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.