author
Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Among his books are The Book of God; Paul: A Novel; Whole Prayer; Reliving the Passion; Preparing for Jesus; Mary’s First Christmas; Peter’s First Easter; Ragman and Other Cries of Faith; Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace; Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? Mourning Into Dancing; The Book of Sorrows; A Miniature Cathedral; The Orphean Passages; and Crying for a Vision. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is writer-in-residence at Valparaiso University and holds the Jochum Chair.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One
Abraham
An old man entered his tent, dropping the door flap behind him. In the darkness he knelt slowly before a clay firepot, very tired. He blew on a coal until it glowed, then he bore the spark to the wick of a saucer lamp. It made a soft nodding flame. The mans face was lean and wounded and streaked with the dust of recent travel. He began to unroll a straw mat for sleeping but paused halfway, lost in thought.
Altogether the tent was rectangular, sewn of goatskins and everywhere patched with fresher skins of the goat. Across the middle a reed screen hung from three poles, dividing the space into two compartments, one for the man, one for his wife. These two were all that dwelt in the tent. There were neither children nor grandchildren. There never had been.
A vagrant wind slapped the side of the tent so that it billowed inward, but the man didnt move. He was gazing into the finger-flame of the lamp.
Old man. Perhaps eighty years old. Nevertheless, this present weariness did not come from age. In fact, the man had a small wiry body as light and as tough as leather. Nor was his eye diminished. It watched with a steadfast grey light, awaiting interpretation. It was not an old eye, but a patient one.
Not age, then. Rather, the man was made weary by this days travel and yesterdays war.
His only relative in the entire land of Canaan even from the Euphrates River in the east to the Nile in Egypt was a nephew who had chosen the easier life. Though the old man himself lived in tents, Lot, his nephew, dwelt in the cities of the Jordan valley, the watered places, fertile places, desirable, sweet and green. But lately four kings of the north had attacked and defeated five cities of the valley. One of these was Sodom, the city Lot had chosen. Among the prisoners whom the northern kings carried away, then, was Lot.
As soon as the old man heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he armed three hundred and eighteen of his own men, mounted donkeys, and pursued the enemy with a light and secret speed. In the night he divided his forces. He surprised the northern kings by striking from two sides at once. He routed them. He drove them home. And all their plunder, all their prisoners he brought back to the cities that had been defeated: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Zoar. Lot was free again, and again he chose Sodom for his dwelling though the men of the place had a reputation for extreme wickedness.
That was yesterday.
Today the king of Sodom had offered the old man all the plunder hed returned, but the old man refused.
Today the Priest-King Melchizedek had come forth with bread and wine to honor the old man, and he honored him saying:
Blessed are you!
Blessed, too, be the God most high
who delivers your foe into your hand!
And today the old man had come back to his tents, again, near the oaks of Mamre, tired.
Today, in the evening, his wife had baked him a barley cake, though he ate scarcely anything and she herself ate nothing at all.
Is the young man safe, then? she had asked.
Yes, he told her.
And his children? she said, looking dead level at her husband. How are the children of the man who lives within the walls of houses?
Safe, said the man.
They are home, then? she said. Lot sits contented among his children, then? Lot looks upon the consolation of his old age, then, because he has an uncle who saves him when his own choices get him into trouble?
The old man said nothing.
Because he has a good uncle? she continued. A generous uncle? An uncle whose wife never did put the first bite of barley cake into the mouth of her own child?
It was then that the old man arose and left his food unfinished. He trudged through the dusk to his own side of the tent and entered and pulled the flap down behind himself and lit the lamp and fell to staring at the single flame, the straw mat only half unrolled in front of him. He was very tired. He was kneeling, sitting back on his heels. He maintained that same posture, unwinking, unsleeping, through the entire first watch of the night. All sound had long since ceased outside. The encampment slept. His wife, finally, had fallen asleep on the other side of the reed screen. She was sleeping alone.
Then, in the middle of that night, God spoke.
Fear not, Abram, God said, calling the old man by name. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.
Abram did not move. He did not so much as shift his eye from the orange lamp-flame. But his jaw tightened.
God said, Abram, northward of this place, southward and eastward and westward all the land as far as you can see I will give to you and to your descendants forever.
Still motionless and so softly that the wind outside concealed the sound of it even from his own ears, Abram breathed these words: So you have said. So you have said. But what, O Lord God, can you give us as long as we continue childless?
A wind took hold of the tent-flap and lifted it like a linen. The lamp-flame guttered and went out.
God said, Come. Abram, come outside.
On his hands and knees the old man obeyed.
God said, Raise your eyes to heaven. Look to the stars, Abram. Count them. Can you count them?
The old man said, No. I cannot count them. They are too many.
Even so many, said the Lord God, shall be your descendants upon the earth.
With the same gaze as he had earlier turned upon the lamp-flame Abram gazed toward heaven. Now there was no wind at all. The air was absolutely still. Nothing moved in the land, except that the man could hear the sighing of his old wife inside her compartment.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Here is the story of the Bible from beginning to end as you've never read it before - told with exciting detail and passionate energy. The Book of God reads like a fine novel, bringing a wise and beautiful rendering of the Bible, retold by master storyteller Walter Wangerin, Jr. Wangerin recreates the high drama, low comedy, gentle humor, and awesome holiness of the Bible story. Imaginative yet meticulously researched, The Book of God offers a sweeping history that stretches across thousands of years and hundreds of lives, in cultures foreign and yet familiar in their common humanity. History and fact take on personality and warmth. Wangerin shows you human hands - Abraham raising the knife over his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, a priest offering incense in the temple at Jerusalem, Joseph the carpenter at work with his tools. He shows you human faces - Moses and Aaron face-to-face with the king of Egypt, Mary smiling like a white rose, and Jesus laughing with a Samaritan woman. Gardens, humble homes, olive groves, palaces, temples, and the hills of Judea shining in the afternoon sun - Wangerin makes the places where the events of the Bible took place come to life in the imagination.

FROM THE CRITICS

BookList - John Mort

You can't actually turn the compressed language of the Bible, by turns poetic and tedious, into a novel, but Wangerin is a good man to try. He's a former pastor who grew famous with his young-adult fantasy, "Book of the Dun Cow" (1978), and its sequel, "The Book of Sorrows" (1985). Wisely, he begins with another beginning than Genesis: Abraham and Sarah in their childless, embittered old age, destined to sire multitudes. Here and elsewhere, Wangerin allows a trace of his trademark whimsy: Sarah, trying to comfort her aged husband in his disappointment that she has been barren, hints diplomatically that he should try to impregnate a servant girl. Abraham stares at her imponderably; Sarah lowers her eyes and says, "It was just an idea." Quickly, too, the reader understands that Wangerin's novelized Bible is not just a gimmick, but a form of commentary--on faith, for instance, in the merciful God who allows Sarah to conceive Isaac and, equally, in the incontrovertible will of a capricious, jealous God who asks for young Isaac's sacrifice. Something like the ebb and flow and counterpoint in a novel has indeed evinced itself by the end of Abraham's story, but Wangerin's skill shines brightest in his final 300 pages, a synthesis of the Gospels that poetically captures the courtship of a small-town couple named Mary and Joseph, the birth of their son, and the rise, political repression, and crucifixion of a messiah. An inevitable failure, perhaps, but also a gallant effort that is frequently spellbinding.

AudioFile - Michael T. Fein