I recently purchased this Bible for my son. He loves the pictures and enjoys the artwork (which definitely does mirror comic books). Upon reading the Bible out loud to him, though, I kept noticing things that I disagreed with, such as some embellishment that I felt really took liberties (like with the thoughts/conversations of the characters) and some things that were just straight up factually wrong. This really surprised me, especially when I saw so many five star reviews on here. It made me wonder if I am the one off base! I'll walk you through a few things that stood out to me about the life of Abram and you can decide for yourself.

When Abram is still living in Ur, The Action Bible has God telling Abram to leave. Abram wants to leave his family behind, but his dad is upset about this and orders that he and Lot are going with him. When they arrive in Haran, Terah wants to stay there and retire. So out of respect for his dad (and direct disobedience to God), Abram settles in Haran. When Terah dies, Abram "immediately takes charge" and orders the family to load up so that he can now leave like God had told him to. Comparing this to Genesis 11:26 - 12:4), God didn't speak to Abram about leaving his family and going to where God wanted him to until after Terah had died. They were already living in Haran, not Ur. Terah moved his family to Haran, not Abram. Other than the factual error, I didn't appreciate how it portrayed Abram as disobedient to God to obey his father and making his father seem selfish and verbally insulting God (Terah: "Seriously, Abram, it's better to worship ALL the God's. That way you don't offend one by leaving him out." Abram: "Worshipping other gods offends the one true God." Terah: "So...you're saying He's selfish?").

When Abram has Sarai pretend to be his sister out of fear of being killed by the Egyptians (Genesis 12:11-20), The Action Bible has a conversation between Abram and Sarai after they leave Egypt when Pharoah discovers that Sarai is actually Abram's wife and not sister. To paraphrase, Abram and Sarai realize their plan to fool Pharoah to save Abram's life was foolish. Abram is very remorseful, asking for Sarai's forgiveness. She forgives him. He says he will only trust God from now on and hopes God will forgive him. Sarai responds that she is sure He will forgive Abram. Sarai then tells Abram that she hopes it's the last time she has to pretend to be his sister. I don't take issue with this much, but what I don't like is that Abram does have Sarai (Sarah at this point) pretend to be his sister again in Genesis 20, but this is not addressed in The Action Bible.

This may sound nitpicky, but The Action Bible states, "As Hagar's son, Ishmael, grow to boyhood, he is the center of attention throughout the camp, both women take pride in him, but in her heart, Sarah knows that Ishmael isn't really hers." Maybe I somehow missed this part in the Bible, but I don't see where Ishmael was the center of attention and I definitely don't see Sarah taking pride in him.

Again, this may sound nitpicky, but according to Genesis 18, when the three men visited Abram, Scripture is clear that two of the men were angels and one was God. The two angels walk on toward Sodom and God stays and talks to Abram (now Abraham at this point). The Action Bible shows a picture of Abram burning a sacrifice to God while talking, looking up at the sky. It does not have a face-to-face conversation.

I'm going to choose to stop there so this review doesn't get too lengthy. These things may not bother you, but it did bother me since my seven-year-old son is not well versed in the Bible to have the discretion to recognize where liberties are taken versus facts. You make the best decision for your family, but for mine, I am returning The Action Bible.

Disclaimer: My attempt is to say all this as a lover of Jesus, a student of the inerrant Word, and in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and His people.

As much as I love this Bibles attempts to reach our youth with vivid pictures while remaining authentic to the words of the Scriptures in an abbreviated fashion, etc.

The illustrations of various peoples and nations, from the Israelites to the other nations they interact with, intermarry with, come from, etc., are historically inaccurate. While I am sure it is unintentional, seeing or making the Bible characters primarily if not solely portrayed as white (minus a handful of pages with tanner or darker colored people) skews our view of history, God, and even people. A bit of research will allow you to discover that even among the Hebrews there was people of many skin colors due to their foreign ancestries and intermarriages. To be blunt (and forgive me if this is crass), the people in these illustrations are almost all white people and this is sadly inaccurate.

How we portray culture affects our children and their view of one culture OVER another. So when you make an illustrated Bible that portrays the majority of Gods people or those whom Gods people interact with as white or European looking, you further dividing walls that Christ came to bring down, albeit unintentionally I assume. Favoring one complexion more than history truly allows only furthers a covert and hidden racism or prejudices against various people groups who did not get the privilege of that skin color. I am not advocating for an inaccurate view of history by adding in a rainbow of people groups and colors in an illustrated Bible, but to do just a bit more research to find out the diversity of skin colors that were prevalent in Biblical time periods and in the Biblical stories. The insult is to go through the illustrations and see only white people, minus a few token colored people, which is historically inaccurate. To add insult to injury, the inaccuracies here further our subconscious biases today (see below)!

Various psychological and scientific studies have been done to show the adverse affects upon children (let alone adults) when they only see color through the eyes of one people group, typically those in positions of power or intellectual prestige who ultimately set the standards, norms, and biases for the masses. As a test, do an assessment of the majority of illustrated childrens books that have come out in the past 100 years and you will see that the characters portray the inherent prejudices of their white authors, even though the books were not only for white people. Do an assessment in your own home or local library. Are the majority of characters white in the illustrated books? Maybe I should stick to speaking from my personal experience: I have to actively seek out childrens books that portray people groups of all nations and their interactions so that my daughter has a view of all of Gods valued creation and not just one people group that has had the privilege to write or sell many of the books on the market.

In short, when a child reads books portraying all the characters or especially the *good* or *pretty* characters as one skin complexion (white), what do you think they see as right? What do you think they see as beautiful? What do they subconsciously desire? The same goes for toys, advertisements, etc..



I can not submit the link here, but if you research *Doll test study* this proves my point about biases in children because of our failings as adults.

Thus, my suggestion is to make another edition in which the characters skin colors are more plausibly and fairly portrayed, historically substantiated. Some may say this is nonsense and a waste of time, *I do not see color* and *We should not be worried about color,* but the reality is our society is divided by color, God sees color (hence he made it), the Bible has color, power structures are in place via color biases, and our subconscious minds (especially those of our sponge-like children) DO indeed care about color whether we like to admit it or not.

When I was a kid, my father had a Children's Bible that he read to us every night. It had color illustrations that pulled no punches. The Valley of Dry Bones had a gruesome picture of the actual valley filled with bones and skulls, cool stuff for an imaginative kid, this action bible reminds me of that, which is a good thing! The pictures and action are great, but, that Children's Bible from my childhood, also had literal text that told more detailed stories and gave actual biblical detail so that I heard the entirety of what was being illustrated. I still remember the great picture of Esther pointing out Haaman as the man threatening her people and his look of shock and fear, it caused me to have a 3D view of the Bible that stays with me till this day.

The Action Bible brings Bible stories to life in some good ways, but there is a lot of scriptural content that is missing that will draw the student or child to search further. It is a good entry level and probably a great reading to kids at night story book, but out side of that I can't see it being very functional.

For what it is, it will be a powerful tool, but it MUST be used in conjunction with the actual scripture itself. I suggest pairing it with a New Living Translation, because the storytelling style would be similar.

I ordered these bibles to give to some boys who have no church or Christian influence in their lives. I felt they would be attracted to the comic book style and minimal reading. My prayer is claiming the promise of Isaiah 55:11.

My greatest concern about these bibles is that the children will actually view what is written and illustrated the same way they do actual comic books - that it is fantasy. I pray that these simulated bibles will lead them to the true bible, wherein lies the riches of the glory of God's grace.

Some persons view telling the Bible's story's and truths through this type of artwork as being "disrespectful", but those same persons may have taught Sunday School or a midweek youth class with much less visually appealing artwork or by using the old flannel board teaching method or have/do condone that methods. What is the difference there other than that this Bible story compilation tells the stories of God's truth in a more beautiful and visually descriptive manner that is excellent in it's genre? The illustrations are gorgeous and his style of art is wonderfully executed. There are some pieces of artwork in this book that are totally stunning and that caused me to stare at it in sheer awe because of the intricate work that must have taken hours upon hours to complete. He visualized so much and I'm sure, being an artist myself, could not fully implement all that was before his soul's eye. He truly shared part of his soul with us via this his paramount artwork.

Although this book skips through and vaguely covers the Word from Creation to Tribulation, it is NOT God's Word. However, it CONTAINS God's Holy Word; but it is not a type of or version of God's Holy Word. I do not see why it claims to be a Bible, because it is not a Bible. It is however a fascinatingly and gorgeously illustrated book of illustrations that graphically tells the reader Bible storys galore.

I would think that any one, a young child aged 5 to an adult, would be able to enjoy this book for what it is. I would encourage parents of younger children, aged 5 to 10 years old, to bring this book forward in attempt to do two things:

1. To give them, or allow them to use, a book to read that will encourage their interest in the Bible to flourish & grow, and

2. To help prod new or intermediately skilled readers onward toward better reading skills through a fun and exciting way.

(Not to mention sharpening the pencils of their imagination).

If you can pick this Bible up for $20 or less, in my opinion, it is a great bargain and even at $30 it is worth the money but that is pushing the envelope on price.

If you desire a Bible with words to guide your mind's eye then look elsewhere. But if you want a book that is a collection of biblically based graphic art at its best then look no further, you've just found it.

I gave my copy to a missionary who was very interested in it, therefore I am going to purchase this enjoyable book on this site at HALF of the cost of what I paid for it in a store's book section a couple of years ago.

I hope that this review has helped you in your decision of whether to buy this finely illustrated and scripted book or not.