Book Review: Take This Cup By Bodie and Brock Thoene

Take This Cup 

By Bodie and Brock Thoene

This is a fanciful book. When I chose it, I was in the mood to be taken away from the present world and its issues to another place. This book has succeeded in doing that, transporting the reader back to the time of Christ, where a little boy becomes an inadvertent cupbearer to Jesus the Messiah.  It is a fantasy that brings in a lot of symbolism from the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple following the Babylonian Captivity, a faction from the point of Joseph of Arimathea and visions looking to the time of Jesus.  I heartily recommend the book of you do reading with young children, or have young readers in your house. Not only does it acquaint them with history and time, but it takes them into the customs of the people of the day.  If you are homeschooling, then you could find it good for supplementary historical reference reading. If you read to your small children or grandchildren, then it is a good "story telling" kind of book, that can make for good family-devotional time.

This said, in negatives I was disappointed from a personal standpoint in that the book was not what I thought it was going to be. I was looking for something deep, almost fantasy and it wound up being simplistic from that point of view. However this is not the book's fault but my own. While intriguing I found it hard to follow because of the almost over simplistic approaches. This is not the point of view from which the book is written, thus, not the book's fault.  From a child's point of view, it is perfectly logical.

So, my recommendation on this book is get it. Especially if you are reading to your kids or if you have kids that read. I do not thing you or they will be disappointed. However, if you are intellectual or are looking for something deep, fantasy, etc. this book probably isn't for you. But - don't spoil it for others!

Jim