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its_kievan's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Parts One and Two are a fascinating overview of how the Old and New Testaments were created, with an amazing in-depth focus on what was actually happening when they were written and how we know all this. Parts Three and Four are a painfully dry slog through centuries of biblical scholarship that took me more than a month to struggle through. So, to put it lightly, a bit of a mixed bag.
alisarae's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely fascinating. Will 100% be reading this again and I may need to buy a hard copy.
This is a thorough history of how the Bible came to exist in its current form. It explains the history of the existence of each book of the Bible (far more interesting than you might suppose). It also gets into big picture differences between Jewish and Christian interpretations and some of the finer details about how seemingly opposite sectarian interpretations of the same text can exist. The final part of the book is devoted to the history of the various translations of the Bible, and theories/concerns that translators need to take into account. The most interesting thing for me was learning about the differences between what the Bible literally says (like, what is actually present in the text) and what Christian/Jewish doctrine teaches. There are some...gaps.
It is written by an Anglican scholar, but it is not necessarily written for Bible believers. It is for anyone who has a curiosity about the Bible’s place in history and culture.
This is a thorough history of how the Bible came to exist in its current form. It explains the history of the existence of each book of the Bible (far more interesting than you might suppose). It also gets into big picture differences between Jewish and Christian interpretations and some of the finer details about how seemingly opposite sectarian interpretations of the same text can exist. The final part of the book is devoted to the history of the various translations of the Bible, and theories/concerns that translators need to take into account. The most interesting thing for me was learning about the differences between what the Bible literally says (like, what is actually present in the text) and what Christian/Jewish doctrine teaches. There are some...gaps.
It is written by an Anglican scholar, but it is not necessarily written for Bible believers. It is for anyone who has a curiosity about the Bible’s place in history and culture.
iteechesinglish's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I learned so much from this book. Growing up in a fundamentalist church, Biblical criticism was totally frowned upon. I was taught to believe the literal 7-day creation, that everything in the Bible was historic fact, and my understanding of "divine inspiration" was some guy in a room transcribing as God narrated. Over time, I grew to have a more nuanced understanding of Christianity, but nobody ever clearly explained to me where we got the Bible from, what we actually know about it, or even what languages it was originally written in (I totally get the Greek/Aramaic thing now!). As someone who is college educated, that's pretty embarrassing to admit. It's uncommon in many churches for pastors to discuss things like authorship, genre, or historical context, so for me learning about all these debates was fascinating. And I finally understand the apocrypha. It makes sense that pastors would avoid these topics as some of them are controversial, so I think this is a valuable resource for those of us who are interested in these things but don't have theology degrees. The book is a bit dry in places, I kept imagining the author narrating it in a stuffy British accent, but overall it was a really good overview and introduction to Biblical criticism. Mind blown. 🤯
zinnsoldat's review against another edition
2.0
Way too detailed, you need to know the content of the Bible to properly understand this book. The parts that I understand are intersting but for many pages I am thinking "what is this supposed to mean?".
Expected something different from the book.
DNF
Expected something different from the book.
DNF
kyladenae94's review against another edition
5.0
i wish this book had focused just a bit more on the concurrent growth & change in jewish approaches to scripture, instead of so heavily centering christian approaches in the second half, but i also understand why that happened so. a very good overview, overall, of the history as we understand it of biblical composition, redaction, and translation.
dionisiomulone's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The author has written an outstanding book, which analyzes, discusses, and puts into perspective subjects which are more often than not contentious. The author does so with an impeccable respect for the sources and does his best to properly understand them in their language and their context.
I am reticent to give the book a 5 star review for one reason in particular. The book’s main focus is the relation of Jewish and Catholic and Protestant Christians scholars, communities, believers, and leaders to the Bible, their reactions, thoughts, and discussions around the text, and what can be inferred or deduced from their sources. As is, the book is lacking in the perspective from Eastern Orthodox communities, and other non-Catholic and non-Protestant forms of Christianity. This is notorious in the section which regards bible studies in the Middle Ages, which does not discuss the discussions and interpretations of Europe’s Greek east. The author states that knowledge in the Greek language made a comeback in the renaissance, but makes no mention to the fact that all those texts in the Greek language had been preserved by a monastic tradition which goes back to the early days of Christianity.
The book is, despite the former, highly educational, precise, and rigorous. I wholeheartedly recommend it.