Whose Bible Is It? Formation of the Scriptures…

Posted: November 28th, 2009 | Author: Peter | Filed under: Scripture, Seminary | 9 Comments »

Bit by bit (outside of class reading) I’m enjoying Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures by Jaroslav Pelikan. It gives a narrative account of the development, formation and evolution of Jewish and Christian Holy Text, the transition from oral to written, Hebrew to Greek, and so on…

Pelikan is brilliant and concise. When I was learning ancient Hebrew a few years ago, I became keenly interested in how we got these texts in the first place! This has been the most approachable material on that subject, I’ve found.

“But you don’t have to take my word for it…” (said LeVar Burton)

  • “An engaging and highly readable survey of biblical scholarship that tells a fascinating and complex story.”
    —The Wall Street Journal
  • “A crisp, remarkably succinct history of the Bible as preserved, interpreted, translated and canonized by the various faiths that believe in it.”
    —Los Angeles Times
  • “Outstanding . . . Pelikan takes the reader through the process of scripture building with a fluency and ease that is both accessible and understandable.”
    —Publishers Weekly

9 Comments on “Whose Bible Is It? Formation of the Scriptures…”

  1. 1 Ira said at 9:37 pm on November 28th, 2009:

    Love the Reading Rainbow reference…

  2. 2 anthony said at 12:17 am on November 29th, 2009:

    Thanks for the recommendation. I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon. Hope you get a kickback. Anthony

  3. 3 Peter said at 7:23 am on November 29th, 2009:

    Ha! Hope you enjoy the book!

  4. 4 Peter said at 7:40 am on November 29th, 2009:

    By the way, Ira/Irritable, did you finally come out of the closet of blog anonymity?

  5. 5 Ira said at 9:01 am on November 29th, 2009:

    Actually, no — it's just that my online moniker has slowly evolved into a genuine pseudonym.

  6. 6 Peter said at 11:07 am on November 29th, 2009:

    That's funny ;)

  7. 7 Existential Punk said at 6:42 pm on November 29th, 2009:

    Peter,So this is more accessible than a highly academic book that usually covers this kind of ground? Even i could understand this book? :) Adele

  8. 8 Existential Punk said at 6:22 am on November 30th, 2009:

    i LOVED Karkkainen's book. It was one of my favorites for that class!

  9. 9 Peter said at 11:57 am on November 30th, 2009:

    I don't want to say it's NOT academic. Pelikan is absolutely an academic. But it's 240 pages, and it moves pretty quickly. You read Karkkainen's 'Intro to Ecclesiology' in our McLaren class several years ago. That wasn't bad (I really enjoyed it), and this is more accessible than that. I think you'd be just fine ;)

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