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Top Ten
Top Ten Bible Stories
Lighthearted and full of facts, this guide explains ten important people and events from the Bible. Also included are bios of the prophets, women of the Bible, and a preview of the New Testament.
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 20, 1998
About the author
Michael Coleman
219 books16 followersColeman was born in Forest Gate, a suburb in east London. Not long after he was born, his family moved a few miles east to Barking. At the time of his arrival, the area was just starting to recover from the damage it had received during World War II. He lived in a house on Bevan Avenue, named after Aneurin Bevan the architect of the National Health Service. He lived in that estate for 20 years. The area helped develop Coleman's love of sport due to the oblong shaped lanes of grass leading up the estate, which could be used as mini-stadiums. He pretended to play at various sporting events of the time, e.g. the Melbourne Olympics of 1956, the soccer Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, and the games at Lords Cricket ground. He still has medals he won for being school champion in the 100m sprint and the long jump. As said by Coleman himself "My information series Foul Football tries to convey some of the magic I felt about the game of soccer by relating the weird and wonderful history of the game and the personalities it has seen over the years. On the fiction side, my series about a junior soccer team called Angels FC tries to bring out the humour and sheer fun that you’ll find at the heart of the game when it’s played by youngsters who don’t even know how to spell the word cynicism." Coleman had his first children’s book published when he was 46 years of age. He has also said: "I didn't [want to become a writer] at first. I used to teach computer science at a university and my first book was a boring one about computers. I livened it up by putting a few jokes in. At the end I thought I'd try writing a few more things, but this time forgetting about the computers and concentrating on the jokes. After lots of failures I realised that youngsters enjoy jokes more than adults and started writing for them. Eighty books later, I'm still doing it...I write both fact and fiction. The Foul Football series are favourite fact books, simply because they're about football. On the fiction side, I'm just finishing a trilogy called The Bearkingdom. They're dark and scary, quite different to anything I've written before."
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January 4, 2024Dla zasady zostawiam bez oceny, no i ogólnie imo jest nawet trochę bardziej edukacyjne niż ta część dotycząca mitów greckich, ale nie starzeje się najlepiej ze względu na kilka żartów i uproszczeń (np. dopiero pod koniec książki zostaje w ogóle wspomniane, że Judaizm uznaje tylko Stary Testament). Niemniej, chwilami parsknęłam śmiechem, no i jednak w kwestii przemocy autor traktował dzieci jako trochę bardziej zdolne znieść kilka szczegółów (choć nie chciałabym być tym rodzicem, który musi tłumaczyć, co to znaczy, że Dinę zgwałcono...).
Dowiadujemy się również, że współczesny Izrael ze starożytnym odpowiednikiem łączy wsiadanie na cudze ziemię i roszczenie sobie do nich praw bez powodu. 💁♀️
Dowiadujemy się również, że współczesny Izrael ze starożytnym odpowiednikiem łączy wsiadanie na cudze ziemię i roszczenie sobie do nich praw bez powodu. 💁♀️
March 5, 2021
s. 67 Josef a jeho úžasný barevný kabát
Přidržela bych se zavedeného „plášť“.
Přidržela bych se zavedeného „plášť“.
March 13, 2016
A Collection of Bible Stories for Children
19 May 2012
I am not sure to whom this book is targeted, though I suspect that the general audience would be children. The reason I say that is because the stories that are included in the book are written in such a way as to appeal to younger readers. If you look at the back of this book you will notice that similar books have been written for Shakespearian plays and Greek Legends, among other books. I do not believe that this was intended to be a dig at, or mocking of, the Biblical narrative, but rather a way to open the stories to younger readers so that they might delve into them themselves.
The way the book is set out is that there will be one chapter where the story is written in a unique and entertaining way, such as the first story where we have a diary of Adam, which effectively tells of creation and his days in the garden. The next section looks at the concept of sin, but not in a deep and theological way, but rather in a way that can be accessible to children. In a way many people these days do not understand what sin actually is, but they do know what being naughty is, and this is one of the best ways to help people understand sin.
However, this is not what sin is, sin is a lot more than just being naughty, and Christianity is a lot more than being good. In fact, one of the basic doctrines of Christianity is that we cannot be good, but rather we are ruled by our own desires and passions. It is not about trying to be good, but rather acknowledging our rebellion against God, and in turn accepting the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers us. However, this book offers a starting point (though some would suggest that the starting point in this book is not all that good).
One thing I have noticed is that this book selects stories that are probably better known to us, rather than stories that outline the biblical narrative. In turn it looks at aspects of these stories that might be of interest. With Noah we look at animals, with Joseph we look at the nature of families, and with Moses we look at the law. What this book does seem to skip over are the promises that are given to Abraham, and many churches hold these three promises to be one of the crucial points in Old Testament narrative as it lays the foundations of God's character. We don't see the fulfilment of the people promise, and we do not see the exposition of the land promise as outlined in the book of Joshua.
A part of me does want to rubbish this teaching that comes from the churches that turns the biblical narrative on the promises to Abraham, but in my heart I know that I cannot. I guess it has more to do with my lack of respect for the people teaching that doctrine as opposed to the doctrine itself. Don't get me wrong, I love reading and learning from the Bible, however many churches just do not want you to break out of the mould that they are trying to force you into. I remember that one year we looked at the structure of the Old Testament and the flow of the story three times. It always was Abraham and the promises, and the promises of Land, People, and Blessings. Look, that is true, and while I do agree that we do need to consider the context, I just feel sometimes that we are not actually allowed to let God speak to us through his word, and challenge us, but rather railroad God down a specific path, and restrict his messages to us, unless of course we can see that it comes out of the context.
True, a text without a context is nothing more than a pretext, however consider that when we are the ones that dictate the context then in doing so we are creating our own pretext. We shift the story back beyond the coming of Christ, and as such we fail to see the message that is being directed to us. We spend so much time trying to slot the story into a specific time, and then spend even more time trying to manipulate the story to fit our doctrine, that we end up forgetting that God loves us for who we are, and that he has crafted and created all of us as individuals.
19 May 2012
I am not sure to whom this book is targeted, though I suspect that the general audience would be children. The reason I say that is because the stories that are included in the book are written in such a way as to appeal to younger readers. If you look at the back of this book you will notice that similar books have been written for Shakespearian plays and Greek Legends, among other books. I do not believe that this was intended to be a dig at, or mocking of, the Biblical narrative, but rather a way to open the stories to younger readers so that they might delve into them themselves.
The way the book is set out is that there will be one chapter where the story is written in a unique and entertaining way, such as the first story where we have a diary of Adam, which effectively tells of creation and his days in the garden. The next section looks at the concept of sin, but not in a deep and theological way, but rather in a way that can be accessible to children. In a way many people these days do not understand what sin actually is, but they do know what being naughty is, and this is one of the best ways to help people understand sin.
However, this is not what sin is, sin is a lot more than just being naughty, and Christianity is a lot more than being good. In fact, one of the basic doctrines of Christianity is that we cannot be good, but rather we are ruled by our own desires and passions. It is not about trying to be good, but rather acknowledging our rebellion against God, and in turn accepting the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers us. However, this book offers a starting point (though some would suggest that the starting point in this book is not all that good).
One thing I have noticed is that this book selects stories that are probably better known to us, rather than stories that outline the biblical narrative. In turn it looks at aspects of these stories that might be of interest. With Noah we look at animals, with Joseph we look at the nature of families, and with Moses we look at the law. What this book does seem to skip over are the promises that are given to Abraham, and many churches hold these three promises to be one of the crucial points in Old Testament narrative as it lays the foundations of God's character. We don't see the fulfilment of the people promise, and we do not see the exposition of the land promise as outlined in the book of Joshua.
A part of me does want to rubbish this teaching that comes from the churches that turns the biblical narrative on the promises to Abraham, but in my heart I know that I cannot. I guess it has more to do with my lack of respect for the people teaching that doctrine as opposed to the doctrine itself. Don't get me wrong, I love reading and learning from the Bible, however many churches just do not want you to break out of the mould that they are trying to force you into. I remember that one year we looked at the structure of the Old Testament and the flow of the story three times. It always was Abraham and the promises, and the promises of Land, People, and Blessings. Look, that is true, and while I do agree that we do need to consider the context, I just feel sometimes that we are not actually allowed to let God speak to us through his word, and challenge us, but rather railroad God down a specific path, and restrict his messages to us, unless of course we can see that it comes out of the context.
True, a text without a context is nothing more than a pretext, however consider that when we are the ones that dictate the context then in doing so we are creating our own pretext. We shift the story back beyond the coming of Christ, and as such we fail to see the message that is being directed to us. We spend so much time trying to slot the story into a specific time, and then spend even more time trying to manipulate the story to fit our doctrine, that we end up forgetting that God loves us for who we are, and that he has crafted and created all of us as individuals.
April 25, 2017
Hilarious, with all the comics and punchlines!
A great bible summary with the plot points and twists, with references and highlighting the points in light as well as dark!
If only, we could have this book in Indian context as well, then it would have been much more interesting to get to know about our own Horrible Histories as well! :)
A great bible summary with the plot points and twists, with references and highlighting the points in light as well as dark!
If only, we could have this book in Indian context as well, then it would have been much more interesting to get to know about our own Horrible Histories as well! :)
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May 3, 2011ok its funny and koolll
January 12, 2012
I thought it was a good book, with a twist it did not make it sound like the way it would have been in the bible, it had funny parts to it and great facts as well.
June 23, 2013
Read along with Fairy Stories, Shakespeare Stories and Irish Stories. Nice series along the lines of Horrible Histories.
November 1, 2023
Anche in un libro per ragazzi la religione sembra la cosa più stupida di questo mondo.
E Micheal Tickner è un illustratore infimo.
E Micheal Tickner è un illustratore infimo.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews