The Book of Life

I found a set of The Book of Life for my own children about five years ago and we have loved it for our Bible/history studies. If you love the KJV or you enjoy classic artwork or you just love Living books, I think that you will deeply appreciate this set!

The first volume, Bible Treasures, combines several features. First, in Part One, is a precious, large print primer for beginning readers. (I would keep my own set for the primer alone!!) My children found the stories enjoyable and understandable--and a big plus is the rich vocabulary, atypical of works written at the primer level.

After the primer section, you will find a number of retold Bible stories for young children and, following that, a section that delightfully describes the land of Palestine--its people, geography, customs, and history.

Part One of this first volume finishes with a selection of very enjoyable hymn histories.

Part Two includes "A Child's Life of Christ" and "The Story of the Hebrew People," followed by a suggested Bible memory program.

Volumes 2-7 present our precious "Bible stories" in the text of the KJV:

Throughout these volumes, you find the lovely AV/KJV text, but there is also MUCH MORE! Literature, poetry, hymns, art history sketches, and historical and cultural information are included, along with over 900 illustrations! These include especially commissioned watercolors, photographs of archaeological artifacts and sites, maps, reproductions of classic paintings, and more!

And with each reproduction, there is a full page of text giving a short biography of the artist and some notes on the history of art!

I quote the authors:
"These pictures...have been chosen not simply because they were "modern" or "pretty," but for their educational value, because they actually illustrate the Bible, because they give the background against which the Bible heroes, prophets, and saints walked and spoke, lived and died, for God and Truth and Country."

Volume Eight completes the set with the Bible Educator handbook: The Bible in the Home and the School. Just a few of the topics include how to use the Bible in character building, how to tell a Bible story, and how to assist children to dramatize Biblical accounts.

What homeschooler could resist the authors' definition of education?
"Obviously, it is not 'schooling,' it is not 'booklearning,' though all of these may be means of education. It is gaining power to use life to the best advantage.... The purpose of education is to rouse in the coming generation the creative spirit which produced great things in the past."

The authors believe that no one is educated who does not have close familiarity with the Bible. One evidence they offer for this position is a fifty page chapter consisting of Biblical quotations from the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Scott, Shelley, Dickens, and many others.

They say,
"The Bible relates the experiences of many men who came to a personal knowledge of God....The Bible is the revelation of God to all the human race. It contains the record of God's dealings with man from the beginning, showing the historic unfolding of great spiritual truths. As a result of the entrance of sin into the world the moral and religious ideas of men sank to a very low level, and many practices far below the level of God's righteousness prevailed. The Bible deals frankly with these practices and condemns their sinfulness without hesitation. It shows how men may be saved by the power of God's redemption.... The writers of the Bible were not merely religious geniuses with unique spiritual insight. No.! 'For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' So the Bible in its entirety is the very Word of God infallible, inerrant; 'Scripture cannot be broken.'"

The Book of Life was first published as The Bible Story by Newton Marshall Hall and Irving Francis Wood, from 1906-1917, as a 5 volume set. (I prefer the primer section in The Golden Book of this set to the revised primer in The Book of Life.)

In the 1920's, The Bible Story was enlarged and published as The Book of Life [1923-1972; 1st edition - 33rd edition] by Newton Marshall Hall and Irving Francis Wood. There were eight volumes through at least 1954, but a 9th volume was eventuallyl added. This set was published by John C. Rudin & Co through 1972.

It was also reprinted by Zondervan, with a tenth volume Bible Study Guide by V. Gilbert Beers, in 1973.

Very early editions of The Book of Life had all black and white illustrations. Sometime during the early 1930's the Fine Art and the commissioned pictures began to be reproduced in color (but the archaeological and geographical photos were B&W at least until 1954).

Sometime after 1954 and before 1960, several changes were made to this set, among them,
1. Retold Bible stories replaced the AV/KJV narrative.
2. Fine art and literature were largely removed.
3. The illustrations were redone.

For these reasons, my edition preference runs from about 1935-1954.

The Book of Life was published in a variety of bindings--black leather, red pebbled cloth, blue pebbled cloth, green cloth, brown cloth, cream and brown leatherette, and probably more. Some editions were very beautifully embellished with gilded spines and gilt top page edges.

NOTE: There is yet another Book of Life set, unrelated to the above, but wonderful for home reference. It was written by V. Gilbert Beers and published by Zondervan from 1973 until very recently. It is a 24 volume set, which includes a one volume Bible.