Stephen Barkley
I couldn’t resist ordering this once I read the cover:
The first book
of the bible
graphically
depicted!
NOTHING LEFT OUT!
I taught through Genesis a few years ago, and realized just what “nothing left out” would mean!
I was pleasantly surprised by how faithful Crumb was to the text. He took a scholarly translation (Robert Alter’s The Five Books of Moses), and worked diligently to illustrate it. This isn’t some gratuitous parody or vain satire. This is God’s word . . . with pictures.
Much of the criticism about Crumb’s work centres on his depiction of God as a shiny old man with a monstrous beard. I tend to agree—God’s not an elderly man with eccentric facial hair. That said, what image should an illustrator use for a person who walked with Adam in the cool of the evening and who appeared to his chosen people? He clearly showed up in some form they could comprehend!
If you’re easily offended, just ignore this book. If you’re curious and want to better visualize the Genesis narratives, give it a try.
Crumb, R. The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. W. W. Norton, 2009.
How ‘kid-friendly’ is this? I’ve wondered how to tackle the whole Creation/Genesis thing with my kids without imparting the traditionally skewed views of yesterday on them. If God is an old man with a big beard in this publication, I imagine there’s little else illustrated here that deviates from the Sunday School curriculum we had.
It’s not ‘kid-friendly’ at all. How can I say this tactfully… He illustrates “they were naked and unashamed” among other verses. Remember what Lot’s daughters did with their old man? Some parts of Genesis were not taught to kids in Sunday School for good reason.