What Have They Done to the Bible: A History of Modern Biblical Interpretation [Paperback]

John Sandys-Wunsch (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Michael Glazier Books (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814650287
• ISBN-13: 978-0814650288
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,127,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A History of Modern Biblical Interpretation For the General Reader, August 13, 2005

By 

Norman Siefferman (Fredericksburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Have They Done to the Bible: A History of Modern Biblical Interpretation (Paperback)

Is the Bible an inerrant or verbally inspired religious text "let down from heaven"? The question continues to be of interest and even concern for many people in our culture. For some, it seems, the health or perhaps the survival of their religious faith appears to depend on the answer. Having completed the book, readers will decide the answer for themselves, for while the author's personal answer is "hardly," nevertheless Sandys-Wunsch allows the story and its facts to speak for themselves. No dogmatic answers, one way or another, are included. John Sandys-Wunsch has written a solid and extensively researched book on the the history of biblical manuscripts and interpretations from the Renaissance through the 19th century. The book's scholarship and painstaking research are superb and are reason enough to read the book, but it is also a combination rarely seen in the writing of historical/religious texts: First-class scholarship plus availability for the general reader. Sandys-Wunsch tells us the fascinating story of how and and why some ancient biblical manuscripts survived over centuries and why others were discarded as untrustworthy. How were biblical texts understood in the 15th century compared to the exegetics of the 18th century? For example, the author relates how interpreters treated the Bible's miracle stories over the years, always a good index for changing patterns of biblical exegesis. But the heart of the story and its most complex yet fascinating dimension indicates how very much biblical interpretation is a living thing, that is, how much our understanding of the Bible is a part of the world in which it has taken place. As well as preachers, politicians, princes, philosophers, pendants and scientists played an important role in the story. The story of biblical interpretation is populated by all sorts and conditons of humanity, and Sandys-Wunsch's closely documented narrative focuses on them; they were brilliant, inept, tedious, filled with intellectual integrity, deceptive, fearless, and cowardly. They were all the things we are, and all of them are interesting as they tried to understand and sometimes to conceal how the Bible should be read. A history of biblical hermeneutics threatens to be dull reading indeed, but for those interested in such a history John Sandys-Wunsch has made it an absorbing tale.