The Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 2: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation

The Cambridge History of the Bible #2

by G.W.H. Lampe (Editor)

The Cambridge History treats the Bible as a central document of Western civilization, a source of exegesis and of doctrine, an influence on education, on the growth of scholarship, on art and literature, as well as on the liturgy and the life of the Christian church and its members. This volume commences the study of the Bible in the West. It begins with Jerome and the Fathers and goes on to the time of Erasmus. Introductory chapters look back and rapidly survey the growth of the biblical canon in the pre-Christian period and the early church, and early Christian book-production. The central portion of the volume discusses exposition and exegesis of the in the hands of the Fathers, in the Medieval Schools, in the Liturgy and in the tradition of medieval Jewish scholarship. The permeation of European culture by the Scriptures is illustrated by themes in art and manuscript illustration, and by separate sections on each of the main vernacular languages, giving special attention to English. Each chapter is written by a scholar and expert on the subject, who summarizes existing knowledge and, in many cases, advances it by reporting his own research.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Reference, Biblical Studies

628 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1969

Reviews

[Brandon Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this volume does well as the second part of the CHB (see my rev. of vol. 1 here). Although the first several chapter sections reiterate some of the content from volume 1 (overlap due to planning--as volume 1 was the last published), it provides an exemplary overview of the necessary issues related to the Bible in the Middle Ages. Indeed, as a single volume, this is a work with which every medievalist should be familiar, since it provides the outlines of the role of the Bible across the most relevant periods and subjects.

Beginning with the Vulgate, Raphael Loewe's work moves beyond overviews about Jerome himself and offers a summary of the textual traditions, problems, and scholarship associated with them. The complex web of transmissions is distilled not only in a grand chart (103-5) but also in an accessible prose history, offering details on the most important highlights and key points. Similarly, the contributors to the other sections also present excellent introductions to the topics discussed. Again, as with volume one, the authority and quality of scholarship in the CHB is one of its major positive characteristics.

Of course, also as with the first volume, this volume is also now in need of revision based on several decades of work. For example, Dom Jen Leclerq's discussion of early medieval exegesis soars quickly over much of the period, touching down briefly on key figures such as Gregory Isidore, Bede, Alcuin, and a handful of Carolingian authors. While this is understandable in an overview, over the past few generations of scholarship, work on anonymous exegesis has shown much more than a dearth of biblical study (beyond the "masters") in this time period that needs to be reconciled with the rest in any honest account. Furthermore, the view of medieval scholasticism still largely rests on the work of Beryl Smalley (who wrote the section on "The Bible in the Medieval Schools"), although recent studies have delved deeper, brought new issues to the fore, and there is still much more to be said and examined beyond these findings.

In reference to my own personal interests in the Bible in English literature, there is obviously room for further comment on Old English. For the most part, Geoffrey Shepherd takes the traditional approach and confines his discussion to Old English poetry, with a brief look at Aelfric and the West Saxon Gospels for good measure. Yet this ignores the wealth of English biblical translations in vernacular homilies and prose works, and thus grants only a glimpse of the overall picture in Anglo-Saxon England. Similarly, the same may be said for the Middle English period, where most emphasis is placed on general statements about the use of the Bible in the Ormulum, North & South Homily cycles, Cursor mundi, and Richard Rolle. Again, this leaves out many poetic and homiletic works that do make liberal use of biblical translations--all for the sake of moving toward Wyclif. I have, of course, pointed this trend out in several other works (e.g. by David Daniell, Benson Bobrick, and David Norton); such trends, therefore, are in need of revising for the next generation of scholars. (On the positive side, Shepherd does take some time (a few paragraphs) to mention the use of apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon materials, and this is at least an opening for such work.)

Despite the drawbacks--and these are mainly issues due to the boom in scholarship on these topics since 1970--this book remains a key reference for medievalists, and rightly so.

[Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful work for reference and review. Some important conclusions can be drawn about Bible transmission. For example, page 344 brings out a point that one should not separate the political context from some Bible translations, such as the Gothic Bible. I was not aware of the early church scholar, Jerome, and his extreme devotion to the Scriptures as detailed around page 100. His belief that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ is a very important point to understand about him. In any event, this is a worthwhile read as long as you keep in mind the obsession with German theology of the Enlightenment and the so-called science of textual criticism, the two worst sins of modernism, that wafts from every chapter like a cesspool badly in need of draining. Still, this is an important work, a must read for students of Bible transmission and interpretation through the ages.