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Original poster

Help me find this children’s bible from the eighties

88 replies

Nuffaluff · 01/12/2021 19:12

DS aged 11 is enjoying RE at school and we’ve been discussing bible stories, particularly the creation myths at the beginning. We aren’t religious so his knowledge of the bible is scant. He is very interested in it all.
I was taken to church as a child, was bought a bible and read it again and again, so my knowledge of the bible is good.
I want to get hold of a copy of this bible I had as a kid as they just don’t make them like that any more. They’re all rated U these days, whereas mine was more of a 12 certificate! I’ve looked on eBay but I can’t find it because I can’t remember the publisher.
It was:
Owned and read by me in the eighties
A4 sized and thickish
Had some of the more obscure Old Testament stories, eg. Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego in the fire (great illustration!)
Illustrated on every page - some almost full double-paged illustrations, eg the flood.
Illustrations highly detailed and realistic
Here’s the main clue - the illustrations were graphic, and I mean pretty violent, horrific and memorable. It didn’t shy away from the nasty bits and that’s particularly why I loved it.
Can anyone help me? I reckon if you had it and took a photo of one of the illustrations I would probably remember it.

OP posts:
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banivani · 17/12/2021 15:24

@Rainartist - sorry, I don't have the dust cover, just the blue cloth cover underneath iyswim.

I'd love an update from OP too!

PlanktonsComputerWife · 10/12/2021 23:52

Have you got your book yet, OP? I'm tempted to order one for myself, but only once I'm sure you got yours, lest you need to order another!

Rainartist · 10/12/2021 22:41

Mind you the layout of the flood picture is familiar. @banivani would you post a picture of the front cover please?

Rainartist · 10/12/2021 22:36

As soon as I saw this I thought I bet it's the one I had but saw you found it, I think mine was worse. They're in a box in the garage else I'd get it out. Bloodied heads and death galore I remember showing DH and saying these would scare the living daylights out of our dc at the time, I suspect they'd love it now! I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure, was a gift from Sunday school I think Shock

Strawing · 04/12/2021 11:00

@Ldmk2

I had this one in the early 80s. Can't remember any of the stories you mention though.
Oh, I think I had that one! The illustrations were by a few different illustrators from what I remember, and generally quite realistic — in that it all looked credibly like the Middle East — but what I remember most is that one illustration in particular made Jesus look very sexy. Olive skin, dark curly hair, short beard. It might have been when he was being baptised by John the Baptist in a loincloth in the Jordan. Grin

The ‘John the Baptist’s head on a platter’ image was horrifying.

TitilatedOcelot · 04/12/2021 08:28

Herod is clearly being played by Matt Berry in that picture!

I had the yellow JW one, think my grandmother gave it to me. I went to catholic school and none of our family are JW so not sure where it came from! Think that had some good pictures too, but maybe not as gory.

Original poster
Nuffaluff · 04/12/2021 08:08

About how that flood picture. I remember being so upset about that and worried for those people. I would think ‘oh, they’re managing to cling onto the rocks so maybe they’ll be okay’. Then I would read the text again and, yes, everyone dies.
You have to wonder about the intentions of the artist there, I think, with the children in that picture. Maybe they weren’t such a big fan of God.

OP posts:
SilenceOfThePrams · 03/12/2021 08:49

@banivani

Yes, the Solomon one is awful too! But it didn't happen so a little more palatable as a picture. The Herod one is soldiers holding babies by the legs and waving them and swords around.

I might have to upload the pictures anyway but it did genuinely feel out of place on an internet forum where mothers who've suffered recent loss might stumble upon it ...

Agreed
banivani · 03/12/2021 08:30

Yes, the Solomon one is awful too! But it didn't happen so a little more palatable as a picture. The Herod one is soldiers holding babies by the legs and waving them and swords around.

I might have to upload the pictures anyway but it did genuinely feel out of place on an internet forum where mothers who've suffered recent loss might stumble upon it ...

SilenceOfThePrams · 03/12/2021 04:12

@Strokethefurrywall

Oh my god *@banivani* I’m having massive flashbacks of my catholic 80s childhood! I either had that bible or someone I knew did, because that picture of The Flood took me back! How bloody awful, I was obviously of an age when I couldn’t fully comprehend the horror of the pictures! Wasn’t the picture of Herod one of him about to slay an infant baby boy whilst two women wept beneath his ridiculous gold throne?! 😱
No, that was Solomon suggesting cutting the baby in half after both women claimed it was hers but one had smothered her own the night before.

The slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem after Jesus, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt is indeed graphically illustrated too.

lollipoprainbow · 03/12/2021 03:30

The head on a platter pic is that David Walliams and a young Delia Smith !

Strokethefurrywall · 03/12/2021 03:23

Oh my god @banivani I’m having massive flashbacks of my catholic 80s childhood!
I either had that bible or someone I knew did, because that picture of The Flood took me back! How bloody awful, I was obviously of an age when I couldn’t fully comprehend the horror of the pictures!
Wasn’t the picture of Herod one of him about to slay an infant baby boy whilst two women wept beneath his ridiculous gold throne?! 😱

Belleager · 03/12/2021 03:12

@mynameiscalypso

I have a different children's bible from the 80s but it has some equally disturbing illustrations
Well at least the skeletons look cheerful! Is that the Ladybird / Scripture Union one? It looks familiar.

As does the head of John the Baptist actually - seems surprised but undaunted ...

banivani · 02/12/2021 10:33

Lord Calypso, looks like an artist from the same school alright!

mynameiscalypso · 02/12/2021 09:36

I have a different children's bible from the 80s but it has some equally disturbing illustrations

HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule · 02/12/2021 09:29

I might watch The Ten Commandments today!

WeDidntMeanToGoToSea · 02/12/2021 05:58

@Driposaurus

The one you were looking for is the one I had too, OP.
Me too! We were also a non-religious family and I also pored over it endlessly (that and The Children's Book of Questions and Answers, with photos of cancer cells and accounts of a man forced to stand to attention for something like 132 hours). It used to annoy me that the detail of the illustration on the cover was different from that of the one illustrating that story in the book.
Vanishun · 02/12/2021 05:57

Oh this brings back memories!! Thank you OP!

I also had a "teenage" bible which had little real life stories peppered throughout (which I found much more interesting than the bible itself) - does anyone remember that one at all?

SilenceOfThePrams · 02/12/2021 05:36

Ask the seller?

The Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea is another good one. Or Solomon and the baby…

Leelaseye · 01/12/2021 22:14

I'm on a nostalgia trip now! I got in trouble at school for blatantly copying my RE homework from one of the stories in said bible nearly word for word (I think it was the one about Jesus throwing the money lenders out of the temple).
Unfortunately the teacher had exactly the same version in the classroom Smile

Leelaseye · 01/12/2021 22:02

I had the same one as a christening gift in 1982. I knew it would be that one from reading your OP.
I absolutely loved it as a child and it's only now that it's registered quite how gruesome some of the illustrations were!

banivani · 01/12/2021 21:58

@Etherealhedgehog

On the subject of John's head, for a Sunday School fancy dress competition when I was about 7 my mother had me dress up as Salome - we made a papier mache, very gruesome John the Baptist head, which I held up by its long, knitting yarn hair. I still can't quite decide whether this makes her batshit crazy or the best mum ever. The competition was won by some kid wearing store-bought, plastic centurion armour, dressed as a generic Roman soldier. I was absolutely robbed.
I am INCENSED for you!!! But very pleased for the OP!

Joseph’s a bit of a looker alright in that picture. What went on in the illustrator’s mind I wonder.

Driposaurus · 01/12/2021 21:53

The one you were looking for is the one I had too, OP.

mishmased · 01/12/2021 21:39

@Nuffaluff yes I think it is. I used to read (non Jehovah's Witness) it as a child and remembered shadrach, Meshach and Abednego story.

SnowdaySewday · 01/12/2021 21:36

@mishmased

Isn't that the Jehovah's Witness one?

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