My First Bible Stories New Testament: The Baptism of Jesus

Lovely book just right for Junior church

My wife borrowed this book to read to our child. Really shocked to find that the author has not connected with the bible to recognise that Jesus never needed to wash his sins away, rather the bible is clear that Jesus never sinned in any way - found this book very inaccurate and misleading about the character of Christ!

This series of books are excellent for KS1 RE and collective worship

This book looked really lovely and I thought it would be a good addition to our various bible/devotional books for our kids. However, upon reading the book last night, in the bit where Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist, it refers to Jesus having this done in order to wash away his sin. I am now getting rid of this book as it totally smacks in the face of Christian belief. Whether you are planning to buy this book for personal reasons, or for a teaching resource, it is a completely inaccurate representation of the bible and Christian belief because of this. I was most disappointed.

Excellent series. They need to be stocked in America and available on Amazon Prime. I purchased them for all of my grandsons.

Although the author says that John dipped the people in the river the illustrator shows John pouring a bowl of water over their heads! HOWEVER this is nothing compared to the erroneous statement the author uses when John asks why Jesus wants John to baptize him:"I have come to the river today to wash my sins away."After the 40 days and nights in the desert and Jesus being tempted by the devil the author writes that "Jesus remembered what John said" and repeats it: "Ask God to forgive all the bad choices you have made, live a better life and it will lead to the kingdom of heaven." This is not the true message of salvation. Just living a better life will not get you to heaven! This is very misleading to a child.Included in the "Actions" in the back of the book instruct the child to pretend to sprinkle water on someone's head and practice the rhyme "I'll wash away your sins."I do NOT recommend this book at all. Sadly this book is in libraries across our country, misleading many young children.

We bought this book at a thrift store without reading it first. That was a mistake. This book misrepresents the Biblical record on almost every page. Here are most of the problems:1. It says that message of John the Baptist was to repent "live a better life and it will lead to the kingdom of heaven." This was not his message. He said "repent and be baptized, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." He was announcing the coming Messiah, not advocating a social program.2. The scene at the river says that John "dipped them in the river" and the next page shows him sprinkling water on their heads. It is clear from the Bible that he immersed them in the water.3. Then John tells the people that someone will come and "baptize you with God's love." What he actually said was "O indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."4. When John asks Jesus why he should baptize Him, Jesus responds that He needs his sins washed away. Jesus actually said that it was to fulfill all righteousness. The Bible, wether you believe what it says or not, goes out of its way to claim that Jesus was the sinless Son of God.5. When Jesus is baptized it says that God's love came down like a dove, the Bible says it was the Holy Spirit coming down as a dove.6. The book says that the Voice from Heaven said "This is my Son, whom I love." What the Voice actually said was This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased"7. The desert temptation story just says that Jesus didn't have anything to eat, the Bible says He was fasting and had no food or water.8. In the first temptation, Jesus' response to the devil was "We can't live just on bread. We need God's love too." The Bible records it as "Man can't live on bread alone but on every word of God", quoting Deuteronomy 8:3.9. The next temptation is out of order, it puts the 2nd temptation 3rd in order. Also Jesus response to the devil tempting Jesus to throw Himself off of the Temple, which the book claims is just a high tower, Jesus' response is "If we have trust in God, we don't need to test him" Jesus actual response was to quote Deuteronomy 6:16 "You shall not test the Lord your God."10. The book says that Jesus pushed the devil away, the Bible says that the devil departed from Him.11. The book says that after Jesus heard that John was in prison, He remembered what John had said and then started telling everyone the same thing John had. The book still has Jesus saying the wrong thing, and not what the Bible says: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Also, as seen from what John actually said about Jesus in number 3 above, it is clear that Jesus was not just parroting Johns message and that John knew about that before Jesus' baptizm.I don't understand why someone would write a children's book that claims to be "simple retellings" and then go out of their way to be so inaccurate or so uninformed. Either way I believe it is wrong to misrepresent the source material and care should be taken to make sure this doesn't happen. I obviously take special exception in the case of the Bible, but I would also be upset about a "simple retelling" of any other piece of history or literature that misrepresented what those writings actually say. Why teach our children things that aren't true?Before you buy this book be aware that it is NOT a "simple retelling" as it claims but rather a seemingly intentional misrepresentation of the source text.

Overall I liked the book for my children. There was, however, a major flaw. It has Jesus saying that he came to John to have His sins washed away. Jesus did not sin and the gospels do not say w hat the book says. Jesus said that it must be so to fulfill all righteousness ... Not that he sinned and needed repentance.The only other major issue I had with it was at the end of the book. It indicates that Christ's ministry was based on John's idea and that he just began to say what John said because John died and Jesus remembered his words. Christ has his own ministry. John's ministry came from Christ ... Not the other way around.The last issue was small... The book talked about how we need God's love instead of what the Bible actually says ... For example it says when Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread that Jesus said we don't live on bread alone but instead on God's love where is the text says God's Word. Minor point but still important.Overall I can't give this a good rating sons it States that Jesus was a sinner. The Bible says he was the sinless one ... He who knew no sin. It was very well illustrated otherwise though.

My two year old and I absolutely love the other books in this series! I do not like The Baptism of Jesus book bc they show John pouring water over peoples heads with a bowl (this is not biblical). That is NOT Baptism! Baptism comes from the Greek word Baptizo, meaning "to dip into" or "immerse." Several times in the Bible it says the person being baptized came up out of the water (Acts 8:38-39; Matthew 3:16), not that they were sprinkled or poured on. The Bible is clear about baptism, and this book does not depict the Bible accurately. I wish they would redo the illustrations in this one. It's going to give people the wrong idea of what being baptized is. If you have had water sprinkled or poured on you, you have not been baptized according to Gods word. And the things it says are not accurately put either.