Actor Tim Allen recently shared on X about his reaction to the Bible after making the decision to read it from cover to cover, Faithwire reports.

“Never took the time in all my years to ever read and really read the Bible,” Allen wrote. “Currently almost through the Jerusalem Bible Old Testament and almost done with the Prophets. Next up to New Testament. So far amazing and not at all what I was expecting.”

Never took the time in all my years to ever read and really read the Bible. Currently almost through the Jerusalem Bible Old Testament and almost done with the Prophets. Next up to New Testament. So far amazing and not at all what I was expecting.

— Tim Allen (@ofctimallen) August 20, 2024

Allen, 71, is best known for his roles in the TV series Home Improvement for which he won a Golden Globe Award and in Last Man Standing, a popular series that ran for ten years. He also played the role of Scott Calvin in The Santa Claus movie franchise and as well was the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the popular animation Toy Story.

Tim, 71, has not been shy about expressing his Christian beliefs. In 2022. his faith resulted in changes to the script of the movie, The Santa Clauses, when he pushed for “otherworldly characters, and ghosts, and goblins,” that were initially in the script, to be replaced with more Christian elements.

“No, this is Christ-mas. It’s Christ-mas. It literally is a religious holiday,‘” Allen said. “We don’t have to blow trumpets, but I do want you to acknowledge it — that’s what this is about. If you want to get into Santa Claus, you’re gonna have to go back to history, and it’s all about religion.”

The Impact of the Death of His Father

In an interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas in 2011, Allen expressed how the death of his father, when he was 11 years old, at the hands of a drunk driver had a negative impact on his faith.

It led to him “questioning God” and being cynical about matter of faith, before God moved on his heart causing his perspective to change.

The fact that a person’s perception of God can be impacted by their relationship or lack of relationship with their father, is the premise of Paul Vitz’s book, Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism.

A Catholic psychologist, Vitz believes that such factors as abuse, abandonment and even the death of fathers can negatively impact a person’s faith in God as they grow older.

In his book, Vitz analyzed the biographies of several prominent atheists and found many had broken relationships with their fathers.

This included German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, whose father died when he was five years old. Nietzsche would go on to start the ‘God is Dead’ movement eerily paralleling his childhood experience.

The Jerusalem Bible

I also found Allen’s choice of Bible interesting, because the Jerusalem Bible is actually an 1966 English translation of La Bible de Jerusalem written in French, which lists famed Lord of the Rings author, J. R. R. Token as the translator of the Book of Jonah.

It is also a Catholic version of the Bible, meaning the Old Testament includes seven apocryphal books that are not part of the protestant Bible, Tobit, Judith, Barach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, and Sirach. The New Testament is the same as the protestant versions.