Table of Contents

Prologue 1
Prologue 2
1: In the beginning
2: Let there be light
3: Be fruitful and multiply
4: My brother's keeper?
5: Two by two
6: A coat of many colours
7: Fire and brimstone
8: Begat
9: Thou shalt not
10: Manna, milk, and honey
11: Eyes, teeth, and loins
12: What hath been wrought
13: Bread alone
14: How are the mighty fallen!
15: The skin of one's teeth
16: Out of the mouths of babes
17: Pride goes before a fall
18: Nothing new under the sun
19: Fly in the ointment
20: No peace for the wicked
21: Be horribly afraid
Interlude
22: Seeing the light
23: Eyes, ears, cheeks
24: Speaking, shouting, wailing, writing
25: Shaking, turning, moving
26: Many and few, first and last
27: Fights, foes, fools, friends
28: Praising famous men
29: Sheep, goats, swine
30: Money, wages, pearls, mites
31: Blessed are the servants
32: Heal thyself
33: Times and seasons
34: Birth, life, and death
35: Countries, kingdoms, Armageddon
36: Building houses, mansions, sepulchres
37: Millstones, crosses, yokes, pricks
38: Sowing seeds
39: Salt and wine
40: The law, judges, thieves, swords
41: Love and charity
42: Peace and patience, wrath, whore
Epilogue
Appendixes
Indexes

About the Author

David Crystal is the world's best known linguist. He is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. His books include Linguistics, Language and Religion (1965), The Stories of English (Penguin, 2004) The Fight for English (OUP 2006), and Just a Phrase I'm Going Through: my Life in Language (Routledge 2009). He has written extensively on religious language, including 'Linguistics and Liturgy' for
Church Quarterly in 1969 and 'Language in Church' for The Tablet in 1985.

Reviews

"Wonderful book." - The Guardian
"Entertaining." - Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph