The Year of Living Biblically – A Book Review

A.J. Jacobs book The Year of Living Biblically is a fascinating journey of one man’s attempt to live a year of his life literally following all of the commands of scripture. Jacobs, a writer for Esquire magazine is not a religious man. He is a secular agnostic Jew living in New York. His favorite quote about his faith is this, “I am Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.” But he decided for one year to try and take a plunge into the deep end of faith that few of us would ever consider. A.J. decided to go all the way and search for an understanding of and the reasoning behind the Bible and its commands. A.J. frankly demonstrates more guts than most religious people I know with his willingness to examine the parts of scripture most of us pretend don’t exist. So from eating crickets to growing a huge beard to finding a way to make various offerings and even taking on the command to procreate, Jacobs tackles the Bible a thoroughly as a year of his life will allow him to.

The majority of Jacob’s year was spent living within the commands of the Old Testament before moving on the New Testament in the last couple of months. He listed out every command in the OT and began trying to follow them. These commands added structure to his life, shaped how he thought, what he ate, what he wore (a great theme woven throughout the book is his adherence to the command to not wear clothes made of mixed fibers) who he touched, how he talked, and the introduction of prayer into his life. Reading his account is struck me that he was demonstrating a better understanding of how completely our faith needs to reorient every aspect of our life than virtually any Christian (especially myself) I have ever known. That was startling.

The book is funny, (his effort to find an adulterer in Central Park to stone is amazing) a bit reflective of Jacob’s obsessive compulsive tendencies, and very sincere. It is probably the most honest religious book I have ever read. I think that is because it isn’t a religious book and was written by someone who isn’t religious. The really beneficial honesty of the book comes from Jacob’s efforts to get as many authentic religious experiences as he possibly could and to spend his time with the diverse group of people who really claim the Bible as God’s word. So Jacobs spent time with Hassids, Orthodox Jews, Fundamentalists, 7 Day Creationists, Evangelical Homosexuals, Red Letter Christians, Jerry Falwell and his church, and a hodge podge of random characters, and what pleased me most was his honesty and lack of judgment in dealing with each group. He really allowed each group to stand on its own and tried to find merit in what they believed, even if he didn’t believe the same himself.

By the end of the book A.J. describes himself as a reverent agnostic. He doesn’t know if there is a God, but he sees great value in the way people live out their faith and in seeking to be connected to something other than themselves. To the end he is simply honest, straight forward, and sincere about what he discovers about the Bible and himself.

The main benefit of this book is an honest examination of how we really treat the Bible. Reading this book will help us realize that none of us read and treat the Bible literally. None of us, who call ourselves Christians, simply read the Bible and do what it says. All of us are incapable of reading the Bible without interpretation and without bringing our own biases into the equation. This is one of the issues that most clouds attempts at reconciliation and fruitful discussion between different groups of Christians. As long as we naively believe that we as individuals take scripture at face value without inserting our own experiences, biases, and influences on to it, we will never be able to see the merit in how we as the body of Christ can communally interpret scripture to a far greater benefit.