作者：许效礼
出版社：航空工业出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
床头灯英语5000词纯英文：圣经故事试读：
人物关系表
(旧约)
Adam亚当：上帝所造的人类始祖
Eve夏娃：上帝所造的人类始祖，亚当之妻
Noah挪亚：亚当后裔，大洪水期间方舟的建造者
Abraham亚伯拉罕：犹太人的人文始祖
Sarah撒拉：亚伯拉罕之妻
Hagar夏甲：亚伯拉罕之妾
Isaac以撒：亚伯拉罕与撒拉之子
Ishmael以赛玛利：亚伯拉罕与夏甲之子
Lot罗得：亚伯拉罕的侄子
Rebekah利百加：以撒之妻
Esau以扫：以撒的长子
Jacob雅各：以撒的次子和继承人
Joseph约瑟：雅各的儿子，埃及宰相
Benjamin便雅悯：雅各的小儿子
Moses摩西：以色列人的领袖，带领人民摆脱了埃及人的奴役
Joshua约书亚：摩西的继承人，古以色列人的统帅
Samson参孙：古以色列人的大力士和民族英雄
Samuel撒母耳：古以色列人的领袖
David大卫：古以色列王
(新约)
John the Baptist施洗者约翰：古以色列人中的先知，预言了耶稣的到来
Mary玛利亚：耶稣的母亲
Joseph约瑟：拿撒勒的木匠，耶稣的父亲
Jesus Christ耶稣基督：上帝之子，人类的救主
Herod希律：罗马统治者所任命的巴勒斯坦地区的王
Simon Peter西门·彼得：耶稣的门徒之一
John约翰：耶稣的门徒之一
Matthew马太：耶稣的门徒之一
Juda犹大：耶稣的门徒之一，也是出卖耶稣的叛徒
Pontius Pilate庞提·彼拉多：统治犹太地的罗马总督，对耶稣处以死刑的掌权者
故事梗概
(旧约)
在很久很久以前，全能的上帝造就了天地及世间的万物；后来又创造了人类的始祖——亚当和夏娃这一对男女，并将其安置在美丽的乐园——伊甸园中。
无奈，人类趋罪的天性使亚当和夏娃禁不住魔鬼撒旦的诱惑，偷吃了园中的禁果，让上帝深感震怒和失望。二人随即被逐出伊甸园，并受到责罚，要世世代代辛苦劳作，以求生存。伊甸园崩落后若干年，地上的人类已经繁衍众多，世间充斥着邪恶。上帝决定用一场亘古未有的洪水，灭绝陷在罪恶中不能自拔的人类。挪亚是世上仅存的一个义人，因而得到了上帝的眷顾。上帝暗令他在洪水到来之前，造一艘巨大的方舟，将家人及地上的动物各选一对，带入舟内。这样，挪亚才躲过了这场劫难。
时代又跨越了上千年，从挪亚的后人中诞生了犹太民族的人文始祖——亚伯拉罕。他的家族后来繁衍为古以色列民族，从这个民族中产生了人类的救主耶稣基督。
亚伯拉罕的操守和虔诚深得上帝的喜悦。他遵照上帝的吩咐，为了远离周围罪恶的环境，率领全族长途迁徙，来到迦南。这是上帝应许赐给他的族人的福地，后来被称为以色列国。在迦南，蒙上帝的恩典，已到垂暮之年，早已丧失生育能力的亚伯拉罕和妻子撒拉居然奇迹般地生下了儿子以撒。从此以后，他对上帝更加心怀感激，笃信不疑。
在上帝的关爱下，几代人后，亚伯拉罕一支已经是人丁兴旺了：以撒生了雅各；雅各生了十二个儿子，其中约瑟少年有志，才华出众，深得父亲雅各的宠爱，但是却遭到了众兄弟的嫉妒。他们背着父亲把他卖到埃及为奴。在埃及，约瑟因其安邦治国的卓越才能，受到了法老的赏识，被委以宰相之职。他帮助国家安然度过了七年赤地千里的大旱，在前来粜粮的犹太人中，又与自己已经洗心革面的兄弟们重逢相认。约瑟与他们和解了，并把父亲和全家人接到埃及居住。
约瑟死去多年后，埃及人开始虐待寄居在自己境内的以色列人，逼其为奴，过着暗无天日的生活。这时，上帝兴起了一位伟人——摩西，并授与他以惊人的灵力。摩西听从上帝的召唤，带领以色列人民对埃及法老进行了英勇的抗争。上帝的震怒也化做冰雹、瘟疫、黑夜甚至死亡降临在埃及人身上，迫使埃及法老不得不同意以色列人离开自己忍受苦难的土地。逃离埃及之后，在上帝的庇佑下，在摩西的带领下，以色列人历尽千辛万苦，多次战胜了死亡的威胁，经过多年的征战跋涉，接近了自己的故土迦南，但是迦南这时已被多个异族占领。面对强敌，以色列人有家不能归，只好在临近的沙漠中又滞留了四十年。
摩西去世以后，上帝让智勇双全的青年将领约书亚继承了他的灵力，率领以色列人投入了收复迦南的战争。在上帝的暗中相助下，约书亚以其超凡的军事才能逐一战胜了对手，基本征服了迦南全境，并把土地分配给了以色列人的十二个支派。约书亚后来成为杰出统帅或军事家的同义语。
然而和平没有持续多久，约书亚死后异族人的叛乱和入侵迭起。犹太民族在刀光剑影、颠沛流离中翻过自己一页页血与火的历史，这也是英雄辈出的年代；有聪慧贤明的士师撒母耳，有剽悍无畏的力士参孙，还有英勇善战的国王大卫……但是从本质上说，整个《旧约》就是一部上帝拣选并拯救犹太民族的历史。
(新约)
光阴荏苒，时间推移到了犹太地被纳入神圣罗马帝国疆域的时代。在希律王统治下的耶路撒冷圣殿中，天使长加百列告诉老祭司撒迦利亚，他会生一个儿子。撒迦利亚应当按照上帝的旨意，给这个孩子起名叫约翰。
约翰长大以后，开始在南方旷野中传道。他预言一位远胜过自己的先知即将降临人间，还大声疾呼让世人改悔，修直先知的路，迎接他的到来。
加百列又找到拿撒勒的一位名叫玛利亚的未婚姑娘，说她不久就会有身孕，还吩咐她把孩子生下来，给他起名叫耶稣。玛利亚十分惶恐，因为自己还没有结婚。加百列进一步说明，这是圣灵降临到她身上的结果，因为孩子是上帝的儿子。玛利亚顺服上帝的旨意，欣然答应了。
接着，加百列又托梦给玛利亚的未婚夫木匠约瑟，讲明了实情，让他遵照上帝的安排，迎娶并善待玛利亚，把上帝的儿子抚养成人。
结婚不久，时逢罗马帝国全境的人口普查，按照规定，约瑟带着怀孕已有数月的妻子前往出生地伯利恒登记。结果，在当地一家客栈的马槽里孩子降生了。他们遵照天使的嘱咐，给他起名叫耶稣。
人世救主的降生，使布满繁星的夜空产生了异象。这引来了敬奉者的膜拜，也引起了残忍的统治者希律王的惊恐。他唯恐这位犹太王的问世会危及自己的宝座，必欲除之而后快。但是上帝却提前告诉约瑟带着妻子儿女前往埃及避难。一家三口一直等到希律王死后才从埃及安然地回来。
耶稣和自己的弟弟妹妹在这个谦恭的平民之家长大了。他子承父业，也做了一名木匠。耶稣成年以后的施洗者是约翰。给他施洗的时候，约翰充满了敬畏之情。天空开启了，圣灵像一只闪闪发光的鸽子降落在耶稣的肩膀上，从上天传来了上帝的声音“这是我的爱子，是我所喜悦的。”从此，耶稣上帝之子的身份便昭示天下了。
魔鬼妒恨耶稣的信念和事业，便溜到他的身边，用地上的万般风流富贵引诱他，但都遭到耶稣的严厉斥责，只好悻悻地走开了。为了让人们听从劝诲，耶稣又多次在公众场合行神迹；他曾在宴会上把淡而无味的水变为浓郁芬芳的酒；曾在门徒们捕了一夜鱼却劳而无功的时刻，让他们的鱼网瞬间涨满鲜鱼；曾转眼让瞎子重见光明；曾用五块面包两条鱼为布满旷野的听道者变出丰盛的晚餐；还曾在山上和摩西与以利亚一同在云光中向门徒们显现……耶稣行神迹是为了让更多的人敬畏上帝，远离罪恶，蒙恩得救。他在犹太全境赢得了众多的追随者，其中最有名的是约翰等十二个门徒。
在把上帝的福音传遍四方的同时，耶稣也同一切压迫、贪婪、虚伪、邪恶等背离上帝教诲的恶行进行了斗争。他曾两次前往耶路撒冷圣殿，怒斥在殿中从事集市交易的市侩，并把他们驱赶了出去，清除了教会中的污浊。他多次在公开场合赞扬穷人对上帝的虔诚，揭露富人和掌权者的虚伪和为富不仁。为此得罪了犹太人中的上层分子。他们暗中与罗马统治者勾结，必欲置耶稣于死地。
耶稣作为上帝之子，有先知先觉之明。他深知自己受圣父派遣，来到世上，是要以生命为代价，完成济世救民的使命。在预感自己来日无多的时候，他在圣城耶路撒冷附近的橄榄山上同门徒们进行了一次长谈，预言了未来必定要发生的事情，那就是自己殉难以后，还会再来到这个世界上，对所有的世人进行审判。笃信上帝的义人将升入天国，为非作歹的恶人将堕入地狱。
在与门徒们共进的最后一次晚餐上，耶稣以从容平静的口气告诉众人，在座的门徒中有一个人已经以三十块银币的价钱将人子出卖给了仇敌。叛徒犹大见自己的阴谋败露便匆匆起身离去。不久，犹大就带领士兵赶来。这叛徒以与耶稣接吻为暗号，指引士兵逮捕了他。
耶稣被捕以后，受尽士兵和不明真相的愚民毒打和凌辱，最后被判钉死在十字架上，实现了他以自己的死换取世人的永生，以自己的血洗净世人罪恶的崇高愿望。
耶稣死后七天，墓穴大开，尸首不知去向，他的仇人和信徒顿时目瞪口呆。原来，人子已经从死里复活了。复活了的基督在犹太各地多次显现，最后在与自己的十一个门徒道别以后，冉冉升入晴空，与圣父在天上团聚。
PREFACE
This book which you are about to read may serve as an introduction to the Bible. The stories within are only some of the most well known, and most often quoted; however, this is not meant to imply that stories not included are necessarily less popular or less important. We hope that the readers will enjoy the stories we have selected, and may then be encouraged to read further about this great and important book.
注释
imply[imˈplai]v. 暗示
THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
This great round world on which we live,is very old; so old that no one knows when it was made. But long before there was any earth,or sun, or stars, God was living, for God never began to be. He always was. And long, long ago, God spoke, and the earth and the heavens came. But the earth was not beautiful as it is now, with mountains and valleys, rivers and seas, with trees and flowers. It was a great, dark, smoking ball, with land and water combined into one mass. And upon this mass there was no life.
While all was dark upon earth, God said, "Let there be light," and then the light began to come upon the world. Part of the time it was light, and part of the time it was dark, just as it is now. And God called the dark time Night, and the light time Day. And that was the first day upon this earth.
Then, at God’s word, the dark clouds all around the earth began to break, and the sky came into sight, and the water that was in the clouds began to be separate from the water that was on the earth. And the arc of the sky, which was over the earth, God called Heaven. Thus the night and the morning made a second day.
Then God said, "Let the water on the earth come together in one place, and let the dry land rise up." And so it was. The water that had been all over the world came together, and formed a great ocean, and the dry land rose up from it. And God called the great water Sea, and the dry land he named Earth. Then God said, "Let grass and trees, and flowers, and fruits, grow on the earth." And at once the earth began to be green and bright with grass, and flowers, and trees bearing fruit. This made the third day upon the earth.
Then God said, "Let the sun, and moon, and stars come into sight from the earth." So the sun began to shine by day, and the moon and the stars began to shine in the night. And this was done on the fourth day.
And God said, "Let there be fishes in the sea, and let there be birds to fly in the air." So the fishes, great ones and small, began to swim in the sea; and the birds began to fly in the air over the earth, just as they do now. And this was the fifth day.
Then God said, "Let the animals come upon the earth, great animals and small ones; those that walk and those that crawl on the earth." And the woods and the fields began to be alive with animals of all kinds. And now the earth began to be more beautiful with all its inhabitants, but there were no people in the world. So God said, "I will make man. He shall stand up and shall have a soul, and shall be made in the likeness of God; and he shall be the master of the earth and all that is upon it." So God took some of the dust that was on the ground, and out of it he made man; and God breathed into him the breath of life, and man became alive, and stood up on the earth.
And so that the man whom God had made might have a home, God planted a beautiful garden on the earth, at a place where four rivers met. This was called "The Garden of Eden."
This garden God gave to the man that he had made; and told him to care for it, and to gather the fruits upon the trees and the plants, and to live upon them. And God gave to the first man the name Adam.
But seeing Adam was all alone in this beautiful garden, God said, "I will make someone to be with Adam, and to help him." So when Adam was asleep, God took a rib from Adam’s side, and from it God made a woman; and he brought her to Adam, and Adam called her Eve. And Adam and Eve loved one another; and they were happy in the beautiful garden which God had given them for a home.
Thus in six days the Lord God made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. And on the seventh day God rested from his work.
For a time, Adam and Eve were at peace in their beautiful garden. They did just as God told them to do, and talked with God as a man would talk with his friend; and they did not know of anything evil. It was needful for Adam and Eve to understand that they must always obey God’s commands, so God said to Adam and Eve: "You may eat the fruit of all the trees in the garden except the one in the very middle. Eating the fruit of that tree would result in your death."
Now among the creatures in the garden there was a snake, and this snake said to Eve, "Has God told you that there is any kind of fruit in the garden which you are forbidden to eat?"
And Eve answered the snake, "We can eat the fruit of all the trees except the one that stands in the middle of the garden. If we eat the fruit of that tree, God says that we must die."
Then the snake said, "No, you will surely not die. God knows that if you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will become as wise as God himself, for you will know what is good and what is evil."
Eve then looked at the tree and its fruit. The fruit looked delicious to her, and the idea that it would make one wise, brought forth a great deal of temptation to taste it, despite God’s rule. She took the fruit and bit into it, and then shared some of it with Adam.
Immediately, Adam and Eve knew that they had done wrong, and now, for the first time, they were afraid to meet God. They tried to hide themselves from God’s sight among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called and said, "Adam, where are you?"
Adam answered, "Lord, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid."
"Why were you afraid to meet me?" God asked. "Have you eaten the forbidden fruit?"
"The woman you created gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it."
Then God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?"
"The snake told me that the fruit would do me no harm, "answered Eve.
Then the Lord God said to the snake, "Because you have led Adam and Eve to do wrong, you shall no more walk as other animals; you shall crawl in the dust and the dirt forever. You shall hate the woman, and the woman shall hate you."
And the Lord God said to the woman, "Because you led your husband to disobey me, you shall suffer and have pain and trouble all the days of your life."
And God said to Adam, "Because you listened to your wife when she told you to do what was wrong, you too must suffer. You must work for your food, by digging and planting as long as you live. You came out from the ground, for you were made of dust, and back again into the dust shall your body go when you die."
And because Adam and Eve had disobeyed the word of the Lord, they were driven out of the beautiful Garden of Eden, which God had made to be their home. They were sent out into the world; and to keep them from going back into the garden, God placed his angels before its gate, with swords which flashed like fire.
So Adam and his wife lost their garden, and no man has ever been able to enter it from that day.注释
For God never began to be. be在英语中可以当"生", "存在"讲。例如: To be or not to be, that is a question. (生还是死, 这是一个问题——莎士比亚)When did the PRC come into being? (中华人民共和国是什么时候成立的?)
arc[αːk]n. 拱形
crawl[krɔːl]v. 爬行
inhabitant[inˈhæbitənt]n. 居民
This garden God gave to the man he had made. 这是宾语前置的一个例子。正常语序应当是God gave this garden to the man he had made. 宾语前置或是为了强调宾语: This gift you leave for Mary, and this, Richard. (这件礼物你留给玛丽, 这件给理查德)或者是为了使上下文能有更为紧密的联系: That day I got a letter, and this letter I forwarded to my boss immediately. (那天我收到了一封信, 这封信我立刻就交给了上司。)
rib[rib]n. 肋骨
bring forth带来
NOAH’S ARK
Adam and Eve lived for hundreds of years before dying. And by the time of their passing, there were many people on the earth, for Adam and Eve had had many children; and these, when they grew up, also had children, who then grew up to have children as well. So, after a time, that part of the earth became quite heavily populated.
Unfortunately, as time went on, more and more of these people became wicked, and fewer and fewer grew up to become good. All the people lived close together, and few went away to other lands; so it came to pass that even the children of good men and women learned to be bad, like the people around them.
And as God looked down on the world that he had made, he saw how wicked the men in it had become, and that every thought and every act of man was evil. God then said: "I will take away all men from the earth that I have made, because the men of the world are evil."
But even in those bad times God saw one good man. His name was Noah. Noah tried to do right in the sight of God. Noah walked with God, and talked with him. And Noah had three sons, their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
God said to Noah, "The time has come when all the men and women on the earth are to be destroyed, because of their wickedness. But you and your family shall be saved, because you alone are trying to do right."
Then God told Noah to build a very large boat, or‘ark’. "For," said God to Noah, "I am going to bring a great flood of water on the earth, in order to drown all the people on the earth. And as the animals on the earth will be drowned with the people, you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of each kind of animal, so that there will be animals as well as men to live upon the earth after the flood has passed away. And you must take with you enough food to feed both your people and the animals for a year." And Noah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed very strange to all the people around to see this great ark being built where there was no water for it to sail upon.
At last the ark was finished, and stood like a great house on the land. There was a door on one side, and a window on the roof, to let in the light. Then God said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and your wife, and your three sons, and their wives with them; for the flood of waters will come very soon. And take with you all kinds of animals so they may be kept alive upon the earth."
Noah and his family boarded, and God brought to the door of the ark animals of all kinds. Once all were in, the door of the ark was shut so that no more people and no more animals could come in.
In a few days the rain began to fall as it had never fallen before. The streams filled, and the rivers rose higher and higher, and the ark began to float on the water. The people left their houses and ran up to the hills, but soon the hills were covered, and all the people on them were drowned. And all the animals were drowned, even the birds, for their nests in the trees were swept away, and there was no place for them to land. For forty days and nights the rain kept on, until there was no breath of life remaining outside of the ark.
Although the rain stopped, the water remained upon the earth for more than six months; and the ark, with all that were in it, continued to float over the great sea. Then God sent a wind to blow over the waters and to dry them up, and by degrees the waters grew less and less. First the mountains rose above the waters, then the hills rose up; and finally the ark came to rest upon a mountain. But Noah could not see what had happened on the earth, shut in as he was. But he felt that the ark was no longer moving, and he knew that the water must have gone down. So, after waiting for a time, Noah opened a window and let loose a dove. At the evening, the dove came back to the ark, and in its bill was a fresh leaf which it had picked from an olive tree. So Noah knew that the water had gone down enough to let the trees grow once more. He waited another week, and sent out the dove again; but this time the dove flew away and never came back. And Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again.
God then said to Noah: "Come out of the ark with your family and all the living things that are with you in the ark."
So Noah opened the door of the ark and, with his family, came out and stood once more on the ground. All the animals and birds and creeping things in the ark came out also and began again to bring life to the earth.
The first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark was to give thanks to God for saving his family. He gave himself and his wife and children to God, and promised to do God’s will. And God was pleased with Noah’s offering, and said, "I will not again destroy the earth on account of men, no matter how bad they may be. From this time no flood shall again cover the earth; but the seasons of spring and summer and fall and winter shall remain without change. I give to you the earth; you shall be the rulers of the ground and of every living thing upon it."
Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky, and he told Noah and his sons that whenever they or the people after them should see the rainbow, they should remember that God had placed it in the sky and over the clouds as a sign of his promise.注释
wicked[ˈwikid]adj. 邪恶的
It came to pass. . . pass在这儿表示"发生"(happen)。come to表示一个逐渐的过程。
You and your family shall be saved. shall可以当情态动词, 用于第二和第三人称, 表示"允诺", "警告", "恫吓"等等。此处是表示上帝对挪亚一家人的允诺。书中多次出现shall的这种用法。例如: You shall no more walk as other animals.
ark[αːk]n. 方舟
. . . shut in as he was. As用在部分倒装句中, 相当于though/although引导的让步状语从句。试观察: Young as she is/Young though she is/Though she is young/Although she is young, she knows a lot about the world. (尽管她年轻, 却懂得很多世事。)
dove[dəuv]n. 鸽子
olive[ˈɔliv]n. 橄榄; 橄榄树
creep[kriːp]v. 爬行
THE TOWER OF BABEL
After the great flood, the family of Noah and those who came after him grew in number until, as the years went on, the earth began to be full of people once more. Many of the people began to move southward into a land between two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates; and there they began to build a great city, which would rule all the peoples around them. They found that the soil in that country could be made into bricks, and that the bricks could be heated and made hard; so that it was easy to build houses to live in and walls around their city to make it strong against enemies.
And the people said to each other, "Let us build a great tower, that shall stand on the earth and shall reach up to the sky. This way we may be kept together, and not separated by great distances on the earth." So they began to build their great tower out of bricks, which they piled up, one story above another. But God did not wish all the people on the earth to live close together, just as they had lived before the great flood. God knew that if they all kept together, those that were wicked would lead away from God those that were good, and all the world would become evil again, as it had been before the flood.
And so, while they were building this great city and tower, with which they intended to rule the world, God caused their speech to change. At that time, all men were speaking one language. But now God made it so that, after a time, the people that belonged to one family could not understand what the people of another family were saying.
As people began to grow apart in their speech they also began to move away from one another, and to form communities with people who spoke the same language. This separation of peoples then prevented the further construction of the tower, thus leaving it forever unfinished.
And the city was named Babel, a word which means "confusion." It was afterwards known as Babylon, and for a long time was one of the greatest cities of that part of the world, even after many of its people had left it to live elsewhere.
Some of the people who left Babylon went up to the north, and built a city called Nineveh, which became the ruling city of a great land called Assyria, whose people were called Assyrians.
Another company went away to the west, and settled by the great river Nile, and founded the land of Egypt, with its strange temples and pyramids.
Yet another company wandered northwest until they came to the shore of the great sea which we call the Mediterranean Sea. There they founded the cities of Sidon and Tyre, where the people were sailors, sailing to countries far away, and bringing home many things from other lands to sell to the people of Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt, and other countries.
And this is how the earth became, once again, populated with people.注释
community[kəˈmjuːniti]n. 社区
confusion[kənˈfjuːʒən]n. 混乱
THE STORY OF A LONG JOURNEY
Not far from Babylon was another city called Ur of the Chaldees. Here lived a people who did not pray to God. They prayed to idols, images made of wood and stone. They thought that these images were gods, which could hear their prayers and help them. And as these people who worshipped idols did not call on God, they did not know his will, and they did many evil things.
Among the people at Ur, however, lived a man named Abram. Abram was a good man, for he prayed to the Lord God, and tried always to do God’s will. The Lord God, seeing this, did not wish to have Abram’s family grow up in such a place, for then they too might become wicked.
So the Lord spoke to Abram, and said, "Abram, gather together all your family and go out from this place, to a land that I will show you, far away. And in that land I will make your family to become a great people, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that all the
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