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    In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament
    In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament
    In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament
    Ebook807 pages1 hour

    In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament

    By Frederic Boyer and Serge Bloch

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    About this ebook

    From Genesis to the Book of Daniel, this ebook recounts 35 stories from the Old Testament in a modern and inviting way, combining spirited illustrations with spare, eloquent prose. Acclaimed illustrator Serge Bloch expertly captures the many scenes in these beloved tales, conveying extraordinary breadth of emotion and action in his seemingly simple drawings. Biblical expert Frédéric Boyer and poet and translator Cole Swensen contribute accessible and enlightening text, further illuminating the stories with notes on their history and symbolism. Full of contemporary resonance, here are universal stories of love, anger, betrayal, faith, and courage—revealed in a way that encourages readers of all ages and faiths to engage with them anew.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateOct 24, 2017
    ISBN9781452166704
    In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament
    Author

    Frederic Boyer

    Frédéric Boyer is a French writer and translator versed in biblical interpretation. He is the publisher of Bayard Editions.

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    • 3/5
      (I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway).This book is most impressive in its scope and diversity. When it arrived, the sheer size of this volume had me wondering what I had gotten myself into... I have a 4 year old, so we have Mo Willems and Dr. Seuss on our coffee table. My biggest issue - how to keep it close enough at hand to take the time to read it without having it drop on small hands and feet. 200 Women contains photos and written profiles of women who are effecting change around the globe. Artists, activists, musicians, social workers... the constant message that women can and SHOULD use their agency to improve the world around them is both inspiring and tiresome. Can we celebrate women without putting them on a pedestal?I most enjoyed reading about those women who are out of the public spotlight (at least in the United States). It is really the book's photographer who is the work's hero, as the clear photographs challenge readers to think about their perceptions of these representations of womanhood. The profiles are well-written, but the words do not allow the understanding of the diversity or strength of these women as forcefully as the photos. The words become repetitive. The pictures do not.200 Women is a grown-up version of the "Rebel Girls" children's books. While thoughtful and beautifully packaged, I wonder if enough readers will truly appreciate its full potential.
    • 5/5
      This is a large coffee table style book that takes a brief, though thoroughly engaging look at 200 very different women. By asking them a series of questions, it gets to the heart of what is important to them, and in many cases, what is also important to the reader. This book is beautiful, well photographed, and features a large diverse, multicultural group of women; every reader can find someone to identify with, and to learn from. In a year of a variety of books about groups of women who are rebellious or daring or forgotten, this is the one that stands out to me as the modern reader. These are 200 modern women that we can look up to, ones that are living in the world. While a few may be considered objectionable since this book came out - certainly no one is saint - you don't make history by being passive.
    • 5/5
      I work in the library at an all women's college and this is just a perfect addition to our collection. I paged through it when it came in and was happy to see a range of representation. I put it right on the new arrivals shelf and it's been attracting a lot of attention. It's so great to see such a range of smart, innovative, creative, and passionate women be highlighted and celebrated.
    • 5/5
      "200 Women" features interviews with 200 women, some are famous, others are obscure. But each one has accomplished significant works. They have diverse backgrounds and achievements - actors, scientists, researchers, social justice activists, survivors, writers, at least one US Supreme Court Justice (Go RBG!!!) and much more. Each one has a distinct voice and point of view. If you want to know what smart women are thinking and doing, read this book. The features each women's response to five questions:-What really matters to you?-What brings you happiness?-What do you regards as the lowest depth of misery?-What would you change if you could?-Which single word do you most identify with?The format draws this reader in through the elegant layout. It devotes 1 or 2 pages of text to each subject and feature a full page photograph of each. The photos are not standard head shots, the photographer has managed to bring out something unique in each woman's face, body and stance. The endpapers show 200 slips of paper with each person's single word, signature and date. That feels so personal and intimate. I received an advance copy of "200 Women" and find myself reading a few pages every day for insight and inspiration.
    • 5/5
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    Book preview

    In the Beginning - Frederic Boyer

    First published in the United States of America in 2017 by Chronicle Books LLC.

    First published in France in 2016 by Bayard.

    Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Bayard.

    Translation copyright © 2017 by Chronicle Books LLC.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

    in any form without written permission from the publisher.

    ISBN: 978-1-4521-6670-4 (epub, mobi)

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

    ISBN: 978-1-4521-6593-6 (pb)

    Translation by Cole Swensen.

    Art assistant contributions from Sheina Szlamka.

    Chronicle Books LLC

    680 Second Street

    San Francisco, California 94107

    www.chroniclebooks.com

    Table of contents

    13

    chapter 1

    Creation

    or The First Words

    33

    chapter 2

    The Garden

    or Why Leave Paradise?

    51

    chapter 3

    Cain and Abel

    or Murderous Jealousy

    65

    chapter 4

    Noah

    or The Last Temptation of God

    81

    chapter 5

    Babel

    or The Tale of Totalitarian Folly

    93

    chapter 6

    Abraham

    or The Call to Separation

    107

    chapter 7

    Abraham and Sarah

    or Laughter Made Flesh

    119

    chapter 8

    Sodom

    or Devestating Inhospitality

    135

    chapter 9

    Abraham and Isaac

    or The Test of the Ties of Blood

    149

    chapter 10

    Jacob and Esau

    or The Bite of Reconciliation

    163

    chapter 11

    Jacob's Battle

    or Hand-to-Hand Combat with God

    177

    chapter 12

    Joseph in Egypt

    or The Man Who Dreamed

    195

    chapter 13

    Joseph and His Brothers

    or The Man Who Fraternized

    211

    chapter 14

    Moses

    or The First to Learn the Name of God

    225

    chapter 15

    The Liberation of the People

    or The Night of the Passage

    241

    chapter 16

    The Ten Commandments

    or The Paths to Liberty

    253

    chapter 17

    The Golden Calf

    or The Invisible Led Astray

    265

    chapter 18

    Jericho

    or The Bloody Saga of Land Aquisition

    279

    chapter 19

    Ruth

    or The Enchanted Harvest

    291

    chapter 20

    Samson and Delilah

    or The Indomitable Judge

    3O3

    chapter 21

    Samuel and Saul

    or The Coronation of the First King

    313

    chapter 22

    David and Goliath

    or The Rebellious Child

    325

    chapter 23

    David and Bathsheba

    or Crime, Punishment, and Absolution

    335

    chapter 24

    Elijah at Horeb

    or The Almost Silence of God

    347

    chapter 25

    Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

    or Wisdom and the Evening of a King

    357

    chapter 26

    Love Scenes

    or Love as Strong as Death

    375

    chapter 27

    Isaiah's Visions

    or A Mysterious Liberator

    387

    chapter 28

    Ezekiel's Visions

    or The Speech of One Mad-with-God

    399

    chapter 29

    Jonah

    or The Sadness of a Minor Prophet

    415

    chapter 30

    A Psalm

    or The Song of a Survivor

    427

    chapter 31

    Job

    or The Scandal of Innocence

    441

    chapter 32

    Esther

    or The Twist of Fate

    453

    chapter 33

    Tobit

    or Hope is a Novel

    465

    chapter 34

    Return from Exile

    or Jerusalem, the New City

    477

    chapter 35

    Daniel

    or There's No End Without a Tomorrow

    493

    Readings

    521

    About the Author

    Long ago, going back more than 2,600 years, Jehoiakim was king of Judah and based in Jerusalem. He succeeded legendary kings who had resisted a succession of powerful empires. And then Nebuchadnezzar, the fierce king of Babylon, who had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hama as well as all the sovereigns of Hatti and Phoenicia, besieged Jerusalem. The holy city was captured and pillaged.

    It was 586 Before the Common Era.

    More than ten thousand men were deported to Babylon. In exile, they remembered the one true God, a promise, and the wonders of earlier times. Words from the sky. A path through the sea.

    With these ancient stories, they would write their hope.

    I remember an ancient tale.

    On the banks of the river of Babylon, I sat down to cry.

    I remember a very old story.

    It begins long ago on the roads that lead from Egypt to Mesopotamia.

    I remember how we resisted the great kings of Babylon and Assyria.

    I remember Jerusalem.

    I remember an ancient tale, which I will tell you . . .

    1.

    Creation

    or The First Words

    based on The Book of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2

    In the beginning God made the sky and the Earth,

    the plants, the animals . . . and you and me.

    And we learn why happiness lies

    in naming the things of the world.

    And how solitude was cured.

    How it all began we’ll never know

    But we have speech

    And it is speech

    that started it all

    When all was dark

    someone spoke

    and light was made

    When there was nothing, someone said

    the words star, bear, tree

    And a star, a bear, and a tree appeared

    Everything is included in

    the word of God

    God wanted there to be something

    rather than nothing

    The land and the sea

    The day and the night

    The sun and the moon

    Our world

    The known and familiar world

    And the unknown and distant one

    It’s the first page

    Ten times

    God spoke.

    The first time to say the words light and night, creating

    a day.

    The second time to separate the vault of the sky from the sea.

    Day two.

    The third time to separate the land from the sea.

    The fourth time to create the plants and the trees.

    Day three.

    The fifth time to create the sun and the moon and the stars in the sky.

    Day four.

    The sixth time to make a crowd of living beings in the sea and a crowd of flying ones to fill the sky.

    Day five.

    The seventh time to tell all beings

    in water and sky to go forth and multiply.

    The eighth time to give birth

    to all that lives on land.

    The ninth time to make an adam

    in his image, both male and female,

    and to make it the kind master

    over all the fish, birds,

    and animals of the Earth.

    The tenth time to give

    the plants to the animals

    so they’d have something to eat.

    Day six.

    Relaxation and repose.

    Day seven.

    To name things well increases the happiness of the world.

    And then we begin counting the days.

    We were alone in a vast, vast garden. With nothing and no one that looked like us, no one to talk to, to laugh with, to love. Or to fight with, or dream with . . .

    No one to help us when we were afraid, when we were lost, when we needed aid.

    So God wondered what he could invent to ease our loneliness and distress.

    Way at the end of the garden, deep in the shade, out came a lion, and then a hyena, then a grasshopper, a parrot, a horse . . .

    Soon, there were animals and animals and animals.

    And they all had to be named.

    Some were more challenging than others . . . All the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air paraded by.

    Animals are sacred companions. Some are alarming.

    Others are quite sweet. And still others are a bit odd.

    But no one. No one to talk to, to declare love to, to live with, to have children with, to get old with . . .

    Meanwhile, all over the garden, the animals were having a great time. Them.

    Better to go to sleep than to sit in a corner alone.

    So God put us to sleep.

    When we woke up, we were two.

    She and he. She and I.

    And the whole garden woke up like the sky.

    2.

    The Garden

    or Why Leave Paradise?

    based on the Book of Genesis, chapter 3

    In which we learn about the first steps of Adam and Eve, the heroes of good and evil, despite themselves. And why the dream came to an end. And how the door of the history of man opened before them.

    In those days, the Earth was a garden like the gardens of Babylon.

    A huge garden watered by four great rivers.

    A garden full of fabulous fruit growing on beautiful trees.

    In this great garden lived the man, Adam, and the woman, Eve.

    They lived with the wolves and the lambs.

    They lived among the lions and gazelles.

    They lived with the birds and the smallest bugs.

    To eat, they had only to gather the flowers and grasses.

    And collect the fruit that fell to the ground.

    And drink from the springs.

    In those days, no one had ever heard of illness or death.

    In those days, fear did not exist.

    There was no shame.

    In those days, no one worked. It was paradise.

    In the middle of this great garden, there was a tree unlike all the others: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    It was a tree to sit under and sleep and dream.

    They could eat any fruit in the garden, except that from this tree.

    Marvelous fruit that the man and woman watched with an envious eye.

    For it was said: Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

    It was the tree of adventure, the tree of desire.

    The tree of all mysteries: birth and death,

    growth and age,

    work,

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