A year or so ago my brother gave me a previous book by A. J. Jacobs entitled Know It All about the author’s journey to read the entire Britanica Enyclopedia from A-Z.  Hands down, that has been one of the best books I have read for some time.  A. J. has a very dry humor that can hit like a fish in the face and leave you laughing well into the next couple of pages.  Couple that with the opportunity to learn more stuff than ever thought possible in a relatively short book.  Laughter and education almost always warrants a 5 star effort in my rating system. 

Ron also bought me A. J.’s latest offering entitled The Year of Living Biblically.  Honestly, this title concerned me when I first saw it, but based on his last book, I was definitely going to give it a chance.   I think his previous novel may have had more humor, but definitely an equal amount of education and entertainment.  Once again, I lost a hefty share of sleep while consuming every page of this book because there were times I just could not put it down – this from a somewhere less than devoted religious individual.  Ron must be trying to tell me something 8^)

Although not up to the Know It All level, I still give it a 5 star effort based on the tremendous amout of knowledge gained about the Bible (my baptized religion doesn’t really encourage self-reading of the Bible so a lot of this was new – apparently we are not qualified to interpret the Bible … or more likely, they do not want us to because quite frankly there are lots of jaw dropping passages in there.  I have never considered the Bible a literal life pattern, but rather a moral guideline – you do not have to be extremely religous to understand the morality behind “Thou shall not kill”.  Sidebar – about 7  years ago I was talking to a coworker and was describing a discussion I saw on TV with someone who believed the Bible should be accepted as literal truth and required compliance to get to heaven.  To my astonishment my coworker stated he believed the same.  My jaw dropped, but I let it pass in accordance with good advice previously given on not engaging in politics or religion at work – I was aware of some things in the Bible at that time and would have enjoyed questioning him about those, but now I am more armed.

So in this book, Jacobs spent 8 months trying to live the Old Testament as literal as possible and same for 4 months with the New Testament.  I can’t believe his wife put up with him during this endeavor especially while dealing with the birth of twins.  To help him on this effort, He had a number of different spiritual advisors in different religous camps in an effort to understand all of the nuances and interpretation conflicts.  With the exception of Bill Bryson, I think there are few people who put as much effort into their writing craft. 

Now on to the stuff that stuck:

• I have ZERO interest in living the Bible literally!
• Jacobs is very dedicated to his craft and appears to be on the “protective” side with his children
• Amish refuse to pose for photos because if violates the Old Testament’s 2nd Commandment to not make a any likeness of anything in heaven or earth
• There is an Intercourse city in Pennsylvania (reminds me of French Lick Ind.)
• 90% of Amish horses are former race horses
• Ecclesiastes states that we must always have oil on our head at all times (Jacobs uses Olive Oil)
• We are commanded to blow a trumpet at the start of every month
• Contact with menstrating women is prohibited – or  they whatever they touch which gave his wife a devious advantage
• Israel means one who struggles with God
• Charles Darwin married his first cousin
• Adam and Eve had other kids besides Cain and Abel
• Apparently a Biblical day is a 24 hr period (not sure I am buying this though)
• On the seventh year (as in the seventh day) you c annot work all year – the needy can then live off their unmanaged lands – you also have to erase all of your neighbor’s IOUs (this I can use the next time I am in a conversation with a literalist – I’ll ask to borrow thousands of dollars in year 6
• The Red Sea is a mistranslation of the The Sea of Reeds
• Jehovah’s Witnesses – Jesus is God’s first creation (not one in the same) – armegeddon is coming soon and believers will be resurrected and live in paradise on earth… except the 144,000 “special” people who get to Jehovah’s divine administrators.   “Weeeeelllllll issssn’tttt THAT special”  Reminds me of Animal Farm where some animals are more equal than others…. what’s next, aliens living in a volcano. Oh, no Christmas/Easter/Birthdays – I like asking the kids they force up to my door what they got for Christmas — and finally, they do not believe in blood transfusions because Leviticus says to not eat blood – bummer, there goes dinner.  Basically I have very little concern for people who want the benefits of touting their elitist ideals through freedom of speech but not willing to defend the country or honor those that make it possible.
• The Bible says the ark should be 300 by 50 x 30 cubits with roof and decks of gopher wood
• Apparently many of Jacobs’ friends recommended getting the evil doers stoned in the canabis sense to fulfill that requirement
• There is a belief that Stoning in the biblical sense was really pushing a person off of a high cliff after giving them a pain killer  (maybe those cannabis recommendations were not far off)
• Apparently gossip is bad – (I am in some serious trouble, not to mention downright condemned if sarcasm is included)
• A.J. writes for one of my favorite websites – mentalfloss.com
• Bless comes from Bletsian meaning consecrate with blood
• If you are in a fist fight and the wife of your opponent grabs your privates, you must cut off her hand – I am personally glad God found time to clarify that for me
• Fonze wore white leather in the first season because black is considered too menacing
• Adultery rules probably had less of an impact based on the numerous mentions of polygamy
• scapegoat comes from transferring your sins to a goat and running it over a cliff
• Leviticus says no pork, no shellfish (fins and scales required), no blood, rabbits or certain birds – looks like are screwed by the pork and fish lobby.  – Oh and no Fear Factory shows either since most insects are off limits
• Ancient Israelites may have believe in multiple gods, Yahweh would still be the boss of those
• Spock’s Star Trek hand jesture is from a sacred priest hand position
• Winking is bad… very baaaaaddd  I have to wonder if this is where the Mr. Winky related ban came from
• Alcohol has more positive references than negative – Woot!
• You can beat your slaves as hard as you want as long as they don’t die within a day or two – do you really still think this stuff is literal
• Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible – one built on moral philosophy
• Noah was the first to eat flesh,
• Women were not permitted to speak in church
• Ken Jennings from Jeopardy read his manuscript

whew that was a long post, but I definitely enjoyed this book – and would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the Bible (and re-think the literal sense).  I am definitely watching for people who wear white with fringes on their clothes (a Biblical requirement).