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ChristianityToday

A.J. Jacobs

The Year of Living Biblically

We sometimes hear of people who claim follow the rules of the Bible to the letter. But how practicable is this? In The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A.J. Jacobs decides to give it a try.

Mind you, he doesn't try to follow all of the rules. One thing that the book makes very clear is that such a thing would be impossible, and there is always some degree of choosing and interpreting the rules. Rather each section of the book quotes a verse from the Bible and Jacobs explains his attempts to follow it. Not wearing mixed fibres meant packing away some of his clothes, but wasn't so difficult. Not eating fruit from trees which are less than 5 years old is a bit harder. The reader also finds out about what he got to see during his year, for instance sacrificing chickens and handling serpents.

It's interesting how agnostic Jacobs gradually begins to 'buy into' the idea of religion, but don't expect anything too deep from this book. You'll more likely read it for the humour, for instance working out how to stone adulterers without getting into trouble, and if you accept it on that basis then you'll find it an enjoyable read.

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Paperback 416 pages ISBN: 0743291484 Salesrank: 2906 Weight:0.85 lbs
Published: 2008 Simon & Schuster
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Paperback 416 pages ISBN: 0743291484 Salesrank: 14818 Weight:0.85 lbs
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Product Description

From the bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible.

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.

The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.

Jacobs's quest transforms his life even more radically than the year spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica for The Know-It-All. His beard grows so unruly that he is regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, battles idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations - much to his wife's chagrin.

Throughout the book, Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally. He tours a Kentucky-based creationist museum and sings hymns with Pennsylvania Amish. He dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and does Scripture study with Jehovah's Witnesses. He discovers ancient biblical wisdom of startling relevance. And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first-century brain.Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected epiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers both secular and religious, The Year of Living Biblically is part Cliff Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.

Too clinical **

This book reads like a long magazine article and doesn't really embrace the title. A journey of faith shouldn't be an excuse to get a publishing house contract for a book... which pretty much sums this book up: "I am a writer who needs to do something clever to get a book deal." Pretty sure AJ nor I learned much in this process and time might be better spent reading other books. Highly recommend 'A Walk Across America' by Peter Jenkins as a better year of soul searching. Oldie but goodie.

Pretty sure AJ's dad will rate me as unhelpful.

Hysterical, Educational and Somewhat Inspiring *****

I have not laughed this often while reading a book since reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail and Ian Frazier's Lamentations of the Father: Essays. AJ Jacobs is a master at ending ordinary thoughts and observations with punch lines that are hysterical.

Jacobs, the author of The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, decides to live for one year according to the rules, laws and principles dictated in both the Old and New Testament, quite a challenge for an agnostic jew brought up in a secular household. Nevertheless, Jacobs jumps in hole hog, and his accounts of these efforts, from following biblical dress codes, to biblical food laws, to sexual purity laws, are both enlightening and amusing. Along the way, Jacobs keeps us apprised of his spiritual development or retrogression, as application of each law either challenges his agnosticism or reinforces it (the final outcome is for the reader to discover).

In addition, the reader develops a sense of sympathy and understanding for Jabob's parents but especially his wife, who must deal with all the inconveniences and eccentricities of his husband's temporary spiritual makeover. One is also impressed by Jabob's extensive research, particularly the number of books he read to understand each area of spirituality in which he dabbled. My only objection here was his use of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code as a source on Jesus' supposed marital status. Brown novel is about as fringe as you can go in obtaining a source on what the vast majority of Christians believe, especially fundamentalists, who presumably would be Jabob's mentors in adopting the bible literally.

There are other areas here and there where Jacob's is off the mark, like stating, for example that Catholics receive their dogma directly from the pope, as if they are personal promulgations from whomever happens to be sitting on Peter's Chair. The fact is that Catholic dogma is developed organically and over time in consultation with the bishops of the church. This development has not always been smooth and has often been contentious.

A third problem I had with Jacobs' approach was that, in his segue to the New Testament, instead of moving directly into daily practices and rituals, Jacobs instead chose to discuss the conservative viewpoints on homosexuality and abortion. This detour into these two major points of contention between liberal and conservative Christian camps was not in the same spirit as the rest of the book and seemed out of place. Fortunately, Jacobs returns to the modus vivendi of his Old Testament journey and regales the reader with more hysterical accounts of his attempts at living a literal biblical existence.

Notwithstanding these objections, the vast majority of the book was truly educational and funny. I have placed Jacobs' Know-It-All on my "To Read" list and I have identified items in the bibliography that I will pursue.

Year of Living Biblically *****
Really fun book. As a pastor, I have often wondered if it would be possible to try to live exactly as the Bible teaches. Mr. Jacobs tried it and his accounting and insights are great!

Took the local subway instead, just to stretch reading time... *****
A.J. Honestly, one of the best books I have read. Not only did I have a blast reading it, but learned so much from it. The only regret I have is not having properly thanked God for having your book to entertain me while riding a packed NYC subway all those times and having an enjoyable ride.

Good Job A.J.! ****

I have read his newest book and then went on to this one. I was not disappointed! He is a very humble man and it showes in every chapter; he is also funny. Not funny in a stand up comic has a set of jokes sort of way, more of an I can find humor in everyday life sort of way; he knows you can relate and it makes it even better. He doesn't try to make it seem like he is making a joke out his quest to live by the bible and from his newest book; you know he takes his little quests to heart. He takes you along for the ride without making you do all the dirty work. This book is more about what he goes through with some nice facts; it is not a lesson on the bible and is more about his experience while attempting to do this crazy task.

A.J. if you read this try not to think of it as a sin! :) I hope you continue to write and please keep us all posted on Jasper (he is my favorite part of your books and I love how he calls you A.J.! - Julie is my second; she is a saint by the way - I vote you buy her something really nice).

KK

Oh, no, not another of Jacobs' hare-brained schemes ****

Okay A.J. Jacobs is an inspirational guy. He read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a year and wrote a book about it entitled The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (2004). I did my part and actually read the whole thing and wrote a glowing review. (See my review at Amazon.com) Reading this book I note that when A.J. was feeling particularly, shall we say, drifted he would do just that and go to Amazon and read reader's reviews of his books. So I know he read mine. But he didn't complement me on my wit and acumen, which would have been a Biblically correct sort of thing to do. Well...maybe.

Anyway, I also wrote a very nice review of Esquire Presents What It Feels Like (2003) which Jacobs edited. He is or was an editor at Esquire, and yes I should send him one of my short stories since he owes me, and maybe he has influence. In fact because of all the time I've spent reading his works, I should send him my TEN best short stories one after the other. Ha, ha, ha. Well, that would or would not accomplish anything, and besides this review is about living Biblically, God help us.

What Jacobs does is prep himself for this madcap year by reading all sorts of translations of the Good Book, by making a list of all sorts of rules he finds in God's Word, by consulting with rabbis and priests and such for interpretations of Biblical rules and what to take literally and what to take with the proverbial grain of salt. Then he gives us his adventures day by day, over three hundred pages worth, amid all sorts of Biblical people as his beard grows and grows and itches and itches while people stare at him and think he's weird. Well, he IS weird. And I don't even want to talk about the contradictions and the adroit way Jacobs handles them or the lies and lies and lies he notices that he tells. But that's okay because he's funny and because we all lie. A lot.

As he reads and writes he quotes various passages from the Bible and kind of works them out in his mind and tries to live them, more or less, and especially he shows us how other people are living or not living them. In a sense this is a cultural romp through all things Biblical including a visit to the Holy Land to tend sheep and later (again God help us) to Jerry Falwell land.

The bottom line here is chuckles and entertainment amidst a gentle, almost loving satire. And no sacred cows get slaughtered and no first born of Egypt get smote and Jacobs doesn't really stone anybody.

An excellent, light-hearted page-turner. *****

An engrossing, if light-hearted, novel.

A.J. Jacobs very much focuses on the Old Testament, for reasons explained in the novel, but with him being an agnostic with Jewish heritage his journey is compelling with an intriguing angle and, much like the Bible, offers something for all to relate to.

Critical reviews of this book suggest: he focuses on the Jewish element too heavily, offers a wishy-washy and haphazard approach to Bible law interpretation, ignores the controversial subjects.

In my opinion, his approach is agnostic (and being British I think a lot of my peers would share his mindset, as I do), with a hint of Judaism. I don't understand the criticisms - A.J. uses his heritage to portray his very much personal journey through the Bible. He uses his own opinions, experiences, prejudices in shaping his own hurdles when tackling issues.

For me, the interest lies in the relationship between his agnosticism and his attempts to 'buy-in' to the religious doctrine. If he were a devout Christian interpreting the Bible, the message, in my eyes, would have been diluted somewhat.

The novel is not an objective critique of the Bible and its laws (which is what some people seem to have expected). I found it a jovial look at the stumbling blocks of navigating through a staggering number of laws where 'mixed fibre' laws share as many column inches as 'homosexuality' (this example might be wrong, but is an example of the type of fact on offer - some more ridiculous). At times the approach is haphazard, but the feat of trying to follow an irrefutably large and bloated list of laws is only matched by having to document a year of doing so in a novel.

The book doesn't avoid the controversial subjects such as abortion and homosexuality, but don't expect a 500-page objective polemic on these matters. His is a personal account of his attempts to decipher the laws of the Bible and the subsequent difficulties of fitting them in to modern day life. And it is meant to be amusing and entertaining, not prejudical, socially divisive, and controversial.

A.J. shouldn't be reading his own reviews any more if he's learnt anything.

Not so funny ***

Am still reading this very entertaining book recommended to me by my daughter in America. Must confess to finding it less amusing than most of your reviewers (apart from when his wife sat on all the chairs in the house to make them 'unclean', when I did laugh out loud). Like the author I am Jewish by birth but not inclination but some of his tasks, like not gossiping, made me think more about my own behaviour. Am just on the last chapters where he will look into the New Testament.

Not sure I like the style but am nevertheless very engrossed though sometimes irritated by his irrational and haphazard approach to living biblically.

3/4 of a year living in the old testament **

The premise of this book was interesting, but other than allowing the author to reconnect with his jewish heritage it seemed to fall far short of its intended aims. The vast majority of this book deals with just the old testament and even when he moves onto the new, most of it still deals with old testament ideals and laws. He goes into detail about how jesus overturned the need for following the laws of the old testament, but then decides it's still okay to follow them, and seems to ignore the new in favour of the old even in it's own section.

While he does go into a good level of detail in the old testament he continually seems to avoid following those laws that would make this book interesting. How to live morally in a modern society when it's commanded to kill, insult, or maim all manner of peoples with different cultural, religous, or sexual lifestyles. He takes the disappointing cop out of turning to rabbinical interpretations and seems to gloss over the fact that many of these laws are barbaric and unjust.

Whenever there is a time in which mainstream laws seem barbaric he goes to great lengths to justify them in some cases. He also goes out of his way to make religious extremists seem nice and normal people no matter that they choose to interpret the bible in ways that frequently damages minorities and society as a whole. The only people he seems to have little time for is the small number of atheists in this book. While snake handlers in Tennessee are treated reverentially, and samaritans who force menstruating females to live in a separate part of the house quarantined from those who are "spiritually clean" they are a discordant bunch and the meeting is describes as an attempt to herd cats. When people give him malicious stares in public, they are obviously atheists, and when someone shouts at him it's obviously someone who has just finished a book by Richard Dawkins. For someone who spent so much time tolerating different religious groups its surprising how all atheists are lumped together as rude, nose in the air followers of Dawkins.

Don't expect this book to be more than it is ( a wish washy novel on how to slant you views towards jewish culture, and the old testament, and the cognitive dissonance necessary to be tolerated in society as you do so), and perhaps you will enjoy it more than I. I was expecting a book that focused on both testaments that showed more of a historical bent to religion and made an effort to explore what sort of society should not suffer a witch to live or allow man to lie with man as he would a woman.

Adapting to an Anachronism *****

If you belong to any faith at all, and even if you are an atheist, I heartily recommend this book to you. I picked it up at Toronto Airport last year along with a bad case of food poisoning, and can tell you that of the two, the book was infinitely much more fun. AJ Jacobs isn't well-known in the UK, so I am on a one-woman crusade to get this book noticed among friends and relations and my internet groups. It has a wealth of information in there, along with the feeling that although he may have been an agnostic to begin with, AJ has experienced something worthwhile as he attempts to follow the rules and regulations and precepts of the Bible in its entirety.

Yes, there is a bit of picking and choosing, not least because many of the observances are just not practical in the Western world. Try stoning an adulterer in Central Park (as AJ did) and see how far it gets you. But there then follows some interesting facts about the stoning of adulterers - not as clear-cut as it sounds and you still won't like it if you are one.... Apparently, the victim was given enough wine to make him drunk before being shoved over a cliff which had to be high enough to make sure he'd be dead by the time he hit the bottom of it. Barbaric, yet oddly humane.

On the back of 'The Year of Living Biblically', I went on to read 'The Know-It-All', another fascinating book about (some of) the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

AJ says he reads his reviews. Many, many thanks, AJ, for the gift you have of making people laugh, and for making them think. You certainly made me do both.

Fantastic read! *****

I LOVED this book! I had read AJ Jacobs' book about reading the encyclopedia and I must admit I didn't care for it much because I thought it was a bit of a gimmick. However, last week when I was laid up in the hospital for surgery, I devoured this book in two days.

What I thought best about it was how Jacobs blended humor, history, and a real sense of spiritual longing and pathos into a book that made me laugh out loud, and often pause for thought. I think he walks a very difficult line in his pursuit, because it would be very easy to simply take the piss out of all the religious ideas and people he meets, but to his credit, I found the book very respectful of even the most 'out there' ideas.

The only thing that left me a bit cold was how the book ended. What do you do after a year like that? How can you really go back to your life as it was before? Now Jacobs will be floggin his book (and there is certainly nothing wrong with that) but it leaves me wondering about the value of the whole exercise for the man himself. Makes me curious about his next book too...how will this experience impact the kind of topics such a fairly light hearted journalist decides to explore?

Trying almost everything in the Bible at least once *****

This is a social experiment I wouldn't impose as punishment on criminals, but Jacobs makes it both illuminating and entertaining. How far can he take Bible literalism for a whole year? He tries to avoid discriminating which traditions he will observe. Some hundreds of injunctions, like the one about taking eggs from under mother birds without hurting the mother, can be done once and crossed off, like a list of things to be done within 365 days. Other commands won't go away, like observing "Thou shalt not lie", when his wife keeps asking "What are you thinking?".

As I feared, Jacob's juggling act gets complicated. He notes, "In Judaism, the biblical laws that come without explanation -- and there are many -- are called 'chukim'". There's also a Hebrew term 'Chasid Shote', meaning a righteous idiot like the guy who avoided helping a drowning woman lest he break the ban on touching her.

Along the way, Jacobs searches out fellow literalists. He invites the Jehovah Witnesses to his house to learn they don't believe in the Trinity or Hell, since they claim those doctrines arn't properly in the book. He learns of Jews who want to bring back polygamy, and a gay pastor whose pamphlet titled "What Jesus Said about Homosexuality" opens to a completely blank page. He finds there's a group called "Jubilee USA", which seeks to apply Old Testament laws about forgiving debt in the Jubilee year to the problem of odious debt in Africa. In his personal quest for literalism, Jacobs finds that the line "Love ... keeps no record of wrongs" forces him to delete a computer record of incorrect statements made by his wife.

Anyway, it's a surprising trip, and Jacobs is certainly changed. He emerges from his year more grateful for life, and more funny than ever. This is a well-conceived, delimited experiment in religious practice, that's well reported, and highly productive of insights small and big.

Delightlful, kind-hearted, witty ****

This is indeed a "humble" quest: not an effort to belittle ... or to promote literalism by this agnostic. With an entry every day for one year, what patience to complete this book! However, toward the end the monthly sections get shorter, which may be due not to burnout but to the birth of the author's twin sons: an opportunity to consider circumcision.

From growing and finally shaving a beard, the Amish, blowing a trumpet at the start of each month, visiting the Kentucky creationist museum, forgiving debt, outlasting a Jehovah's Witness in discussing the Bible, stoning the inventive (and silly) way, turning to the NetFlix alternative CleanFlicks to avoid inappropriate movie watching, eating crickets, a sympathetic look at snake handling, where Spock on Star Trek got his split-finger salute, Jacobs just goes on and on, writing exceptionally well and staying funny ... but reverent.

The Old Testament and more Jewish material absorbed me more than the New Testament and more Christian material: was Jacobs more comfortable with the former?

Nothing too (obviously) heavy but plenty to think about. You'll wonder if you could have filled up a year of living Biblically so well. And did I forget to mention the mixed fibers?

What happens when you try to observe all the Strictures of the Bible *****

Most of us try to live good lives and help others when we can. But Esquire magazine writer, AJ Jacobs, decided that he would combine the writing of his next book with his search into religion. And what better way to do this then to try and live a year following all the hundreds of rules and laws of the Holy Bible.

To start with the author begins with almost no background at all in religion of any kind. He was born into a Jewish family; he was raised very secular and labeled himself as agnostic. He went into this venture with a very objective mindset and talked to various religious Scholars from various faiths from his Orthodox Jewish heritage to the fundamentalist Christians. He did not even own a copy of his own Bible when he started the project; he had a Bible from his ex-girlfriend from ten years earlier.

His plan, which he follows, is to live the first nine months of the year per the Old Testament and the remainder of the year following the teachings of the New Testament. We see not only what he goes through in trying to accomplish his goal, but some of the reactions to those he interacts with. Of course the first time he is in public and tries to follow the law that he cannot touch a woman to receive his change. But in doing so he breaks another law and sins to explain his actions, he lies. And from there the book just flows. He does try a wide range of literal approaches to the Bible and we get to watch it all.

The book is a very entertaining read. I had never read any of his work before, but I found myself just sitting in my chair and reading page after page. He shares his journey with us from what he physically went through, but also his thoughts and what he learns from these experiences. There are a few of Bible versus he gets wrong in the pre-publication version, and some pages seem a bit slow. But this is a book that is very enjoyable to read. I am sure this will be optioned as a movie. Regardless of your personal beliefs you must read this book.

"My aunt Katie told me I was, as our people say, meshugga" *****

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected it to be funny, and it certainly is, but I also got a highly entertaining course on religion. There is so much interesting information in this book, that it does not matter whether you are a faithful of any religion, or a secular person. I guarantee you will find something revealing.

The author was raised in a non-practicing Jewish household, but in the last few years has become interested in religion. Therefore, in an effort to explore this topic, and write a book in the process, he decided to follow teachings of the Bible for a year. As you can probably imagine, this is not an easy feat. Not only does the author have to adjust to a complex set of rules, but his family also has to endure the results of this quest. A fairly simple rule, like not being able to shave his beard, leads to questions at airports, scared kids, and other uncomfortable situations. But think about the harder rules to follow, like the one dealing with stoning adulterers, or the protocol for interacting with women at "that time of the month".

When most non-religious people think about what "living Biblically" means, we relate to the Ten Commandments. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. After four weeks of reading the Bible, A.J. Jacobs came up with a list of 800 rules to follow. If you add to that the fact that there are 7,000 versions of the best selling book in history, then the issue becomes much more complicated. It is no surprise that an average person breaks many, many, many rules in our everyday life.

I was really impressed by the way in which Jacobs handled this balancing act. It is not easy to write about religion without upsetting a fair amount of people, especially if there is an element of humor added to the mix. I am glad to report that the treatment of the topic is as objective as one can expect. The humor is clever and present in the right amount. This results in a pleasant read, that is greatly informative to boot. In this book, I found many facts that I did not know, and I feel like I better understand various religious groups, including some less popular ones, such as the Amish, the Samaritans, the Falwell followers and the Red Letter Christians. Kudos to A.J. Jacobs for writing such a wonderful book!

An amazing interactive book! *****

I read this book from cover to cover in the emergency room. I am a seminary student and heard a lot of bashing when the book was extremely popular. I read it, and it brought back the feeling of experiencing and appreciating God in all aspects of life for the first time. I wrote A.J. to tell him how I felt and he replied Christmas morning. So much for respecting a holy day! Amazing book. Fun Read. Buy it immediately!

A New Perspective *****

As a pastor, I'm always trying to find my own path through the thicket of rules and commandments of the Bible and I was very grateful to my friend who suggested this book. I finished it yesterday and was both surprised and understanding when A.J. came to his final conclusions. I have long preached that there is a difference between rules ("religion") and faith ("relationship"), but I have also maintained that rules, be they found the Law or wherever, can lead one *to* a relationship so long as they are not being used in place of the relationship itself. The quest is not so much to follow the rules as to find God through and behind them, and I think that this became clearer as the year went on.

Read this book, and take something from it - not the fringes, not the beard (which my wife and daughter have also forbidden, incidentally), but the One one is seeking to approach through the practices and through the Word of God.

The Year of Living Biblically... *****

This is by far the funniest book I have ever read. I love A.J. Jacobs writing style, and I truly appreciate the efforts he made with this book. He opened up his life to the reader and shared himself completely.

(I have to also say that his wife must be just about the most supporting and understanding young lady out there....)

The Year of Living Biblically makes learning about the bible interesting. Fun. Laugh out loud and run to share with your friends fun. More than once I found myself thinking, "He's not really going to...oh, he really did...."

In a good way, though....

Very Entertaining *****
I found this book to be very entertaining and informative at the same time. The author did an great job combining humour and religious tolerance. I found out about a lot of quirky things that I did not know existed in the Bible. I enjoyed the author's journey.

Not sure about this one... **
I really enjoyed learning more about the Bible through this book. It will definitely open your eyes to interesting and obscure facts and rules that aren't commonly known. However, I didn't really appreciate the narration... I found myself getting really irritated by the authors infinite references to his career and other book, which made this book a little hard to finish for me.

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