The One-Stop History of the Bible

With full-color illustrations on every page, color-coded organization, and individual sections no longer than a few paragraphs, Huber, a veteran of the Reader’s Digest General Books Division, and Miller, a freelance writer who contributed to The Complete Guide to the Bible, have produced an accessible guide to the Bible’s long and complex history. Beginning with the oral transmission of texts that would become the Bible, through the process of canonization, then into the spread and proliferation of Bibles through the ages until today, the book covers a lot of ground. The information contained here is simple and accurate, but when the authors depend on a combination of biblical narrative blurred with historical fact, the text runs into problems—for example, assuming that “God personally laid down his laws... punctuating them with thunder and lightning” or that David started the process of writing the Bible. For the most part, though, the book benefits from modern scholarship—noting the Bible’s multiple authors and evolution in coordination with historical events—and presents the full scope of the Christian scripture from Genesis through Revelation. (Aug.)