How the Bible was Built

ISBN: 0802829430

Author: Charlse Merrill Smith

Condition: New

The Bible continues to be the worlds runaway best-seller. But very few people could say just how its seemingly disparate jumble of writings - stories, letters, poems, collections of laws, religious visions - got there. Filling this knowledge gap, How the Bible Was Built clearly tells the story of how the Bible came to be. Penned by Charles Merrill Smith in response to his teenage granddaughters questions, the manuscript was discovered after Smiths death and has been reworked by his friend James Bennett for a wider audience. Free of theological or sectarian slant, this little volume provides a concise, factual overview of the Bibles construction throughout history, outlining how its various books were written and collected and later canonized and translated. Written in an easy conversational style and enhanced by two helpful appendixes (of biblical terms and dates), How the Bible Was Built will give a more informed understanding of the Bible to people of virtually any reading level and any religious persuasion.Did you know? The word Bible comes from biblion, a Greek word meaning papyrus scroll. It took several thousand years to construct the Bible. The book we call Deuteronomy was discovered hidden away in a dark corner during the reconstruction of the temple under King Josiah. The Apocrypha contains some of the earliest detective stories on record. Church councils had many disagreements about which books ought to be authoritative (a book called the Shepherd of Hermas almost made the cut; the book of Revelation almost didnt). A heretic helped form the canon. Debate over the canon didnt really end until the Protestant Reformation and the use of the printing press.