The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

The Year of Living Biblically is about my quest to live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every single rule in the Bible as literally as possible. I obey the famous ones:

  • The Ten Commandments
  • Love thy neighbor
  • Be fruitful and multiply

But also, the hundreds of oft-ignored ones.

  • Do not wear clothes of mixed fibers.
  • Do not shave your beard
  • Stone adulterers

Why? Well, I grew up in a very secular home (I’m officially Jewish but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant). I’d always assumed religion would just wither away and we’d live in a neo-Enlightenment world. I was, of course, spectacularly wrong. So was I missing something essential to being a human? Or was half the world deluded?

I decided to dive in headfirst. To try to experience the Bible myself and find out what’s good in it, and what’s maybe not so relevant to the 21st century.

The resulting year was fascinating, entertaining and informative. It was equal parts irreverent and reverent. It was filled with surprising insights almost every day. (I know it’s not biblical to boast, so apologies for that).

The book that came out of the year has several layers.

  • An exploration of some of the Bible’s startlingly relevant rules. I tried not to covet, gossip, or lie for a year. I’m a journalist in New York. This was not easy.
  • An investigation of the rules that baffle the 21st century brain. How to justify the laws about stoning homosexuals? Or smashing idols? Or sacrificing oxen? And how do you follow those in modern-day Manhattan?
  • A look at various fascinating religious groups. I embedded myself among several groups that take the Bible literally in their own way, from creationists to snake handlers, Hasidim to the Amish.
  • A critique of fundamentalism. I became the ultra-fundamentalist. I found that fundamentalists may claim to take the Bible literally, but they actually just pick and choose certain rules to follow. By taking fundamentalism extreme, I found that literalism is not the best way to interpret the Bible.
  • A spiritual journey. As an agnostic, I’d never seriously explored such things as sacredness and revelation.
  • A memoir of my family’s eccentric religious history, including my ex-uncle Gil, who has been, among other things, a Hindu cult leader, an evangelical Christian and an Orthodox Jew.

 

The Year of Living Biblically has received praise from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and others.

Reviews

“Somewhere between growing his beard to Moses lengths, stoning an adulterer with a pebble and limiting his wardrobe to white garments, A.J. Jacobs had a spiritual awakening.” –Miami Herald

“A book that is at one and the same time delightfully readable and profoundly memorable is a wonder! The Year of Living Biblically is exactly that. A. J. Jacobs has perceived the distinction between the wisdom of the Bible and its absurdities.  It is shame that so many of both our clergy and our politicians seem incapable of making that distinction.” –John Shelby Spong, Author of JESUS FOR THE NON-RELIGIOUS and former Episcopal bishop

“Where his last book was a quest for smarts, this one is a quest for his spiritual roots. And it's very funny.” –St. Louis Dispatch

“Watching a man, particularly a man as funny and self-effacing as Jacobs, attempt to live under those principles can be highly entertaining... a darned entertaining read with some surprising revelations.” –The Lima News (Ohio)

“An inspired idea…Jacobs is alarmingly adept at keeping the joke alive for 365 days…For many of us…walking with Jacobs is the closest we’ll come to knowing what it feels like to be born again.” –Hannah Rosin, The New York Times Book Review

“The book is extremely humorous - the introduction alone leaves the reader grinning. It's also serious as it chronicles Jacobs' revelatory year.” –Jeff Korelik, Lincoln Journal Star

“A surprisingly moving memoir…This is a highly effective and affecting book.” –The Orlando Sentinel

“Seeing that most people violate at least three of the 10 commandments on their way to work - even people who work from home - says a lot about the scale of AJ's feat. The fact that you need to buy six copies of this book to unlock the code to save all humanity....well, that's just pure genius.” –Ben Karlin, co-creator of The Colbert Report, and co-author of America: The Book

“An achingly funny memoir. Its self-awareness rescues Jacobs' project from being merely quixotic or entertaining and elevates it to something beautiful.” –Christianity Today, Books & Culture

“The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, offers an accessible way to think about religion in modern life. Yes, studying religion can be fun.” –American Way

“What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs (The Know-It-All).” –PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

“[Jacobs] is a joy to ride along with on this biblical journey. It is a book that could spark deep conversations and cause audible laughter.” –Jewish Book World