Author Neil Rees believes that the word of God is revealed in the Bible completely and sufficiently. But, he claims, not everything in the Bibles we carry around and have on our shelves is the inspired text. If true, the consequences of that simple truth could be far-reaching.

Not everything in our Bibles is inspired by God. And take note, I am an orthodox evangelical, or at least I think I am. I believe in 2 Timothy 3:16, and in the infallibility of the Scriptures. I accept the Bible as the Word of God. But I still maintain that not everything in our Bibles is inspired by God.

Like the concordance, for example. Or the glossary. Or the maps, the introduction, the tables of weights and measures, the footnotes, the cross references and studies, the abbreviations, the ISBN number or the copyright notice on the title page, the page on ‘how to find help when...’, or the golden letters embossed onto the leather cover, along with a number of other things I look at in the course of my book. And, if we are honest, even the translation itself isn’t inspired — being the expression in English of divine thought revealed in the writings of inspired biblical authors, each one writing in his native language; that is, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Thankfully, today we have a wide variety of Bibles, translations for all possible tastes, study editions, with commentaries and concordances, along with assorted notes — the accumulated wisdom of today’s most widely recognised scholars all made available to us. And, as if this were not enough, information technology now provides us with new methods of studying the meaning of words in the original languages, comparing translations, and a thousand and one other ways of getting even more out of the Bible, the Word of God.

But in this avalanche of information, which the majority of the time without doubt helps us to get closer to the original meaning of the eternally relevant Word of God, we must not forget the fact that some of these ‘helps’ can hide small but important details of God’s original revelation in the Bible. The purpose of my book is to help readers to remove one or other of these impositions on the Word of God, and to look at generally very well-known texts in a new light, discovering hitherto unnoticed meanings. It is my hope and my prayer that in this way we will be able to come just that bit closer to the author of this Word of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, and know a little more of his heart for a world that has not yet come to know him. His desire to draw together his bride from all across this world is revealed to us on every page of the Bible. I shall consider my purpose fulfilled if, when reaching the end of my short work, readers have understood something more of the missionary heart of God and can offer their own heart, even their whole life, in service to our Lord. To him be glory, now and for ever. And finally, please do be assured that the title is only meant to shock a little, and that I believe in the inspiration of Scripture as much as you do. Don’t worry — this is not holding a further attempt to ‘reveal the Bible’s faults’. As the Scriptures themselves say, not one jot or tittle — in other words, not an accent or a pen stroke — will be removed from them, until all that is written in them is fulfilled. Neil Rees, author of Not Everything in our Bibles is Inspired

Not Everything in Our Bibles is Inspired Not everything in our Bibles is inspired by God. Like the chapter breaks and verse numbers, which sometimes lead us to draw conclusions that were never intended. Or punctuation — the translators have done a wonderful job, but sometimes their decisions take us in one direction when the writer may have meant something else. Neil Rees looks at these and many other later additions and embellishments to the sacred text, not least the process of translation itself, and detects a key shortfall in our understanding of God's word today: Are we missing the mission heart of God? On the one hand it is a light, jaunty page-turner, almost like reading a novel. At the same time it is constantly wandering (cleverly, intentionally) into a huge amount of the kind of information about the Bible that is normally reserved for privileged seminary students. UK Canada

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't Stephen Prothero begins this valuable primer by noting that religious illiteracy is rampant in the United States, where most Americans, even Christians, cannot name even one of the four Gospels. Prothero does more than diagnose the problem; he traces its surprising historic roots ("in one of the great ironies of history, it was the nation's most fervent people of faith who steered Americans down the road to religious illiteracy") and prescribes concrete solutions that address religious education while preserving First Amendment boundaries about religion in the public square. Prothero also offers a dictionary of religious literacy and a quiz for readers to test their knowledge. This book is a must-read not only for educators, clergy and government officials, but for all adults in a culture where, as Prothero puts it, "faith without understanding is the standard" and "religious ignorance is bliss." USA UK Canada

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