The Year of Living Biblically
One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
The Book by A. J. Jacobs
The description from Jacobs
The Year of Living Biblically is about my quest to live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible. I obey the famous ones:
• The Ten Commandments
• Love thy neighbor
• Be fruitful and multiply
But also, the hundreds of oft-ignored ones.
• Do not wear clothes of mixed fibers.
• Do not shave your beard
• Stone adulterers
Why? Well, I grew up in a very secular home (I’m officially Jewish but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant). I’d always assumed religion would just wither away and we’d live in a neo-Enlightenment world. I was, of course, spectacularly wrong. So was I missing something essential to being a human? Or was half the world deluded?
I decided to dive in headfirst. To try to experience the Bible myself and find out what’s good in it, and what’s maybe not so relevant to the 21st century.
The resulting year was fascinating, entertaining and informative. It was equal parts irreverent and reverent. It was filled with surprising insights almost every day. (I know it’s not biblical to boast, so apologies for that).
The book that came out of the year has several layers.
-An exploration of some of the Bible’s startlingly relevant rules. I tried not to covet, gossip, or lie for a year. I’m a journalist in New York. This was not easy.
--An investigation of the rules that baffle the 21st century brain. How to justify the laws about stoning homosexuals? Or smashing idols? Or sacrificing oxen? And how do you follow those in modern-day Manhattan?
--A look at various fascinating religious groups. I embedded myself among several groups that take the Bible literally in their own way, from creationists to snake handlers, Hasidim to the Amish.
--A critique of fundamentalism. I became the ultra-fundamentalist. I found that fundamentalists may claim to take the Bible literally, but they actually just pick and choose certain rules to follow. By taking fundamentalism extreme, I found that literalism is not the best way to interpret the Bible.
--A spiritual journey. As an agnostic, I’d never seriously explored such things as sacredness and revelation.
--A memoir of my family’s eccentric religious history, including my ex-uncle Gil, who has been, among other things, a Hindu cult leader, an evangelical Christian and an Orthodox Jew.
After I completed the book, it left an open void in my mind with a big question: That’s it? That is all you can come up with? You spend a whole year going through all these dumb ideas like not eating shrimp and grow out your beard for a whole year and try to complete all the outdated rituals to try to become the New York Times Bestseller? No. This book is quite good and worth reading.
The author and I have an odd common, so it makes me feel somewhat part of a major league team. We both like the book Ecclesiastes, the preacher, sách Truyền Đạo.
This man is a self described secular, overprotective father and a pushover yet smart and have an extreme sense of humor. I think the book is worth reading, especially for people who consider themselves Christian and whom consider themselves as Hebrew Jewish.
How do you come up to be a Christian? Are you really who you think you are? What type of relationship do you have with God?
To bring to the conclusion: Why are there so many types of bible out there? Why should we put stock in certain bible and not the others? Then do we believe in God through the bible or believe in the bible through God? This leads to the inevitable consequence of many denomination and different types of belief. Jacobs find out that they are all wrong. It is you, the single individual who will meet God in the wild. What I just said is totally wrong anyway.
