Month 12 - 2 Kings

February's Through the Bible in Five and a Half Years takes in 2 Kings, the last book in the so called Deuteronomic History. The session is on the 25th February at 5 Meadow Lane, starting at 7:30 as always.

Resources-wise I continue to recommend Genesis to Jesus for those just starting to get their heads around what's going on in this book in particular. I'll be using Hubbard's commentary again, although it wasn't quite as helpful as I'd hoped as well as the Wikipedia article.

But there is a real shortage of film's based on this book, which is strange for a book where there is so much story. I guess most Bible Films have drawn on stories people know from Sunday school as that boosts the likely audience, rather than looking for what might just make the best film overall. I'll probably write a longer article on that over at Bible Films Blog

There's also a useful Samuel, Kings and Chronicles harmony.

Month 11 - 1 Kings

2008 kicks off with a look at 1 Kings, still at 5 Meadow Lane, still at 7:30pm. The date, however, is 21st January (which is a week earlier than the date I gave out at the last session).

Resources-wise, I have to recommend the relevant chapters in Dave Burke's Genesis to Jesus. It's brief, and I probably would question the odd bit these days, but on reading it for the first time all those years ago it dropped a whole load of things into place, and started me down a particular road which has lead me to here.

I'll also be drawing on Hubbard's commentary. though at the moment I have no idea whether it'll be worthy of my attention.

Online material as ever includes the Wikipedia article. There's also a useful Samuel, Kings and Chronicles harmony.

Filmwise, there are only a couple and whilst the Bible Collection's Solomon doesn't get quite as embroiled in the story of the queen of Sheba, as 1959's Solomon and Sheba it still spends more time on that story than perhaps it should. There are also a few animated versions, although one of them is from the Simpsons. The others, though, are of Elijah perhaps the most criminally underfilmed story in the whole Bible. One is by the Testaments series, the other from Friends and Heroes. Finally there is an hilariously stiff and dated version of the Elijah story that appeared in the Living Bible series.