Samson and Delilah (People of the Bible)

Samson and Delilah
People of the Bible
Retold by Catherine Storr
Pictures by Ivan Lapper
Copyright: 1986
Format: Hardback
Status: Not currently in print, but some pre-owned copies are available on ebay
Conclusion: Fix it




After my last Samson and Delilah book didn't make the cut (and since it was the only one in our collection that told that specific story), I bought another one from ebay.  It took a strangely long time to get here, but I finally have it! I haven't even read through this one yet, but I've been pleased with the other books from the People of the Bible series, so I have high hopes for this one. 

The Good Points:
  • The pictures are nice and realistic looking.
  • Some of the details are nice. I liked the fact that they showed how often Delilah tried to trick Samson into revealing his secret.
The Discrepancies:
  • In this story, it opens by saying that an angel appeared to Manoah to tell him he would have a son.  The Bible says the angel appeared to Manoah's wife and gave her the message.
  • In the Bible, Manoah and his wife pray for the angel to return, which he does.  This storybook skips that part.
  • This story claims that Samson would give the men gifts if they could guess his riddle, but that they would pay him. In the Bible, the wager for both sides was linen garments.
  • The storybook never mentions that Sampson killed 30 men from another town and gave their garments to the people who guessed the answer to his riddle.
  • While this story mentions that Samson burned down the Philistine's fields after the father of his bride married her to a different man, it leaves out the details about tying foxes together and lighting their tails on fire.
  • This children's book mentions that Samson killed his enemies with the jawbone of the ass, but doesn't mention the miracle of God providing water to Samson afterwards.
  • This story also never mentions that Samson judged Israel for 20 years. It also skips the story of Samson breaking down the gates of Gaza and taking them with him.  
  • In this story, the first time Samson lies to Delilah about his strength he says she must tie him up with 7 green reeds. Most translations of the Bible say he must be tied up with 7 fresh bowstrings. The King James version says "seven green withs." After researching the definition of "withs" it looks like that means bowstrings, or cords, likely made with gut.  
Wow, I have to admit that I am disappointed. This book has just as many errors as the previous Samson book I reviewed.  It also had a number of instances that seemed wrong to me until I started reading through other translations and realized that it is pulling from the King James version. Apparently there are some key differences in the Samson story between the different versions, more than I have found in the other stories I've reviewed so far. Usually when I review these books, I grab whichever Bible is closest to me as my main reference (usually my daughter's NLT or my own ESV Bible) but I try to use Biblegateway.com for certain passages where I think the mistake might be a translation issue instead.   Translations aside, does this Samson book get to stay in our library or get kicked out like the previous one?  

I took a few days to think over the problems with this Samson book and concluded that it was salvageable. I didn't mind most of the omissions, and the incorrect information seemed simple enough to fix with my trusty label maker. So after a few minutes of printing and sticking on labels, we now have a book that accurately tells the story of Samson.  Please see illustrations below to see where I changed the words.














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Story of Baby Moses (An Alice in Bibleland Storybook)

Image
The Story of Baby Moses An Alice in Bibleland Storybook Written by Alice Joyce Davidson Illustrated by Victoria Marshall Copyright 1985 Format: Hardback Status: Not currently in print, but many copies available on ebay Conclusion: Keep Here we have another Alice in Bibleland book.  For those of you not familiar with Alice in Bibleland yet, it is a series of book that always starts with Alice, a little girl from our time, going into a magic book to witness (but never participate in) events from the Bible.   Typically the books are pretty solid, and since they are written in rhyme, they are fun too.   This particular book is no exception to Alice in Bibleland's typically high quality. It is not the Baby Moses story we typically read in our house, since both my children have always preferred a simpler book meant for younger children. However after recently realizing how inaccurate that other story is, I've decided to remove it from our Bible story library.  L...
Read more

The No-Go King (Hear Me Read - Level 2)

Image
  The No-Go King Hear Me Read - Level 2 by Mary Manz Simon Illustrated by Dennis Jones Copyright 1993 Format: paperback Status: Not currently in print, some pre-owned copies are available on  ebay Conclusion: Get Rid of It I've noticed that many Bible stories for kids enjoy telling about how Moses led his people across the Red Sea, but it is much harder to find a story about the plagues of Egypt. Even those stories that do include the Ten Plagues, they are typically very abbreviated. Perhaps the subject matter is thought to be too scary for kids.  The No-Go King is an early reader book, designed for children who are just learning to read on their own. The words are short and simple with lots of repetition. The back of the book says it is designed for children ages 6 to 8, but a strong kindergarten reader should be able to read this book too.  However, it doesn't have to be just for readers. I've used this book as a read-aloud for years and both of my kids liked it....
Read more

Noah's Ark (The Bible for Little People)

Image
 Noah's Ark The Bible for Little People Text by Christine Deverell Illustrated by Richard Deverell, James Deverell, and Chris King Copyright: 2002 Format: Boardbook Status: A few preowned copies are available on ebay Conclusion: Keep (But consider replacing with a better one) It seems like we've had this book forever. It was certainly one of the very first Bible books that I ever bought for my daughter.  We've read it frequently, mostly because it is so short that we can fit it in even when we're running late and need to get the kids into bed ASAP.  But how does it hold up compared to the actual Bible? The Good Points: The book opens up/down instead of left/ like a regular book, so it's kind of fun for kids. It's very short, so it can be read quickly when you are short on time. The illustrations are cute and colorful. The book is sturdy and well-built. The Discrepancies: The board book doesn't mention why God is flooding the Earth, nor does it mention any pe...
Read more