N.Y. Man Takes Bible Literally for a Year

[Yisrael]

Author A.J. Jacobs did all that and more -- stoning suspected adulterers with pebbles gathered in Central Park, worshipping with snake handlers at a Tennessee church, sacrificing chickens -- while attempting to adhere as literally as possible to some of the 800 rules in the Bible.

Jacobs is the author of the new book "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible."

Inspired by an uncle who at one point on his spiritual path tried living the Bible literally, Jacobs decided to do the same.

A Jew by birth and an agnostic by belief, Jacobs, 39, said he wanted to explore biblical literalism for two reasons: to understand a worldview shared by millions of Americans, and to live religion rather than study it in hopes of discovering if he was missing out on spiritual life.

After marshaling a group of clergy and academic advisers and taping copies of the Ten Commandments all over his apartment, Jacobs pursued what he called a "moral makeover."

He tackled myriad rules, both uplifting and obscure. He honored his parents and blew a trumpet once a month. He didn't cut his beard -- more on that in a minute -- and immersed himself in religious communities ranging from evangelicals to the Amish to Hasidic Jews.

Some rules proved more difficult than others.

"I think there were two types of rules that were hard to follow," said Jacobs, an editor at large at Esquire magazine. "The first was avoiding sins that we commit every day, all the time, like lying, gossiping, coveting, even stealing. . . . I work in the media, and I live in New York, so that's like 90 percent of my day right there. . . .

"Trying not to covet was a huge challenge. I coveted everything, you know, the iPhone. I do covet that. And my friends live in the suburbs, and they have these front yards, and I live in an apartment. I covet other authors' Amazon rankings. So, it's a disease, and I tried to get rid of it as much as I could."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110902066.html