Last night at dinner I picked up a copy of à¸à¸ ินิหารเมสสิยาห์, the Thai translation of Manga Messiah. It is the gospel story told in the Japanese cartoon style.
As of now I’ve read 95 pages of it. I’m rather impressed. It is easy reading (it’s a comic). I’m enjoying the Thai reading practice. It is something I could hand a curious student. It gives quick little explanations of things someone from outside the churched world might not understand. Most of the time these explanations are adroitly woven into the dialogue; occasionally they get a little clunky, but I think they are still worth having.
I’ve been impressed by how thorough the narrative is. More of the four gospels is brought into it than might be guessed given that it is a comic book.
It’s not perfect. The Pharisees are perhaps drawn over-heavily into the role of villain. Occasionally extra bits of dialogue, intended to explain things, venture beyond fact into postulation. Nonetheless, I give the first 95 pages a solid A.
P.S. Take this evaluation with a bag of salt. I’m reading this in Thai. I could be missing all kinds of implicit things in the language.
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