Review by blaireth -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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blaireth
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Review by blaireth -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?
[Following is a volunteer review of "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" by William Combs.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Reading Who Told you that you were Naked by William E. Combs was a bit of an enigma. I wondered to myself, often, “where are you going with this Combs?” The introduction was pleasant; it compared the Bible to a penlight at night versus full light at day. A penlight only illuminates a small part of your path where as full sun allows you to see (pretty much) everything. This, he said, was a little like what one’s understanding of needing a savior is like when only the gospels are read instead of reading the Old Testament as well –at least Genesis which is the beginning- and the gospels.
Then Combs jumped into the part of Genesis in which Adam and Eve find themselves naked. Well, the whole process of the realization that they were naked. And shortly after this, he delved into what I erroneously believed, on reading the first few sentences, to be a debate on a creation day not really being 24 hours. I thought I was in for the same ol’, same ‘ol… but I was wrong.
Combs begins by referring to the fact that Adam and Eve did not actually die physically on the day they ate the fruit, even though God had indicated with great warning that in the day they ate of the fruit they would die. Of course I had realized that they did not physically die that day but I always supposed that God meant that the day they ate the fruit the physical death process would begin. This was the beginning of what I found to be quite an interesting theological topic (I won’t say debate because it was the opening to appreciating a new idea, not an argument of any sort). Combs addressed different kinds of death- not just physical but relational and also spiritual. And he defined these very well, which I appreciated (especially forty or more pages after I had further time to contemplate how these types of deaths compared to the content he was talking about around page seventy and beyond).
So where did I get to wondering where Combs was going with this book? Well, there is an issue -other than the initial fall story of Adam and Eve- that Combs spoke a lot about, the issue of faith. I did not at first see a great connection with Adam and Eve. He referenced Romans and Corinthians and other New Testament books in great length, talking about the issue of faith. He spoke about the connection between faith and sin. While I like good theology, I had to scratch my head a little because I wasn’t sure at first if this was good theology and exegesis (another topic he addresses). But in the end, without spoilers, there was a great connection made between faith, sin and Adam and Eve (though Combs makes it clear that he does not take the stance that Adam and Eve were rebellious and therefore sinful but rather were imposed upon –to put it mildly- by sin that they erred into).
Now I would like to note about the narrative of the story. The book began by looking at the Genesis story as if it were being retold in narrative, at-the-moment. The type of thing one sees in a movie that is based on a true story- one knows that there is some liberty taken, of course, but the truth is there. That said, most whom adhere to the Bible do not enjoy much liberty taken by book and/or movie writers when regarding the Holy Book. I find that I often find that if a movie or book based on the Bible strays from the truth I don’t often get annoyed, per se, to the point of putting the book down or turning off the TV, but I comment on it. I note this because if you, as a reader, are annoyed by much liberty taken, you might be annoyed enough once or twice in the book to the point you want to put it down. For example (and not a spoiler, don’t worry), before Eve is created, Adam finds an orphan fawn whose mother was killed by a predator. One will not find predation in the Bible before Adam and Eve eat the fruit; this point caused me to cringe a little. Further reading revealed that the book was generally very exact so don’t put it down due to inconsistencies in truth!
Further note I made about Combs’ use of story-telling (ie: seeing the newly created world from Adam’s point of view and sharing it with the reader) was his relative sporadic continuation of it’s use. What I mean is that he began the story by telling much of Adam’s life as if it were a story but he subsequently, after the creation of Eve, dropped this use nearly entirely. If a reader is looking for fiction based on Biblical account and is not bothered by a small amount of liberty, hesitate here. This ‘drop’ was a little inconsistent. Though not troubling, I noted it.
I also found this book to be quite intellectual as well as spiritual. Combs stated often that the salvation message and call should not be made too difficult and over-complicated by people (so as to keep them away from understanding and therefore wanting it). At nearly the same time saying the latter, he delves in the book into much deeper issues than just what more-than-marginal Christians would understand best as “the milk” spoken of so often by the Apostle Paul. Some readers would ascertain this to mean he’s being heady but that is not the case. I believe he was being rounded in tackling Christian issues deeply while the feeling of someone just playing ‘devil’s advocate’ did not appear to me to be present. I find myself wanting much more than “milk” when it comes to topics of the Word. I was not bored wading in the shallow end when I just wanted to swim laps. At the same time, salvation’s simplicity was not lost by any means so if the shallow end is your comfort of the moment, wade.
I thoroughly enjoyed Who Told you that you were Naked by Combs. It was intriguing and Biblically sound. It had some great theology and introduced me to some new theological ideas as well as a couple of terms. I did note one misquote of one word in a Bible quote (page 75, quoting Luke 22:41-44), one double closed bracket (page 121) and one misspelled word (heal instead of heel on page 129). These, though minor, taken with the odd use and then almost complete drop of Biblical narrative lead me to rate this book as 3 out of 4 stars. Combs is an excellent author and interesting mind.
******
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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3 out of 4 stars
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Reading Who Told you that you were Naked by William E. Combs was a bit of an enigma. I wondered to myself, often, “where are you going with this Combs?” The introduction was pleasant; it compared the Bible to a penlight at night versus full light at day. A penlight only illuminates a small part of your path where as full sun allows you to see (pretty much) everything. This, he said, was a little like what one’s understanding of needing a savior is like when only the gospels are read instead of reading the Old Testament as well –at least Genesis which is the beginning- and the gospels.
Then Combs jumped into the part of Genesis in which Adam and Eve find themselves naked. Well, the whole process of the realization that they were naked. And shortly after this, he delved into what I erroneously believed, on reading the first few sentences, to be a debate on a creation day not really being 24 hours. I thought I was in for the same ol’, same ‘ol… but I was wrong.
Combs begins by referring to the fact that Adam and Eve did not actually die physically on the day they ate the fruit, even though God had indicated with great warning that in the day they ate of the fruit they would die. Of course I had realized that they did not physically die that day but I always supposed that God meant that the day they ate the fruit the physical death process would begin. This was the beginning of what I found to be quite an interesting theological topic (I won’t say debate because it was the opening to appreciating a new idea, not an argument of any sort). Combs addressed different kinds of death- not just physical but relational and also spiritual. And he defined these very well, which I appreciated (especially forty or more pages after I had further time to contemplate how these types of deaths compared to the content he was talking about around page seventy and beyond).
So where did I get to wondering where Combs was going with this book? Well, there is an issue -other than the initial fall story of Adam and Eve- that Combs spoke a lot about, the issue of faith. I did not at first see a great connection with Adam and Eve. He referenced Romans and Corinthians and other New Testament books in great length, talking about the issue of faith. He spoke about the connection between faith and sin. While I like good theology, I had to scratch my head a little because I wasn’t sure at first if this was good theology and exegesis (another topic he addresses). But in the end, without spoilers, there was a great connection made between faith, sin and Adam and Eve (though Combs makes it clear that he does not take the stance that Adam and Eve were rebellious and therefore sinful but rather were imposed upon –to put it mildly- by sin that they erred into).
Now I would like to note about the narrative of the story. The book began by looking at the Genesis story as if it were being retold in narrative, at-the-moment. The type of thing one sees in a movie that is based on a true story- one knows that there is some liberty taken, of course, but the truth is there. That said, most whom adhere to the Bible do not enjoy much liberty taken by book and/or movie writers when regarding the Holy Book. I find that I often find that if a movie or book based on the Bible strays from the truth I don’t often get annoyed, per se, to the point of putting the book down or turning off the TV, but I comment on it. I note this because if you, as a reader, are annoyed by much liberty taken, you might be annoyed enough once or twice in the book to the point you want to put it down. For example (and not a spoiler, don’t worry), before Eve is created, Adam finds an orphan fawn whose mother was killed by a predator. One will not find predation in the Bible before Adam and Eve eat the fruit; this point caused me to cringe a little. Further reading revealed that the book was generally very exact so don’t put it down due to inconsistencies in truth!
Further note I made about Combs’ use of story-telling (ie: seeing the newly created world from Adam’s point of view and sharing it with the reader) was his relative sporadic continuation of it’s use. What I mean is that he began the story by telling much of Adam’s life as if it were a story but he subsequently, after the creation of Eve, dropped this use nearly entirely. If a reader is looking for fiction based on Biblical account and is not bothered by a small amount of liberty, hesitate here. This ‘drop’ was a little inconsistent. Though not troubling, I noted it.
I also found this book to be quite intellectual as well as spiritual. Combs stated often that the salvation message and call should not be made too difficult and over-complicated by people (so as to keep them away from understanding and therefore wanting it). At nearly the same time saying the latter, he delves in the book into much deeper issues than just what more-than-marginal Christians would understand best as “the milk” spoken of so often by the Apostle Paul. Some readers would ascertain this to mean he’s being heady but that is not the case. I believe he was being rounded in tackling Christian issues deeply while the feeling of someone just playing ‘devil’s advocate’ did not appear to me to be present. I find myself wanting much more than “milk” when it comes to topics of the Word. I was not bored wading in the shallow end when I just wanted to swim laps. At the same time, salvation’s simplicity was not lost by any means so if the shallow end is your comfort of the moment, wade.
I thoroughly enjoyed Who Told you that you were Naked by Combs. It was intriguing and Biblically sound. It had some great theology and introduced me to some new theological ideas as well as a couple of terms. I did note one misquote of one word in a Bible quote (page 75, quoting Luke 22:41-44), one double closed bracket (page 121) and one misspelled word (heal instead of heel on page 129). These, though minor, taken with the odd use and then almost complete drop of Biblical narrative lead me to rate this book as 3 out of 4 stars. Combs is an excellent author and interesting mind.
******
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like blaireth's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: The Altitude Journals by David J Mauro
