The Rabbit Room

LOVE the JSB! I’m using it for Advent this year with my four and five year-old, and I feel like we’re all getting so much out of it. Is it possible to purchase the narration separately somewhere? So glad you’re spreading the word about this fantastic book!

Only some nights? I hate to rat out your fellow BTLOG crew, but I heard they were giving you grief about your being such a softie when you were in Richmond! But don’t worry, my husband and I thought it was very touching. And I was the one that was sobbing during “Behold the Lamb of God” and “the Theme of My Song/Reprise”!

I can’t wait to order this bible! It is going to be one of my son’s Christmas presents I hope. If not, it will be a just because gift.

Jamey, Joshua and I all hope that you and the rest of the BTLOG crew have safe travels and a very blessed Christmas. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!

My wife and I first heard about the JSB from Andrew’s BTLOG concert about 2 years ago. We went out and bought one immediately for our daughter who was two at the time. It’s a Saturday night tradition to read a story from this book. It’s an excellent read for children and adults alike. I, too, find myself tearing up when I get done reading it.

I’m a youth minister and I’ve used the JSB numerous times to help illustrate stories to my students. They get a kick out of being a “preschooler” again and having someone read them a story. This book is a must have for any preschool child’s library.

Our church put together an Advent devotional this year . . . it includes daily readings from the Jesus Storybook Bible and Jesse Tree ornaments. We also offered BTLOG and sold more copies than we ever imagined! (Perhaps that’s because you came and sang at our church during your Resurrection Letters West Coast Swing and our congregation fell in love with you!)
I’m so excited to think of families all over our town reading the JSBB together each evening and listening to your beautiful album!
What a blessed Advent Season!!

I’m not afraid to admit I loved that video. And I’m 27.

It’s a great book. Our Sunday School kids are raising money this Advent to send copies to missionary families. Many of our staff hadn’t even heard of the book, so I keep telling them how awesome it is. : )

Our family loves this book! We gave it as a gift to our family and friends last Christmas, and we are currently re-reading as a family in the evenings. We take turns reading a story each night…Dad, Mom and our 9 & 7 year-old girls.

I am constantly amazed at how my heart is stirred when reading and listening to this book! And the illustrations are terrific!

If you haven’t yet experienced this book…you really, really should!!!

I haven’t been able to get through a story yet without crying. My son always says, “It’s otay da da.” and I just smile, wipe my tears and say, “yeah, buddy, it is okay.”

We got one of these several years ago from some dear friends of ours. It no longer has a cover, and is missing a few pages in front from the repeated usage. This is a great complement to our Big Picture Story Bible, which sets out on the same journey — the former has more meat in the text, whereas the latter communicates more through the artwork. We’re extremely thankful for both of these wonderful books, and the impact they’re having on our kids — and on us as we read them.

I bought it for a friend’s children for Christmas, and I like it so much they are getting cookies instead. A bit diabolical maybe, but….Kidding, I’ll just get them another copy, but it is stirring, even for a grown up heart.

OK, I’m going to play the contrarian. Which I really don’t like to do because I’m an “aw shucks, can’t we all get along” type. But in the interest of raising some good healthy discussion (which I know the Rabbit Room will do, and not just be snarky), I’d like to offer some criticism of the JSB.

First, the good. The JSB does an excellent job of showing how all of scripture points to Christ. Most children’s Bible stories are just moral tales, and so few have a christo-centric approach that this really makes this Bible a wonderful asset. I want to be clear on that.

But, the words used, and the phrasing of the stories is just so… casual. It’s like it’s Jesus and his homeboys. We have a hard enough time remembering that Bible stories really happened in literal history, do we need baby-talk to make it feel even more like a fairy-tale? And, at least for my family that reads lots of Bible stories, it feels condescending in explaining what’s going on. Perhaps it would be better for very young children with no prior exposure to the Bible. Everything feels like it’s a half joke. Not unlike what I might experience on the edge of the dark sea of darkness, but not really what I expect from God’s Holy Word. I feel like the Bible is not treated with the gravity and respect it deserves.

So, what do you think? Am I the only one who feels this way?

We have been reading the Storybook Bible to my girls (4 & 6) every night as a family for a year now and we enjoy it as much as they do. It brings the Bible to life in a way I have never seen before! I love her way with words. It’s so meaningful for children.
For my artistic older child, the unique and beautiful artwork is a plus. We LOVE this Bible and the CD’s. Didn’t know about the movie. Gonna have to get that!thank you for spreading the word!

Dan: You’re right. I would prefer less casual “Top 40″ language and there are definitely some ideas expressed as truth that actually come from human tradition rather than from God’s word.

When I’m reading it with my kids, I can get around that stuff. Moreover, it’s a great opportunity to remind them that this is just a retelling of parts of the Bible, and that the real thing has so much more to offer.

Overall, I think it’s still a great resource for quickening the hearts of our children, and some of that rubs off on us as we become engaged with the humanity and beauty of the story.

Dan, I felt the opposite when I read it. I feel that it’s finally a Bible that speaks in a “child like” language without being overly simple. It’s also very deep and beautiful in some parts – poetic even. I loved it from the first sentence and I am a writer. I think Jesus would delight in the fact that children and parents are learning and loving his word together, not what kind of version of Bible it is. But I can see where you are coming from and I understand it can seem very casual. I go back and forth from reading the Message, NIV and others and if you aren’t used to the Message, this would seem very different! But I think this is a great starting place for young children!

Dan, I agree with you — though my target would be “The Message.” I think it works fine in this “storybook” Bible, though.

I’m constantly making sales pitches for this and other great RR resources. Is Rabbit Room hiring in the marketing department?

[...] brave – and I mean, really, really, really brave – go out to his site and check out his post.  You may want to divert your eyes from any of the other content on the site otherwise, your head [...]

I can’t stand The Message. I think the modern style is much more of a problem for the “Bible Bible,” not even specifically for kids like this one. I honestly cringe to hear some of these great passages of Scripture read in 21st century-speak. The power, beauty and majesty of the language has been completely butchered.

Just my opinion, of course…

The JSB has been a regular evening read at our house for three years now. It’s the first time we’ve seen a children’s Bible that ties Christ in so clearly throughout the whole. One of the themes that took hold in our family was that Jesus has a home he’s preparing for us. A simple truth, but sometimes hard to explain to preschoolers. We moved to a new home when our second daughter was two, and she’d say, “I like *this* home! I don’t want to move to my house in heaven!” We assured her she wouldn’t be going there until Jesus had her house ready. God in his wisdom was preparing our family for the loss of our firstborn in January 2009. The day Keren died our secondborn, then three, immediately latched on to the truth that Keren’s heaven-home was ready. It helped all of us through that painful time, and still helps! Our kids love to look at the picture of the new Jerusalem in the final chapter of JSB and pick out which room is theirs and which is Keren’s .

Was going to buy it, but is the one on the RR site the deluxe edition? Looks like just the book. Would love to have the deluxe version of the JSB. Thanks!

I was in the audience Tuesday night in Huntsville and will confess that I too choke up reading the JSB to my children. I will also confess that reading through it revealed to me more about Jesus in the Old Testament than I had learned in all my Sunday School years. Particularly, the story of Abraham and Isaac was pure revelation, and worded so well. Thank God for Sally Lloyd-Jones and this marvelous work!

Hey guys, speaking of David Suchet, if you like his narration here, you should check out Focus on the Family’s radio theater versions of the Chronicles of Narnia. David plays Aslan and does a fantastic job! Those productions are wonderful. Can’t recommend them highly enough. Light-years ahead of the movies and remarkably faithful.

Carolyn,

I didn’t order any of the deluxe edition for the store because it is expensive and I couldn’t tell what made it “deluxe” beyond the read-a-long CDs it comes with. Do you know any more about it? I’d be happy to stock it in the store if people thought it was worth the $25+shipping that would cost.

When I heard about this book last year from the Rabbit Room, I got it for my sister for Christmas (who was expecting a a baby!). I put off wrapping for as long as I could though, and I stayed up into the wee hours a couple nights reading it. Wow its such a great way to present such a great story and I can’t wait to read it with my kids someday. I will definitely be asking for it for myself for Christmas this year!

Hi Pete. Thanks for getting back to me on it. I don’t know if others would order it or not. I loved listening to the clip above, and I thought it might be something my son and I could listen to in the car on the way to preschool and back. That man’s voice is amazing! But $25 is quite a bit of money in these times.

Maybe wait and see if you get more requests? I’m going to go ahead and order the regular version since that’s what’s available now.

And wow! I just wrote back to Pete Peterson! (sorry, I’m OK now.) HA!

Thanks for getting back to me and whoever else was curious about the deluxe version.

AP, I have one quick question, if you have a minute. I have almost ordered this book multiple times for about six months, but I kept putting it off because of one criticism I heard.

That criticism concerns exegesis. I have heard that it tries to find ways to work Jesus into every Bible story, whether or not that was truly the point of that particular story. (Eisegesis v. exegesis.)

Personally, the idea of the gospel being the true center of most OT stories is fascinating to me. I’m hoping to reread the OT this next year and see if this is something I’ve overlooked for most of my life. Maybe I have tended to turn human characters into heroes, instead of letting God (and His tapestry of redemption) truly be central.

Do you have any thoughts on all that? Have you ever felt that rub using this storybook? I was so glad to see this post about it, because our family does trust your heart.

This translation for kids looks really charming. I like the passage Andrew quoted a lot. It’s very winsome, simple, yet beautiful.

When our family encountered the JSB, my spirit rung in harmony with The Truth that is echoed throughout the stories as it does when I’m recalling verses memorized from Scripture when the Holy Spirit washes them over me because I’m distraught, despairing, full of awe. This has been such a launching point of conversations about Jesus with our young children (ages 3,5, and 6). Just recently, our eldest was given the ESV Illustrated Children’s Bible from our church and knows the difference between the version that is Scripture and the JSB as a storybook. However, she concluded over last weekend that when she reads or hears the JSB she wants to “smile and cry” at the same time… “is that possible mommy?”

Oh, yes. Dear one.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been reading this to my kids and had to conceal the lump in my throat… or sometimes I have let the tears fall anyhow hoping my son will, years from now, remember how moved his mom was by God’s Great Story… we gifted it recently to a friend who had no Bible for their kids… and I need to buy a new one. The deluxe edition sounds fantastic.

I’m 21, and I’m not married and I don’t have kids, and I heart this book! Good stuff! When I first saw it I started reading on the first page and before I knew it I had gotten through half of it.

Our six-year old reads her copy almost every night. Ever since I heard you read from it forever ago, it caught my attention. Absolutely beautiful and shows Jesus being in the entire story.

This book is new to our home, and I absolutely adore it. Reading it, it quickly becomes obvious it is in no way intended to be an official “translation,” a la Peterson’s The Message or J.B. Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English. Jones’ gorgeous prose is grandly simple, doing what we Rabbit Roomers so cherish here: recalling the WHOLE story with Alpha to Omega vision, relating how the story of any one of us is the story of us all. For me personally, I find myself near tears reading it aloud to my 4-year-old, collectively absorbing the rich illustrations, remembering that The Story is neither myth nor fairy tale, but so grand in scope that God is so crazy about us that he’s crazy enough to use the world’s most unworthy ones to continue telling it.

So… just finished listening to “Behold the Lamb of God”. My listening experience was at first compromised… My 3 year old and 1 year old were playing with my husband in the next room and I couldn’t hear the CD very well. I wanted it to be that “perfect” first listen. I’ve never heard the CD and was excited about this purchase. Suddenly in the midst of all the chaos, the power of what God has done for us overwhelmed me… and tears began to pour down my cheeks. I looked down to see my 3 year old staring up at me, “Mama… why are those tears coming out your eyes” he said worried, head cocked to one side. I told him that I was crying because I was thinking of how much Jesus loves us and that it made me so happy I cried. Thank you for this song. God, thank you for your son…. and mine!

I love this book! It is a great read and I too was skeptical about it at first. But after I dove into the work, found it a very useful tool in my Spritual shed. The CD is great too.

I interviewed Sally on my show Christian Devotions Speak UP! What a wonderful story she shared about writing it. You check it out at the following link: http://christiandevotions.us/2010/06/22/christian-devotions-speak-up-with-marla-stewart-konrad-sally-lloyd-jones/
The show also features Marla Konrad, who writes another venue of children’s books that are worth a look.

Andrew,
I attended and loved the Behold the Lamb show on December 14 in Montgomery, AL. I have been thinking about “So Long Moses” all day today and had to ask… did you mean for the song to sound so wonderfully unfinished at the end? Is the song leaving room for Jesus’ second coming? Did you mean for parts of the song to sound like Revelation 6:2-4, and that someday His coming will no longer be meek, but as “a king on a throne full of power with a sword in his fist”? I may be misunderstanding Revelation and stretching the song further than you intended. I just had to ask.

Thank you for putting on a show for God’s glory instead of for your own. It was beautiful.

I like what Eric said about this book. It is not a physical translation of the Bible for children and should in no way replace scripture. It is written to tell The Story and to help children understand the mystery, beauty, and truth in a way that no other children’s stories I have found can. The prose is so lovely. I too weep as I read it to my five year old son. He is in love with the David and Goliath chapter and we have read it at least twenty times. It is a reminder to both of us that David isn’t the real hero of the story, Jesus is. He is the reason for all stories to be told! I am so thankful Andrew shared this on his tour a few years ago and that we were able to order a copy of it. In fact I am using it this year at three different family celebrations to read out loud before opening gifts and I am super excited to share it with everyone! I think I am going to have to buy another copy just to get the recorded version. My son loves listening to books on tapes and does so every night before going to bed. I want to add this one to our collection!

Carolyn and Pete, just read your posts. I would definitely buy the recording by itself if it were available.

FYI it is available as an audiobook on itunes, just found it.

[...] couple months ago, I picked up a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible (see this article/video) and started reading. A story or two each day was more than enough to sit with for a [...]