Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

John Barton

4.11 · Rating details · 541 ratings · 104 reviews

A uniquely ambitious study of the Bible's creation: how it came to be written, how its contents were selected - and how it really relates to the religions that endorse it

The Bible is the central book in Western culture, yet extraordinarily there is no proper history of it. This exceptional work, by one of the world's leading Biblical scholars, provides a full account of ho ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 512 pages

Published April 4th 2019 by Allen Lane

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about A History of the Bible, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about A History of the Bible

Lists with This Book

Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai

The Spirit of Science Fiction by Roberto Bolaño

A Fool's Calendar: Forthcoming for 2019

19 books — 4 voters

Popsugar 2021 #36 - A Book with Fewer than 1000 Reviews

323 books — 103 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.11 ·

Rating details

· 541 ratings · 104 reviews

Sort order

Start your review of A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

May 26, 2019 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it

Shelves: godreads

THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR FUNDAMENTALISTS

There is not, and can never be, a text of “the New Testament” as it left the hands of Paul, Luke or John: we have only variants. The implications of this for theories of the inspiration and authority of the New Testament have scarcely begun to be worked out. Where the words of Jesus are concerned, for example, we often know only roughly what he is supposed to have said (and whether he really said it is of course yet a further question).

No, this was not written THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR FUNDAMENTALISTS

There is not, and can never be, a text of “the New Testament” as it left the hands of Paul, Luke or John: we have only variants. The implications of this for theories of the inspiration and authority of the New Testament have scarcely begun to be worked out. Where the words of Jesus are concerned, for example, we often know only roughly what he is supposed to have said (and whether he really said it is of course yet a further question).

No, this was not written by a New Atheist, but by a church of England priest (since 1973) who was also Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture (a great title, you will agree) at Oxford University for 13 years.

John Barton is a great calm steady hand on the tiller as he guides you through the vast torrents of thinking within and without that bizarre wondrous collection of ancient texts we call the Bible. Like the World’s Strongest Man dragging a tractor across a field with his teeth, he shifts mountains of congealed thought aside with each paragraph. He has the breathtaking intellectual confidence to summarise the Bible into four handy bullet points.

THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF THE BIBLE

The Christians came along and hotrodded the existing Bible, which was the Old Testament, of course, but it wasn’t thought of as Old (although it was old) because at that point there wasn’t a New. I should say that hotrodded is my word, not Professor Barton’s, but that’s essentially what happened. The Jews considered their scriptures to be all about them and their exclusive deal with God, but the Christians said no, no, and with the hi-torque retooled engine of Jesus and the rocket fuel of the Holy Spirit they said this thing is not just for the Jews, this is for the whole world, and the story so far can be summarized like this :

1. Creation
2. The fall into sin (Adam’s disobedience)
3. Individual salvation from sin through Christ (the second Adam’s obedience)
4. End of the world and final judgement (date TBC)

The Jewish meaning is completely different – there was no disaster and rescue, no fall, Adam is marginal, Abraham is central, and there is no individual “salvation” – the Jews would have been mystified by the concept. Instead of all that, the Bible is “about how to live a faithful life in the ups and downs of the ongoing history of the people of Israel”. That’s all, and that was enough. So, the Hebrew scriptures may be shared between the two religions, but the interpretation is completely different.

I would like to expatiate on the way that St Paul came along and re-programmed the tiny little Jewish sect that was the Christians after the death of Jesus and changed it completely from being about what Jesus said and did (he was a moral revolutionary) to being about what he was (the mystical Son of God, the Saviour). And also to mention how long it took to assemble the Christian part of the Bible (and quote John Barton about how Da Vinci Code type conspiracies were always just what they seemed, mildly entertaining fantasies). But that would make this review too long even for me to get to the end of. ...more

flag 53 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2019 Ionia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an absolutely fascinating book for anyone who has an interest in the Bible, regardless of whether you are specifically religious or not. This is a longer book with a lot of information in it, so I suggest reading it in smaller chunks, so you can truly appreciate all of the nuances.

The Bible, as most people are no doubt already aware, has been through many changes over the years, being adapted and translated for different languages and cultures and updated by various scribes either accid ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Jun 04, 2020 Eric Anderson rated it really liked it

I don’t often read much nonfiction so I always look forward to following the Wolfson History Prize each year for guidance of what biographical or historical books I should catch up on. Last year I read Matthew Sturgis’ excellent biography of Oscar Wilde but this year I thought I’d challenge myself a bit more by reading priest and Oxford scholar John Barton’s much-acclaimed “A History of the Bible”. Firstly, I must declare that although I was raised with regular Sunday trips to a Lutheran church ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2020 Nick Imrie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: religion-judaism, non-fiction, religion, religion-christian, history

One might expect a book about the history of a book to be a bit dry and academic, but Barton has done an excellent job of making a fascinatingly readable narrative, and there were many pleasurable little moments where I learnt something new and unexpected. Making a few thousand years of facts into a narrative entails leaving a lot out, this was done well enough that by the end I was both satisfied and still interested in following up on the rest (yes, for those of you who find this sort of thing One might expect a book about the history of a book to be a bit dry and academic, but Barton has done an excellent job of making a fascinatingly readable narrative, and there were many pleasurable little moments where I learnt something new and unexpected. Making a few thousand years of facts into a narrative entails leaving a lot out, this was done well enough that by the end I was both satisfied and still interested in following up on the rest (yes, for those of you who find this sort of thing fun, there is an excellent bibliography at the end). A good example of this might be Barton summarising the academic research on who wrote the Pentateuch, without going into too much detail about how and why they deduced that this part was from P (the priestly source) or J (the one that calls God Jahwe) or E (the one that calls god Elohim) or D (because Deuteronomy just seems very different).

The tone is moderate and erudite, as befits an Anglican, which was naturally a huge disappointment to the conspiracy theorist in me. Barton gently dismisses the wilder theories about early Christians, Gnostics, and patriarchs compiling biblical books for their own political ends. The books that make up the New Testament are largely the ones that the Christian community had been using for generations and there's little evidence that the excluded books were widly used or highly regarded. Likewise, he is very tactful around the Christian tradition of supersessionism: the idea that Christianity is an improvement on Judaism, and I learnt a lot about how the bible is viewed and used from a Jewish perspective.

Perhaps less pleasingly to Christians and Jews, he is ready to acknowledge how archaeology undermines much of the bible, like the narrative of Exodus with the slavery in Egypt and the conquering of the Canaanites, but even then he approaches it sympathetically:

So all Israel later celebrated the Passover and rejoiced in the deliverance from Egypt that Passover commemorates, even though many were the offspring of people who had never actually been there. Nation-building often involves the extension to all of folk-memories that originally affected only a few - much as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, even though the majority are not the descendants of those who first did so, and indeed the historical background of most Americans follows a different trajectory.

It's a fairly large book, too large for this review to do justice to everything that I learnt from in, but some parts that have stuck with me:

Reading the bible in English one knows that the translation may not be perfect, but it had never really hit me that Jesus taught in Aramaic, yet all the gospels are in Greek, so we actually have no sources of what he said precisely, everything we have is a translation.
The early Christians treated the gospels much more like historical documents than holy texts - they were eyewitness accounts written by men, kept in codices not scrolls - so I feel very affirmed in my prejudice against people who try to end all disputes with single line bible quotes.

I was mildly amused to read of the early Christians going to such lengths to show that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament to justify their faith to a largely Jewish audience - a few centuries later they were using very similar arguments to justify the Old Testament to a largely Christian audience.

I have a much better understanding of the divergence between the ways that Christians and Jews read the bible. The Christian narrative is one of fall and redemption, with Adam and Eve and Jesus being important characters, while the Jewish narratie is one 'the ups and downs' of the people of Israel with Abraham and Moses playing far larger roles. Likewise, both Christians and Jews try to interpret in line with their current beliefs, even when they are not very well supported by the text, with Christians inclining to read things as allegories or prophecies (even when it seems like they're stretching it) and Jews tending to draw parallels between individual passages that share verbal similarity, regardless of any other lack of connection, treating it almost like a cryptic crossword waiting to be deciphered.

Many thanks to netgalley for this book - I had signed up to netgalley hoping for free reads, but this is such an interesting and informative book that I suspect I'll probably be buying a hard copy for my next reread! ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Aug 05, 2019 Alison rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, religion

The reviews for this book have been uniformly, firmly, positive, which is a shame, in some ways, because my expectations were far higher than the book met and now I have to try to work out whether that is the book fault or mine. In the positive column, the History of the Bible is very readable, broad in scope with thorough coverage of all periods, and careful to canvass a wide range of points of view, while having a distinct and stated point-of-view of its own. On the critical side, it's approac The reviews for this book have been uniformly, firmly, positive, which is a shame, in some ways, because my expectations were far higher than the book met and now I have to try to work out whether that is the book fault or mine. In the positive column, the History of the Bible is very readable, broad in scope with thorough coverage of all periods, and careful to canvass a wide range of points of view, while having a distinct and stated point-of-view of its own. On the critical side, it's approachability is a undermined by the length (Amazon's expected reading time is 17 hours, high for 600 pages), some key things are covered scantly and/or later than would be useful, and there is a high ratio of negative (Debunking) arguments to positive (this is what might have happened), which is always, if worthy, a little less interesting to read.
The latter two issues have left me wanting to know more, and I did use the excellent biographical section at the end to add several books to my wishlist. Stimulating appetite is definitely part of the point of a generalist book on a topic. However, I did still find it frustrating that the issues around the construction of the Septuagint - to what extent it innovated and why - were not covered in detail until the final substantive chapter of the book, and then still as an afterthought. Barton is at his most influential in explaining how analyses had led to conclusions around when each section of our current Bible was written, and how the part might have been transmitted. He is weaker, however, when looking at how narratives were edited and compiled into the canon. For example, given that Barton regards the Septuagint as representative of Jewish canon "When the Septuagint diverges seriously from the Hebrew we know, it is, therefore, a reasonable hypothesis that a Hebrew text existed that corresponded to the Greek….", some earlier discussion about some of the challenges to that view would have enriched the early part of the book, allowing for a better understanding of the myriad of possibilities for how the Tanakh developed, and how exile affected it. Similarly while Barton points out that most alternate gospels are, well, gnostic, written later than the synoptic gospels, and weren't necessarily widely circulating, he doesn't really articulate a vision for how come three gospels, designed to be standalone, came to be centralised and were the only three that lasted and became authoritative. I will freely point out I have no expertise in this space (and no horse in the race either), but I came away confused on lots of elements of this process.
The book is very Anglican*, which is to be expected really, and many of its strengths and weaknesses are also those of the CoE (great scholarship, extreme inclusivity, and a tendency towards the longwinded). It reminded me that there are intellectual ways of reconciling things I find irreconcilable. Barton summarises his way of reconciling the history with faith in recent tenets with:

"I want to suggest a metaphor that can help to illuminate the relation between the Bible and what Christians believe and do. We could conceive of the Christian faith and the Bible as two intersecting circles. There are matters in the Bible that scarcely bear on Christian faith at all, and which make trouble if Christians assume they must do so: the curses in the Psalms, Joshua’s battles with the Canaanites, Paul’s more intemperate outbursts against his converts and against Judaism as he knew it, the vindictive prophecies in Revelation, many of the laws in Leviticus. Similarly, there are matters in Christian faith that are only very faintly, or even not at all, represented in the Bible: the doctrine of the Trinity, the way the Church is to be organized, the creation of the world out of nothing, the meaning of Christ’s death, the idea that after his death he descended to the underworld."

As an atheist raised in the Anglican church, with many Anglican friends, I found it a reminder of how much the Church has to give. I still want to read something else, though.

*No I don't mean Episcopalian. There is an Englishness in the mix here. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Aug 26, 2019 Sherry Sharpnack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

John Barton, an Oxford theologian and ordained Anglican priest, wrote this new, EXHAUSTIVE “History of the Bible.” I learned SO MUCH about the history of the authorship of various Biblical books and that most were not written by the authors traditionally credited, nor even in the time periods that are traditionally assigned.

HOW were the books in the Bible chosen for inclusion? Mostly—they weren’t. They just became accepted as scripture. OK then, why were some writings left out (eg the “Apocryph ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2019 Heidi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: wish-list, nonficton, christianity, religion, lit-crit, history, judaism

I learned so much from this book. Growing up in a fundamentalist church, Biblical criticism was totally frowned upon. I was taught to believe the literal 7-day creation, that everything in the Bible was historic fact, and my understanding of "divine inspiration" was some guy in a room transcribing as God narrated. Over time, I grew to have a more nuanced understanding of Christianity, but nobody ever clearly explained to me where we got the Bible from, what we actually know about it, or even wha ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2020 Michael Cayley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: religion

Be warned: this book will upset fundamentalists.

This is a fascinating book about the evolution of the Bible, the way it has been interpreted over the centuries both in Judaism and in Christianity, and how it has been translated. Explanations are clear, and no specialist knowledge is required of the reader. I see two key themes in the book.

First, the text and contents of the Bible as Judaism and Christianity now know it were fluid until much later than most believers realise.

Second, the way leadi ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2020 Reading Funk rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This exhaustive look is epic in scope. The best thing about it was that it was interesting and fun , rather than informative but dull. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a broad understanding of the Bible.
John Barton knows his stuff. Looking forward to the Oxford commentary !!

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2020 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bible, nonfiction, religion

Man oh man, this one was a worthy foe. It took me about three weeks to read it. I ducked in and out, taking on one or two chapters at a time, and finally vanquished it today. This is a long, highly academic book about the history of the Bible, but it is well written, engaging, and interesting so it was a pleasure to read...in manageable bites.

What can I say about the Bible that I haven't already written? It is a mystery. It is a mess. It is inspired. It is man-made. It is confusing. It is enlig Man oh man, this one was a worthy foe. It took me about three weeks to read it. I ducked in and out, taking on one or two chapters at a time, and finally vanquished it today. This is a long, highly academic book about the history of the Bible, but it is well written, engaging, and interesting so it was a pleasure to read...in manageable bites.

What can I say about the Bible that I haven't already written? It is a mystery. It is a mess. It is inspired. It is man-made. It is confusing. It is enlightening. It is maddening. It is wonderful. It is the only book I have ever read that moves. It changes. It's never the same twice. I am not saying that metaphorically: the damn thing breathes. (So I guess I am saying it metaphorically).

Here's a quote I liked, from pg. 473: "Psalms do not lay down the law and proverbs do not make concrete predictions; the passion narratives in the Gospels do not prescribe doctrine, and Paul's letters, prompted by particular issues in the early Church, do not lay down rules for all time." We know so little about who wrote these books. We know how much has been changed and interpreted in their writing, and in their codification. We think we know the context in which they were written, and we struggle to accept the contexts in which they were, and are, interpreted. St. Francis and the prosperity gospel? The Klu Klux Klan and the Catholic Worker Movement? The bolstering of human slavery along with the inspiration for ending slavery? Writing Bible verses on bullets and reciting Bible verses while turning guns into gardening tools? It's all there, my friends.

So how to you read this slippery, cosmic, trippy old book of poems and histories and stories and aphorisms, songs and prayers and exhortations and prophecies? Literally? Metaphorically? Critically? Allegorically? Has it spoken, or does it still speak (with a hat-tip to my UCC friends)? Do we even dare to say that we know what it all means? To the Jews? To the Christians? To the Muslims? To the secular? To Westerners? To those in the developing world? In what language? In what variant of that language?

Not easy questions.

At the end of this long, enjoyable, but challenging reading about the history of the Bible, I can say this unequivocally: the Bible speaks to me. Me, and many millions and millions of others. What it says changes and morphs and slips and slides around, sinuous, like some kind of moving literary fractal, but its power and presence are real. Rudolph Von Otto spoke about the numinous, and the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, and I think that those words and ideas begin to approach what the Bible is and does. It is something beyond reason that causes us to tremble even as it fascinates us. It is awesome in the old fashioned sense of the word: it inspires awe.

So saith me, brethren. So saith me. Thus spake Michael. Heareth and be glad. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 13, 2019 Alisa Wilhelm rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, non-fiction, religion, christianity

Absolutely fascinating. Will 100% be reading this again and I may need to buy a hard copy.

This is a thorough history of how the Bible came to exist in its current form. It explains the history of the existence of each book of the Bible (far more interesting than you might suppose). It also gets into big picture differences between Jewish and Christian interpretations and some of the finer details about how seemingly opposite sectarian interpretations of the same text can exist. The final part o ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 19, 2020 Connor rated it liked it

A Missed Opportunity

I had high hopes for this book. Barton is an authority on scripture and its interpretation. I had looked forward to him detailing the history of the Bible. This history, I believed, would be about its formation, its preservation in the face of persecution, its transmission from a corner of the middle east to the entire globe from one language to many. Barton did not take the reader on this journey; in fact, it is unclear on which journey the reader was taken. On page 476, he A Missed Opportunity

I had high hopes for this book. Barton is an authority on scripture and its interpretation. I had looked forward to him detailing the history of the Bible. This history, I believed, would be about its formation, its preservation in the face of persecution, its transmission from a corner of the middle east to the entire globe from one language to many. Barton did not take the reader on this journey; in fact, it is unclear on which journey the reader was taken. On page 476, he notes that "my main purpose has been to explain how the Bible came into existence and how it has been understood through the ages, and how we might think about its elements today". It appears that he wrote, not the history of the Bible, but the History of the Interpretation of the Bible. These are two very different subjects.

The history that Barton outlines seems to focus primarily on things we do not know. For example, why Biblical scholars believe the book of Mark was the first of the gospels, and that Luke and Matthew may have used Mark (and/or a hypothetical alternative source named ‘Q’) to form their own accounts. Although interesting, much of this is speculation and may never be known.

A far more compelling read would be one which outlined what is known about the Bible’s history: the council of Nicaea, the council of Trent, the council of Chalcedon, the Christianisation of the West through the conversion of Constantine (this occupies a mere paragraph in the entire book), the Christianisation of the world through European empires and missionaries, its translation. This is the Bible that has shaped the world. Barton should have traced the Bible’s journey as a book rather than how people interpret it. Instead, he focuses on the minutiae and nuances of the interpretations of ancient scholars and interpretive schools through time.

He is an eloquent speaker and writer but does not use these attributes to create a clearer understanding in the reader. His writing style is very ‘university’. When Barton does mention the above councils and history of the Bible as a book, it is written as assumed knowledge. He presumes you are intimately acquainted with the council of Trent or Nicaea. It may be argued that this encourages the reader to want to learn more. This would be true if Barton wrote with a reader in mind. Rather than draw the reader in by telling them a story, setting the scene, and providing context of an individual or council decision, Barton simply provides their date of birth-death or date of event. References are made to scholars without sufficient context; it is therefore unclear whether I should care or respect their conclusions. Diagrams can be a fantastic way of communicating information and can penetrate the mind more deeply than words alone. Yet there were very few graphs, maps or timelines used. This can certainly be alienating for a wider audience.
One small pet peeve was Barton glossing over the chaptering and versing of the Bible. There is no adequate explanation of why this might have been done (pp.362-363). He does not elaborate beyond who. This would have been an interesting opportunity to outline what logic there was behind the numbering of verses, how this effects the reader (e.g. the tendency to extract individual verses away from their context).

Unfortunately, this book can feel like an essay where the student misunderstands the question and answers what they believe the question to be. The History of the Bible discusses:
- Contents
- Formation
- Interpretation
- Translation

It should have outlined:
- Formation (how the books came to be in the Bible, not how they may have been written)
- Preservation (in the face of persecution)
- Transmission (how the Bible spread to the world)
- Conclusion (perhaps hypothesising the future of the Bible as a book)

If anyone knows of a book that discusses the subjects I wish this book had discussed, please let me know. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 22, 2020 William rated it really liked it

Shelves: british, history, 21st-century, religion

An interesting book which examines the Bible and its relation to both Judaism and Christianity in a number of ways: by who and when it was written, how it was understood by contemporaries, when certain of its books became scripture, when they were assembled and became a closed canon, how it was transmitted and produced, its various translations. Barton points out that many of these questions are fraught. Believers like to favour earlier datings, disbelievers later ones.

What I found most fascina An interesting book which examines the Bible and its relation to both Judaism and Christianity in a number of ways: by who and when it was written, how it was understood by contemporaries, when certain of its books became scripture, when they were assembled and became a closed canon, how it was transmitted and produced, its various translations. Barton points out that many of these questions are fraught. Believers like to favour earlier datings, disbelievers later ones.

What I found most fascinating was Barton's treatment of the Old Testament. It is often called a book which both faiths have in common, but Barton demonstrates just how different it becomes in light of Christian interpretation. I was struck by my own assumptions of its meanings. Interpretations which to me - someone for whom Christianity has been quite peripheral -seem to be inherent and obvious are revealed to be the result of Christian hermeneutics which sees the all the Old Testament as prefiguring the events of the New.

The tension between Old and New can be extended to such heretical extremes as Marcionism, which taught that the there were two separate Gods, a Jewish and a Christian, and that the former was an evil from which the latter had delivered us. Heretical as this was deemed, it is not an entirely absurd conclusion to draw from the Bible. The fact that more Christians do not believe this demonstrates the importance of Church Tradition - the elements of Christianity which strictly speaking are not found in the Bible but which form part of the Christian hermeneutic. One manifestation of this is the ordering of the books of the Old Testament. Christians place Malachi at the end, in which the people are scolded and the coming of the Day of the Lord is foretold when the faithful will be exonerated. One can see how this ordering facilitates a Christian interpretation, and how well it transitions into the Gospels.

Not all of it was of it was of equal interest. The chapter on translation was fairly dry, even if it did contain this brilliant quote from William Tyndale's English version: 'The Lord was with Joseph and he was a lucky fellow.'

Overall a fascinating book about a topic of extreme historical importance. Clearly, Barton is not a conservative Christian who maintains the literal truth of scripture, and one suspects in part that he was writing in argument against such people who might benefit from understanding where the Bible came from. Yet I think it is of equal value to atheists, who are too often dismissive of a book full of which has shaped the moral world which they inhabit and take for granted, especially now as liberal secularism seems to be approaching a point of crisis.

Barton concludes the book with his quote from 16th century theologian Richard Hooker:

"...as incredible praises given unto me do often abate and impair the credit of their deserved commendation, so we must likewise take great heed, lest, in attributing unto Scripture more than it can have, the incredibility of that do cause even those things which indeed it hath most abundantly to be less reverently esteemed." ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2020 Dinesh Krithivasan added it

Picked this up because it was shortlisted for the Wolfson prize and boy, was I in for a tough time. I don't see how this is anything close to popular history for the lay reader unless the average (western) audience knows far more about the Bible than I had hitherto imagined. The title claims that it is a book about the history of the Book and that is exactly what the book is - it is a condensation of what I would imagine a graduate in Bible studies would be concerned with. Even seminal character ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2019 Katedurie50 rated it it was amazing

This is a deeply erudite but calmly sane book about a difficult topic. It's quite a tough read at times just because there is so much material, but the actual style is lucid and enjoyable. For anyone with an interest in the Bible, there is much to fascinate and illuminate - the fluidity of the text; the presence of 'forgery'; the different ways in which Jews and Christians read the Hebrew bible; the importance of context in understanding how any text within it is produced, or how it is collected ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 23, 2020 Lauren Hiebner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a massive undertaking by Barton. He talks about the Bible’s remote beginnings in folklore and myths, about how it was received and interpreted through modern times. He points out that the Bible does not directly transition into faith and practice for either Jews and Christians. So his history is the story of the interplay between religion and the Bible. Barton does say that fundamentalists who idolize the Bible largely misunderstand it. Barton analyzes nearly every book in the Bible givi ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2020 Peter A. van Tilburg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religion

Together with two friends I read the book. Barton did a good job to summarize the current scientific knowledge on the bible. He states that both the jewish and christian religion have dogmas which cannot be traced to clear biblical underpinning. He makes this plausible for the topics of the trinity and the church organization but on the basic christian dogmas this is not very clear e.g. creation, concept of sin and death and resurrection of Jesus. I think these can clearly be funded on the bibli ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2020 Lakmus rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Tldr: If you thought the Bible was a piecemeal collection of texts from different authors and time periods, think again. It's way, way, more piecemeal. It also does not perfectly match any of the faiths that rely upon it, so if you are running a religion, don't be stupid and argue for a literal interpretation based on specific wording of things, because it.will.not.work.

Also there's just so many fascinating bits there and thorough scholarship all around (as far as I can tell, having no training ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 14, 2020 Tom rated it really liked it

Thorough to the point of pedantic at times, but overall an insight-filled primer on what we know about the history of the bible, how it was written and the way its message has been interpreted and adapted over time.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2020 Harold rated it it was ok

idk

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 13, 2019 Andrew Pratley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

I have long wanted to read a book on the History of the Bible. I'm glad I waited, until now, since John Barton's excellent book was only published earlier this year. I possess a simple almost childlike faith. For that reason I have not sought to read many religious books or even works like this which are for those who do or do not possess a faith & are simply interested in the history of arguably the world's most influential book.

This History of the Bible is full of fascinating facts & insights ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 28, 2019 William Schram rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, history, religion, criticism

The Bible is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It can be used as guidance and a source of wisdom, you can read it for some kind of entertainment, maybe your specific sect deals with the Bible as though it was directly inspired by God. I don’t really like the Bible as a whole, but there are some good books in there. I especially like Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.

A History of the Bible is a book that focuses on the origins of biblical texts and is an interesting foray into Biblical Analys The Bible is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It can be used as guidance and a source of wisdom, you can read it for some kind of entertainment, maybe your specific sect deals with the Bible as though it was directly inspired by God. I don’t really like the Bible as a whole, but there are some good books in there. I especially like Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.

A History of the Bible is a book that focuses on the origins of biblical texts and is an interesting foray into Biblical Analysis. I have heard of some of these stories before, where the tone of the texts changes drastically even from line to line. The accepted explanation among scholars is that there were several writers who made additions to the texts over a long period of time.

The biggest problem I have with the Bible is that there are people who take it literally. Even if there are different texts that disagree with each other in the Bible, they explain it away by saying that you have to interpret it properly. They have ideas that are unsound scientifically and make no sense. Some biblical books were skipped over in the canon, though some argue that it was not hard to see why.

When I was a child, I went to a Catholic School. I had to go to church every day. We read the Bible and studied stuff related to it. Even back then I wondered if there were other Gospels. Were only those four apostles literate? I had no idea. It was a while later that I had heard that the Gospels weren’t even written at the same time. The fact that the Bible was written so long ago can be nice in one sense, but it leaves time for doubt to be instilled. How many books of the Bible were skipped over? Why were they skipped over? This book does a good job of answering my snarky questions.

Take the Ten Commandments and the rules that follow it. The author states that it is evidence that they were not nomadic when these laws were formulated. A lot of the laws deal with having a home and other property. Many things are implied in these lines. In that sense, the book is fascinating. I don’t usually analyze books that I read to the extent that a scholar would but there are some books that require it.

Eventually, the author runs out of books of the bible to discuss and begins to talk about the relationship between the Bible and the people that use it. Eventually with people like Baruch Spinoza there began to be doubt of miracles and events where God had a direct effect. It discusses the translations and the issues with people inserting their own political ideals or believing that the way God intended the Bible to be read is in the King’s English of the King James Version. Yeah, could you imagine having to be able to read English just so you could understand the Bible? That would be terrible. I admit that English is my Mother Tongue, but even I know that there are terrible aspects of English that make little to no sense whatsoever.

In any case, this book is enthralling. It isn’t really enchanting, but it is quite informative and interesting. For example, a lot of ideas that people take for granted today were considered really radical at the time. One instance is that of the Gospels having different tones, even though they all tell the story of Jesus Christ. Mark is considered the oldest one and has a more human Jesus. Matthew is a retelling of the Gospel of Mark. Luke goes off into a slightly different direction with more parables, and John is a strange outlier.

I had no issues with this book. Even with its length, a large portion of that is devoted to notes and the index. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 02, 2019 Nick Spencer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

thorough, balanced, well-written, flows well, measured

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2019 Jeffrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

At the end of his learned book Mr. Barton includes a convenient guide to further reading in which he qualitatively describes 188 related works of scholarship, using discriminating terms such as “a classic work”, “an invaluable source”, and “a thorough treatment” ; a distillative effort, upon which future students are sure to alight, that cannot but help to reflexively cast one’s attention towards his 389 bibliographic citations and 572 end notes. A generosity of praise equivalent to that which M ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 17, 2019 Sean rated it it was ok

Shelves: history

This was a hard book to get thought because while the bible is interesting and its history if fascinating .. This book was a bit too academic for me. So unless you are interested in theology would give it a miss.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 29, 2019 Robert Muir rated it liked it · review of another edition

A piece of work that became increasingly difficult to wade through and one I might have set aside, unfinished, if I did not have an extreme reluctance to give up on any book without reading it through. And while I'm not a devout Christian, (agnostic may apply) neither am I an atheist. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2020 Jan Crackfeed rated it liked it

Recently I read the main books of scripture in the monotheistic religions (Torah, Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament, New Testament and the Qur'an)
I am not at all religious and was intrigued by their central role to much of human history. While reading them, I continually wondered about their... 'authenticity' and so turned to this book to understand the actual, factual history behind them. Is there any truth behind Christianity's professed origins, or are churches founded on baseless claims? Recently I read the main books of scripture in the monotheistic religions (Torah, Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament, New Testament and the Qur'an)
I am not at all religious and was intrigued by their central role to much of human history. While reading them, I continually wondered about their... 'authenticity' and so turned to this book to understand the actual, factual history behind them. Is there any truth behind Christianity's professed origins, or are churches founded on baseless claims? Where does the Bible border these two possibilities?
Barton is an Anglican Priest but does not presume his readers to be religious - a very good thing. In fact he himself sounds agnostic, if not an atheist, as the author.
The book is a tremendous amount of work, to be celebrated and congratulated. The academic scope for a single book really is very impressive. But there is a sense that Barton imagines all the conservative Christians criticising his work as soon as it was published (and I have no doubt they did/still do) and so spends much of the book fending off their arguments before they arrive at his door. Which really is very admirable, an excellent academic undertaking, but it does lengthen the book a tad.
I was particularly interested in the archaeological evidence, the scientific history (carbon dating etc.) and references to the Bible and/or its purported stories in contemporary (Ancient) sources. All of that is definitely covered, and alongside that Barton delivers a thorough piece of detective work analysing different parts of scripture and demonstrating their incompatability, in so doing Barton provides the evidence for what most modern people believe: that the Bible is not literal, it's stories were, at best, myth based on fact. Again I feel this is to pre-empt conservative Christian criticism. For me, a much shorter demonstration of a few examples of intrabiblical incompatability would have sufficed.

That is why I deducted a star from an otherwise great read - the discussion on scripture itself, rather than the outside world of the Bible and hard evidence for its authorship, is undoubtedly fascinating for anyone of a religious disposition or upbringing - it is actually more my fault for having different expectations of historical theology, rather than Barton's authorship - I have no doubt he succeeded tremendously in delivering the book he wanted to write.

The reason I deduct a second star is twofold:
First, when reading the Qur'an I very much got the sense that Mohammed was illuminating (modernising?) Christianity in much the same wash as Christianity 'illuminated' Judaism. I was disappointed to find little if no reference to this (perhaps I am too ignorant of Islam, but I had thought the Bible relevant to three religions not two. (albeit the third less so than the first two).
Secondly, I found the ending a tad anti-climactic. Throughout the book Barton essentially proves the Bible is nothing more than what it's reader imagines it to be - as a piece of literature or history, as an insight into the Ancient (and subsequently medieval) world, it's fascinating.
But the entire time, because of Barton's own exposition of the Bible's inadequacies, I was hoping for an answer to the question: 'Outside of historical significance, what is the point of the Bible in the modern world?'
I was half-expecting Barton to say he renounced his faith after having studied the Bible's history so well. Again, perhaps I am more at fault (I have no religious background and so perhaps I have missed something).

I make these three points of criticism, but I could make a hundred of praise. The book overwhelmingly succeeds and is a very impressive work.

If you are an atheist, an agnostic or a Christian, you will enjoy this book. Not necessarily from cover to cover, but by reading the chapters that relate to your specific queries about the Bible's authenticity, history and relevance to differing societies and civilisations for over two thousand years.
Barton deserves an immense amount of praise for having written something that might be considered so critical of the core text of his own faith.
...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 14, 2020 Dan rated it it was amazing

I really had a wonderful time reading this one. John Barton, Oxford Theologian and ordained Anglican Priest, managed to write a very thorough, honest history of how the Bible that we have today came to be in it's present form. Or rather, the best guess we have at how it came to be in it's present form. Naturally, there is a still a lot of controvery over many of the details. He managed to do this in a way that felt refreshingly honest, without the circular reasoning of theists (the scriptures ar I really had a wonderful time reading this one. John Barton, Oxford Theologian and ordained Anglican Priest, managed to write a very thorough, honest history of how the Bible that we have today came to be in it's present form. Or rather, the best guess we have at how it came to be in it's present form. Naturally, there is a still a lot of controvery over many of the details. He managed to do this in a way that felt refreshingly honest, without the circular reasoning of theists (the scriptures are the word of God so therefore we can make certain assumptions about how it evolved and because it evolved that way we know it is the word of God…) or the point-and-laugh antics of New Atheists.

A lot of ground is covered so I won't try to go through it all, but there a couple of things I thought were just really cool:

The Pentateuch (or first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Gensis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) is thought to be weaved together from four distinct sources:

The priestly source (P) “marked by ponderous repetition and a tendency to use set formulas” and generally concerned with issues of purity and liturgy. This is thought to derive from the priests of the second temple.
The Deuteronomistic source (D), very overtly concerned with matters of law.
The saga sources, marked by their plain, laconic language and the extent to which God is a bit player in the narrative. There are thought to be two separate sources in the saga style, which you can tell apart because one referes to God as Elohim (E) and the other refers to God as Yaweh (Y)
The four gospels represent two separate traditions. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew,Mark and Luke) are thought to have a commmon lineage, with Mark being the earliest. Matthew and Luke are thought to either be separate works both using Mark as a source or potentially both using a common source called Q (and now lost to history). John came later and in many ways represents a very differnt Christology than the Synoptic gospels.

There is a common misconception that the current canon was winnowed down from a much larger set of texts, but in fact the “official” canonization was mostly a rubber-stamping of what was generally regarded as the set of canonical texts already. And there were unlikely to be any major omissions. The texts that were excluded are generally agreed to be rightly excluded as they were works that came about later than the canonical gospels.

That said, there is much more variance within the canonical texts. There are thought to be numerous additions, deletions and interpolations that resulted from either transcription errors or conscious efforts to align the existing texts with doctrinal orthodoxies that coalesced centuries after the original texts were first put to paper.

Ever wonder what the “Jesus Fish” magnets are all about? In early christian writings, there is a phenomenon we call “Nomina Sacra” (literally “holy names”) in which certain words or phrases are consistently writting in abbreviated form. One such example is the acronym ICHTHUS, or IEOSUS CHRISTOS THEOU UIOS SOTER (“Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour”). ICHTHUS is, of course, also the Greek word for fish.

Reading the Bible in translation gives us a very misleading sense of it's consistency. Since translators generally take great pains adopt a consistent style, their translations often read very much like the work of a single author. The actual texts, in their orginal language on the other hand, vary quite widely in both style and command of the language in which the author is writing. Certain New Testament works are written in a very stylish and competent Greek. Others are quite clearly written by authors with a less than fully fluent grasp of the language, leasing to texts that are in some instances horrendously agrammatical.

There is of course much, much more of interest so do go read the whole thing. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 15, 2021 I. David rated it it was amazing

Highly Informative and Accessible Review of Biblical Theory

Please visit I. David's Blog at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Theories of Biblical history and interpretation can probably fill an entire library. But, in his book, The History of the Bible: The Story of the World’s Most Influential Book, John Barton manages to assemble a wealth of highly insightful Biblical theory into a single volume that is accessible both to readers that are highly knowledgeable and to readers that are les Highly Informative and Accessible Review of Biblical Theory

Please visit I. David's Blog at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Theories of Biblical history and interpretation can probably fill an entire library. But, in his book, The History of the Bible: The Story of the World’s Most Influential Book, John Barton manages to assemble a wealth of highly insightful Biblical theory into a single volume that is accessible both to readers that are highly knowledgeable and to readers that are less knowledgeable on the details of the Bible.

I read this book primarily because I wanted to know more about the Bible, a book that has been so influential to Western culture. I was not disappointed.

Barton begins with discussions of the Old Testament and the New Testament and explains how Christians and Jews differ in their interpretation of each. He then moves on to a comparison of the views of theologians on questions of inclusion or exclusion of specific books in the Bible. Barton then proceeds to an analysis of how theologian interpretation of the Bible has evolved from the early years of the Common Era up through our modern times. And he concludes with a discussion of how closely current religious practices conform to the specific dictates of the Bible.

Throughout the book Barton explores how theologians have wrestled with the following types of issues since ancient times: whether the Bible was written by God, inspired by God or written by man; whether the Bible stories are true or allegorical; who wrote the various books of the Bible; how inconsistencies or contradictions within the Bible can be reconciled; and whether and why the text of the Bible may have been changed over the years by the mistakes of scribes, theologians seeking to impose the own views or translators converting the Bible from one language to another.

The History of the Bible s a very well written and readable explanation of complex and potentially controversial subject matter. And it has inspired (an ironic word as used in this context) me to try to learn more about the Bible as a historical and theological text. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars. ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 26, 2020 Bivin Varghese rated it really liked it

I was little hesitant when I picked up this huge book from one of my nearest bookshops. The book was audaciously packaged with a nice cover page and the blurb was interesting too. I am still quite fascinated by the idea of the formation of bible which made me pick up this book which is dubiously titled ‘A history of the bible’. Marked as the highest sold book ever, Bible is just a great piece of literary work without going further into its spiritual aspects or its authenticity.

The origin of King I was little hesitant when I picked up this huge book from one of my nearest bookshops. The book was audaciously packaged with a nice cover page and the blurb was interesting too. I am still quite fascinated by the idea of the formation of bible which made me pick up this book which is dubiously titled ‘A history of the bible’. Marked as the highest sold book ever, Bible is just a great piece of literary work without going further into its spiritual aspects or its authenticity.

The origin of King James Version of the Bible in the 16th century was a revelation and it is still a literary masterpiece which is used as a reference for all the translations. But even prior to that there were manuscripts and codices from which Bible originally found its origin. Apparently, we are taken into different versions of Bibles which has been serving as a reference for Christianity and Judaism. Author insists the fact that there are variances in different versions of Bible according to the place, language and the sect which it belonged to.

Author makes his direct verified opinions regarding the testaments, books and faiths confining around each books in Bible. Even though there are different contradictions in Bible which doesn’t match up to the way in which it is presented, author sticks to the fact that Bible is not a perfect book but rather an inspirational book which is based on Jesus Christ. Most of the prominent sections of this book gives a huge shout out to the traditional practices between the Judaism and Christianity and their belief system and how they are divided according to their scriptures. The book also goes through the different reformation and protestant movements against the Catholic practices and how the scripture was modified accordingly.

In overall, author has given justice to this book by compiling some astounding facts which may sound creepy at times when mixed with verses in scriptures, but still this one is not to be missed if you are searching for the core of the largest religion in the world. ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

History

96 users

Religion

80 users

Nonfiction

77 users

Religion > Theology

13 users

Religion > Christianity

12 users

Philosophy

11 users

Writing > Books About Books

7 users

Spirituality

6 users

Literature

4 users

Literature > 21st Century

4 users

See top shelves…

About John Barton

John Barton

33 followers

John Barton is Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford. His publications include The Theology of the Book of Amos (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and Oracles of God: Perceptions of Ancient Prophecy in Israel after the Exile (2007).

For the Canadian poet, see John Barton. ...more

Books by John Barton

Reading the Old Testament, Revised and Expanded: Method in Biblical Study

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation

More…

News & Interviews

75 Debut Novels to Discover in 2021

Readers have a lot to look forward to this year! Just feast your eyes upon all of these debut books to check out and emerging authors to...

Trivia About A History of the ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from A History of the ...

“become the New Testament than from the Old, even though they generally do not use citation formulas such as ‘it is written’ with New Testament material.13 Rather than seeing Jesus, known through the Gospels, as a reference point even more important than the Old Testament Scriptures, Christians after Irenaeus started to see the Gospels, the Letters and the Old Testament as all equally authoritative, parts of a unified Holy Bible. ‘Bible’ is in origin a plural – ta biblia in Greek, ‘the books’ – but a sense developed, certainly by the end of the third century, that the books were in reality a single one with many parts. This marked a departure from the earliest Christian perception.” — 1 likes

“penumbra” — 0 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — A History of the Bible by John Barton

A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About John Barton

Books by John Barton

News & Interviews

Trivia About A History of the ...

Quotes from A History of the ...

See a Problem?

Preview — A History of the Bible by John Barton

A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About John Barton

Books by John Barton

News & Interviews

Trivia About A History of the ...

Quotes from A History of the ...

new topic
Discuss This Book