An Introduction To The Bible

A casual reader enters a bookshop looking for a Bible. However, not all the Bibles on display have the same contents! Some have more books than others, some are study editions, some use gender-free language. How did this come about? This Introduction works back through the processes by which the Bible was written, transmitted, copied and declared to be authoritative by various churches. The following topics are dealt with: What is the Bible?; How Biblical Writers Wrote; The Making of the Old Testament; The Making of the Apocrypha; The Making of the New Testament; The Canon of the Bible; The Study of the Bible; The Use of the Bible in Social, Moral and Political Questions. This updated edition takes account of developments in scholarship since the book was first published in 1999 by Penguin. The original edition has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese.

No book has sold more copies. No book has influenced so many people. The Bible has informed all of the world's religions. Yet for many, it remains a mystery. Would you like to read and understand the Bible for yourself? The studies in this guide are designed to help you do that. You will look at four major themes in the Bible: what God is like what people are like who Jesus is how to meet Jesus Passport to the Bible will take you on a journey like no other. It offers definitions for the new and difficult vocabulary you may encounter in the Bible. And it provides questions to help you uncover key ideas as you read through each book of the Bible. For discussion group leaders, notes at the back of this guide offer additional insight and direction. In short, everything is included to help you get to know the Bible--whether you study on your own, one-to-one with a friend, or in a small group. Here is a valuable introduction to the best book you will ever read.

This profusely illustrated book is doubly valuable! It introduces the reader to both the content of the Bible and to the life, faith, and history of ancient Israel, early Judasim, and early Christianity.

This text provides a comprehensive and definitive introduction to the literature, cultures, and theologies of the early Jewish and Christian traditions. Designed to be read with selected passages from the Bible and the Apocrypha, An Introduction to the Bible offers essential information to students with little or no experience in the academic study of religion. It will help students gain a solid background for future work in biblical studies. The revised edition includes information regarding new directions in biblical studies, a revised bibliography, and a subject index - as well as maps, charts and photographs. "This volume is pedagogically self-aware. Here speak teachers who live close to the teaching environment. The narrative account of a great deal of material is patient, attentive to detail, willing to pause to provide small instructional clues, all the time keeping the big picture in focus. This second edition of the book attests both to the vitality of its authors and to the positive reception the book has already enjoyed. Given the large cultural crisis upon us, such instruction in a context that reaches beyond 'the choir' is welcome and enormously important. Clear, well organized, up to date, and reflective of reliable scholarly consensus. Most important, I suspect, is the likelihood that its student-users will sign up for more scripture study....[The book] will help students generate not only a beginning with the Bible, but a long-term interest." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. "As most instructors of introductory survey courses in biblical studies will attest, finding a suitable textbook can be quite a challenge. The revised edition of An Introduction to the Bible marks a strong contribution to the field. It is a well-structured, clearly written textbook. The authors incorporate many of the newest discussions regarding the formation and subsequent understandings of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Students using this book will be exposed to the rich content of ancient Near Eastern studies. They will also find themselves challenged to read these classical texts using some of the most recent hermeneutic arguments in circulation....An Introduction to the Bible provides an excellent entry point for a critical approach to the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity."---C. Shaun Longstreet, Texas A&M University, excerpted from the Review of Biblical Literature, August 2003.

This book examines the small library of 24 books common to all Jewish and Christian Bibles-books that preserve the efforts of diverse writers over a span of many centuries to make sense of their personal experiences and those of their people, the ancient Israelites. Professor Christine Hayes guides her readers through the complexities of this polyphonous literature that has served as a foundational pillar of Western civilization, underscoring the variety and even disparities among the voices that speak in the biblical texts.

What is the Bible? How did it get to us? Why are translations so different? And what influence has the Bible had on culture? From its very first pages, The Bible: An Introduction, Third Edition, offers clear answers to the most basic questions that first-time students and curious inquirers bring to the Bible. Without presuming either prior knowledge of the Bible or a particular attitude toward it, Jerry L. Sumney uses straightforward language to lead the reader on an exploration of the Bible's contents and the history of its writings, showing how critical methods help readers understand what they find in the Bible. Filled with maps, charts, illustrations, and color photographs to enhance the student's experience with the text. This third edition offers a number of revisions and a new section on the deuterocanonical books. Neither polemical nor apologetic, The Bible presents the biblical writings as the efforts of men and women in the past to understand their lives and their world in light of the ways they understood the divine.

Moses' world would hardly be recognizable today. David and Solomon, Isaiah and Nehemiah, Peter and Paul...all the biblical authors wrote to people whose mind-sets were very different from readers' today. Add to that the immensity of the Bible story...no wonder the Scriptures can be difficult to understand! Bible scholar Douglas Jacoby has taught Bible survey courses for more than 25 years, bridging the gulf between the biblical world and the twenty-first century. He uses clear, easy-to-understand language to explain the big picture of the Bible and show how each of the pieces fit together. Among the many compelling issues covered, readers will discover... the basic chronological outline of the Bible; the most important themes of the Old and New Testaments; how the Bible relates to a twenty-first-century worldview. Perfect for personal or group use, this survey removes many of the barriers that keep people from understanding and enjoying the Bible.

Many current Bible intro volumes focus more on theories about the biblical text than on the text itself. They lack the simplicity that has become increasingly crucial as basic biblical literacy has declined. Robert Kugler and Patrick Hartin seek to remedy that problem by turning readers back to the text at hand. Their Introduction to the Bible surveys the content of all the biblical books, section by section, focusing on the Bible s theological themes.