Read the Bible for a year lived. Review: The book “A Year Lived Biblically” - AJ Jacobs - A large-scale project with unpredictable results. What does it mean to follow the Bible literally?

What does it mean to follow the Bible literally—every word, absolutely exactly, without deviating one iota? Can modern man basically follow all its rules? A. J. Jacobs tried to do just that: for a year he lived, trying to follow as closely as possible all the rules and guidelines he could find in the Bible - there were more than seven hundred of them. He grew a beard, avoided menstruating women, observed the Sabbath, prayed three times a day, danced before our Lord, threw stones at blasphemers... “The Year Lived Biblically” is both a memoir and a story about learning and education, and the present, deeply felt a spiritual journey that will make you think differently about the most influential book in human history.

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A great joker and adventurer, he decided on a new experiment. According to him, the most significant in life.

He lived for 380 days, following the biblical rules, of which there were more than 700. Below you will read my impressions of this experiment and the book written based on it.

AJ Jacobs

New York journalist, editor of Esquire magazine. He also collaborated with the New York Times and The Washington Post. Author of several bestsellers: “Know-It-All,” “A Year Lived Biblically,” “Healthy to Death,” “My Life as an Experiment.” Likes to completely immerse himself in the topic he writes about. Therefore, each of his books is his personal experience; and he defines his life as a series of experiments.

My religion is tolerance

First, a few words about my religious views. If you are not interested, move on to the next point. But I think the following maxim will help understand my impressions of the book.

So, I believe that faith and religion are different things. The first is the deepest beliefs, the spiritual foundations of a person.

What you believe in is what you live.

A person has the right to believe in God, evolution, himself, the energy of the Universe, the leg of a chair. Anything. If only it would help him create.

As for religion... I am Orthodox by birth. But I don't wear a cross.
Instead, I have a medallion with Saint Anastasia on my neck. Why? Because my mother gave it to me.

My mother and all my relatives were raised in Orthodox traditions. They do not go to church on Sundays, do not fast, but there are icons in every house, they read prayers from time to time, and the 10 commandments are the basis of their value system.

I believe that I do not have the right to tell my mother or anyone close to me who grew up in Orthodoxy: “Hmm, you know, I won’t paint the eggs and let’s put out the lamp, because I have different views on this matter.”

Just as no one has the right to impose their religious views on others.

Relations in society need to be unified, and for this there are two regulators - normative (law) and non-normative (social rules of behavior, including religious ones). I clearly distinguish between these spheres, so the artificial introduction of moral and ethical norms into the legal sphere causes me chilling horror.

Yes, you understood correctly, I am talking about the so-called law on the protection of the feelings of believers, or rather, introducing appropriate amendments to the Criminal Code.

For me, theism and atheism are the two pillars on which the world rests. And I don't like it when they start hitting each other with their tails. I don't like it when atheists make fun of religious people just as much as I don't like it when the latter despise the former. My religion is tolerance.

What I didn't like about the book

Literalism

I don't take the Bible as " Holy Bible" For me, this is a historical and cultural literary work. A non-systematic collection of social, moral and everyday norms accumulated over centuries. Moreover, as the author himself noted, the Bible is similar to Wikipedia - it was edited by all and sundry.

The literalism that AJ Jacobs followed irritated me. It served one purpose - satire, and had nothing to do with the author's statement:

...this project will be my passport to the world of spirituality. I will not just study religion, but live it.

References to Western culture

To say that there are many of them means to remain silent. There are allusions from Western pop culture on almost every page. Across the page - comparisons with American actors, writers, religious leaders. A considerable part of humor is built on this, and it prevents the formation of images.

Compare, when it is written: “In appearance he is Chekhov of the 21st century, only without pince-nez,” you immediately imagine an intelligent man, about 40 years old, fit, in a neat suit, but without glasses. And if you read: “He looks a little like Jackie Mason,” the flight of fantasy ends. Sorry, I don't remember what Jackie Mason looks like.

Of course, there are explanatory footnotes throughout. But the feeling that this book is not for us, not for the Russian-speaking reader, does not leave.

(The absence of a study of Orthodoxy as part of Christianity in the experiment strengthened this feeling.)

What I liked about the book

Language

Light, slender and witty. For those, like me, who work with texts, this book is a godsend. If you keep a notebook with interesting figures of speech and metaphors, then, while reading, add a couple of dozen “copies” to it.

(I think the translator also deserves a lot of credit for this, therefore, as a sign of respect, I will indicate her name - Taira Mamedova.)

Humor

Although I did not like that the book was built on ridiculing the Bible from a literalist position, I must pay tribute to the author’s sense of humor.

He describes people and events very ironically, but absolutely not evil. In addition, he knows how to laugh at himself. Holy fudge, how does he do it? :)

Cognition

By reading the book, you will learn a lot about religion and its manifestations. I didn’t even know about some religions. I can’t say that creationists or snake-keepers have piqued my interest enough to warrant further googling, but it’s quite educational. The book broadens your horizons.

Plot and personal background

AJ Jacobs lived his year biblically. The key word is lived. He worked, and that year he and his wife had twins. The author describes his personal life, thereby forming another storyline.

In my opinion, this is an excellent literary device that makes you sympathize with the hero even more.

Philosophy

Despite the fact that, in my opinion, the book is entertaining and not philosophical, from time to time quite serious topics are raised on its pages.

Lies (to yourself and others), gratitude, example to your children, fanaticism (including religious), stem cells... All these are serious ethical problems. There's a lot to think about.

Finally, I liked AJ's main point. I think his “cafeteria religion” does a good job of demonstrating the position of the Bible in modern society.

First month: September Let's hear the essence of everything: fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for man...Ecclesiastes 12:13

Today is the first day, but I already feel like I’m drowning. I decided to start the project on September 1st, and the Bible has completely consumed my life from the moment I woke up. Any action is associated with the fear of breaking its law. Before you even breathe in or out, you need to remember a long list of rules.

It all starts when I open the closet to get dressed. The Bible forbids men to wear women's clothing(Deuteronomy 22:5), so the comfy Dickinson College sweatshirt is now a no-no. It once belonged to his wife. The Bible says to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed threads (Leviticus 19:19), so this Esquire cotton-polyester T-shirt will need to be sprinkled with mothballs. What about moccasins? Can I wear leather? I go into the living room and open a file with Bible rules on my laptop. I find points about animals. Pigskin and snakeskin are questionable, but good old cowhide seems to be acceptable. Hmm, can I even use the computer? The Bible, as you might guess, does not address this issue, so I answer timidly “yes.” Maybe I'll try stone tablets someday. And then I stumble. Half an hour after waking up, I check on Amazon.com to see how mine is selling. last book. And how many sins have I committed? Pride? Envy? Greed? And can't be counted. A trip to the copy center doesn't go any better.

I want to make some copies of the Ten Commandments to post around the apartment as a good reminder. The Bible says those who are prudent are “slow to anger” (Proverbs 19:11). So when I walk in with a nimble woman in her forties and she sprints toward the counter, trying to get ahead of me in line, I try not to get angry. And when she asks me to make a copy for her on the only working copier, I try to remain calm. And when she takes out and plops down on the counter a stack of sheets that looks like the collected works of JK Rowling, I say to myself: “Slow to anger, slow to anger.” And then she asks some complex issue about the types of paper... I say to myself: remember what happened to the ancient Jews when they waited forty days for Moses to return from the mountain? They were impatient, lost faith - and pestilence struck them. Oh, and she pays by check. And asks for a receipt. And she wants to be endorsed. Proverbs - a collection of wise sayings from the Old Testament - teach that if you smile, you will become happy. This idea is, in fact, confirmed by research by psychologists. And here I stand and grin like a flight attendant. But anger rages inside. I have no time. I have a list of seventy-two Bible problems waiting for me. Finally I get to the counter and give the cashier a dollar. She scoops up thirty-eight cents from the cash register and hands them to me.

Inspired by my former Uncle Gil, I purchased them from the No Problem Brushes website. Something like this decorated my grandmother’s embroidered pillows. I pin them with safety pins to the cuffs and hem of the shirt - this takes ten minutes. By evening I'm exhausted like a lemon. I barely have the energy to listen to Julie talk about the US Open, and even that conversation is difficult. I have to carefully avoid mentioning Venus Williams because she was named after the Roman goddess of love, and I would be violating the injunction of Genesis 23:13 (“do not mention the names of other gods”). As I go to bed, I wonder if I took a step toward enlightenment today. Is not a fact. I was so captivated by the rules, often wild at first glance, that I had no time to think. Perhaps I am like a novice driver who checks the turn signals and speedometer every second, not noticing the scenery due to nervousness. But this is only the first day.

AJ Jacobs - A Year Lived Biblically

Per. from English T. Mamedova. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2013.

ISBN 978-5-91657-809-6

AJ Jacobs - A Year Lived Biblically - Contents

Introduction

Preparation

Month one: September
Month two: October
Month three: November
Month four: December
Month five: January
Month six: February
Seventh month: March
Eighth month: April
Ninth month: May
Tenth month: June
Month eleven: July
Month twelve: August (and a little September)

Notes

Bibliography

Bible editions

AJ Jacobs - A Year Lived Biblically - Month Nine

Ninth month: May. In the beginning was the Word... Gospel of John 1:1 Day 243. Today begins life according to the New Testament. I am no less nervous than usual, and even more nervous than the first day and the day I called Guru Gil. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to immersing myself in this new life. I have to acquire a lot of knowledge. Until this year, I knew only the basics of the New Testament and Christianity. And scattered facts that I still remember from the encyclopedia (for example, that according to the early Christians, the creation of the world was the equivalent of conception, and it happened on March 25. This gives symbolic weight to the birth of Jesus nine months later, on December 25). However, deeper knowledge is needed. That's why new life will do me good. Besides, I feel like it's time. Undoubtedly, in modern America New Testament more influential than the Old One. Or rather, the literal interpretation of the Bible influences the country more than the Jewish interpretations. I am not inclined to think that we are on the verge of a theocracy. But evangelical Christianity—in both its conservative and progressive forms—has a profound impact on our lives.

On the other hand, I'm panicking. I'm already disheartened by the complexity of my own tradition, and now I'm about to enter completely unfamiliar territory. I tell Julie that stress gives me a headache. “You know, you don’t have to do this,” Julie notes. “But if I don’t do this, I can only tell half the story.” - But bigger. It's right. But like Nachson, the ancient Jew who entered the Dead Sea, I will go into the water and see what happens. However, first you have to deal with Important questions. The first one is this: If I focus on the New Testament, will I have to follow all the rules of the Hebrew Bible? In other words, should I leave the beard and sidelocks? Or break out the razor and order shrimp fajitas? I asked the question to almost every Christian expert I knew. The answer was simple: unknown. In general, there is a small, even very small group of Christians who believe that even now we must follow absolutely every rule of the Old Testament. This is an ultra-legalist camp. They quote the following words of Jesus from Matthew 5:17–18: Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until it is all fulfilled. Jesus is God, but he confirms: the laws of the ancient Jews are still in effect.

On the other end of the spectrum are Christians who believe that Jesus abolished all the rules of the Old Testament. He made a new agreement. And his death was the final sacrifice, so there is no need to sacrifice animals or, for that matter, keep any other laws of the Old Testament. Even the well-known Ten Commandments after Christ lose their necessity. Take Matthew 22:37–39, where a lawyer asks Jesus what the most important commandment in the law is. Christ answers: ...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself... Some Christians claim that the remaining eight commandments flow from these two. You love your neighbor, so don't lie to him. You love your neighbor, so don't steal from him. The Old Testament is important historically, but as an ethical guide it has been abandoned. And then there is a large group in the middle. Most Christians I know make a distinction between moral and ritual laws. The moral ones are precisely contained in the Ten Commandments: do not kill, do not covet, and so on. They still need to be followed. Ritual laws concern the avoidance of bacon and the avoidance of clothing made from mixed threads. Thanks to Jesus they are obsolete.

One day AJ Jacobs became a father and wondered if he was missing out on something important in life. So he, the editor of Esquire magazine, spent a year following the instructions of Scripture as closely as possible, and then wrote a book about it. "A Year of Living Biblically: One's Humble Attempt to Follow the Bible's Commandments Verbatim."

Jacobs grew up in a Jewish but, he says, completely secular family. The most that reminded him of his Jewishness was the magendavid on the top of the Christmas tree. In his book, Jacobs writes that before this (2006) he treated religion superficially, or rather, he simply did not understand anything about it. It seemed to him that religion was modern world doomed to extinction. But something inexplicably worried him. Are such masses of people really in the grip of illusion? What kind of power lies in religion? How can we get closer to understanding it if enlightenment does not come on its own? And the answer came by itself: follow the main Book. And since Scripture commands to tell the truth, Jacobs makes no secret of the fact that he wanted to write about this experience. (He had previously published a book about how he read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z and, accordingly, had already experienced a similar “literary adventure”.) The second reason was the desire to “live” religion in order to understand what it is. And finally, as a journalist, Jacobs was interested in exploring the very possibility of understanding the Bible “literally.” He writes that millions of Americans—33%, according to a 2005 Gallup poll—claim to “understand the Bible word for word.” For example, Middle Eastern policy is based on a literal reading of the Bible - both Jews and Christians - as well as attitudes towards homosexuality, abortion, and education. However, Jacobs believed that this “literality” is still conditional. “And I set myself a somewhat naive goal,” he writes, “to fearlessly remove all the layers of interpretation and reveal the essence of the Bible. This way I can understand what is eternal in it and what is outdated.”

This is how he talks about preparing for the Year:

“I sat down and began to read the Bible, four days for five hours. While reading, I wrote down any instruction, any advice or commandment that I came across. The list turned out to be 72 pages long. More than seven hundred rules. Some seemed good and necessary, others - strange and impossible to fulfill : "Destroy idols, do not leave sorcerers alive, sacrifice cattle"... And I made several decisions. Firstly, I chose a certain edition of the Bible. Secondly, I decided that a literal understanding is impossible and therefore it is necessary understand how figurative a passage is in Scripture, and observe what is meant. In doubtful cases, I will try to follow everything to the letter: it says not to lie - I will not lie, it says to stone a blasphemer - I will collect stones. Next, I had to make a decision , which of the Testaments do I follow - the Old or the New? Being officially a Jew, I was much more inclined to write about Old Testament and to observe the commandments found there, and I decided to devote eight months to the “Hebrew Bible,” which consists of 39 books, from prose to poetry, and contains the bulk of the recommendations and rules. For the remaining four months I would live according to the Christian Bible, which I considered it wrong to ignore - it would be like reading the middle of a story."

"The Bible says that no man should be alone. I also had to decide whether I would have mentors on my path. My Jewish aunt told me so - the written law must be confirmed by the oral one. And I decided that I would talk with a variety of priests, from Orthodox rabbis to Lutheran pastors, but ultimately, after listening to their opinions, I will make a decision myself to open the Bible for myself, no matter how rocky and confusing my path may be. I suddenly realized that the Bible is the greatest book of all time and that I had taken on an unbearable burden. And then one of my interlocutors, Rabbi Andy Bachman, the head of a synagogue in Brooklyn, told me a midrash about the parting of the sea. “You think it is just like that - and it parted? The Egyptians were approaching, but Moses could not influence the waves in any way. And then the Jew Nachshon entered the water and moved forward. The water reached his knees, then his waist, then his chest and shoulders, and only when it should have already flooded his nostrils; the sea parted and let the Jews through. A miracle, the rabbi told me, sometimes happens when you throw yourself headfirst into the sea.” And I rushed."

As Jacobs later said in an interview with the New York Times, the most difficult thing is not to lie, not to gossip, not to covet. “Perhaps I lied less and wanted something less strongly, but it turned out to be almost impossible to get rid of it one hundred percent.” Moreover, Jacobs did not expect that the Bible contained not only instructions on how to live in a moral sense, but a lot of advice on how to manage a household. To his surprise, the editor of Esquire suddenly discovered that the Bible provides unconditional guidance on many issues that structure life. “When my Bible year ended, I was at a loss... Sometimes,” Jacobs says, “I proved by my literal observance that such literalness was unnecessary, that those Americans who advocate a literal understanding of the Bible were wrong. But on the other hand, for me this experiment became a serious spiritual search - I tried to understand what I was missing in my life and what I would tell my children about religion.”