At head of title: Reader's Digest

Includes index

Contents:

The Bible through the ages introduction --

Part One: The oral tradition --

1. Timeline: 4000 to 1010 B.C. --

2. The world of the patriarchs --

Patriarchal clans in the Fertile Crescent --

Everyday life in Sumer --

3. Abraham and his God --

4. Storytelling and the oral tradition --

5. Stories in the oral tradition --

A tale within a tale --

6. The birth of writing --

The development of cuneiform --

7. The Egyptian sojourn --

The Egyptian Book of the Dead --

8. Papyrus: Egypt's gift to writers --

The making of papyrus --

9. Moses in Egypt --

From Israel and Egypt: Songs of praise and of faith in a single God --

10. Moses and the law --

The oral law --

11. Champions of the Promised Land --

Excerpts from the Song of Deborah. Part Two: The written word --

1. Timeline: 1010 to 65 B.C. --

2. A mighty kingdom --

3. Poetry in the Old Testament --

Poetry of love and sadness --

4. David and the Psalms --

5. The temple and worship --

Autumn festival --

6. Words of wisdom --

Words of wisdom from Israel and Egypt --

7. Language of the Old Testament --

8. The divided kingdom --

9. Who were the prophets? --

Voices of the twelve --

10. Oracles of Isaiah --

11. Baruch and Jeremiah --

The seal of Jeremiah's scribe --

12. The writing craft --

The making of parchment --

13. The Babylonian captivity --

14. Ezekiel: The voice of exile --

15. Shaping the Pentateuch --

Mystery of the doublets --

A tapestry of words --

16. Ezra: the second lawgiver --

The decree of Cyrus --

17. The chronicler --

18. Tales that inspire --

19. The making of the Septuagint --

Alexandria --

20. The Samaritan Pentateuch --

21. Defining Daniel --

22. Choosing the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible --

23. What was left out --

24. Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls --

Last days of Qumran --

Was John the Baptist an Essene? --

25. Recovering the scrolls --

a picture essay. Part Three: Words of a new faith --

1. Timeline: 65 B.C. to A.D. 400 --

2. The world of Jesus --

Jesus and Roman Judea --

3. The life and ministry of Jesus --

Jesus and the Hebrew Scriptures --

4. Spreading the Good News --

The ministry of Philip --

5. Apostle to the Gentile world --

Martyrdom of the apostles --

6. Letter writing in the First Century --

The Letter of Paul to Philemon --

7. Thessalonians and Galatians --

8. Corinthians and Philippians --

Timothy and Titus --

9. Romans, Colossians, Ephesians --

10. Who wrote the "other" epistles? --

11. Telling the story of Jesus --

The Gospel of Thomas --

12. Language of the New Testament --

13. The Gospel of Mark --

14. The Gospel of Matthew --

15. The Gospel of Luke and Acts --

The use of Mark's Gospel in Matthew and Luke --

16. The Gospel and Letters of John --

Was there a signs source? --

17. Present at the Apocalypse --

Apocalypse of Peter --

18. Josephus --

Testimony on Jesus --

19. Shaping the Mishnah --

The Talmud --

20. Invention of the book --

A fourth-century codex --

21. Apostolic fathers --

Collected works --

22. Role of the BIble in early Christian worship --

Christian instruction --

23. Christian popular literature --

24. The early spread of Christianity --

25. Early Christian art --

a picture essay --

26. The Gnostic challenge --

A Gnostic find --

27. Debating the New Testament canon --

28. Revising the Septuagint --

The Targums --

29. Origen and the Sixfold BIble --

30. Early biblical interpretation --

31. Establishing the Christian canon --

Canonical debate from the first century to the fourth. Part Four: Copying the Word --

1. Timeline: 400 to 1455 --

2. Jerome's majestic achievement --

Old Latin Bibles --

3. Ulfilas among the Visigoths --

4. Desert fathers --

5. Pilgrimages --

Faith of Islam --

6. Varying traditions --

7. The Bible in the Eastern churches --

8. Byzantine icons --

a picture essay --

9. The Vernacular Bible in Europe --

10. The Bible in the British Isles --

"Work of the angels" (The Book of Kells) --

The cross speaks --

11. Lindisfarne Gospels --

a picture essay --

12. Guardians of the scriptures --

Monastic libraries --

13. A monk as a scribe --

Alcuin and the Franks --

14. The art of illumination --

Working with gold leaf --

Women copyists and illuminators --

15. Medieval bindings and luxury covers --

a picture essay --

16. Books for private devotions --

17. Hebrew scribes and illuminators --

Rules for scribes --

18. New ways of studying scripture --

The Kabbala --

19. Picture Bibles --

Art of the blockbook --

20. Medieval worship --

Feast of our Lord --

21. The cathedral as Bible --

a picture essay --

22. Biblical drama --

23. Poverty movements --

Dominic and his friars preachers --

24. The Bible in the university --

25. Wyclif and the Lollards --

Reform in Bohemia. Part Five: The printed Word --

1. Timeline: 1455 to 2000 --

2. The age of Gutenberg --

Papermaking --

Inside a 15th-century print shop --

3. printed Bible decoration --

a picture essay --

4. The impact of humanism --

The Council of Trent --

5. Polyglot Bibles --

Christophe Plantin --

6. Luther's Bible --

In Luther's words --

7. The path toward an authorized English Bible --

Thomas Cromwell --

Shakespeare and the Geneva Bible --

Not-quite-right Bibles --

8. King James Version --

The evolution of a Psalm --

Texts leading to and from the King James Version --

9. Taking the Bible to the Far East --

10. The Bible in Africa --

11. Taking the Gospel to the New World --

12. Apostles to the Indians --

13. Bibles for a new nation --

Jefferson's Bible --

The Woman's BIble --

14. The Bible and the family --

a picture essay --

15. The Hebrew Bible in America --

16. Slavery and the Bible --

Sisters against slavery --

17. Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon --

18. The Bible in the South Seas --

Catholics in Hawaii --

19. The rise of the Bible societies --

The Gideons International --

20. Translating scripture today --

A comparison of modern translations --

Standard texts for Old and New Testaments --

21. Today's Bibles --

22. Computers and the Bible --

23. Modern biblical scholarship --

Cairo Genizah.