The End of the Fiery Sword: Adam & Eve and Jesus & Mary

This delightful book uses a simple parallelism to introduce young children to Biblical typology, aptly summed up in the little introductory verse and the epigram from St Augustine: "Do you know about Adam and Eve?About Jesus and Mary, too?Two are from the Old Testament,Two are from the New.Their stories are the Word of God,Their messages are true;But when you see them side by saide,A hidden part comes through.Now take a closer lookAt how their histories are told:See the Holy Spirit workAs mysteries unfold.Find the buried treasuresThat Sacred Scriptures hold;Let the New unlock the doorTo secrets of the Old!"“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is unveiled in the New.” — St Augustine.It doesn’t explicate or preach, just tells the two stories in parallel, using imagery and sentence structure to help young readers make the connections on their own.I usually am not a big fan of too-loose paraphrases in children’s Bible stories. Too often the theological subtleties get lost in the process because the adaptor does’t realize certain details are significant and so drops or changes them. But in this case the paraphrases are quite deliberately highlighting some of the theological subtleties that usually are lost in children’s Bible story books."When Eve tempted Adam,He ate the forbidden fruit,In the Garden of Eden,Adam hid from God.He was afraid,Because he had not done God’s will.God came looking for him in the garden.Adam betrayed God,And now Adamwas going to die.When Satan tempted JesusHe ate nothing at all.In the Garden of Gethsemane,Jesus prayed to God, His Father,He was in agony.But He was ready to doThe Father’s will,Judas came looking for him in the garden.Judas betrayed Jesus,And now Jesuswas going to die."Now, I might have made a few different choices were I retelling the story. For example the "Eve tempted Adam, Satan tempted Jesus" parallelism seems to emphasize the idea of more blame falling on Eve than Adam-- which is simply not good theology-- though I suppose that reading is undercut by the "God came looking/Judas came looking" parallelism. And I’d have made explicit in the text the idea that the cross is revealed as the Tree of Life. But on the whole, they are all minor quibbles.This book is very well done and is equally as worthy a tool for adults wishing to meditate on Biblical typology as it is for children. The best children’s books are ones that adults enjoy as well, and by that criteria, this book most definitely is one of the best religious children’s books I’ve seen.The illustrations are very nice, alternating between rich jewel tones and more subtle earthy tones. The figures are simple but not overly cartoonish. I don’t feel like the illustrations are too saccharine or condescending towards children. In fact there are a few moments where the illustrations reach beyond what the text says and add another extra layer of meaning. Like when the crucifix is made into a literal tree with rich red fruit, with shadowy ghost images of the gates to paradise now open. That totally makes up for the missing explicit Tree of Life reference in the text.Or, perhaps one of my favorite moments, when Jesus and Mary face Adam and Eve in the book’s final spread and invite them out of the darkness and into the light and Jesus’s hands are raised in benediction with the nail wounds clearly seen while Mary is making a gesture of welcome. And, this is the really good part, two rays of light come from Jesus’ breast: a red one and a white one. It’s such a beautiful echo of the Divine Mercy image. And the Tree of Life is subtly in the background, behind Jesus and Mary.Then there are also lovely swallows who appear in both the Eve and Mary spreads and in the crucifixion scene, a thematic element which ties the pictures together visually, though I’m not quite sure if there is a deeper symbolic meaning to the swallows. And I really, really like the way God looking for Adam in the Garden is represented not by a human figure but by a mandorla with an empty center filled with light and a border of angels."When Adam and Eve died,The gates of Paradise were closed,But God had a planTo open them againBecause He loved His people.When Jesus rose from the dead,The gates of Paradise were opened.Jesus fulfilled God’s planTo open them againBecause He loved His people."This book contains heart of the Gospel message, beautifully told: the good news that God loves us and has saved us. This book should be in every family’s library.

While I am impressed with the thoughtfulness of this little book and can see its usefulness for teaching Biblical typology to children, I have to say how sorrowful I am that the images are only of pale-skinned, fair-haired people. Adam and Eve, Jesus and Mary are pale and strawberry blonde, with European features. The children of the English-speaking world, including the U.S., are increasingly brown-skinned and black-haired. Where are the Biblical images that they can relate to? I recommend watching or reading Robin diAngelo for more perspective on this - it's too much to go into here. But PLEASE keep in mind for any future volumes that all children, not just white children, need to SEE themselves and their families when learning about the love of Jesus! I may use the ideas in this book, but probably not the book itself, to teach typology to my multicultural Sunday School class.

This book is an amazing resource to teach biblical typology to people of all ages, especially children. It is simple and easy to read but thorough. It is EXACTLY what I hoped it would be. I definitely plan to buy the other two similar books I’ve seen (Jonah/Jesus and Tower of Babel/Pentecost). I’m anxious for an Ark of the Covenant/Mary book by this author!I bought this for my 6.5yo, and she has read it multiple times in the last few days. I’m so happy to be giving her this strong scriptural foundation.

This book is very short and to the point. It is almost too short but summarizes the story of "The Beginning" without complex thought. I liked the way the story was handled for small children. For older kids hopefully parents will address questions that might arise with the perspective of "Church" affiliation. For the older child 4th grade on up, the summery of the story of "The Creation" opens the door to discussion. Great telling of a complex story.

SERIOUSLY - fantastic book! This book makes so many faith connections that even adults would read it and learn something! I LOVE THIS BOOK and just ordered the other two in this series!! THANK YOU!

A book of BLASPHEMOUS propaganda. No one is without sin but God, Romans 3:10. This book says that Mary is sinless. If Mary was sinless this would make her God and a part of the Trinity, which is a blasphemous teaching. I liked this author's other book comparing Jonah and Jesus, but this one is not Biblically sound.Original sin means that all who are born after are born into sin. They are not sinless. Jesus is the only sinless human because he is not from the seed of Adam, he is fully God and fully man and did not/does not have a sin nature like the rest of humanity.Tell me where in the Bible does it call Mary sinless? The Bible calls Mary righteous, not sinless. All people who trust in the Lord are considered righteous, not sinless, i.e. Abraham and Noah.

Beautiful pictures. My seven year-old Catholic school student liked it

This is a great kids book, but I have even learned from it as an adult! I love that it gently introduces children to Biblical typology with poetic language and beautiful, tasteful illustrations. I am hopeful that there will be more of these in the future!

I was somewhat disappointed by this book to be honest I am sorry to say! After reading the glowing reviews on amazon maybe my expectations were too high!I was surprised how thin the actual book was, and thought that the Biblical typology would show more examples than just Mary/Eve, Jesus/Adam and tree of knowledge/cross....I was hoping it would include other Old Testament prophets and be a bit richer and deeper in its explanations.Illustrations are beautiful however. My advice...it is a good book to own (especially if you have never heard of Biblical typology before)....but maybe don't spend too much!

Beautiful books. Illustrations are fantastic, kids love them!

Very good use of typology to teach children how to read and interpret the old testament

Maravilhoso, texto e ilustrações.