A number of readers have emailed me with a varation of this question sent in by Robert:
Can you give me some good books on the history of the bible? I am interested in how it came to be and cannot seem to find a good book.
The best book I’ve read on the fallibility and early transmission of the Bible is Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus. It’s an easy read and goes over the main issues.
His class “The Historical Jesus” is also excellent and deals with the New Testament sources. I believe much of the content is also found in his book, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Ehrman also has a class on the history of the New Testament, though I haven’t listened to it yet.
I haven’t read much on the history of the Old Testament other than from evangelicals, who claim things like Jesus wrote the OT, Jesus appears in the OT as Melchizedek, the entire OT is about Jesus, and, well, you get the idea.
So I appeal to my readers: What books do you recommend on the history of the Bible?
Hello! My name is Anders Branderud and I am from Sweden.
Maybe the list at our website http://www.netzarim.co.il ; click Israel Mall (left menu) and then “General” in the bottom menu can be of interest?
I am just like you a former Christian; I was a Christian for six years and I were very dedicated. Now I study Judaism.
Now I am a follower of Ribi Yehoshua – Mashiakh – who practiced Torah including Halakhah with all his heart.
He was born in Betlehem 7 B.C.E . His faher name was Yoseiph and mother’s name was Mir′ yâm. He had twelve followers. He tought in the Jewish batei-haknesset (synagogues). Thousands of Jews were interested in His Torah-teachings. Some Jews who didn’t practice Judaism where threatened. They decided to crucify him. So they did – together with the Romans. His followers were called Netzarim (meaning offshoots [of a olive tree]) and they continued to pray with the other Jews in the synagogues.
Christianity does not teach the teachings of Ribi Yehoshua. Ribi Yehoshuas teachings were pro-Torah; Christianity is anti-Torah.
If you want to learn more click at our website http://www.netzarim.co.il — than click at the lick “Christians”
Anders Branderud
Follower of Ribi Yehoshua in Orthodox Judaism
@Anders: I’m trying to figure out if you are joking, or if you’re actually serious. If you’re serious, then it seems you’ve exchanged a lie for a farce.
I would like to recommend “The End Of Biblical Studies” by Dr. Hector Avalos. It is not specifically about the history like the name implies but it permeates the whole book and he is a joy to read, come to think of it I would like to recommend all of Dr. Avalos’ books.
@Oskar: I’ve heard many people recommend Avalos, but haven’t found a copy at any local libraries yet. I might have to actually buy it at this rate…
@Daniel: It is well worth it, I for one took paines to order it from Amazon to ship to Iceland of all places but it was worth every penny. Also I was fortunate to exchange correspondents with Dr. Avalos on the comment sections on PZ Myers’ blog.
IIMB.org is your friend. They have a list of books here.
http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=43947
Hey there Daniel–
Enjoy your site. I found you via Pharyngula.
I found this book very interesting:
JESUS FOR THE NONRELIGIOUS, by John Shelby Spong, Harper Collins, 2007, NY
Spong is an Episcopal bishop, which makes the subject of his investigation and his conclusions sound a bit blasphemous, as well as fascinating to read.
Using the Bible as his primary reference, both OT and NT, Spong demonstrates how the historical Jesus was not born in Bethlehem, of a virgin, attended to by magi. There was no census, flight to Egypt, or Joseph. There were not twelve apostles, no miracles whatsoever, no Gethsemane, betrayal, Pontius Pilot/Barabbas scene, passion, crucifixtion scene (he was crucified but without witnesses Mary or disciples), resurrection, or ascension. There was no blood sacrifice for our supposed Original Sin.
Kinda heady stuff for this old atheist. Check it out.
David
Hi Daniel, thanks for the recommendation. I found “The Jesus Mysteries” to be way over the top in terms of style (every sentence seems to have an exclamation mark) but it was my first realisation of the innaccuracies of the Bible and the problem of authourship. Its main thesis of course is that the early Christians simply lifted most of their material for Jesus from the contemporary pagan religions, which were cults of Dionysus.
I highly recommend The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan. I also recommend his Bible Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment?
I’d recommend Karen Armstrong’s “The Bible, the biography”. I read it recently and enjoyed it.
Hello, by the way: I’m another ex-evangelical ex-Christian. There seem to be a lot of us about.
@Everyone: Thanks for all your input. Great suggestions.
@Paul: Greetings! Hope you’ll stick around and continue to contribute.
I’ve just finished Karen Armstrong’s The Bible (ISBN 1843543974) and Robin Lane Fox’s Unauthorized Version (0141022965), both of which I highly recommend. Armstrong is easy to read and has a lot of interesting stuff on the interpretation of the Bible over the years, right up to modern times, and Robin Lane Fox is one of the best historians around.
Keep an eye out also for Richard Carrier’s book on the historicity of Jesus, due out sometime next year.
A good book about the modern scholarship on the Old Testament is James Kugel’s How to Read the Bible. Highly recommended.
It contrasts the current scholarship vs the ancient interpretations of these texts and the difference is quite revealing. Though Kugel is an orthodox Jew, this book is about as powerful a blow against the traditional church-going views of the bible as any of the pro-atheism books out there. Fascinating what archeology, anthropology, textual criticism, linguistics, and history have lent to biblical studies since the Enlightenment. Too bad it hasn’t made its way to most pews yet.
Along the lines of Bart Ehrman, but far more radical, is Robert M. Price. His work, “The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man,” attempts to show how all the stories about Jesus found in the Bible might be nothing more than reworkings of earlier stories found in Jewish tradition. Along with people like Earl Doherty, Price is a proponent of the Jesus myth hypothesis.
His works can be hard to find, since he’s neither famous nor mainstream. Luckily, he’s everywhere on the net these days. His website, along with a number of his essays, is at: http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/
He’s also been interviewed a number of times on the Point of Inquiry podcast as well as having his own “Bible Geek” cast.
Ideally, academic disciplines should look at the available evidence and infer what is. Too often, they decide on a conclusion or point of view and then marshal the evidence that seems to confirm it. One area where this bass ackwards approach has been endemic is in biblical archeology. I’ve seen examples where a difference of a few hundred years doesn’t matter to them. Or since a possible fake (James ossuary, Jehoash inscription) supports their view, they automatically dismiss anyone who questions the validity of the artifact. And there are those who gouge through a site tossing away Canaanite or other artifacts, since they are only interested in Judah/Israel.
I’ve enjoyed reading “The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts” by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein.
They explore the areas where previous archeologists have been too eager to support the biblical view, and they give a more rational analysis of the data and the lack thereof. They find no support for or the existence of Abraham, or any of the Patriarchs, Moses and the Exodus or the whole period of Judges or for the united monarchy of David and Solomon.
They look at earlier work and show why they think the conclusions are flawed. They cover the old testament period. It is a thick book, but I found it to be easy to read and to understand.
You should listen to Ehrmen in a debate sometime. He practically renigs everything he says in his books, while not changing is foundational convictions. I think it’s pretty clear that Ehrmen’s change in beliefs was not ultimately ‘rational’ (which is not wrong, in my book, but I’m sure it is in yours) but ‘emotional’ in nature.
The single most balanced, and honest book I’ve ever found on the Bible – if that’s what you’re ACTUALLY looking for – is The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide by Gerd Theissen & Annette Merz. The next best may be N.T. Wright’s huge set of books, or The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders. Balanced, well ‘reasoned’, history… I think you’ll appreciate it.
I highly recommend Hyam Maccoby’s “The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity” (1986). The copy I have was published by Barnes & Noble by arrangement with a subsidiary of Harper Collins. I’ll be reading several of the titles listed here in the near future to see how they compare.
The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason (Charles Freeman) is more of a history of the early Church, but it includes history of the Bible.
This isn’t really a history of the bible, but John Shelby Spong’s books are a great analysis of the bible in a way that you never hear from evangelicals.