Neil Rees (1)

This book is essentially an exploration of how things like punctuation, translation, chapters and verses, headings, footnotes and the page between the Old and New Testaments influence how we understand the biblical text.

I found the book very interesting. I wasn't entirely convinced by all of Rees' ideas - I thought that some of his exegesis-based arguments were stretched further than the texts could justify or sustain - but I did think they were generally well-founded and well-argued. I felt that there were some topics and biblical passages which ought to have been considered but which were omitted, and others which were mentioned only briefly and would have benefited from deeper analysis. However, I did feel that the topics Rees did cover were covered well.

Rees is both open and unapologetic about his evangelical background and his theological and missiological positions, and his opinions are freely expressed. He also has an engaging writing style, which generally made the book enjoyable to read, although I found his tendency to digress and to include so many anecdotes a touch distracting at times. I thought that Rees' concern for evangelism was given too much rein - and certainly too many words - for a book which claims to be about another theme: that evangelism was considered was good, that it was considered so much and so often was to the definite detriment of Rees' analysis of Biblical inspiration.… (mehr)