The Bible as Literature: An Introduction Review

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(More customer reviews)It is difficult to separate the literary and religious aspects of the Bible, but the authors' focus is on the book "as literature" and in the space of 357 pages (in my copy of the 4th edition - 432 according to Amazon.com), they cover literary forms and strategies, historical and geographic settings, the major components of the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha and Pseudoepigrapha, and issues concerning the text and its translation. A valuable final chapter considers the religious use and interpretation of the Bible. Although the book is concise, it manages in its 18 chapters and 3 appendices to be comprehensive and is consistently readable. I find the sensible, scientific approach credible and while it frequently causes me to reflect on my religious beliefs, they are not seriously undermined by this liberal approach. I do not know of a better introduction to the Bible.

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To say that the Bible is "literature" is to acknowledge that it was written by real human beings who lived in historical times and who had meanings they sought to convey to real readers.In this exciting new work, Gabel and Wheeler approach the Bible from a literary/historical perspective, offering insights into the literary forms and strategies of Biblical writing, its historical and physical settings, the process of canon formation, the sources of the Pentateuch, and the nature of biblical genres like propohecy, apocalypse, and gospel.The text also considers practical problems in the translation process, and compares a number of English versions.The rigorously neutral scholarship displayed in The Bible as Literature makes the literary art of the Bible accessible to people of all faiths.

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