Book Review: Halley’s Bible Handbook
June 10, 2011 by Lillie
I generally review indie books at the request of the author or publicist here on my blog, but I typically write at least a short review on Goodreads of everything I read. I’m posting this Goodreads review of Halley’s Bible Handbook because the book impacted me so much I think every Christian should read it.
Halley’s Bible Handbook: With the New International Version by H.H. Halley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I didn’t realize what I was getting into when I started this. I had given up secular reading for Lent and intended to read several Christian books during that time. But this overwhelmed me and kept me reading far beyond Lent. The other books I planned to read are still waiting.
Halley’s Bible Handbook began in 1922 as a 16-page hand-printed pamphlet that Henry Halley gave out to encourage people to read and understand the Bible. Halley started as a clergyman but was told by his doctor that he had to get outside and do hard physical work for his health. He gave up pastoral work and went into the construction business, but he never gave up his faith or his love of the Bible. He memorized and could quote Scripture from every book of the Bible for 25 hours. He gave recitations in churches, always beginning each one with a brief description of the book he was quoting from. When note-taking by the audience distracted him, he decided to print up the information in a leaflet. Over 80 years and 25 editions, that little leaflet grew into this nearly 500-page-book, edited by Halley’s great-granddaughter and her husband.
The book begins with explaining what the Bible is: “1) The Bible is God’s Word. 2) Christ is the heart and center of the Bible.” Halley gives background on the setting and time of the Bible, including archaeological discoveries and historical references.
He then goes through book by book and gives the main thought of each book. I intend to go through this the next time I read the Bible straight through. This year I’m following a chronological reading plan and since the year is half over, I will finish that plan. But next year, I’ll start over reading the Bible from the beginning, and I will use this handbook as I read. Although I have done a lot of Bible studies, this was more effective than anything else I’ve done in helping me understand how the Old Testament is part of Christ’s story. Many cross-references are very helpful.
There are a lot of maps and charts and information about places and people and events. But the most important message of this handbook is, in Henry Halley’s words, “that every Christian should be a Constant and Devoted Reader of the Bible; and that the primary business of the Church and Ministry is to lead, foster, and encourage their people in that habit.”
I purchased this book to read; no one asked me to review it. I wrote the review because it impacted me so greatly I wanted to share it with others. The Amazon link is an affiliate link.
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This sounds like a good book. It is hard for me to read the Bible straight through because of the chapters covering war and violence. These areas of the Bible are distressing. I know it’s history, but these passages about people killing each other are difficult for me to read and I feel troubled they are in such a holy book. I am also troubled by areas of the Bible where some people have said that God instructed them to kill certain people. Perhaps this book may ease some of my discomfort when it comes to reading those passages in the Bible.
Dawn,
I understand your feelings. I usually make a few notes in my journal on my daily readings, and a number of times I’ve written that I just don’t understand much of the Old Testament.
This handbook impacted me most by helping me understand that all those things that are confusing and unpleasant are part of the story of Christ. I’m still following the chronological reading plan so am not referring back to the information on each book (sometimes there are overlaps between books in the chronological readings so I don’t necessarily read book by book). However, what I read has given me a different perspective, and I’m paying more attention to those sections I was hurrying over before and seeing things I didn’t see before.
hi Dawn, you’re describing here is something that bothers to many people that read the Bible, but you have to remember what time it is. This is the time in history, that if you were not killed, probably would have killed you. so that people once lived. Sometimes The only way to fix things was the way the sword. and just in war would come to an agreement. until the war came. By the way, today we are not quite finished with it
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bili,
Halley says something along the lines of we live in a fallen world and we’re all sinful people and God works with the material He has.
Amazing review. This give me the feeling that I should buy this book for reading it !
George,
I hope you will read it. I think every Christian will benefit from it.
You are so right. I’ve seen this book and was able to read about 5 minutes into the first part of it and it looked excellent. I plan on buying it soon and this is definitely something every Christian should read.
Thanks for the confirmation, Dale.
We all need to understand that the bible was written by holly people inspired by G. Any reading of any part of the bible, especially the book of psalms, can cause miracles. I have seen it myself.
Michael,
Yes, the Word of God can certainly inspire miracles.