God's Scribes: How the Bible Became the Bible

by Sheldon Gosline

"With a healthy balance of criticism and respect for the subject, this book examines how the Jewish Bible became “The Bible.” It is common to speak of the Bible as “inspired”—a group of mysterious documents miraculously handed down from heaven, absolutely perfect in form, every word, every letter, carrying specifically divine significance, but it was just well edited. This book is an excellent choice for a Bible history or Bible as literature undergraduate course text. Writing in ancient societies performed quite a different function from its modern usage. We must constantly remember that writing for the ancients was preservative rather than creative. The Bible preserves such debate and differences of opinion."

265 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 1999

Reviews

[P. Es]

He wrote several good essays on minimalisms and claims (one on the actual place of historical claims regarding Tanach available here; www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Isbell_h...

With caveats, I like his caveats on asking tanach to be historical in a sense comfy to moderns. what does the text say of itself?

also wrote some great essays on Zoroastrianism and the Bible as well as debates on Minimalism;

Isbell, Charles David. “Zoroastrianism and Biblical Religion.” Jewish Bible Quarterly. Vol. 34:3, (Jul-Sept 2006).

"Minimalism; the Debate Continues Part I" Jewish Bible Quarterly Vol. 32:3 and the additional piece.