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.
John Barton was the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1991 to 2014 and since 1973 has been a serving priest in the Church of England. He is the author of numerous books on the Bible, co-editor of The Oxford Bible Commentary and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2007 and is a Corresponding Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Cerebral entertainment of the highest class. This is an absolutely
fascinating book, a staggeringly learned exploration of the origins
of all those Bible stories
*The Sunday Times (Books of the Year)*
A superb overview ... Barton wears his erudition lightly, but even
for those deeply familiar with the Bible there is much here to be
learnt
*Telegraph*
As eminently readable as the best of travelogues, it floods with
light a subject too often regarded by many as a closed book. ... An
extraordinary tour de force
*Sunday Times*
John Barton's magisterial history brings the Good Book splendidly
back to life ... It is an exhilarating achievement
*Observer*
Rare is the common assumption about the Bible that Barton fails to
render problematic
*Financial Times*
Vital, hugely informative
*Evening Standard*
A work of exceptional merit ... a joy to read
*Irish Times*
Compelling and endlessly intriguing, it courageously looks at the
problems of variants, apocrypha, questions of translation and very
much more. It should be in the armoury of anyone, whether a
believer or not
*Scotsman*
Hugely important, very readable and judicious
*Church Times*
The learning Barton brings to bear for this large undertaking is
prodigious as well as judiciously deployed, and everything is
conveyed in lucid, precise prose. If A History of the Bible is
academic popularization, it may well be the finest example I have
ever encountered
*Jewish Review of Books*
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