Stephen M Miller & Robert V Huber 
The Bible: a history 
The making and impact of the Bible

Contents
Introduction 10
The Old Testament Takes Shape By Word of Mouth 14
First Writings 17
Writing Hebrew 20
Moses Gives the Law 24
Papyrus: Paper from the Nile 28
David and His Royal Writers 31
Psalms: Israel’s Hymn Book 34
Bible Poems 38
Sources of the Pentateuch 42
Shaping the Pentateuch 45
Prophets and Scribes 49
Unflattering History 52
History with a Viewpoint 55
Later Prophecies and History 59
Evidence Supporting the Bible 62
Lost Books of the Bible 66
Writings: Last But Not Least 70
Jewish Worship and the Bible 73
The First Bible Translation 76
Philo of Alexandria 82
Settling the Jewish Bible 85
The Books That Did Not Make It 91
Josephus, Jewish Historian 95
Scripture in Jesus’ Language 98
The New Testament Takes Shape
Spreading the Good News 102
Paul’s Letters to the Gentiles 106
First-Century Letter Writing 110
Writing Down the Good News 114
Matthew and Luke Follow Mark 118
The Fourth Gospel 122
Letters Not Written by Paul 126
The Apostolic Fathers 130
Unwanted Gnostic Gospels 134
The Bible in Early Worship 138
From Scroll to Book 142
The First Study Bible 148
Quest for a Christian Bible 152
Settling the New Testament 156
The ‘Almost’ Scriptures 162
Popular Christian Writings 166
Ways of Reading the Bible 170
The Bible in a Rapidly Growing Church Jerome the Fiery Scholar 176
Jerome’s Latin Bible 179
Augustine and the Bible 182
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land 186
Writing Down the Spoken Law 190
Clarifying the Hebrew Bible 194
A Bible for Warriors 198
The Bible Goes East 201
Mystics, Monks and the Bible 205
Life as a Monastic Scribe 209
Illuminating a Manuscript 213
Luxury Bible Covers 218
The Bible Comes to Britain 220
Irish Monks Make Their Mark 224
Bibles for Europe 228
Medieval Worship 232
The Bible in Plays 236
The Bible Goes to College 240
Francis, a Living Gospel 244
End-Time Fever 248
A King’s Bible 252
Blockbooks Printed from Wood 255
The Book of the Reformation Wycliffe and His Bible 260
Bible Heretics 264
The Christian Renaissance 268
The Bible Goes to Press 272
Beyond Gutenberg 276
Luther and His Bible 279
Polyglot Bibles 285
Tyndale – Fugitive Translator 289
More Reformation-Era Bibles 293
A Catholic Response 297
Bibles from Exile 301
King James Version 305
Reflections in Poetry 311
Bibles in the New World 315
The Bible in the Modern World Enlightenment Dims the Bible 320
Nineteenth-Century Bibles 324
The Bible Heads Far East 329
Bibles in the South Pacific 333
Bibles Come to Africa 337
The Bible and Slavery 341
Doomsday Specialists 345
Bible Societies Worldwide 350
Wycliffe Bible Translators 354
Digging Up the Past 358
Biblical Criticism Emerges 362
Critics Get Back to Basics 366
Writers and Revisers at Work 370
Biblical Scholarship Today 374
The Bible as Literature 378
The Dead Sea Scrolls 382
In Search of a Reliable Text 386
Recent European Translations 390
Popular Bibles in English 394
Comparing Modern Translations 399
Ways to Translate the Bible 404
Specialized Bibles Today 408
The Bible in Literature 412
The Bible in Moving Images 417
Using and Abusing the Bible 422
Bible Trivia and Oddities 426
Epilogue 429
Bibliography 431
Index 437