A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths | Agenda Bookshop Skip to content
10-20
A01=Dr John Barton
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Dr John Barton
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HRAX
Category=HRCC2
Category=HRCG3
Category=HRCM
Category=HRJS
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
softlaunch

A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

4.08 (1,106 ratings by Goodreads)

English

By (author): Dr John Barton

WINNER OF THE 2019 DUFF COOPER PRIZE
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'With emotional and psychological insight, Barton unlocks this sleeping giant of our culture. In the process, he has produced a masterpiece.' Sunday Times


The Bible is the central book of Western culture. For the two faiths which hold it sacred, it is the bedrock of their religion, a singular authority on what to believe and how to live. For non-believers too, it has a commanding status: it is one of the great works of world literature, woven to an unparalleled degree into our language and thought.

This book tells the story of the Bible, explaining how it came to be constructed and how it has been understood, from its remote beginnings down to the present. John Barton describes how the narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies, poems and letters which comprise the Bible were written and when, what we know - and what we cannot know - about their authors and what they might have meant, as well as how these extraordinarily disparate writings relate to each other. His incisive readings shed new light on even the most familiar passages, exposing not only the sources and traditions behind them, but also the busy hands of the scribes and editors who assembled and reshaped them. Untangling the process by which some texts which were regarded as holy, became canonical and were included, and others didn't, Barton demonstrates that the Bible is not the fixed text it is often perceived to be, but the result of a long and intriguing evolution.

Tracing its dissemination, translation and interpretation in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity to the rise of modern biblical scholarship, Barton elucidates how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and imposed upon it. Part of the book's originality is to illuminate the gap between religion and scripture, the ways in which neither maps exactly onto the other, and how religious thinkers from Augustine to Luther and Spinoza have reckoned with this. Barton shows that if we are to regard the Bible as 'authoritative', it cannot be as believers have so often done in the past.

See more
Current price €17.99
Original price €19.99
Save 10%
10-20A01=Dr John BartonAge Group_UncategorizedAuthor_Dr John Bartonautomatic-updateCategory1=Non-FictionCategory=HRAXCategory=HRCC2Category=HRCG3Category=HRCMCategory=HRJSCOP=United KingdomDelivery_Delivery within 10-20 working daysLanguage_EnglishPA=AvailablePrice_€10 to €20PS=Activesoftlaunch
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
Product Details
  • Weight: 436g
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 26 Mar 2020
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: United Kingdom
  • Language: English
  • ISBN13: 9780141978505

About Dr John Barton

John Barton was the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1991 to 2014 and since 1973 has been a serving priest in the Church of England. He is the author of numerous books on the Bible co-editor of The Oxford Bible Commentary and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2007 and is a Corresponding Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue we'll assume that you are understand this. Learn more
Accept