Preacher and teacher Eric J. Bargerhuff sets out to dispel some of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding fourteen commonly taught Bible stories in his new book The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories Are Misunderstood.

He breaks down which parts of these stories are often misinterpreted, either intentionally or unintentionally, and gives a corrected understanding of the true message of each passage. Bargerhuff uses an honest, reverent tone and plenty of references to strengthen his assertions and bring clarity to debated issues.

Each chapter is fairly short, with the entire book only totaling 177 pages. I read it straight through over the course of a few days, but I think it would be great for a two week daily devotional or for a Bible study class to read and discuss together. I felt like the author did a good job explaining parts of each story that could be twisted or misconstrued and I also really liked the final chapter, which gives some advice for how we can avoid misunderstandings of the type he addresses as we study God’s word (like being mindful of context and cultural biases, for example). The individual studies were interesting, but that last chapter was the most educational for me personally.

I really liked this book and found it to be a thoughtful, edifying commentary. It seemed to be thoroughly researched and I appreciated the honest but at the same time nonjudgemental tone that Bargerhuff employs. I would recommend this book to anyone who asks without hesitation.

My May non-fiction book was The Most Misused Stories In the Bible by Eric J. Bargerhuff. This book goes through 13 passages of Scripture which are sometimes misunderstood. It discusses the error some people believe and then walks through the actual meaning according to Scripture. Some of the Bible stories include David and Goliath, Jonah and the big fish, the betrayal of Judas and many more.

Not all of these stories are "misused" exactly, but they might be misunderstood or misinterpreted. That might sound like splitting hairs, but there is a subtle difference. For some stories the focus is taken off the main idea. For example, with Jonah and the big fish, a lot of people focus on Jonah or the big fish (especially with kids). Really, God should be the main focus of the story. The same with the story of Zacchaeus. Some of the stories are taught incorrectly like Gideon and the fleece. Some use this story as justification for testing God when in reality it should be the opposite. While sometimes it can seem like splitting hairs, misunderstanding Scripture can have serious consequences.

I will say that as I read through the book I was glad that I had a correct understanding of all the stories Bargerhuff wrote about. That wasn't always the case though. I was definitely one to think there were only three wise men and that they visited baby Jesus in the manger. I also had been a Christian for many years before I heard a correct interpretation of Cain and Abel's offerings as well as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. For some of these stories, a simple reading of the Scripture will take care of any misunderstandings. Others are more complex. It's so, so important to be students of Scripture and not just rely on tradition or Scripture taken out of context. Bargerhuff does a good job of clearly walking through each passage and contextualizing everything. I think this book would be great for anyone that has been a part of "Christian culture" but has only recently started studying the Bible. Or if you're like me and just curious if what you think matches up with what Bargerhuff says.

Sorry I was not able to read you book but it went to archive before I could get to it. Sorry once again.

This provided good insight and understanding to popular bible stories

Dr. Bargerhuff shares 10+ bible stories that are often misinterpreted, common errors that people have about them and the kind of impact they have. Anchoring himself in strong biblical perspectives, Dr. Bargerhuff delivers a great resource of unique insights on popular biblical stories. Not to be missed!

The Gospel of God's grace needs to be explicitly preached and taught so that desperate hearts stand a chance of experiencing real life transformation and change. We have to proclaim the truth about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the need for sinners like you and me to repent and believe that God in Christ has provided atonement for and forgiveness of our sins through the cross. But when this is not the central message of the Church, it becomes weak, people are sold a lie, and going through the motions and playing church become the norm. It becomes nothing more than a religious social club with some humanitarian causes mixed in.

We can easily make the stories of the bible about us. About having a better life, a marriage that others want, raising our children, all good things but that is not the gospel. Bargerhuff pulls 14 well known bible stories or misconceptions that we have to make the gospel central. How easy it is to make facing our fears in David and Goliath about us and not about the character of God. We all do this and what we can learn from our biblical characters, they did it as well. The story of Jonah is a prime example of this and even shows how much we are like Jonah. God pursues Jonah and the people of Nineveh thru Jonah. If the glory is about the people, then the glory of God is not the main thing.


Having a correct understanding in context will only help us have a hunger for the things of God. Who he is and what he has done. It will encourage us to lead a more faithful life where God is central and we are more spirit led to think more of others than ourselves. Bible interpretation is about context and how we view God correctly. Taking things out of context only leads us to believe incorrectly in a god that is egoistical and not as a God who redeems.

I highly recommend.

A Special Thank You to Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

This book takes a modern look on some of the stories from the bible, I loved this style of writing and really enjoyed the stories in this book.

Unfortunately the title expired from my Adobe Digital Editions library before I could finish it. I am sorry but I don't think I can give it a review on just the portion I was able to read.

We know stories are powerful. They can convey truth but they can also be misunderstood. Bargerhuff says it is important that we learn how to interpret Bible stories in context using all the aids available along with the power of the Holy Spirit. He has chosen some Bible stories to show how they have been misused and misunderstood.

Most of the misunderstandings, it seems to me, are rather innocent and are not harmful. He tells us that the story of David and Goliath is about trusting God to deliver rather than about fear at facing our giants. The real point of the story of Zacchaeus is that Jesus sought him, not the other way around. He clarifies the identity and timing of those from the east who visited a young Jesus, clarifying some Christmas carols.

Bargerhuff retells each Bible story at length. This is something a new Christian will appreciate. Seasoned Christians who have read the stories many times may find the retold stories redundant. Christians who have studied the Bible much at all will have found most of the material Bargerhuff shares from commentaries or other study books they have read.

Bargerhuff really comes down hard on the prosperity gospel preachers. He calls them con artists with hearts full of darkness. (Loc 954/2093) He clarifies their misuse of the parable of sowing seed. This may be the only story Bargerhuff included that I found to be deliberately misused by some teachers.

He argues that Pentecost was a unique and one time transitional event, as was the later similar experience with Gentiles in Acts 8:14-17. It is a mistake, he says, that we should think that what happened then should be happening now. (Loc 1431/2093) The Book of Acts “was not meant to be a prescription for how the church was supposed to operate today.” (Loc 1440/2093) Because of Bargerhuff's viewpoint, charismatic Christians, like me, may find this book less than pleasing.

I felt his best discussion was on the story about Jesus not being able to heal in his home town. Bargerhuff notes that God sometimes does withhold healing because of lack of faith but that is not always the reason. Keeping in mind Paul's experience, Bargerhuff says that healing (or not being healed) may have nothing to do with faith but is rather in accordance with God's sovereign plan. (Loc 802/2093)

This book is a good resource but I would suggest readers keep in mind that Bargerhuff writes from his own viewpoint and does not present other possible interpretations of the stories.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

I was attracted to this book by its title; I had not heard of Eric J Bargerhuff and I had not realised it was published by Bethany House Publishers.
I therefore was expecting a more liberal analysis of the stories; perhaps even debunking some biblical accounts and characters, implying that our Sunday school teaching was just filling us with stories.
It is American. It is nothing like I imagined. Rather it is written from the basis of evangelical conservatism with a solid belief in scripture and that faith comes from hearing the word of God and through biblical preaching.
Therefore, in some Christian circles it may counter their own teaching in terms of baptism in the Spirit, transubstantiation and even prosperity theology. I cannot find fault in this however as the author has strict ideas on interpretation and he is consistent in his arguments. Indeed, it is largely where I would place my own understanding.
A book aimed at Christians, for students of the bible and anyone seeking to understand God better through the pages of the Bible. I am glad I had an opportunity to read it for myself and it was nothing like I thought it might be initially.

The Most Misused Stories in the Bible by Eric J Bargerhuff is an explanation of fifteen Bible stories that are often misrepresented. I have to admit that I have not heard most of the misrepresentations. While it is interesting, it is closer to a short devotional book. I appreciated the multiple Biblical references to back up the author's explanations.

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Bethany House Books. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

In many cases, misuse is in the eye of the beholder. So it is with this book. There are many stories that are greatly misused in the Bible, and many of the stories I think of as characteristically being misused in the discussions I have with other believers are not even discussed here. So, I thought it worthwhile here to discuss some of the flagrantly misused stories of the Bible that are not included here: the stories of the healing Jesus Christ did on the Sabbath used erroneously in support of anti-Sabbath false theology, the use of Philemon to justify American slavery in the antebellum period, the misuse of Acts 10 in opposition to biblical laws on clean and unclean meats, the misuse of the story of John on Patmos in support of an erroneous view on the Lord's day, and so on. All of these misuses, and others, I have written about elsewhere. So, in the interests of accuracy and truth-telling, this book ought to have been called Some Of The Misused Stories of the Bible, because it is not a complete list by any means.

It is not just to review the book we would have preferred to have read or written, but rather the book that actually was written, and it is to that task which I will now turn. A few aspects of this book stand out in particular. For one, the stories chosen are familiar: Gideon's fleece, David and Goliath, Cain and Abel, Jonah and the big fish, the woman caught in adultery, Jesus' inability to do miracles in his hometown, Zacchaeus, sowing our seed, the wise men, Judas, the Samaritan "Pentecost," the rich fool, the use of symbolic language to justify transubstantiation, and what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. For another, in many ways, the author shows himself to be writing a polemical book, which manifests itself in at least two ways. First, the author uses many of these stories in a way that directly criticizes the religious practices of others. This is most in evidence when he criticizes Catholics for transubstantiation, a criticism I would echo, and when he comments on the way Gideon's fleece has been used to justify those whose lack of faith is not unlike that of Gideon himself in the story. Second, the author frequently gives praise to authors like Piper and MacArthur who wear their polemical Calvinism on their sleeve. As I comment quite frequently, this is not a viewpoint I greatly enjoy reading when engaged in polemics.

So, is this work a worthwhile one to read? For the most part, yes. As this book reminds us, the essential truths of passages can be blurred and our attention can be guided amiss by the way stories are told and the details, sometimes false, that are added in the retelling or those details in the Bible that are missed. A classic example of this is the story of the magi from the east, whose number is not given in scripture (although there were three gifts) and the timing of whose visit must be determined through careful reading that shows it was after Jesus Christ was presented in the temple and the family had moved from its manger to a house in town. So, despite the fact that I find the perspective of the author occasionally irksome, and find the author very selective and not at all complete when it comes to stories of the Bible that are misused on a regular basis by professed Christians, perhaps even by the author himself in his other polemical work, this is a worthwhile book. At the very least, this book points out some of the stories in the Bible that are misused and instructs the reader on our own characteristic biases on how we misread the Bible, all of which is worthwhile and informative, and makes this book worthy of a recommendation, especially for the last chapter of the book that discusses how we (and the author!) misread scripture consistently.

Unfortunately this book was only available in PDF and I couldn't get a copy.

Full review to be published online by the end of April.

THE MOST MISUSED STORIES IN THE BIBLE is a compilation of some of the most widely known (and often misunderstood) stories in the Bible. This is a continuing read for me, and will be a reread. Author Eric Bargerhuff gives the reader a well thought out and concise set of stories – the book presents a more complete meaning of the individual stories; containing examples and stories showing how they apply to our lives today. A few of these stories have been carefully dissected in my Bible Study class; but several of the stories had meanings that I had misunderstood or didn’t fully comprehend.
.
The 15 Bible stories contained in THE MOST MISUSED STORIES IN THE BIBLE are well founded in Scripture and fascinating to read. This will be a treasure to reread often; as well as to keep handy for regular reference.

Much like he did in The Most Misused Verses in the Bible, pastor and professor Eric Bargerhuff brings clarity and interpretive assistance in The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories are Misunderstood. Like a dedicated pastor, Dr. Bargerhuff writes what could be read as a sermon series on stories you probably know, if you have read the Bible or sat through church services and Sunday school. But if you've been around long enough, you have probably heard some not-so-great teaching on these familiar stories.


Bargerhuff writes from a solidly evangelical, biblical perspective, as you might expect from someone with a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. If your perspective is different, e.g. if you are a Catholic or Pentecostal, you might have some differences with Dr. Bargerhuff, especially in his chapters on the Lord's supper and the Samaritan Pentecost. For the most part, his take is non-controversial. For instance, he points out that we don't have any idea how many wise man came to visit Jesus, and that however many came, their visit was closer to Jesus' toddlerhood than to his infancy.


The larger point that Bargerhoff makes throughout the book is that the focus of these stories should be on God, not on the human actors. The story of David and Goliath is "not about overcoming fear and facing your giants as much as it is about the power and character of God to deliver." The story of Jonah isn't about Jonah's rebellion as God's rescuing and redeeming Jonah. The parable of the sower isn't about monetary contributions and financial rewards (as "health and wealth" preachers might teach) but about preaching the gospel and the fruit it bears or fails to bear in the hearers. The story of Zacchaeus is not primarily about his seeking out Jesus, but about Jesus seeking out Zacchaeus.

Bargerhuff is refreshingly straightforward in his presentation. He has the tone of an earnest pastor whose heart is for his flock to have a proper understanding of scripture. He concludes, "Let us never miss the main point God wants us to get lest we make the Bible into a practical how-to guide instead of a book that highlights the glory and character of God and his saving plan for us. . . . Remember that the Bible is primarily a book about God." I'll buy that.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!