BOOK REVIEW: The NLT Holy Bible | The New Testament

After a week of nonstop reading and snippet-reviewing, I finished the New Testament of the Holy Bible for the first time.

Substance and Quality

The New Living Translation (NLT) stayed consistent with the tone of writing of the 27 books of the New Testament.

Just like the Old Testament, the level of readability was made for high school, college and professionals.

Each book was shorter if compared to the books of the Old Testament. The longest books were Matthew and Acts of Apostles, which both had 28 chapters.

The shorter books were letters written by Paul to the people living in:

• Philippi.
• Ephesus.
• Colossae.
• Churches in Galatia.
• Corinth.
• Thessalonia.

Half-brothers of Jesus Christ namely James and Jude also had books with one chapter in a letter form.

Overall, it was easy to love the digital version of the NLT New Testament as it highlights the dialogues of Jesus Christ in red.

The one negative feedback was the Book of Tobit was scraped out in the Old Testament. Someone told me Archangel Raphael played an essential role in the story.

Plot

The four Gospels were plot-driven books. The sequence of the most notable events was fast, except for the character of Jesus Christ.

The Gospels were strong character-driven books for Jesus for He received 90% of the page-time due to His miracles and analytical parables.

The contents of Books of Matthew and Mark narrated the life of Jesus Christ in chronological order with similar contents.

The way these books were written, the three highlighted events of His life were:

• Birth.
• Crucifixion.
• Resurrection.

Magdalene was present in the last two events implying that she was an essential character of the Holy Bible.

The rest of His life in between birth and crucifixion proved he was an extraordinary human being. Jesus Christ played the role of an immaculate psychiatrist!

After the Gospels, the New Testament re-directed the flow of the story to the Apostles of Christ until the Book of Revelation.

My Favorite Characters

4 – Apostle John.

John was best remembered as the youngest apostle who narrated the Book of Revelation. Jesus Christ selected him to witness the War in Heaven and the introduction of a New Earth after the total devastation.

John wrote these events in vivid details. I could imagine the scenery in my head like watching a movie in 3D glory.

Apart from the Book of Revelation, John was also the author of one of the Gospels that was kind of different from the other three namely Luke, Matthew and Mark. Still, it highlighted the key points of the life of Jesus.

3 – Mother Mary.

Mary was the symbol of beauty and elegance of The Holy Bible. She opened the Gospel of Luke like no one else could.

Her vulnerability and courage represented the qualities every woman could have.

However, her character disappeared completely after the four Gospels. Apostle John briefly described her presence in the Book of Revelation but without a single dialogue.

2 – Mary Magdalene.

Magdalene was the most mysterious character of the New Testament. She was present in the two of the most iconic events in Jesus’ life namely crucifixion and resurrection, but she had a limited amount of dialogue.

The descriptions about Magdalene in the Gospels revealed the depth of her character but it seemed filtered and carefully thoroughly edited.

The real Magdalene was not totally flesh-out. Somehow, it seemed okay.

If the gossips about her reputation were true, her every appearance was a symbol of repentance, especially in the Book of John 12:3.

All-Time Favorite Character

Before reading The Holy Bible, I made a plan to select the best characters of my liking. Then, I trimmed down the selection into two with one to represent each testament.

1 – Paul or Job?

Job was my Number 1 favorite in the Old Testament, and Paul was my pick for the New Testament.

Both Job and Paul were well-educated and insightful. They expressed their thoughts in a way that they do not have to please everyone.

Both were humble. Both suffered too much.

Job and Paul were not ashamed to reveal how vulnerable and flawed they were.

There was a point in his life that Job questioned the existence of God without becoming the villain.

Paul started the Book of Acts as a bad character, but he had an immediate change of heart after a miracle.

The difference was Job was a married servant of God while Paul stayed single while spreading the Good News to the world.

Despondency almost consumed Job. Paul found his inner strength amid the greed of power and false accusations from the public.

The life of Job ended happily as God rewarded him more than what he had before.

Due to his mission, Paul’s sufferings were endless until his last breath but accepted his death wholeheartedly for he stayed faithful.

Question:

Between these two, who had the better story to remember for years and years to come?

Answer:

The life story of Paul was closer to me.

We were both singles and were persons with disabilities who could express our deeper thoughts and feelings through writing.

While Paul has recurring problems with his vision, I had permanent problems with my locomotion since five.

Yet, we did not allow our physical conditions to define us. We continued to thrive in an imperfect world filled with uncertainty, envy and temptations.

Paul and I were both survivors. He is my favorite Bible Character of all-time.

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BOOK REVIEW: The NLT Holy Bible | The Old Testament

For the first time in history, I read, snippet-reviewed and finished the 39 Books of the Old Testament in 19 consecutive days.

It was a good experience; and for this, the time was right to make an Integrative Book Review.

Style of Writing

It was one of the best decisions of my life to research what version of the Holy Bible to read before starting the Old Testament.

The New Living Translation (NLT) made my reading experience happier as the writing style was made simpler, clearer and smoother.

All the unnecessary words of the Old English were omitted; and the sentences followed the subject-verb agreement in prose writing.

NLT translated the Holy Bible like the books were meant to read by high school and college students or professionals.

The choice of words was lighter too. There was no need to look into the dictionary to find the meaning of those big words that make a sentence complicated.

In truth, great stories were written to be remembered on a personal human level.

If there was anything to say negative about NLT was its word repetition was all over the place.

In the Book of Leviticus, I noticed the frequent use of select words such as “un-ceremonially unclean” and “ceremonially unclean” for every page.

Substance and Quality

Anyone could learn something great with the Old Testament of the Holy Bible.

From the Book of Genesis to Book of Malachi, the intensity of thought-provoking storytelling never stopped.

It would offer varying degrees of excitement, shock and wisdom.

The Old Testament made me question a lot of times, but my curiosity was answered immediately once I take time to Google for answers.

2024 is an era of AI. Therefore, anyone could use Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT for further research for no cost at all.

Sometimes, there were times anyone could wonder if the stories were real or not.

For example, in the Book of Numbers, there was a talking donkey in the middle chapters that was way impossible to exist in life.

There were a lot of times it was a need to understand the stories of the Old Testament figuratively.

Instead of questioning if donkeys could talk long time ago, ask what this donkey would represent to.

Was the talking donkey a representation of a miracle?

Was the talking donkey a representation of a blessing in disguise?

Another subject matter worth discussing was when God repeatedly considered Himself the Jealous God.

What was the meaning of a Jealous God?

Did it mean He felt envious when someone has more money than Him; or did it refer to a healthy kind of jealous like a husband would feel when his wife flirts with another handsome man?

The perception mattered while reading the Old Testament.

The imagination was challenged; and the reasoning was heavily tested.

Whether the stories of the Old Testament sounded real, anecdote or prophetic, the message it sent was the same.

Be good and do good like Joseph The Dreamer.

Plot

All the Books of the Old Testament were connected in a non-chronological manner.

The flow of events was jumpy especially after the 2 Chronicles.

The events in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah were supposed to be inserted somewhere in the Last 5, which preceded the Book of Malachi.

There were also standalone books that were completely separated from Pentateuch and Historical books such as:

• Genesis.
• Exodus.
• Leviticus.
• Numbers.
• Deuteronomy.
• Joshua.
• Judges.
• Ruth.
• 1 Samuel.
• 2 Samuel.
• 1 Kings.
• 2 Kings.
• 1 Chronicles.
• 2 Chronicles.
• Ezra.
• Nehemiah.
• Esther.

The standalone books did not follow the chronological timeline as it should be.

Their stories occurred in other places and emphasized a deeper understanding of life that could be confusing if they merged with the other books listed above.

Minor prophets wrote these standalones. These prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

My Favorite Characters

Apart from the amazing plots and writing quality, the Old Testament was highly remembered due to its characters.

There were hundreds of amazing names mentioned in each book. Jeroboam was my favorite.

I wanted to re-baptize myself every time I read it, but on a serious note, seven characters were a real stand-out based on quality, substance and page-time.

God Himself was written as the most well-developed character due to its multiple appearances in every book.

Though to give chance for other names, it was best to pay attention to the following:

7 – Samson.

Samson was a popular character of the Holy Bible. His limitless strength and unbreakable courage were his primary qualities that could never be forgotten despite of all his flaws.

6 – Ezra.

Ezra was a priest who was highly remembered due to his conscience. As he helped the people return to the Holy Land, he felt responsible for the sins they made. He asked God to give him time to make their wrong practices right.

5 – Jeremiah.

Of all the prophets, Jeremiah was the one who experienced countless of hardships. The people of Jerusalem did not believe him. His intentions were pure, but he was imprisoned instead. His Book of Lamentations highlighted the value of hope amid calamities.

4 – Talking Donkey.

The page-time for the talking donkey was short but created a permanent mark on me. Talking donkey was the representation of a miracle that could happen during the unexpected times. Someone could have died without this donkey.

3 – King Solomon.

The Old Testament mentioned a number of kings. Solomon was clearly the most popular not only for his great contributions for Israel but also for his appearances in three books namely:

• 1 Kings
• Song of Songs
• Ecclesiastes

The Book of Ecclesiastes revealed how vulnerable King Solomon was. He was lonely, he was suicidal; and he was hated.

Of these negative vibes, Solomon kept his wisdom alive. His wisdom saved him from his imperfections both as a king and as a person.

2 – Joseph The Dreamer.

Joseph was one of the biggest characters to remember in the Book of Genesis. His story started in Chapter 37 and ended in Chapter 50.

In truth, Joseph closed the Book of Genesis with multiple lessons to learn.

One was jealousy. Joseph’s story was a proof anyone’s family could be a big foe once the emotional instability was high.

Joseph had no control over his 10 immature brothers. They allowed their jealousy to devour them, and their level of conscience was low.

Great thing with Joseph, his resiliency gave him the chance to recover from the betrayal and temptations.

He stayed healthy, he looked good; and he took care of himself even if everyone treated him as a slave.

It was a rare moment when Joseph forgave his brothers and chose to be close with them again.

Not everyone had the ability to forgive like Joseph. It would be simpler to forgive yourself first than forgive others face to face.

This was the part when Joseph’s story became unrealistic. His blood betrayed him and sold him as a slave, which was unacceptable.

It was admirable for Joseph to forgive them.

The drawback was, forgiving and re-accepting them inside his support system meant he allowed them to break the boundary he built to protect his self-esteem.

1 – Job.

Book of Job was special. It was considered as 1 of the 5 Wisdom Books of the Old Testament (Focus on The Family, 2021).

Job and Joseph were similar in many ways. Both suffered heavily.

The difference was, Job was not aware why he was suffering. His life was near perfection before he lost his children, health and wealth.

Like Joseph, Job experienced grief, anxiety and depression. Every day was a heavy burden, giving him reasons to give up.

Job stayed faithful, however. His humility and spirituality gave him the understanding to also accept the point of views of his friends without necessarily believing them.

Their conversation went deeper to a point that Job became skeptical about the existence of God.

Then, when Job least expected it, a miracle happened right in front of him. This was a miracle that changed his life for the better.

**

The Books of Old Testament taught layers of lessons that other non-fiction or fiction books could not give. These books were even better than the news in TV.

On to the 27 Books of the New Testament… H-A-L-L-E-L-U-J-A-H

Photos Courtesy of: IMDb