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The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 2, The West from the Fathers to the Reformation

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Believer or non-believer, if one aspires to a knowledge of any of the humanities, or even, the development of the sciences, in the West, but also to a significant degree in the East, what could be more de riguer than to know a bit about the massive history of the Bible? Without question, from the standpoint of our contemporary world, the Bible is, by far, the most influential cultural statement. Knowledge, not only of its contents, but of their transmission, is indispensible to knowledge of our selves. We could say that Biblical literacy is pre-requisite to cultural literacy - and cultural literacy is pre-requisite to self-knowledge in any verifiable sense.
This landmark study, handsomely produced by Cambridge University Press, which may, on initial inspection, appear to be a daunting read, consisting of three encyclopediac and rather imposing tomes, turns out to be surprisingly accessible. In fact, once one starts reading (a journey here really does begin with the first step), it's tough to put down! These books are filled with the most curious revelations and all sorts of arcane facts. Moreover, knowing this history may change the way one looks at the world. For instance, I was always under the impression that Luther was the first to translate the Gospels into the vernacular German, and that this innovation was one of the primary causes of the success of the Reformation. Right? Wrong. The Vulgate was translated as early as the 7th century by the Goths. A Goth named Ulfilas taught Christianity in as early as the 4th century and a Goth Bible was produced on purple parchment (I suppose these were the original purple pages) penned in gold and silver ink. I'm sure their contemporary descendents would much approve. Renaissance scholars believe this Bible, the Codex Argenteus, was extant at least as early as 795 A.D. Further, there were a number of Bibles floating around Germany and the Lowlands when Luther produced his. Nor did Luther do it alone. He had help from two other guys who knew more Latin than he did. But, his introduction, the widespread literature he had created leading up to its publication, and, ironically, the fact that he had Fredrick's printing presses cranking out copy by the minute, were the great compensating factors in making his version the earth-shaking bestseller that it became. Kudos to Team Luther, eh?

I'm not going to get into great academic detail on this volume of the 3-volume Cambridge History of the Bible but suffice to say the set is arguably the best academic resource currently available on the topic. Extremely detailed but easily understood (kind of a rarity in academic textbooks). This is a must-have for Christian scholars as well as Christian laity alike.

This is a fantastic reference if you want deep information about how the Chritian church and writers sought to form canon. The first edition is good too but very scholarly and some of it is over my head. In general though I enjoyed it and learned much.

The other two volumes in this comprehensive and magnificent historical source, produced by a fine team of scholars, are The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 1, From the Beginnings to Jerome The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 3, The West from the Reformation to the Present Day.

Chapters include "The Old Testament: Manuscripts, Text and Versions," "The History of the Text and Canon of the New Testament to Jerome," "The Medieval History of the Latin Vulgate," "The Study of the Bible in Medieval Judaism," "English Versions of the Scriptures Before Wyclif," "Vernacular Scriptures in Spain," etc.

Here are some representative quotations from this volume:

"(O)rthodox Judaism either refused to recognize it (the Septuagint) from an early period or quickly expunged it from among its Scriptures, for there are but few and indirect indications of its existence in any of the rabbinic works." (Pg. 14)
"In any case, it is necessary to remind ourselves that we ought not to speak too glibly of 'Jerome's' translation. It is certain that some books ... owe their revision for the 'Vulgate' to Jerome personally; others were taken over by him unchanged from the Old Latin. Thus the Vulgate form of at least the Catholic and Pauline epistles---perhaps of all the New Testament other than the Gospels---derives from an unknown editor, working at Rome, not later than the last decade of the fourth century." (Pg. 108)
"The conclusion to be drawn from this chronological sketch is that, from the sixth century till the twelfth, renewal of interest in the Bible coincided with periods of ecclesiastical, and especially monastic, reform." (Pg. 192)
"The restriction of complete bibles to the wealthy, or even to court circles, was perhaps economically inevitable. The Latin bible, assured of a wide sale, could be mass-produced. The vernacular bible appealed from the outset to a limited public, and an undecorated copy might have been an unsaleable commodity. Scriptural knowledge was never censored, merely rationed by the purse." (Pg. 451)

".....Volume 2 of the Cambridge History of the Bible COVERS THE EFFECTS OF THE BIBLE ON THE HISTORY OF THE WEST BETWEEN THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS AND the Reformation....."
[from the book of the back cover]

A great help for students of the Bible who desire to trace the colorful history of God's holy Book.