The Illustrated Bible History

Okay, this book is a little funny. It was printed in 1925, and is basically just an antique version of Bible cliff notes. You know, the entire Bible in 400 pages instead of 2500. It runs through the events of the Bible and hands them over in shorthand and in historical order. After each little story there was a typical “reader style” Q&A session- “What have we learned from Moses’ actions? What did God prove by allowing the magicians to work their magic?” Etc, etc.

The reason I put up with this all the way to the end was because it was fun for me to see the Bible from a different point of view. This was meant to be a handbook to the Catholic Bible. So each story had an explanation of the symbolism within, such as: “This is why Mary’s throne in heaven is above the thrones of the angels and the saints, and next to that of her divine Son.” I have no idea how this very Catholic book got into my very Apostolic grandfather’s collection, but since I’m not too familiar with all that Catholic ritual and symbolism, it was pretty fun for me. That is, it was fun for me until I turned the page and covering up an illustration of the resurrection of Jarius' daughter was this drawing on a scrap of paper:

Jeez!!! It kind of jumped out at me! And it kind of freaked me out! I did NOT like it at all. I don’t know why, but this little alien baby or whatever it is creeped me out to no end. I still can’t look at it without a little shudder.

Added to my list of questions to ask God upon arriving in Heaven (which includes, along with others, “What if we’d dated the first time we met?”, “One more time: drunk drivers- why, again?”, and “Can you teach me the Vulcan Mind Meld?”) is the very pressing: “What on earth was that drawing, who stuck it in there, and jeez, what for?”

But I guess I’ll just have to wait.