Do you know need a reason to buy this book? I can give you an excellent one -- it's called the Table of Contents. It lists 700 pages worth of Robin Hood ballads, plays and more. It has the earliest ballads and plays where Robin is merely a yeoman, the first play that casts him as the Earl of Huntington, and later ballads that give the "origins" of Little John, Maid Marian and Will Scarlet. Also, there's an introductory article on the history of the legend and complete introductions and notes to all the ballads and plays. The notes and introductions are by Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, two top Robin Hood scholars. If you want to read the original tales of the outlaw, or if you are teach a course in Robin Hood, this book is an excellent buy. Just treat it with care. I notice my cover is fraying somewhat.

I have to give Dr. Kelly's book a mixed review. On the one hand, I expected a solid analysis of biblical tithing and grace giving, and that is exactly what I got. Dr. Kelly leaves no stone unturned as he vigorously dismantles the fallacious teachings about tithing under the new covenant. His arguments generally are very persuasive and well backed by scripture, and he is quite thorough to make sure that a broad range of opposing arguments are dealt with. At times, though, the reading becomes somewhat dry and occasionally redundant. Roughly the first half of the book analyzes old testament texts, while the remainder of the book examines new testament passages.

Although I thought Dr. Kelly did an excellent job in this regard, nevertheless I cannot say that I agree with him on every point. For example, he takes the position that there were three tithes under Jewish law, and while this may be a purely academic point for modern Christians, it seems fairly clear to me that scripture only teaches two at the most, and more likely only one. It seems to me that Dr. Kelly asserts the existence of three old covenant tithes more to confound modern tithe advocates than because scripture really teaches it. Also, I was not entirely impressed with Dr. Kelly's treatment of Melchizedek in his analysis of Genesis 14. He makes much of Melchizedek's reference to "El Elyon" and Abraham's naming of "Yahweh," but Exodus 6:2-3 clearly teaches that God had not revealed himself to Abraham as "Yahweh" but as "El Shaddai."

Additionally, there are occasions when he leaps to conclusions which I do not believe are warranted by the scriptural text. This was most prevalent in Dr. Kelly's discussion of whether modern gospel workers should receive full-time monetary support. In my opinion, his analysis became unbalanced here in his zeal to take away every possible argument from tithe advocates. In so doing, Dr. Kelly throws out the baby with the proverbial bath water, or to borrow the expression from the Vietnam era, he destroys the village in order to save it. His arguments and conclusions on this subject, I believe, completely miss the spirit of the teachings of 1 Cor. 9 and related passages. Just because the tithe is not for the new covenant, this does not mean that those who devote their lives to full time ministry should not receive at least modest support from free will offerings. I don't know many who enter the ministry with the expectation of getting rich. Those who do end up financially successful usually do it through other means, such as authoring or speaking at seminars.

I also believe he places far more emphasis than is proper on the single reference in Acts 18:3 on Paul being a tentmaker. That single occurrence was when Paul was ministering at Corinth, undeniably the most carnal church of the early new testament age, and was doing so specifically to take away any occasion for criticism. But to argue that gospel workers must hold full time secular employment and minister only in their free time (something which is becoming increasingly rare nowadays) is tantamount to arguing that God never calls anyone into "full time" ministry and that those who claim to be so called must be incorrect, or are doing so out of base greed.

In summary, Dr. Kelly's book starts well enough, and does a great job of debunking the myth of new covenant tithing. However, from there he continues to charge forward rather blindly and does, I believe, more harm than good in his teachings about financial support for modern gospel workers. Definitely read this book, because it contains much of value, but read it with careful discernment.

I think Dr. kelly has written an excellent book on the subject of tithing. I was unsure about the issue for a long time, but i always felt that something wasn't right when people would say that if i didnt tithe, i was robbing God. Reading this book enabled me to see the big picture, and to understand who tithed in the old testament and why, as well as why tithing is not a COMMAND, but rather a personal choice, for today's christians. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to have a complete grasp of what the scriptures say about tithing, not just the tithe advocates favorite verse. (malachi 3:10). Just know that this a long book, with a lot of detail and info, so be prepared to do some serious reading and studying.

Dr. Kelly doesn't mince words. Using historical research as well as an abundance of scripture, he very convincingly demonstrates that something is seriously wrong with the tithing message as it is taught today.

Dr. Kelly goes into great detail and leaves no stone unturned. He delves into a lot of history and factual information; therefore, don't expect this to be light, coffee table reading. Set aside a good deal of time as you will have to read and reread portions of his book. But it is well worth it.

Although there are parts of the book that I may not agree with, it does a thorough job of raising the questions that most do not have the courage to raise, let alone deal with.

Highly recommended.

I used this book with my preschool class. I brought in a toy spider to go along with it. I sang the song as I read it with the children in a circle. Then I put the spider on the children and the part of the body the spider was on. This was a fun book to do.