Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures

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Penguin, 2006 M01 31 - 288 pages
Jaroslav Pelikan, widely regarded as one of the most distinguished historians of our day, now provides a clear and engaging account of the Bible’s journey from oral narrative to Hebrew and Greek text to today’s countless editions. Pelikan explores the evolution of the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic versions and the development of the printing press and its effect on the Reformation, the translation into modern languages, and varying schools of critical scholarship. Whose Bible Is It? is a triumph of scholarship that is also a pleasure to read.

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Contents

ONE The God Who Speaks
7
Two The Truth in Hebrew
27
THREE Moses Speaking Greek
49
Talmud and Continuing
67
FIVE The Law and the Prophets Fulfilled
87
SIX Formation of a Second Testament
99
SEVEN The Peoples of the Book
119
EIGHT Back to the Sources
141
NINE The Bible Only
161
TEN The Canon and the Critics
181
ELEVEN A Message for the Whole Human Race
203
TWELVE The Strange New World Within the Bible
223
Afterword
245
Alternative Canons of the TanakhOld Testament
253
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About the author (2006)

Jaroslav Pelikan is Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His many books include the five-volume The Christian Tradition, Jesus Through the Centuries, and Mary Through the Centuries. He has received the Thomas Jefferson Medal of the National Endowment for the Humanities and an honorary degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as forty-one other honorary degrees.

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