One of the best books I've read in a long time! I used the book as a daily devotional and really enjoyed the indepth look into Genesis. I encourage more readers to read the remarkable works of this new author.

I've read a lot of books about the Old Testament, but this one has got to be one of the best. The author, a pastor from Illinois, really brings Genesis alive. I didn't think Genesis could be so relevant to my daily life! I think this is the only book by this author, hope he writes more.

Faith Lessons is not meant to be a commentary. Instead I tried to write this book more like you a were having a relaxing conversation with some friends from the Bible. The book is good for all ages.

There are thirty chapters covering topics such as: Lessons in Repeated Sin, Lessons in Forgiveness, Lessons about Integrity, Lessons on Temptation and more. Each lesson is drawn from a "case study" in the book of Genesis.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Flavio F. Lima - ( livifla@bol.com.br ) - The only thing that I don't liked was the little words of the Old Testament in it. However, this famous Dictionary is my guide when I need to understand the true meaning of the greek words. Yes every Bible student must have it in your personal library. It is an excellent reference work !

An Excellent work which is if Aid to all Bible Students. The Paper is not of as nice quality as I would like, but Durable non the less. However the content and description should make this book one of the top of the list for any serious student.

Vine's Expository Dictionary gives excellent word pictures and meanings of the original languages found in the Word of God. It is a resource book that every preacher should have for preparing sermons for their local body of believers. Nothing helps make the Scripture come alive for listeners like a clearer understanding of what the writers of the books of the Bible were trying to present through their choice of certain words in the Greek and Hebrew languages. This book opens the door of understanding of the original languages of the Bible.

A well done analysis of anger in the Old Testement.

Have you ever wondered what the old Westerners meant when they used words like "rustling," "handle," or "blind trap?" This fascinating book has plenty of words like these, but it is not merely a dictionary. It is filled with history and lore that may keep you browsing for hours if you have even the slightest interest in the Old West, or in American culture in general. While somewhat dated (it was first published in the 1950's), it also highlights genuinely little-known history, such as the "Rustler War" in Wyoming in the 1890's. The information about famous Old West artists like Frederick Remington could be valuable to art historians as well. Speaking of art, the illustrations by Jackie and Fiore Mastri add greatly to the book's appeal, as does Grant's cleverly-written text. Even the typeface is well-chosen. This is very, very worth searching out.

I can't begin to expess my Gratitude towards Bruce Mitchell for writing this seminal work. This is worth every dollar. Buy it Today!

As philosopher Karl Popper wrote, "what are the problems?" Our most recent calendar controversy was when does the third millennium AD begin: 2000/01/01 or 2001/01/01? Common misconception won over pedantry. A more emotional calendar change took place in Britain in 1946 when Armistice Day which was always on November 11, was changed to Remembrance Day "on the Sunday before November 11, unless November 11 or 12 falls on a Sunday." Some felt that since the two minutes silence "at the eleventh hour" did not now fall on a working day, "it has lost much of its former poignancy". Now bring in the belief that a sacred calendar helps us to keep appointments before God, then it can be seen that fixing on the right day and setting the right rules can be of immense import, and also a source of possible contention.
Gardner, after attempting a psychological evaluation of religionists' use of symbols, reassures that "...that such symbols are becoming visible to our understanding does not mean they do not point to realities and are spiritually invalid, no more than knowing an engine invalidates the car." Presumably, a religion needs a calendar to run, but discovering that there have been different calendars, and arguments over calendars, although, perhaps, undermining the idea that the calendar in use is as given by the Deity, does not invalidate the religion, the Deity, or the need for a calendar, or even the assertion that the Deity approves of the calendar in use. Of course, the truth of the last assertion remains either problematical or certain, depending on whether the scholar/scientist/sceptic hat or the convicted believer hat is being worn. Gardner later warns that ..."What to one critic is an interesting topic for study may be, to another, a dangerous surgical groping near the iconic heart of his social group's religious self-identity, thus provoking an irrational reaction."... This may partly explain, if my psychological evaluation is correct, his, in my opinion, overuse of "surgeon-speak" i.e. long words and technical jargon, to "hide" the import of what he is saying.
Gardner reveals his idea by a cumulative argument. His Biblical critical stance is the one which believes the Bible was created over time by a "tradition of prophetic writing and scribal overlay, where editors (or schools) shaped traditional material..." Later, "Jewish scribes and theologians added further dimensions, either inspiringly or irritatingly, depending on your theological (or ideological) view point..."

How can you say, we are wise and the law of the LORD is with us? Behold the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. (Jer 8:8)

Orthodoxy could contend all the falsities were edited out by inspired editors, and truth once hidden could be rediscovered and reinstated (2 Kings 22:8), but critics can still contend such activity should leave traces in the text. Gardner supposes that if a contentious calendar (and so believed true by some) had to be preserved, it could, ethically, be disguised as a chronological genealogy. It was written for calendar specialists then and has been rediscovered by Gardner standing on the shoulders of his predecessors (he gives an interesting survey of modern Calendar researchers).
In presenting his discovery of a calendar in the book of Genesis in the Bible, Gardner delves into and about many disciplines, including modern and ancient astronomy, modern calendar history, religious calendars, ancient calendars, ancient political and social history, ancient science and mathematics, ancient religion, mythology and philosophy, Bible criticism, religious apologetics and modern philosophy of history and science. This scholarly magpie has either found a pearl of great price or the sparkle of fool's gold. This book needs more scholarly readers.

This index is so very helpful that it verges on cheating. Anyone who has translated Torah knows how very difficult it can be to strip out the grammatical parts of the word to get to the right root. BDB is useful and interesting, but my havurah still sometimes had difficulty getting to the right entry. I found this Index to BDB at a used book store, and it has really speeded up our translation! It lists each BDB reference in chapter-verse order. You can instantly see which words in the passage you are translating are defined in BDB, including page number and definition number. There are still difficult words that are not indexed (because they are not referred to in BDB), so we still get some practice in figuring out the roots! But the Index to BDB (along with the BDB, of course) is very useful in getting the surface translation so that we can start looking at the meaning of the text.

I recommend this book after taking two of Dr. Zuckerman's courses at USC and after reading his book for a term paper. He presents a powerful analysis of the Book of Job that counters the traditional view of Job as a patient, righteous sufferer. Instead, he uses historical literary evidence and comparisons with other Ancient Near Eastern texts, along with analogy, to argue that the Job of the Bible is actually an Anti-Job--the original Job tradition probably depicted a suffering Job more along the lines of the description of Job in James 5:11. While this is a secular book commenting on the development of Job as a book of the Bible, I would also argue that, if Zuckerman's thesis holds true, there are some very profound theological implications, as the intention of the author is taken into account. Job the Silent is a very provocative reading that I highly recommend.

_A_Guide_to_Old_English_ deserves its popularity in schools and is probably the best self-contained course in the subject for the general student of English. If you're an independent learner who's gotten it into your head to learn OE, this is also a good choice; in fact, the authors have opened their hearts to autodidacts and help you navigate your way through the book. I would hope, however, that you have already studied at least one inflected language (German is ideal). This book really should be subtitled _A_Reader's_Guide_, since the authors aim is to prepare beginners to decipher actual texts, not just memorize paradigms. To this end they acknowledge up front that many of the declensions are confused in the MSS; they note words likely to cause trouble and warn of places where singular and plural (or different cases, etc.) are likely to be mistaken for each other. The section on syntax is much fuller than is typical of first grammars--evidence of wise heads, as I see it, since syntax is much more important in OE than most students and perhaps some teachers realize. Also included is a long list of conjunctive phrases, a hallmark of OE and as important to know as all the subordinating constructions are in Latin. The reading selections are judiciously chosen, edited, and ordered. Delightful, and uncommon in works of this nature, are the occasional glimpses of the authors' personality that break through now and then: moments of humane warmth, or impatience with bumptious scholars (no names).

What this book lacks, however, is much historical or comparative linguistic detail. You would never know there was such a thing as i-stems, for example. The u-declension of nouns is identified by name, but no such honor is awarded the r-declension. If memory serves, the section on syntax, lengthy and helpful as it is, rarely draws the parallels with German that the reader might be interested to know. Thus students interested in Germanics--the ol' time philology--will need to supplement Mitchell and Robinson very early on in their studies. (If such things are of no interest to you, you may upgrade this review to 5 stars...but shame on you!!)

Mitchell and Robinson's 'A Guide to Old English' is exactly what it claims to be: it smooths the path before the would-be reader of Old English and points out both the obstacles and the areas of interest along the way. It guides the reader through the highways and byways of Old English, and allows him to rapidly gain a reading knowledge of Old English, and some understanding of the workings of the language. Its goal is acquaintance with the tools necessary to decode actual Old English texts, rather than mastery of the language, insofar as composition is a topic omitted altogether. No attempt is made to train the reader to produce Old English.

This guide is not a language textbook in the usual sense of the word. It does not progressively present points of grammar and lists of vocabulary, followed by relevant exercises and translations. Instead, it comprises two parts. The first gives a fairly detailed overview of the grammar and historical context of Old English, whilst the second contains prose and verse texts, accompanied by copious notes, for the reader to attempt. The focus of the first part is not so much the acquisition of paradigms and rules as familiarisation with the general structure of Old English. The section on syntax, very important in Old English, is remarkably comprehensive. The collection of texts in the second part is, in my opinion, well chosen, and representative of the breath of texts in Old English, without dismissing the most famous texts. One particularly useful feature of the guide is its glossary, which contains every word found in the readings, and, for every occurrence of a word in the texts, its part is indicated in the glossary. This simplifies the task of deciphering a text enormously, and obviates the necessity for a separate dictionary.

This sixth edition is not greatly different to the previous editions: minor errors have been corrected, a few small additions on minor points of grammar have been made. The most important change is perhaps the addition of a few texts, e.g., the well-known 'Wulf and Eadwacer', but, all in all, the previous editions were already excellent, and there is no cogent reason to purchase this edition if a previous one is already on hand.

In short, then, Mitchell and Robinson have produced a remarkably usable guide to Old English that is at once instructive and interesting. One could do much worse than to acquire this work if rapid acquisition of reading ability in Old English is desired. As noted by a previous review, the book is not really suited to philologists seeking to understand the history and evolution of English and its place within the Germanic languages. As far as I can tell, this is its single greatest shortcoming, but it doesn't detract much from its purpose. I would heartily recommend this book as an introduction to Old English.

I've personally never read this book (I'll give it 5 stars for being about old english), but I must respond to another's entry here:

from sweet's second anglo-saxon reader, oxford university press- "Neorxenawanges" (or specifically "neorxnawang") means paradise.. from the root of the old teutonic sea deity 'niord', a god of peace. there; now you dont have to buy this book ;-)

Michael Swanwick is a modern writer. He writes very contemporary. His tales are strong, focused, and brilliant. Funy too -but in a dark sort of way.
They aren't suitable for everybody, I think, because of their mature themes. If you decide to buy a copy don't forget I warned you of their contents.
Many of these tales were nominated for major "literary" awards. Don't understand me wrongly: these are REAL literary stories.
Some other stories actually won awards. Left me wondering why not all of them won them. Swanwick's tales are head and shoulders above most other SF/F writing.
He writes novels too, but I urge you to start here. These stories are his best -and are better than his novels.
I have respect for this writer because he actually does write short stories after having gotten praise for his longer work. Most other writers break through with a couple of short stories -which most of the time aren't as interesting- and then start their mass-production of "novels." Fat bulks of paper written just for money. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they do actually keep the good stuff from getting a more prominent view. Soon shoppers forget about the good books -won't buy them anymore, and shops display only things that sell. Exit the good books.
Okay, buy this book and reward this interesting author/writer.
The best of speculative fiction remains to be found in short stories. These are short and all gem-like.
That's all from me.

This collection of short stories is among the best ever written. Deeply profound, thoughtful and literary tales, these stories remind me of Franz Kafka and Philip K. Dick at their best. Swanwick utilizes science fiction in the exact way science fiction should be utilized: as a realistic and cautionary window into the future. His favorite themes include: The dangers of unfettered capitalism and emergence of corporate slave-labor; science and medical technology run amok; the nature of death, the soul, and the afterlife; and time travel and the complications involved in altering the past. He also seems to have an obsession with dinosaurs. If these themes sound like a recipe for intellectual and thoughtful literature, you are correct. Swanwick is able to convey fascinating philosophical concepts through his fiction, and does so with a clear and lucid style. Unlike some modern authors, Michael Swanwick does not try to experiment with an overly abstract or poetic style, and does not play tricks with the reader in an attempt to create a "new" style of writing prose. Swanwick sticks with a basic writing style, and invokes pioneering literary concepts through the actual content of his stories. This is mystical-realist literature at its best - realistic style and execution, combined with far-out mystical concepts.

Michael Swanwick's latest collection 'Tales of Old Earth' is masterful. The collection of stories ranges from Hard SF to the so-called Hard Fantasy (don't ask me to explain it). There are Hugo and World Fantasy Award Winners and numerous stories that were nominated for major awards.

It's unfortunate that Michael Swanwick isn't widely-recognized as the writer that he is. His work is consistently head-and-shoulders above the average work being turned out in the genre. But he writes predominantly short fiction, and short fiction never has, and never will be, recognized by the masses.

This is one of the best story collections I've ever read. There isn't a 'dog' in the bunch. Every story jumps out at the reader with its vibrancy. Michael Swanwick is a wordsmith of unparalleled talent. I have no doubt that he's the best writer of the current generation. I highly recommend this collection.